Category — Press Releases
Adopt, Not Ignore the Alston Recommendations
NCCP Press Statement
12 May 2009
Peace and justice being the enduring concern of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), we are dismayed by the government’s reaction to the follow-up report of Prof. Philip Alston UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
To “ignore” Alston, to call the report one-sided and to deny government’s failure to institute reforms is to continue with its prevailing militarist approach to curb insurgency rather than addressing issues that breed unrest. To “end the communist insurgency by 2010” is a pronouncement that fails to take into consideration genuine agrarian reform, having the political will to curb corruption and widespread poverty and in restoring the public’s trust in governance. [Read more →]
May 12, 2009 No Comments
Bayan calls for stop to foreign aid for Arroyo in light of Alston human rights report
Bayan News Release
9 May 2009
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today supported the findings of United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston that the Arroyo government has failed to make “substantial progress” in addressing killings and other human rights abuses. The group called for a stop to foreign aid for the Arroyo government, especially military aid, in the light of the human rights situation in the Philippines.
“The single most glaring proof that the Arroyo government has failed to make perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable is the case of Gen. Jovito Palparan. The Arroyo government has offered him several government posts in the past. The government failed to prosecute him despite credible findings by the Melo Commission, the Court of Appeals and Alston himself,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. [Read more →]
May 9, 2009 No Comments