Today, human rights groups, victims and relatives of human rights violations and members of progressive groups bring before the public an image of a “jailed Noynoy” as a symbol of their desire to see the real-life Aquino in jail for his offenses against people’s rights.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said, “This should be the last commemoration of the International Human Rights Day with BS Aquino as the president of the Republic of the Philippines. Today, we denounce the regime’s ‘tuwid na daan’ (righteous path) and repudiate all those who exalt, and vow to continue, this blood-soaked  path—the road that has been the symbol of plunder and corruption and exploitation of the poor, of repression and fascist attacks, of criminal negligence, of puppetry to imperialist dictates, and of treachery and subversion of the will of the nation.”

Noynoy’s effigy, a beast-like being, depicts the regime’s terrorist attacks that weighed down people’s lives and livelihood. Despite this, Palabay said, “All through his almost six years in power, we heard nothing from BS Aquino but lies and falsehoods, mumblings and imaginary thoughts,  blame game, and defenses couched in silence.”

“The regime failed miserably in uplifting the lives of the poor majority of the people, pushing them deeper in dire poverty.  To top it all, people are killed, tortured, arrested and detained. To the regime, the Filipino people’s resistance is a stumbling block to its brand of peace and development, and they must be punished.”

Karapatan remembers clearly the words of the BS Aquino in his June 30, 2010 inaugural speech:“There can be no reconciliation without justice. When we allow crimes to go unpunished, we give content to their occurring over and over again.”

“Yet, rights violations happened ‘over and over again’, without let-up and with total brazenness and impunity. Sadly, the onslaught has become predictable. From Aquino’s fifth day in power, when Fernando Baldomero fell, the victims of political killings rose to 304; with 324 other victims who survived. From that day up to now, no one has been convicted and brought to justice,” said Palabay.

“Now, as we commemorate the International Human Rights Day, there are thousands of displaced persons in different evacuation centers who want to go home, but cannot because the Army and its paramilitary groups occupy their communities, homes, and schools; there are more than 500 political prisoners who are held in cramped jails all over the country for crimes they did not commit; there are hundreds of thousands who, in one way or the other, experienced the brutality of Aquino’s military,” she added.

(See info-graphic of human rights violations committed by the BS Aquino regime).

Karapatan foresees an escalation of human rights violations as Oplan Bayanihan nears its end.  “While we brace ourselves for the regime’s intensification of military activities, we will keep close tabs on Aquino’s injustices and make certain that the real-life Aquino, just as his effigy, ends up in jail,”  Palabay concluded.

http://www.karapatan.org/No+human+rights+in+the+mind+of+a+corrupt%2C+puppet%2C+and+fascist+president

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
0917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
0918-9790580

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.

In commemoration of International Human Rights Day and their organization’s 11th Anniversary, members of the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, or NYCHRP, will engage in two major protest actions today to demand an end to xenophobia, Islamophobia, and wars led by the United States around th

First, NYCHRP will take to the streets and join a large demonstration in Columbus Circle called for by Arab and Muslim communities and human rights activists in New York City to express solidarity with Iraqi and Syrian refugees, who have lately been the target of racist, xenophobic policy making and media attacks. The demonstration is in response to Republican presidential candidate nominee Donald Trump’s campaign to ban Muslims from the United States and the House of Representatives passing of the stringent American SAFE Act of 2015 (H.R. 4038) on November 19, 2015, which would add further restrictions to people seeking refuge in the United States.

Second, NYCHRP will participate in BAYAN USA’s “No More Money for Blood!” campaign to protest the proposed increase of U.S. military aid to the Philippines in the federal budget, which the U.S. Congress is scheduled to approve on Friday, December 11, 2015. The U.S. currently sends $50 million to the Philippines in military aid annually. If approved, the U.S. will then send $79 million to the Philippines annually.

“While we decry xenophobia in all its forms, we must also condemn the root causes of the Iraqi and Syrian refugees’ plight – decades of U.S. military intervention and plunder in the Middle East,” said Jackelyn Mariano, Chairperson of NYCHRP. “Both the Philippines and the Middle East have a common imperialist enemy. That is why today we extend our fighting power both to standing in solidarity with the refugees and the Muslim and Arab communities in the U.S. who face xenophobic attacks, as well as to the Philippine people who face the brunt of military attacks fueled by U.S. aid.”

