DONATE
Home Blog Page 173

Aquino kin threatens eviction of Hacienda Luisita farmers

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Aquino kin threatens eviction of Hacienda Luisita farmers

AMBALA suspects foul play in death of farmer Dennis dela Cruz

By Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura

President Aquino’s rabid defense of his pork and the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) boils down to his family’s desperate efforts to evade land distribution in Hacienda Luisita.

The Unyon ng Mangagagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA, Agricultural Workers Union) strongly remarked: “PNoy, ayaw bitiwan ang DAP at pork. Ayaw bitiwan ang Hacienda Luisita! Hindi lang magnanakaw, mangangamkam pa!” [Aquino refuses to abandon his DAP and pork. He refuses to let go of Hacienda Luisita! He’s not only a thief, he’s also a landgrabber!]

After his prime time TV declaration that he is not a thief, President Aquino’s family-owned Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO) has now filed trespassing charges against 81 farmer-residents in Barangay (village) Cutcut, Sta. Catalina, in Hacienda Luisita.

The charges came months after TADECO aggressively installed security outposts and armed personnel around choice agricultural lots in Barangays Balete and Cutcut and issued eviction letters to hundreds of farmers who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the 2012 Supreme Court decision to distribute land in Hacienda Luisita.  Armed TADECO guards have also set up several “NO TRESPASSING” signs around agricultural lots tilled by farmer-residents since 2005.

In Barangay Balete, Dennis dela Cruz, a member of the farmworkers group Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA, Alliance of Farmworkers in Hacienda Luisita) was found dead inside the group’s farm hut today. Dela Cruz sustained head concussions from a heavy wooden post. AMBALA suspects foul play.

Days before the incident, dela Cruz was repeatedly threatened by TADECO guards to vacate the hut. Dela Cruz was tasked by AMBALA members to supervise the rebuilding of the group’s hut, after it was damaged by typhoon Santi.

TADECO guards have also occupied four houses in Barangay Balete and prevented its owners from repairing their homes damaged by the typhoon. Even in Barangay Mapalacsiao, TADECO personnel have informed residents that they should cease planting rice and vegetables and they will only be allowed to use the land up to harvest time.

The hundreds of hectares aggressively cordoned off by TADECO from farmers are all prime lands, with the area in Cutcut near the newly-opened TPLEX portion while the rest are all near the SCTEX (high-speed motorways).

“Sabi ng DAR, sa amin na ang lupa. Tapos na daw ang kalbaryo ng mga magbubukid sa asyenda. Pero bakit kami ngayon ang pinalalayas ng pamilya ni PNoy?,” [DAR says the land is ours. They say that the trials of the peasants of the hacienda are finally over. But why are we now being driven away by the family of Noynoy Aquino?] asked Florida “Pong” Sibayan, acting chairperson of AMBALA.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) proudly declared that land distribution in Hacienda Luisita is complete with the dissemination of Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) photocopies to beneficiaries in all 10 Luisita barangays.

“Distribution of xeroxed titles is not equal to physical land distribution. Papel lang yan, hindi lupa. Ang ibig pang sabihin nito, dapat nang magbayad ng amortisasyon ang mga magbubukid, kahit ni hindi pa nila nakikita kung nasaan ang lupa nila,” [Those are only pieces of paper, not land. This also means that the peasants will be obliged to pay amortization for land that they have not even seen yet.] said Sibayan.

“Naging bingi at bulag ang DAR sa panawagan namin na libreng pamamahagi ng lupa. Ngayon sila pa ang kasabwat ng mga Cojuangco-Aquino sa pangangamkam,” [DAR has been deaf and blind to our repeated calls for the free distribution of land. Now, they are even conniving with the Cojuangco-Aquino family’s landgrabbing,] said Sibayan. The DAR has repeatedly justified TADECO’s claim by saying that the lots in question are not covered by the SC decision and are “residential.” The DAR claims that it is still “verifying” the agricultural nature of these lots.

TADECO also ordered the violent and unlawful arrest of 11 Hacienda Luisita fact-finding delegates in September, which included Sibayan and Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap.

“Hindi pa man nabibigyang hustisya ang pagkamatay ng mga magbubukid sa Hacienda Luisita massacre, pati na ang sunud-sunod na pagpatay nang dahil sa asyenda, mayroon na namang mga bagong kaso,” [Justice has not yet been rendered on the deaths of peasants in the Hacienda Luisita massacre, including the serial killings related to the hacienda, and yet, new cases continue to arise.] said Sibayan.

