Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines

“What the military does — labeling every dissenter as a communist —is dangerous,” Ms. Enriquez said. “They are in effect justifying the harassment, torture, abduction and even murder of Filipinos whose only crime was to speak out against the problems of society.”

By CARLOS H. CONDE, The New York Times – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/world/asia/13iht-phils.html

13 August 2009

MANILA — Melissa Roxas, a 31-year-old artist and writer from Los Angeles, traveled to the Philippines in 2007 to learn more about the country of her birth. [Read more →]

http://www.malaya.com.ph/aug11/metro1.htm

11 August 2009

NEW People’s Army rebels raided a military detachment in Barangay Napungas, Davao del Norte while using a soldier, two village councilors and a child as human shields last Sunday. [Read more →]

TERESA CEROJANO, The Associated Press – http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/international-10/124991300778540.xml&;storylist=international

10 August 2009

MANILA, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s aides struggled to explain a reported $20,000 dinner bill racked up by her and her entourage in New York while the Philippines was mourning the passing of former leader Corazon Aquino. [Read more →]

Streetwise, By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Business World

31 July – 1 August 2009

“Keeping silent is like silencing forever all the voices that have been silenced,” says Melissa Roxas. A writer, poet, community health worker and, incidentally, an American citizen of Filipino ancestry, Melissa Roxas is altogether something else.  Last May, she and two Filipino companions were abducted by 15 armed men in Tarlac province while doing a health survey in the barrios.  She was tortured to the brink of death by people she suspects to be members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. [Read more →]

By Alcuin Papa, Philippine Daily Inquirer – http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090729-217730/Poster-child-of-impunity-68-media-men-slain

29 July 2009

MANILA, Philippines-Not since the dark days of martial law have the Philippine media been as threatened as now.

To stifle dissent, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the closure of print and broadcast media and the incarceration of certain journalists. But media repression has recurred during the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and it has gotten worse. [Read more →]

KMP Press Release

27 July 2009

REFERENCE: ROY MORILLA, KMP Public Information Officer (63-905-421- 7305)

The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) claimed that the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ s eight years of seating in power only brought worsening landlessness, death due to human rights violations and poverty highlighted by the rice crisis under her term. [Read more →]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT

23 July 2009

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must leave a positive legacy of human rights for the peoples of the Philippines during her last ten months in office, Amnesty International said today. On 27 July, she will give her final State of the Nation Address after nine years as president. At the same time a pervasive culture of impunity for human rights violations throughout the country persists, and hundreds of thousands of people continue to be displaced in Mindanao.

In the last eight years, hundreds of unlawful and often politically-motivated killings have taken place as well as enforced disappearances, often involving torture. [Read more →]

By Leila De Lima, Philippine Daily Inquirer, http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090723-216804/Human-rights-violations-rise

23 July 2009

MANILA, Philippines—Every administration will insist that protection of human rights is a priority. This article does not seek to contradict the claim that steps have been taken to protect human rights. The Arroyo administration has indeed undertaken initiatives aimed at promoting human rights.

However, one cannot deny that human rights violations continue to happen. In fact, we are dealing with the same human rights issues that have plagued the country for decades. It is therefore imperative that we determine whether the administration’s responses have addressed these concerns. [Read more →]

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 →]