National
Guatemala demolition shows bias vs the poor
Submitted on Tue, 09/25/2012 - 20:32Human rights group Karapatan today slammed the forced eviction and violent demolition of homes of some 256 families at Guatemala Street, Brgy. San Isidro in Makati City, as they called on Mayor Jejomar “Junjun” Binay Jr. and the Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas to immediately stop such operations in the area, including the arrests of residents who participated in the protests yesterday.
Based on the initial report of Karapatan-National Capital Region, eight individuals were arrested, after the residents barricaded the entrances to their community to prevent the local government’s demolition teams and the police from demolishing their homes. The said eviction was conducted to pave the way for the construction of a multi-million peso community complex and basketball court in the area.
Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said “the actions of the city government show how inhumane local government officials are in treating urban poor communities, in exchange for such paltry projects at the expense of the people’s rights to livelihood and decent housing.”
Palparan’s absence in Court tolerated by the Govt
Submitted on Mon, 09/24/2012 - 12:00
“We fear that Gen. Jovito Palparan’s absence in the court hearings is becoming a habit that is tolerated by the Aquino government. Today’s hearing at the Malolos Regional Trial Court on the kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges against The Butcher et al proceeded, again without him,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
Raymond Manalo, the farmer who became acquainted with the two missing UP students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, took the witness stand today. Manalo, who was also a torture victim, testified before the court that he saw the abuses that were committed by the soldiers, against the two students, when they were in a military camp in Limay, Bataan.
Karapatan to Noynoy Aquino: Do your father, ML martyrs justice; end impunity, stop human rights violations
Submitted on Fri, 09/21/2012 - 16:25Karapatan today said that “It is a shame how Pres. Noynoy Aquino criticized Marcos and martial law when the same things he enumerated in his speech are the same things that are happening under his government, sans the formal declaration of martial law.”
Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said, “it is ridiculous to hear Noynoy Aquino disapprove of the checkpoints during martial law when the same proliferate today, especially in the rural areas; the rounding up and arrests of people who criticized the Marcos government when there are 385 political prisoners to date, 170 of them were arrested and detained under his two year old rule.”
Karapatan said that aside from political prisoners, extrajudicial killings, torture, paramilitary groups, forced evacuation that were highly identified with martial law still exist. “It is the height of hypocrisy and deception for Noynoy to rebuke the Marcos dictatorship for “salvaging” when there are more than a hundred victims of extrajudicial killings under his government. The same Armed Forces of the Philippines and paramilitary groups are the perpetrators. Certainly, there is dissonance between today’s realities and Noynoy’s statement saying, he didn’t want the people to go through the same sufferings his father experienced.” said Palabay.
Impunity persists, legacy of the Filipino people’s valiant struggle continue
Submitted on Fri, 09/21/2012 - 08:2540 years after the imposition of martial Law
It may not be as visible as it was 40 years ago but, human rights violations that are indelible marks of Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law, continue to this day: illegal arrests and detention, torture, disappearance, extrajudicial killings, bombings and hamletting of communities, forced evacuation, use and proliferation of paramilitary groups, among others.
Making things worse is that people in the government, specially the President, hide behind their previous involvement in the anti-dictatorship struggle; banking on their being victims of martial law to escape accountability and responsibility on the current state of human rights in the country.
Thus, the likes of The Butcher, Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. roam freely. Torturers like Maj. Gen. Jorge Segovia and Col. Aurelio Baladad are being promoted, despite cases filed against them, similar to Col. Rolando Abadilla, Rodolfo Aguinaldo, and Billy Bibit who were rewarded handsomely by Marcos.
CAFGU strikes anew, indigenous leader shot and tortured to death
Submitted on Thu, 09/20/2012 - 15:50Karapatan today received report of another case of torture and extrajudicial killing of an indigenous leader, Genesis Ambason Saguitan, 23, secretary general of TAGDUMAHAN Lumad organization in the municipality of San Luis, Agusan del Sur. Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay calls the latest incident as “an affirmation of the continuing vestiges of martial law under the Aquino government.”
Saguitan’s relatives found his body mutilated by the perpetrators, identified as members of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU) attached to the 26th IB Detachment in Sitio Tambo, Brgy. Binikalan, San Luis Agusan del Sur. His body was on the road side, some 130 meters away from the detachment of the 26th IB in Sitio Tambo.
According to the report sent to Karapatan, Almira, Saguitan’s wife who is eight months pregnant with their first child, “wept while cleaning his husband’s body” when she saw the two gunshot wounds in his right chest and another two gunshot wounds in the hip area, near his spine. His face and chest were covered with bruises. Ambason’s teeth are all gone. His head was deformed, and his face unrecognizable because of the bruises due to heavy beating.
Atty. Romeo T. Capulong: people’s lawyer, human rights defender
Submitted on Tue, 09/18/2012 - 12:46
Karapatan, with all its member organizations and chapters, and victims of human rights violations pay our highest tribute to Atty. Romeo T. Capulong - human rights lawyer par excellence, champion of the Filipino people's struggle for justice and democracy, people's lawyer.
