Media Advisory
Pesante-_USA
Contact: Melvin Barcenas
Phone; (213) 241-0906
June 12, 2009

Human Rights Violations Continues Unabated in the Philippine Countryside

Los Angeles- The US based Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante)-USA condemns and militantly protest the continuing acts of impunity of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against the democratic forces in the Philippines

This came after two dozen men in fatigue uniforms broke into the office of a militant farmers’ cooperative in Sanchez Mira in northwestern Cagayan shortly after midnight on June 11, mauled farmers staying in it to participate in a seminar, and ran away with undisclosed amounts of cash and goods .

According to reports, 20 armed men forcibly entered the Mass Cooperative office in Bgy. Massisit in Sanchez Mira here and mauled the seminar participants, some members of the party list group Anak Pawis, aside their taking money and valuables.
Isabelo Adviento, Chairman of Anak Pawis-Cagayan confirmed that some of the participants believed the suspects were military or police personnel out to scare them by pulling a robbery.

Pesante -USA noted that similar cases of political harassment of militants in Cagayan province had occurred in the past, the most prominent being the burning two years ago of a community radio station in Baggao town which was put up with the help of the party-list group Bayan Muna.

After an encounter last June 1,2009 in Brgy Bunugan, Baggao, Cagayan, the military launched a sustained military operation and orcered the peasants to evacuate to the barrio center. Many peasant leaders were threatened with arrests. May of the peasant leaders were forced into hiding.

Another KMP leader was killed right after a protest in Dumaguete City. Last June 9. In Mindanao, a well-known peasant leader was also killed in Sumilao, Bukidnon.

More than 1,200 people have been killed by the military and police in the Philippines since 2001. Most of the victims were peasant, activist or community leaders. At least 220 were detained or are in jail in what the United Nations called the “culture of impunity” perpetrated by the US-Arroyo regime.