JUSTICE FOR FR. CECILIO LUCERO OF SAMAR (tags)
Nakiisa ang Pesante-USA sa pamilya at mga kaibigan ng pinaslang na tagapagtanggol ng karapatang-tao na si Fr. Cecilio Lucero nang gunitain ang ika-40 araw ng kanyang kamatayan nitong Oktubre 15. Si Fr. Lucero ay pinuno ng Human Rights Desk ng Social Action Center ng dyosesis ng Catarman at tagapangulo ng Task Force on Peace and Order ng Northern Samar Peace and Development Forum (NSPDF). Pinatay siya ng pasistang militar dahil sa matapang at tahasan niyang pagtuligsa sa mga paglabag sa karapatang-tao. May ilang pagkakataong tumulong siya sa pagsasampa o siya mismo ang nagsampa ng mga kaso laban sa militar. Bago siya barilin, malaon na siyang minamanmanan ng mga operatibang militar at paniktik ng pasistang estado.
KATARUNGAN PAA KAY FR.CECILIO LUCERO NG SAMAR (tags)
Nakiisa ang Pesante-USA sa pamilya at mga kaibigan ng pinaslang na tagapagtanggol ng karapatang-tao na si Fr. Cecilio Lucero nang gunitain ang ika-40 araw ng kanyang kamatayan nitong Oktubre 15. Si Fr. Lucero ay pinuno ng Human Rights Desk ng Social Action Center ng dyosesis ng Catarman at tagapangulo ng Task Force on Peace and Order ng Northern Samar Peace and Development Forum (NSPDF). Pinatay siya ng pasistang militar dahil sa matapang at tahasan niyang pagtuligsa sa mga paglabag sa karapatang-tao. May ilang pagkakataong tumulong siya sa pagsasampa o siya mismo ang nagsampa ng mga kaso laban sa militar. Bago siya barilin, malaon na siyang minamanmanan ng mga operatibang militar at paniktik ng pasistang estado.
Arroyo government plotted and carried out Fr. Lucero's murder- NDF-EV (tags)
-The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today , September 7, accused the Arroyo government of planning and carrying out the dastardly murder of Fr. Cecilio Lucero, a well-known peace and human rights advocate who served as parish priest of Catubig town and chairman of the human rights committee of the Catarman diocese in Northern Samar. Fr. Lucero was shot and killed by assailants in bonnets and military uniform in San Jose, Northern Samar, yesterday Sept. 6 while his two companions were wounded. "Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself virtually signed Fr. Lucero's death warrant," said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-EV spokesperson.
ABUSO NG MILITAR LUMULUBHA SA SAMAR-LEYTE (tags)
Ibinabalita ngayon ayon sa mga nalikom na balita ng Pesante New na lumulubha ang paglabag sa karapatang pantao sa mga isla ng Samar at Leyte. Ito ang iniulat ng mga grupong pangkarapatang pantao sa Pilipinas. Ang mga abusong militar diumano ay dahil sa sa sunud-sunod na kabiguan ng militar na puksain ang rebolusyonaryong kilusan sa Eastern Visayas, ipinatutupad dito ng 8th Infantry Division ng Philippine Army (8ID-PA) ang mababagsik na operasyong militar na bumibiktima sa maraming sibilyan.
ARROYO ORDERS AFP TO WIPE OUT NPA IN SAMAR/NEGROS (tags)
More clashes are expected between government soldiers and communist rebels following President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo’s order for the military to wipe out guerrillas in Samar. Ms. Arroyo issued the order to the military at a visit to Samar last week before she went to her trip abroad. This was according to Lt. Col. Oscar Lasangue, head of the 3rd Civil Relations Group of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. In a phone interview Tuesday, Lasangue said Samar and Negros Island were priorities in the counterinsurgency campaign. He said the military’s job was to reduce rebel strength to allow the Philippine National Police to take over the fight against the communists. The communist New People’s Army, however, insisted on its continued strength in a statement posted on its website.
Troop additions meant to suppress protests against Cha-cha (tags)
---The National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas today belittled the 8th Infantry Division's push for troop additions and said that the real purpose for new soldiers is to suppress the people's protests against charter change or "cha-cha". "It is not credible for Gen. Arthur Tabaquero to say that an additional 600 soldiers will ensure government victory by 2010," said Fr. Santiago Salas, NDF-EV spokesperson. "During the Marcos dictatorship, the New People's Army in Samar alone thrived while fighting against government troops numbering more than twice the present military deployment in the island. The revolutionary movement today is far stronger than it was more than twenty years ago and is fast expanding in Samar and Leyte. The real reason for additional troops is to put down protests against impending charter change and to ensure by armed force that Gloria Arroyo will remain in power beyond 2010. More troops will mean more political killings and other human rights violations."
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."
Bayan Muna member gunned down in Northern Samar (tags)
A member of the party-list group Bayan Muna and chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) in Northern Samar was gunned down late yesterday afternoon by a motorcycle-riding assassin in front of students at the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman. Professor Jose Maria Cui, also a former secretary general of human rights group Karapatan in the Eastern Visayas, died on the spot after being shot in the head and chest by an unidentified suspect outside the Engineering Building of the campus around 4:15 p.m.
Military batters rebels in Eastern Visayas (tags)
The 8th Infantry Division, Philippine Army has again battered CPP/NPA terrorists in the Eastern Visayas after hitting them in two separate operations in Leyte and Northern Samar, Eastern Visayas, Central Philippines.
AFP beefs up anti-Red forces in Samar, Leyte (tags)
Pesante-USA reprinted the news of renewed AFP deployment of forces from Mindanao to areas in Luzon and the Visayas against the NPA. The new counter-insurgency campaign ordered by President Arroyo is reminicensce of the Marcos anti-NPA drive during martial law. Pesante condmens such gross militarization that will only result into more poltical killing that had reached more than 610 since 2001, hardship for the Filipino people and the perpetuatio of GMA into power.