AS SOON as Malacanang announced that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III took full responsibility for the botched police rescue in the August 23 hostage-taking crisis, the human rights alliance KARAPATAN dared the President to “also take full responsibility for the on-going human rights violations committed by the police and the military.”
AS SOON as Malacanang announced that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III took full responsibility for the botched police rescue in the August 23 hostage-taking crisis, the human rights alliance KARAPATAN dared the President to “also take full responsibility for the on-going human rights violations committed by the police and the military.”
“If the President could take responsibility for a case which left eight foreign nationals killed, it is morally and legally proper that he should also take full responsibility to render justice for over a thousand of his own kababayan (countrymen) victimized by extra-judicial killings, for the hundreds involuntarily disappeared, and the more than three hundred political prisoners including the illegally arrested, detained and tortured Morong 43 health workers,” KARAPATAN Acting Seretary-General Jigs Clamor said.
“At best, this admission of the President is just part of a grand cover-up and whitewash of the issue before he flies to the US this month. The incident has spurred international condemnation and the President wants to save face before shaking US President Obama’s hand,” Clamor added.
Human rights defenders marched Monday towards Malacanang on the International Day of the Disappeared but was largely ignored by the President and Palace officials.
Political detainees, meanwhile, are preparing protest actions to demand their immediate release. There are some 373 political prisoners when Aquino assumed office. The DOJ has promised to look into their cases, particularly that of the Morong 43 health workers but has prioritized investigations into the the hostage-taking crisis. ###