DONATE
Home Blog Page 193

Assignment of Morong 43 torturer Baladad to 3rd IDPA, a display of impunity under Aquino

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0

Press Release, July 4, 2013

“The appointment of Brig. Gen. Aurelio Baladad as commanding general of 3rd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army is an exemplary display of impunity under the Aquino government,” Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said. Gen. Baladad is among the military and police officers currently facing civil and criminal charges of torture and illegal detention of 43 health workers known as the Morong 43.
free-the-433
The forty three health workers were illegally arrested in February 2010. They were handcuffed and blindfolded for two days. Dr. Alex Montes said he was electrocuted while blindfolded. He could not walk for several minutes after that. They also underwent psychological torture during interrogations that happened during night time. They were under extreme fear during their captivity because some of them were taken out of detention cells during the night, not knowing where they will be taken to. For several weeks, this has been their set up while under military custody.

“This is the kind of impunity where torturers are promoted and rewarded with plum posts, where they will be in a position to systematically commit more rights violations,” Palabay said. “Baladad’s assignment at the 3rd IDPA indicates the heightening of terror versus the people through Oplan Bayanihan,” Palabay said citing Negros, which is part of Western Visayas, is among those declared by the military as among the first level priorities of the said counter-insurgency program.

According to Karapatan’s documentation, nine out of 142 cases of extrajudicial killings under the Noynoy government’s Oplan Bayanihan happened in Western Visayas, and four out of 16 enforced disappearances are from Negros alone.

“By all indications, the Aquino government is placing known human rights violators and Gloria Arroyo’s military henchmen such as Baladad and even ISAFP Chief Gen. Eduardo Año to Noynoy Aquino’s first line of defense against the people’s escalating discontent,” Palabay said.

It was a year ago that Karapatan filed an opposition to the promotion of Baladad as Brigadier General. He has been since assigned as commanding officer of the 9th Infantry Division PA in Bicol Region, also a priority area of Oplan Bayanihan, and as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations (J3) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“Thus, with this appointment and promotions of rights violators, the Filipino nation is to expect more human rights violations under the Noynoy Aquino administration,” Palabay concluded. ###

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
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
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.

Human Rights Lawyers Vow to File and Support Legal Actions to Stop RP-US-Japan Access Arrangement

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Human Rights Lawyers Vow to File and Support Legal Actions to Stop RP-US-Japan Access Arrangement

PRESS STATEMENT, 1 July 2013

In a press statement today, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) strongly assailed the government’s desire to provide access arrangements to US and Japan saying that it should never pass the test of constitutionality.

The human rights lawyers group said that whether it be a temporary or permanent access to Philippine military bases or facilities, the planned carnival of foreign troops would openly circumvent both the Constitution and the onerous Visiting Forces Agreement.

“To say that the bases access complies with the Constitution and the VFA is patently misleading.  This is again the reason why the people do not have faith in their leaders, the institutions and the system.  They are being treated like fools. The crude and barefaced doublespeak being peddled again by the Aquino government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines will not stand against the clear and plain language and spirit of the Constitution. It is like getting a huge stone to bash one’s own head by continuously flirting with the US and waltzing with its own global aggression and intervention” Atty. Olalia said in a statement.

The US and the Philippine governments cannot use as a convenient excuse the supposed threats by China to circumvent existing local and international laws.  China for its part should likewise cease from falling into the US’ premeditated trap with the silly collaboration of Philippine defense officials.

The NUPL berated the Aquino government for what it called “another move to sell the country’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty to the US.”  It cited as an example, the government’s helplessness in the midst of the USS Guardian incident over the Tubbataha where the US remains shamelessly unaccountable for the incident.  The NUPL is acting as co-counsel in the Petition for a Writ of Kalikasan over the incident now pending before the Supreme Court.

The NUPL vowed that it will file and support all legal steps and metalegal actions – both local and international – to stop this scandalously prostrate sell-out of our sovereignty and trampling of our dignity as a supposed free people and independent nation. #

REFERENCE:         ATTY. EDRE U. OLALIA- Secretary-General: +63917-5113373
—
National Secretariat
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)
3F Erythrina Bldg., Maaralin corner Matatag Sts. Central District,Quezon City, Philippines
Telefax no.920-6660
Email addresses: nupl2007@gmail.com and nuplphilippines@yahoo.com
Follow us on twitter @peoples_lawyer
Visit the NUPL website at http://www.nupl.net/

“By calling yourselves the ‘people’s lawyer,’ you have made a remarkable choice. You decided not to remain in the sidelines. Where human rights are assaulted, you have chosen to sacrifice the comfort of the fence for the dangers of the battlefield. But only those who choose to fight on the battlefield live beyond irrelevance.”

– Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, in his message at the NUPL Founding Congress, September 15, 2007

“After long years of experience as a people’s lawyer, I can honestly say it has been a treasured journey of self-fulfillment and rewarding achievement. I know it will be the same for all others who choose to tread this path.”

– Atty. Romeo T. Capulong, NUPL founding chairperson, in his keynote address at the Fifth Conference of Lawyers in Asia Pacific (COLAP V), September 18, 2010

Heightened repression and rights violations mark Aquino’s 3rd year in power–Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Heightened repression and rights violations mark Aquino’s 3rd year in power–Karapatan

No different from the Aquino I and the other “democratic” administrations after Marcos

Press Statement, June 29, 2013
Reference:    Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, 0917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580

“As predicted, the Noynoy Aquino government on its third year, went on a rampage against its own people, attacking communities and individuals who stand in the way of private, local and foreign big business which, Aquino, like Marcos and the series of “democratic” governments  after the dictator, serves best,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan.

From July 2010 (start of Aquino’s presidency) to April 30, 2013, Karapatan’s documentation shows:

•          142 victims of extrajudicial killing

•          164 cases of frustrated killing

•          16 victims of enforced disappearance

•          293 persons arrested and detained

•          16 children killed, with ages ranging from four to 15

Karapatan said when Noynoy Aquino launched his own version of ‘unsheathing the sword of war’ last year, “it, expectedly, resulted to more cases of rights violations and abuses by the AFP, especially because only six months are left in the implementation of Oplan Bayanihan Phase 1.” In previous statements, Karapatan said the deadline of Oplan Bayanihan is timed with the US government’s so-called “Asian pivot.”

The same pattern as Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) exists, “the victims of rights violations are the same people who were displaced by big business like logging and transnational mining companies that are coddled by the Aquino government; the victims are the same people who are vulnerable to disasters because of imperialist plunder of the country’s natural resources and the consequent environmental degradation; the victims are the same poor Filipino people who are targets of the government’s red tagging when they assert their rights.”

Karapatan characterized Aquino’s three years as “prime time for impunity as perpetrators, both under Aquino’s regime and from Arroyo’s, remain unpunished and are instead promoted to positions where they wield more power to attack the people.”  Karapatan opposed the promotion of Gen. Eduardo Año, Lt. Gen. Jorge Segovia, Brig. Gen. Aurelio B. Baladad, among others, who have pending cases for rights violations.  “Aquino should also account for his inaction on the rights violations of the previous regime. It is not sufficient to point fingers at Arroyo only when it is convenient for Noynoy to do so,” Hilao-Enriquez said.

“With prime suspects missing or hidden, killings remain unsolved even with “high profile” cases such as the killing of Fr. Pops Tentorio, PIME, long time Philippine resident and Dutch volunteer, Willem Geertman, broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega, and the gruesome Ampatuan massacre,” added Enriquez.

Hilao-Enriquez added, “rights violations are in the context of Aquino’s anti-people economic policies like the Public-Private Partnership. The Aquino government offers the poor Filipino people’s lives in a silver platter to private and foreign companies which, apart from enjoying tax holidays, are raking in super profits by jacking up prices of basic commodities, transportation fare, medical and educational services.  Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan indeed serves to protect all these globalization policies.  The President and his media spinners boast of ‘economic growth’ that only the rich and influential in Philippine society can feel and enjoy.  A refrain heard and felt by the poor from Marcos’ martial law up to the present.”

“The victims of State terror and human rights violations are those who challenge inequality and oppression; and those who work to change all these. Three years of violence and trickery to cover up such violence is more than enough for the Filipino people. The people should stand up for their rights and stop the plunder, state terror and impunity that engender more human rights violations,” concluded Hilao-Enriquez.

———————————————————————
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
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.

Australian rights defender says Philippines a paradise for the wealthy and purgatory for the rest

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0

Press Release
June 30, 2013

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Host Country Committee
Secretariat, +63917-3162831

“Progress limited, some backsliding: needs to do better, but systemic barriers suggest will not improve,” is how Australian Professor Gill Boehringer, Esq. viewed the three years of the Aquino government.

Prof. Boehringer, an expert on contemporary state and corporate abuse of human rights, has written a number of articles on Philippine lawyers, human rights and the Philippine elections and justice system.

In a statement, he illustrated the Aquino regime’s track in the past three years, saying the Aquino administration “in order to maintain its anti-people program has dished up through an adoring media the self-serving and contentious message that the economy is doing really well, and receiving plaudits from round the globe; corruption is under attack; and the protection of human rights is improving and is far better than under his predecessor.”

But in reality, he quickly added, “it (the Aquino government) has failed to act to effectively prosecute and  sanction human rights violators.” Prof. Boehringer also pointed to the government’s failure “to prioritize Freedom
of Information legislation which is essential for a genuine human rights regime.”