Critics of xenophobia towards Iraqi and Syrian refugees consistently identify that the root of extremism, war, and suffering in their homelands is a consistent policy produced by the collusion of Western empires and the Middle Eastern international bourgeoisie set to gain control of natural resources and political power in the region. Militarization and extraction of natural resources perpetuated by the U.S. through proxy wars have strengthened extremist groups like ISIS as well as exacerbated the lack of access to water and basic necessities. These policies have directly and negatively impacted the lives and welfare of people, especially the poor, in the region, who then have no choice but to flee for safety.

The U.S. has historically enacted the same policies in their “second front” of the Global War on Terror, the Philippines. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which, in addition to aid, also receives on the ground training from U.S. troops enacted through unequal military agreements such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), have intensified their attacks on the Lumad, indigenous peoples in the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao.

In order to enforce and secure mining operations that are granted by the Philippine government to large-scale foreign corporations, the AFP systematically attacks, harasses, and intimidates Lumad communities to forcibly evacuate and displace them from their ancestral lands. The military operations, fueled by foreign capitalist plunder of natural resources, aim to silence the Lumad from their veritable right to free, prior, and informed consent and the right to live peacefully in the safety of their homes. Millions of displaced Lumad people are virtually refugees within the Philippines, unprotected by their own government and rampaged by U.S. military expanding operations on their lands.

Similarly, people from Iraq and Syria are also reeling from the acts of imperialist powers, and are desperate to find some reprieve by fleeing to other countries like the United States. “The U.S. has to own up to the destructive consequences of its own extractive capitalist policies and avoid further replicating hatred, extremism, and strife by employing Islamophobic policies domestically that further curtail and restrict the rights and freedoms of survivors of war and catastrophe,” said Rodrigo Bacus, a member of NYCHRP. “We must open up our borders to fellow humans seeking refuge from war-torn areas. We must especially rise to this duty when the wars they are escaping have been fueled by our own country’s intervention and military backing.”

Iraqi and Syrian refugees already go through a complex and elaborate processes and lengthy background checks to appease concerns over national security and anti-terrorism. These processes may take years to complete and force refugees into a dangerous situation where too much time spent in the process may be too late to reach safety. “The more restrictions, background checks, and complications are put in the way of a refugee application, the less likely refugees will be successful overall in fleeing the dangers that are clear and present in their homelands,” continued Bacus. “The U.S. has an obligation to refugees under international law to protect people when their life and liberty would be in danger. The American SAFE Act of 2015 completely runs afoul of human rights norms.”

“The American people must reevaluate what fuels our anger during this refugee crisis. We cannot blame victims of war. We also have to face our own complicity in funding wars abroad,” stated Mariano. “Over fifty percent of the U.S. federal budget goes towards military spending. The result of that are mounting death tolls and decreased resources for basic human needs domestically. Private corporations profit off of war, discrimination, and xenophobia while our public education, housing, and health systems suffer.”

Starting today, NYCHRP will join BAYAN USA in a social media blast to demand that the U.S. Congress, as it votes on the federal budget, cut military aid to the Philippines.

“As U.S.-based Filipinos and allies, we do not want our tax dollars funneled towards killing our own people,” said Mariano. Activists will Tweet their demands to members of the Congressional Budget Committee, including Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Bill Pascrell (R-NJ), and Donald Norcross (D-NJ), and members of the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee, including Nita Lowey (D-NY), Jose Serrano (D-NY), and Barbara Lee (D-CA).

#HRTrumpsOppression
#StandUp4Syrians
#StandUp4Iraqis
#CutUSMilitaryAid2PH
#StopTheKillings

Reference:
Jackelyn Mariano
Chairperson,
New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
nychrp@gmail.com

NYCHRP.info
NYCHRP@gmail.com
facebook.com/NYCHRP
Instagram and Twitter: @NYCHRP
To Donate on SquareCash: cash.me/$NYCHRP

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New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) is a local education and advocacy group based in New York City that works to promote social, economic, and political alternatives that foster democracy and peace based on justice in the Philippines and for Filipinos in the diaspora today.

