Military supremacy leading to human rights violations in Eastern Visayas (tags)
PESANTE NEWS learned today that the the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas charged the 8th Infantry Division today of pushing its Oplan Bantay Laya campaign by intimidating the public and dominating the civilian government in the region. "The military is intimidating the public by coming out with an order of battle or liquidation list, and then going into schools and communities to conduct witch hunts and commit other human rights violations," said NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas.
So-called US humanitarian mission in Samar a guise for military intervention (tags)
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Eastern Visayas expressed today that the Pacific Friendship 2008 ending this June – a "humanitarian mission" by the US Navy in Samar – is but a guise for foreign military intervention and tramples on national sovereignty. "Because it is confronted by people's resistance worldwide and thus fighting on so many fronts, the US currently relies on psychological warfare operations and selected deployments of its special operations forces," said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDFP-EV spokesperson. "The principal fighting forces of the US are currently bogged down trying to quell the anti-occupation resistance movements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus in other countries like the Philippines where it has strategic interests, the US has in recent years resorted to feigned humanitarian missions such as the recent one in Samar, and the Balikatan war exercises where US special operations forces train their counterparts in the puppet Philippine military."