Capture of Philippine fugitive general Jovito Palparan hailed as victory for Aquino (tags)
Philippine security forces yesterday captured a fugitive former army general wanted over the kidnapping of two students, fulfilling a promise by President Benigno Aquino to bring high-profile criminal suspects to justice.
Philippines: Promotion of Morong 43 jailer enrages victims, rights groups (tags)
MANILA – The recent promotion of Major General Jorge Segovia, former commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army that carried out the illegal arrest of 43 health workers in February 2010, has outraged human rights groups.
Pesante-USA slams Philippine CHR for Clearing the AFP on Mellisa Roxas Case (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (Pesante-USA), human rights group based in the United States today vehemently condemned the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) report that cleared the AFP on the abduction and torture of a US-based activist. The report, signed by CHR chair Loretta Rosales in February but released over the weekend, concluded Melissa Roxas was indeed abducted and apparently subjected to cruel treatment. But the Commission said it did not have enough evidence to put the blame on the military. The CHR also refused to use the word “torture” for the abuse Roxas suffered because “state actors” could not be pinpointed. Pesante is disappointed that Rosales a former political detainee and a victim of torture herself will clear the AFP of torture and wrongdoing. Pesante stated that: “ Rosales will join all traitors like Tayag,Tiglao, Barican, Morales and Olivar all former activist who have sold the Filipinos down the river.”
Kin find activist tortured in Army camp in Cagayan province (tags)
Pesante-USA , an environmental and a human rights advocacy group based in Los Angeles learned today through news sources in Manila that relatives and friends of a youth activist who was reported missing for more than a week. They found him in a military camp in Cagayan province, allegedly beaten and tortured into admitting that he was a communist rebel. Noriel Rodriguez, 26, a member of the militant youth group Anakbayan, was held for 10 days in various camps of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Masin in Alcala town in Cagayan, according to the Tanggulan Youth Network for Human Rights and Civil Liberties.
Melissa Roxas: Torture, Not Political Affiliation, Is the Issue (tags)
The latest accusations of Philippine Congressman Jovito Palparan should bear no weight in determining the outcome of the ongoing investigation on the case of American torture victim Melissa Roxas. This must only be determined by the facts, including the evidence currently being gathered by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the Philippines.
AI, EU Community Calls for Probe and End of Political Killings (tags)
Lawmakers of the European Union (EU) and the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) have again urged the government to put an end to political killings. At the same time, Ambassador Alistair MacDonald of the European Commission condemned on Monday the abduction and murder early this month of Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of New People’s Army commander Leoncio Pitao.
FREE RANDALL ECHANIS AND ALL POLITICAL DETAINEES! (tags)
The recent charades, so called arrest and hospital detention and then the eventual release of Jocjoc Bolante after he was deported back to Manila by US immigration authorities truly reflects the ills of a justice system under rule of the puppet US-Arroyo regime in the Philippines. The Kilusang Dekada 70 vehemently condemns the recent travesty of justice. We ask- why is it so easy for this government play charades and masquaredes in the Congress and in the courts than to listen to the cries for justice coming from victims of enforced disappearance, torture and unjust imprisonme
On the Court of Appeals Dismissal of Habeas Corpus Case of Jonas Burgo (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) its condemns in the strongest terms possible the recent Court of Appeals(CA) decision, dismissing the petitions for the writ of habeas corpus and for writ of Amparo of Mrs. Edith Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, who was believed to have been abducted by unidentified military men in broad daylight at 12 noon at the crowded Ever Gotesco Mall along Commonwealth Avenue on April 28, 2007. The AJLPP National Coordinator Mario Santos calls the decision anti-people and a big blow to the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines. It only exposes the Court of Appeals like the Supreme as a tool of the reactionary system to keep the people on the bourgeois justice system.
Killings still major problem in Philippines--US report (tags)
- Extrajudicial and political killings, including those of journalists, by members of the military, police and other perpetrators continue to be a major problem in the Philippines, according to a report of the US Department of State. In its 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released in March this year, the US said that communist rebels and other terrorist groups also committed human rights violations against civilians. The report said that despite intensified efforts by the Philippine government to investigate and prosecute these cases, many went unsolved and unpunished.
Torture Victim Identifies Military Officer as Captor During CA Hearing (tags)
Torture victim Raymond Manalo identified one of his captors during the continuation of the Cadapan-Empeño hearings at the Court of Appeals in Manila, Jan 18. Manalo took the witness stand for the second time to testify that he had been in detention together with the two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Marino who were abducted June 26, 2007 in the province of Bulacan. The writ of amparo filed by the parents of Cadapan and Empeño has made headway as Manalo identified one of their captors in open court. In his first testimony in December, Manalo said he, together with his brother Reynaldo, was abducted on Feb. 14 and was secretly detained in several military camps in Central Luzon. He also said he had talked to Cadapan several times during detention and the UP student had told him she had been raped by soldiers.
FIGHTING FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FILIPINO DIGNITY (tags)
Massive human rights violations--extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, massacres, dislocation of millions of peasants and rural folk--characterize the current Arroyo regime in the Philippines. US taxdollars are paying the Arroyo military and police to carry out such barbaric practices. US citizens, concerned with human rights, ought to protest Bush/Pentagon's aid to the corrupt Arroyo administration, and demand an end to US mililtary intervention in suppressing the Moro and National Democratic Front insurgents. In the following article, Prof. E. San Juan re-affirms the necessity of upholding human rights embodied in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which is an integral part of contemporary international law, to which every nation should adhere as member nation-states. The article pays tribute to the self-sacrificing work of thousands of Filipino activists fighting for national democracy, social justice, and genuine sovereignty, in particular the staff of KARAPATAN and its secretary-general, Marie Hilao Enriquez.
PHILIPPINES: 2 desaparecidos escape from military captors (tags)
Two farm workers who claim to have been detained and tortured for a year-and-a-half by military men before managing to escape have petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) for protection. Represented by lawyers from the civil rights group Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag), the two brothers in their 13-page petition yesterday also asked the high tribunal to designate either an incumbent or retired SC justice to act as a commissioner and verify the allegations. The two brothers, Raymond, 26, and Reynaldo Manalo, 38, filed the suit for prohibition, injunction and temporary restraining order (TRO) through Flag lawyers Jose Manuel Diokno, Theodore Te and Ricardo Sunga.
FILIPINA SENATOR ATTACKS ARROYO STATE TERRORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES (tags)
Of distinguished progressive lineage, Senator Jamby Madrigal of the Philippines takes a principle stand critical of the Arroyo regime's bloody and brutal repression of Filipinos backed by the Bush neocons. This article provides a context for the Philippine crisis and Senator Madrigal's views on U.S. imperialism in the neocolony and its complicity with State-terrorist repression.
Rains, loud music keep protesters away from cops (tags)
It rained on their parade, but the band played on. Incessant heavy rains spawned by typhoon "Glenda" and loud music from the Philippine National Police (PNP) band kept hundreds of protesters in Quezon City in check and away from police lines hours before President Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address (SONA), a ranking police official said yesterday. The police initially expected the number of protesters to be between 15,000 and 20,000. As of noon yesterday, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) estimated that its delegation totaled 10,000 people.
Gunmen in Bulacan abduct 3 left-wing activists (tags)
Pesante-USA reprinted a report that said three left-wing activists were abducted by masked gunmen in the northern Philippines, a human rights group said Friday. The military commander in the area denied involvement while claiming the missing people were communist rebels. Two women student activists from the University of the Philippines and a male companion were seized before dawn Monday from a farming village outside Hagonoy town, said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan.