MILITARY TORTURE AND STATE TERRORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
Despite the election of Benigno Aquino III to succeed the corrupt brutal Arroyo, 43 healthworkers continue to suffer military torture. Five are confined to the military camp alleged as self-confessed New People's Army guerillas, while 38 were transferred to Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, notorious for the massacre of Moro suspects. The five persons on which the fascist generals are concentrating their torture are: VALENTINO PAULINO, CHERRYLYN TAWAGON, ELLEN CARANDANG, JENNYLYN PIZZARO, & JOHN MARK BARRIENTOS. Carandang's children were taken from their home by the military," according to KARAPATAN, human rights monitor. Their relatives are threatened or offered bribes coercively to side with the military and incriminate themselves or their kin. We appeal to the international community to denounce this barbaric treatment and demand the immediate release of the Morong 43.
Missing sisters and missing credibility (tags)
The daughters of slain Filipino peasant activist Eddie Gumanoy – Rose Anne, 21, and Fatima, 17 – were traveling to the city of Cavite on the morning of July 3 when they realized they were being followed. They sent a text message to their mother Maria to meet them at a mall in Muntinlupa, but the two sisters never arrived. They later sent a second text message saying they had been intercepted by soldiers. The family and members of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) thus began looking for the two women. On July 4, they went to the office of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo, which denied that the military was holding Rose Anne and Fatima. They also filed a complaint with the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame in Quezon City. That afternoon army spokesman Col. Ernesto Torres denied that the military had abducted Rose Anne and Fatima, but did admit that the two women were under the care of the army. He refused to disclose where they were, however, stating that the young women had voluntarily sought protection from the military as they were afraid of Karapatan.