NYCHRP shares the vision of human rights advanced by the National Democratic movement of the Philippines. NYCHRP educates, organizes, and mobilizes people and communities in NYC to take progressive action to uphold and support human rights in the Philippines and throughout the world.

QUEZON CITY – From one Surigao native to another.

A lumad youth who lost her father and a school director from paramilitary killings demanded Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri to arrest the killers to show his sincerity to bring justice to the Manobo community in Surigao del Sur.

Michelle Campos, daughter of slain Datu Dionel Campos, reacted to Irriberi’s interview in the Philippine Daily Inquirer where he admitted the slain ALCADEV community school director Emerito Samarca was his relative. Irriberi also hails from Surigao del Sur.

“If blood is thicker than water, and if he really wants peace and justice, then he should arrest the Magahat-Bagani paramilitary who killed my father, Tatay Emok and Datu Sinzo,” Campos said.

Campos, who is one of the main speakers of the Manilakbayan ng Mindanao campaign last month, is dismayed that the killers are still freely roaming in her province, as attested by Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel, who likewise urged for the arrest and disbandment of the paramilitary groupd..

“As simple as it may be, the fact still remains that the killers, Garito Layno and brothers Loloy and Bobby Tejero who were members of the paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani Force are still roaming free and yet to be arrested,” she said.

Campos also challenged the AFP head to listen to the Manobo evacuees who have been staying for three months at the Tandag provincial gym, who want to return to their villages without fear of the Magahat.

Manilakbayan spokesperson Kerlan Fanagel also called on authorities to dismantle not just Magahat-Bagani but also other paramilitary groups.

It has been three (3) months since the massacre, but despite of the warrants of arrest issued against them, the perpetrators still roam free.

“The perpetrators are bold to massacre fellow Lumad in public because they know their actions run parallel to the doctrines of Oplan Bayanihan, to kill with impunity,” said Fanagel.

According to Fanagel, Mindanao has 24 paramilitary groups such as the Alamara, Task Force Kitaqom, Calpet-Egua, New Indigenous People’s Army for Reform (NIPAR), Bungkatol Liberation Front (BULIF) and many others who are armed and supported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to augment the states’ counterinsurgency campaign.

The Magahat-Bagani paramilitary group already had arrest warrants.

Fanagel also identified the people behind the paramilitary groups who should be arrested for the death of 63 lumad: Nestor Apas, Laris Masaloon, Ongging Masaloon, Lumansad Sibogan, Pogsing Bubunan and Alambi Salangani, all leaders of Alamara, and all of whom are still actively seen among those with the soldiers in several military operations in Davao del Norte, and Butchoy Salusad, leader of paramilitary group, NIPAR in Bukidnon.

He said the AFP threatens lumad, forcibly recruits them as paramilitaries and use them to kill fellow Lumad.

He added that the paramilitaries, as well as the AFP and their trained CAFGUs and SCAAs,  are part of the investment defense force that serve to secure the interest of local and foreign mining and plantation investors in Mindanao.

He added that, lumads of ‘Manilakbayan’ demanded a quick response, and that on December 10, on the 65th year commemoration of the human rights day, the Lumad have had it with the Aquino administration’s lip service to upholding human rights.

“Should these demands remain unresolved on December 10, the Lumad hold Aquino and Iriberri responsible for the injustice suffered by the victims of Lianga massacre, by the 63 victims of Lumad killed during Aquino’s term, and the massive displacement as consequences of their persistence to push through with the counter-insurgency measure Oplan Bayanihan” Fanagel concluded.

http://www.karapatan.org/+Manilakbayan+to+AFP%E2%80%99s+Iriberri%3A+Arrest+and+dismantle+paramilitary+groups

Reference:
Kerlan Fanagel
Spokesperson
Manilakbayan ng Mindanao 2015
09187692888

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman,
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.