After nine years, justice has been elusive to victims of the Hacienda Luisita massacre which claimed the lives of 7 farmworkers. AMBALA and UMA will lead intensified protests against sham land reform and impunity under Aquino coinciding with the Hacienda Luisita massacre commemoration on November 15-16.

REFERENCE:
Christopher Garcia
Spokesperson – AMBALA
+639293200615

——————————————————————————

Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Agricultural Workers Union)
Philippines

Follow UMA Pilipinas on Twitter

A Day of Solidarity for Roy Velez, Amelita Bravante, other victims of political persecution

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
A Day of Solidarity for Roy Velez, Amelita Bravante, other victims of political persecution

Dear Friends:

On July and October 2013, the regional trial courts of Lagawe, Ifugao and Labo, Camarines Norte, respectively revoked and suspended the warrants of arrest issued against trade union leaders Roy Velez and Amelita Bravante who have been charged with fabricated murder cases.

The two courts also ordered the City and Provincial Prosecutor’s Offices in Ifugao and Camarines Norte to conduct a re-investigation on the charges filed against the two union leaders with other human rights defenders who are also co-accused in the same cases such as Randy Vegas and Raul Camposano of COURAGE, Rene Abiva (ACT TEACHERS), Virgilio Corpuz (PISTON), and peasant advocates Ramon Argente and Nancy Ortega.

We believe that this is a huge victory for Roy Velez, Amelita Bravante, and other victims of political persecution, their families, friends, colleagues, and their organizations.  And this is due to our unwavering and collective campaigns to stop the criminalization of human rights defenders.

We have formed the Tambuli ng Mamamayan (People’s Clarion Call) composed of victims, families, friends, supporters, and colleagues of victims of political persecution in Metro Manila, which started since December 2012. Since then, we have organized various activities and actions to stress our calls and demands to junk the trumped up charges, and for justice to all victims of political persecution and other human rights violations.

Nevertheless, we must continue our actions to call for the total dismissal of the fabricated cases against our trade union leaders. We must continue to declare that genuine justice shall be served to all victims of political persecution and human rights violations.

We must also continue our campaign and calls for JUSTICE to all victims of  extrajudicial killings such as Arnel Leonor (Silverio Compound), Antonio Homo (Navotas), Marilou Valle (Tondo), Erning Gulfo and Marlyn Sumera (Malabon); call to Free Renante Gamara, Randy Vegas, Raul Camposano, Rene Abiva, Virgilio Corpuz, Silverio 10, and all political prisoners.

Most of all, we must continue to expose and oppose Oplan Bayanihan which aims to silence and stop our legitimate struggles for land, jobs, homes, justice, and for meaningful social change.

Thus, we are inviting everyone on 8 November 2013 to A Day of Action Against Political Persecution & Solidarity with Roy Velez, Amelita Bravante & other Victims of Human Rights Violations.

7:00 – 11:00 AM – Picket Dialogue in front of the Department of Justice and Supreme Court with Roy Velez and Amelita Bravante.

2:00 – 4:00 PM – Solidarity Action (Justice for Arnel Leonor. Free Silverio 10)

6:30 – 8:30 – Solidarity Gathering with Roy Velez and Amelita Bravante on the continued campaign to stop the criminalization of human rights defenders. IFI Conference Room, Taft, Avenue.

For those organizations which cannot personally attend the said event, we are encouraging you to send solidarity statements or messages that can be read during the program.

Once again, thank you very much for your active participation in the campaign. Without let up, we shall continue in the fight for JUSTICE.

Sincerely yours,

Defend Job Philippines
and
Tambuli ng Mamamayan Network

 

Political prisoner Ramon Patriarca should be immediately released — Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Political prisoner Ramon Patriarca should be immediately released — Karapatan

Patriarca has been in solitary confinement for two years now… He is the only political prisoner who is in a military detention facility.

KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)

Karapatan, through its chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez, today called for the release of political prisoner Ramon Patriarca as she echoed Patriarca’s appeal for an immediate transfer to a civilian detention facility from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command Headquarters, Camp Lapulapu, Cebu City.

Patriarca, a human rights defender and a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines has been in solitary confinement for two years now. He is the only political prisoner who is in a military detention facility. “I wonder why the Commission on Human Rights is not doing anything on this. It looks like it is tolerating this practice,” Hilao-Enriquez said.