Capulong, along with Lorenzo Tanada, Benigno Aquino Jr., et al, was arrested upon the declaration of martial law. He was forced to flee the country in 1979, amid the rampant arrests, detention, torture and summary killings, as he was later granted political asylum in the US in 1980. In the U.S., he founded and chaired the Filipino Lawyers Committee on human rights, which imparted the much-needed solidarity of lawyers and human rights organizations in the U.S. to the Philippines. After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, he went back to the Philippines and established the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), an institution which supported human rights victims from then on.
CHR Chair has historical amnesia
Submitted on Mon, 09/17/2012 - 16:31
Karapatan today criticized Commission on Human Rights Chairperson Etta Rosales after she rebuked students and youth groups preparing for protest actions leading to September 21, in commemoration of the 40th year of the imposition of martial law.
In an interview over ABS-CBN week-end news last night, Rosales was quoted saying “Stop comparing martial law of yesterday to what they are doing now because if they do that they are merely muddling the issue. Mag-aral sila, naintindihan ba nila ang sinasabi nila.” Rosales added that the students should instead go the libraries instead of joining the protests.
“Rosales' statement simply illustrates the historical amnesia, opportunism, and bankruptcy of those in the Aquino administration. They claim to "remember Martial Law," yet they forget one of the quintessential lessons during those dark years - that when the people and the youth are faced with anti-youth and anti-people programs, rights abuses, and plunder of our lands and resources, we fight back,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
After 40 long years, ML victims still invisible to the government
Submitted on Sun, 09/16/2012 - 12:00
“Many of the victims of human rights violations under the Marcos dictatorship have left us without seeing justice rendered, 40 long years after the imposition of martial law. Even the barest gesture of justice, the Marcos Victims Compensation bill, remains at the backburner. The governments that followed after the dictatorship, from Cory Aquino to her son Noynoy, showed tolerance and gave concessions to the Marcoses. They all should be held accountable for perpetuating the crimes of the Marcoses.”
Thus said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, as 68-year old Nicolas Sanchez passed away early this week. Sanchez was a victim of torture, illegal arrest and detention during the infamous sona (zoning of communities) in Brgy. Tatalon, Quezon City in July 23, 1985. The sona was conducted by elements of the Marcos’ Philippine Constabulary, when residents resisted the demolition of their community to give way to the development plan of the Aranetas, in-laws of Marcos’ daughter, Irene. Two persons reportedly died during the incident, while many were arrested, including Sanchez.
“HIMAGSIK at PROTESTA” exhibits Filipino people’s continuing resistance and struggle
Submitted on Fri, 09/14/2012 - 18:59On the 40th year of the imposition of martial law
An exhibit of Martial Law memorabilia opens at 4:00 pm today at the University of the Philippines’ Main Library-Filipiniana section as part of the commemoration of the 40th year of the imposition of martial law.
“This is to remember martial law, the dictator, the terror. But more importantly, we want to give tribute to the “fire-starters”, those imbued with the courage, creativity and daringness of the Filipino people’s struggle, those who led the way and offered their lives in the fight against tyranny, oppression, and for national freedom and democracy. We want the youth to remember them and to keep the fire burning until justice and freedom is achieved. Tuloy ang laban!” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan.
The exhibit, dubbed as Himagsik at Protesta features a collection of magazines, books, underground publications that date as far back as 1964, such as the first handbook of the Kabataan Makabayan, the militant organization in the 1960’s. Also included in the exhibit are items used by known ML activists and revolutionaries, such as journalist Jose Burgos, former Rep. Satur Ocampo, artists Emman and Pete Lacaba, former political prisoner and Makibaka founder Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, activist Fr. Rudy Romano, national artist Bienvenido Lumbera, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, to name a few.
Martial Law-style military operations drive away rural folks from their homes
Submitted on Tue, 09/11/2012 - 14:45
From martial law to Noynoy Aquino: hamletting and forced evacuation remain
Karapatan today held a picket at the Times St. residence of Noynoy Aquino to call the attention of the government on the “military operations especially in the rural areas and on the plight of the evacuees such as those from the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province who left their homes because of these operations.”
Karapatan secretary general, Cristina Palabay said, “there are now eight military battalions in Bondoc Peninsula, something that has never happened before, even during the time of martial law.” Karapatan has documented several cases of threats and harassment against residents in the area, including those who are members of farmers’ organizations.
The protest action coincided with the birthday of the late Ferdinand Marcos, whose reign was marked by tyranny and terror that resulted to countless human rights violations. “With evacuations going on in many parts of the country such as in the Caraga region, in Bukidnon, and in Bondoc Peninsula, we believe that the Marcos era never left us after martial law. The essential elements of Marcos’ hamletting and forced evacuation happened during Cory Aquino’s time and the succeeding presidents after her; and it is still happening now,” Palabay added.
