Trillanes probe asked to open safehouses, secret detention places in the Philippines (tags)
The Philippine human rights alliance KARAPATAN welcomed the planned probe on extrajudicial killings of former soldier and now senator-elect Antonio Trillanes. KARAPATAN Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez said, "We laud Senator Trillanes for this move to put the Arroyo administration to task for the unabated extrajudicial killings." KARAPATAN likewise welcomes the pronouncements made by top anti-Arroyo military officials who said that they will provide the detained senator-elect with evidence once he begins work in the Senate next month.
Philippine Human Rights Victims, rights groups presented cases to UNSR Mr. Alston (tags)
Witnesses and relatives of about 20 victims whose cases were documented by KARAPATAN presented their cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Mr. Philip Alston at an undisclosed place this morning. Among the cases presented were those of Armando Javier, Jr. and Romeo Malabanan, victims of extrajudicial killings. Armando and his wife were shot inside their home on 2 October 2005. Armando was Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Party List Municipal Coordinator in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija and was being harassed by soldiers prior to his murder. Romeo Malabanan, a Bayan Muna Coordinator of Bay, Laguna was shot in front of their home on 23 December 2003.
Rights group condemns Arroyo regime for butchery of Filipinos and their freedom (tags)
"We condemn the Arroyo regime for its butchery of hundreds of Filipinos and our nation's freedom by presiding over gross human rights violations and insisting on a self-serving charter change similar to that of the Marcos dictatorship," said the Philippine human rights group KARAPATAN whose members and allied organizations joined the anti-Cha Cha rally today at the House of Representatives in Batasan.