In a letter of appeal addressed to Cebu governor Hilario Davide III, Patriarca said he wanted to be transferred back to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) asserting, “there is absolutely no justification for political prisoners like myself to be detained in a military facility. Specific provisions of the Local Government Code and the BJMP Act support the sound and fair practice of holding all inmates, regardless of the charges they face, only in civilian-run detention centers.” Patriarca is denied of even his sunning rights.

Hilao-Enriquez also asked the Department of Justice for a “review of the cases of political prisonersespecially as we have, as of August 2013, 449 PP’s with 48 sick and 28 elderly detainees and 35 women political prisoners.”

Detained at the Danao City Jail from 2009 to 2011, Patriarca helped in the legal cases of a number of inmates and set up literacy classes in prison. He organized fellow prisoners to demand for better prison conditions. Patriarca’s initiatives led to a raise in prisoners’ food allowance from P50 to P80 per inmate, per day. “Apparently, Patriarca’s actions did not sit well with then Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, sister of Byron Garcia, a security consultant at the CPDRC, and the military,” said Hilao-Enriquez.

On 25 January 2012, after Patriarca’s court hearing, his jail guards did not bring him back to Danao City Jail but instead brought him to the CPDRC where he was locked in an isolation cell for several days until he was brought to the AFP Central Command headquarters in Camp Lapulapu, Cebu City.

Patriarca also demanded to be removed from solitary confinement saying, “there is no basis for political prisoners like myself to be put in solitary confinement and separated without due process from fellow inmates, merely for being charged with political offenses.”

“Neither the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, nor Part III of the 1998 GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), nor Part I of the 1955 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, support the pre-emptive and abusive practice of solitary confinement, as in my case,” he added.

Karapatan supports the urgent appeal of Patriarca saying, “this is a clear case of violation of his rights as a detained person under the Republic Act 3478.”

Patriarca’s defense lawyer has filed a motion to dismiss the rebellion case as the so-called witness — a rebel returnee who remains in custody of the military — himself said that Patriarca “was not present during the incident in question, nor part of its planning.” Patriarca on the other hand filed a case of Anti-Torture Act against his arresting officers.

Patriarca was arrested without a warrant on 5 February 2009 for rebellion. He was tortured and held incommunicado after he was abducted by elements of the 78th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army and the provincial police in Consolacion, Cebu. Patriarca testified in court that he was kicked and punched, subjected to “water cure” and other forms of physical and mental torture. A doctor who examined Patriarca at that time, said he had acute stress disorder secondary to physical and psychological trauma.

Despite years of isolation and inhumane imprisonment, Patriarca remains steadfast in his principles. Last 21 September, he held a hunger strike to express his support for the people’s movement against pork barrel system. It was the fifth hunger strike since he was transferred to the AFP headquarters.

Reference:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez
Chairperson
+63917- 561800

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

———————————————————————
PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
———————————————————————

Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
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.

365 days of unjust imprisonment — Free Zara NOW!

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
365 days of unjust imprisonment — Free Zara NOW!

Dear friends,

Today, it has been one year since Zara Alvarez was illegally arrested on Oct 30, 2012. Yet, the human rights defender continues to face two fabricated charges of murder and robbery in band, suffers the separation from her four-year-old daughter and the daily hardship of a life in prison. The separation of mother and child became even more painful when Zara was transferred from the Cadiz City Jail to the Negros Occidental District Jail on August 16 and again to the Bacolod City District Jail on October 2, both jails are about 70km away from Cadiz. Visits became more difficult and more seldom as every visit involves a lot of time and financial resources. Yet, Zara’s prison conditions also worsened.

As a “newcomer” in the Bacolod City District Jail, she is being padlocked for two months, only allowed to leave the cell to receive visitors. Currently she shares this cell with 15 other women. They sleep on the floor, no running water, no separate wash room and toilet. As a consequence, she now suffers from a strong cough, allergies and diarrhea.

Despite these trials, we are confident that truth will reveal and justice prevails. As the venue of the murder case has transferred too, we are hopeful that this will add to the independence and impartiality of the court proceedings, exposing the political repression behind the systematic filing of fabricated charges against her and against many more, resulting in more than 450 political prisoners nationwide.

One year after Zara’s arrest, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support, your prayers, your postcards and letters and the many pictures we received for tomorrow’s anniversary. Please continue walking with us on this journey, calling for Justice and for an End to fabricated charges against activists and human rights defenders!

Please continue to join us calling her home! Please see below Zara’s letter to the President and the result of the picture campaign! Feel free to circulate both!

Free ZARA Now!
End fabricated charges against human rights defenders and activists!

Warm regards and wishes,

Free Zara Alvarez Movement

(click on the image to view actual size)

131030 Zara Alvarez letter to the President

Free Zara Alvarez NOW!

Ex-detainees, relatives, supporters hold caravan to press for release of political prisoners

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Ex-detainees, relatives, supporters hold caravan to press for release of political prisoners

Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA)

Rights group SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto), with relatives and friends of political prisoners, held a caravan today from the Quezon City Memorial Circle to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City in an urgent call to free elderly and ailing political prisoners on humanitarian grounds.

“They shouldn’t be in jail in the first place, but they are jailed on trumped up charges. They suffered from torture and other violations of their rights as prisoners. They are denied freedom, and some die of sickness in the long course of their detention. The ailing and the elderly should be released soon while they are still alive,” said Jigs Clamor, SELDA national coordinator.

According to SELDA, political prisoners, like ordinary inmates, suffer from subhuman prison conditions. “They are cramped in congested cells. They receive poor and inadequate health services. Their prolonged detention makes them vulnerable to more serious health conditions,” said Clamor.

Clamor cited the case of Alison Alcantara, who went into a coma on September 4 at the New Bilibid Prisons after suffering from complications to diabetes. “But he was transferred to the Philippine General Hospital only after three days,” said Clamor, “his life could have been saved if there was sufficient medical care right from the beginning.” Alcantara died on September 18.

As of August 2013, there are 449 political prisoners detained in various detention centers all over the country, 48 of them are ailing while 28 are elderly (60 years old and above)

“The low quality and insufficient medical care that the government provides endangers the lives of political prisoners. The P50 a day food budget is very little. Their condition is no different from the lives of people outside prison. Jails and detention centers are barely habitable, unsafe and hazardous to the health and general well-being of prisoners,” Clamor explained.

From Quezon City Memorial Circle, the caravan stopped at the gates of Camp Crame, where four political prisoners, namely Renante Gamara, Eduardo Serrano, Eduardo Sarmiento and Ramon Argente are detained.

Gamara, Serrano, and Sarmiento are peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines who are covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity guarantees of the GPH and the NDFP. Meanwhile, Ramon Argente, a peasant organizer from Bicol, was recently transferred at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame after undergoing triple by-pass surgery. He was previously detained at the Camarines Norte Provincial Jail.

“Even if his surgery is successful, he will recover better outside prison. Why endanger his life again after surviving this ordeal? The least the government can do with his condition is to free him,” Clamor said.

Alongside the caravan, artists and church workers visited the four political prisoners at Camp Crame as part of the “KA-KAUSA” solidarity visits to political prisoners in the Philippines. The group is composed of writers and visual artists, including cultural worker and former political prisoner Ericson Acosta. Poetry and songs were shared in a brief cultural program. The visitors also brought donated art materials for the political prisoners.

The caravan proceeded to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), to call for the resumption of the peace talks between the NDFP and the GPH. According to SELDA, the continued detention of NDF peace consultants and other political prisoners is a hindrance to the resumption to the talks.

The caravan’s last stop was at Camp Bagong Diwa (CBD), where the majority of political prisoners are detained, both at the Metro Manila District Jail-Main, Special Intensive Care Area-Metro Manila District Jail (SICA-MMDJ) and the Taguig City Jail- Female Dorm.  A brief program was held at the gates of the CBD where political prisoners released a statement of solidarity in the call to immediately release the elderly and those who are sick among them.

Reference:
Jigs Clamor
SELDA national coordinator
+63917-5965859

The Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) is an organization of former political prisoners in the Philippines. Founded on December 4, 1984, SELDA was initiated by newly-released political prisoners of the martial law period.  SELDA’s primary task is to work for the release of all political prisoners and to see to it that humane treatment of those who are still in detention are complied with by the Philippine authorities.  SELDA advocates justice for current and former political prisoners.  It calls for the mobilisation of resources in support of political prisoners, former detainees and their families.  It carries out legislative advocacy for the indemnification and rehabilitation of political prisoners. SELDA goes into partnership and builds solidarity with concerned individuals and groups for the freedom and welfare of political prisoners and all victims of tyranny.

SELDA National Office:
2/F, Erythrina Bldg.,
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets,
Brgy. Central District,
Diliman, Quezon City
1101, Philippines
Tel: 632-4342837 Fax: 632-4354146
1...172173174...256Page 173 of 256