In July, Prof. Boehringer joins human rights and peace advocates from all over the world who are attending the International Conference for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines. Prof. Boehringer is set to address the conference on the U.S. government’s Asian pivot and the role of Australia as its ally.

“Of course we know that (Noynoy Aquino’s) real “bosses” (the rich and powerful) are not the ones who have to worry about their human rights being violated or ignored. The country is following the typical neo-liberal program whereby inequality worsens, hunger and poverty continue at high rates, citizens are driven overseas so their family may have a better income while unemployment, under-employment and child labor remain significant problems,” he observed.

“In a country with a semi-feudal political-economic system generating a huge gap between rich and the masa, the former will fight in every way possible to maintain the structure of social, political and economic relations-including relations of coercion, violence and state/corporate terror- which have made the Philippines a paradise for the wealthy and purgatory for the rest,” he ended.

Prof. Boehringer is a former Dean of Macquarie University Law School, Sydney, Australia, and Former Director of the Center for the Critical and Historical Study of the Common Law. He was a delegate in the People’s International Observers’ Mission during the Philippine elections in 2007 and 2010, and personally observed the 2013 elections. ###

Prof. Gill Boehringer
gill.boehringer@mq.edu.au>

———————————————————————
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
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.

Karapatan and Desaparecidos’ statements on the International Day in support of victims of torture and 7th year of disappearance of Karen and Sherlyn

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Karapatan and Desaparecidos’ statements on the International Day in support of victims of torture and 7th year of disappearance of Karen and Sherlyn

Press Statement
June 26, 2013

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580

On Aquino’s 3rd year – Use of torture exists under the Aquino II government—Karapatan

“No matter how the Aquino government denies the use of torture, state security forces in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) resort to and apply it to their victims, inside and outside prison,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan.

For the first three years of the Noynoy Aquino government, Karapatan, as of April 30, 2013, documented 76 incidents of torture, more than half of the 128 cases under the nine years of Gloria Arroyo.

“The Anti-Torture Law, enacted in 2009, has not prevented the government to use torture to extract information from detainees or abducted persons. The government violates its own laws,” added Hilao-Enriquez.

Foremost among these cases is the torture of security guard Rolly Panesa, mistaken to be a top-ranking leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines, who was badly beaten during interrogation inside a military camp. Photos of Panesa’s bruised and swollen face, including medical certificates proved what he went through. Panesa is still in jail for nearly eight months now.

In Samar, ten soldiers of the 87th IBPA tortured Richard Oblino, 25, and his nephew Orlan, 16, on February 28 after they were ordered to surrender their guns. Richard had a bolo with him which he used for farm work. The soldiers forced Richard to the ground. They took off his shirt and used it to blindfold him. Then they stomped on his legs and stomach; they poured water in his mouth.

Another group of soldiers tortured Richard’s nephew Orlan. They wrapped his head with a plastic bag as they kicked him on the legs and punched him. The soldiers inserted bullets between his fingers and pressed hard. A soldier fired his gun near the teenager’s head and shouted “Surender n’yo armas n’yo! (Surrender your gun!)” to which Orlan replied, “Waray ako armas, sir (I have no gun, sir.)”

On May 29, 2012, Cesar Graganta of San Pedro, Laguna was in Villa Hermosa village, Macalelon, Quezon when he and his two companions passed by soldiers of the 85th IBPA at the barangay hall. The soldiers summoned the three as they fired a shot, prompting Cesar’s companions to run. The soldiers took Cesar and tied him to a tree for one and-a-half hours while they interrogated him. Soldiers punched and kicked him, put a bolo against his neck, hit him with a piece of bamboo, put sharp sticks into his ears, tied a rope around his neck and pulled at it, pinched his nose with pliers and poured ants on his body.

“The government cannot fool the people by simply dishing out pro-human rights hype in media. What happens on the ground will humiliate the Aquino government. Aquino cannot dismiss the torture victims as isolated cases, and not a government policy, because torture is resorted to all over the country as a component of its Oplan Bayanihan,” said Hilao-Enriquez.

Hilao-Enriquez concluded, The next three years will be marked by continuing, if not worsening human rights violations as Noynoy Aquino, like his predecessors resort to the continuing use of Oplan Bayanihan. The people must remain ever vigilant of the intensification of fascist attacks by this government just like the struggle the people waged against the fascist attacks of the former dictator Marcos.###

———————————————————————
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
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.
————————————————————————-
Press Release
June 26, 2013

Reference:
Lorena P. Santos, Secretary General
Concepcion Empeño
Linda Cadapan
Contact Number: +639229393824

Mothers of missing Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan join people’s protest against torture and illegal detention

“Sobra nang pahirap ang pitong taong paghahanap! Sobra na talaga!” (Seven years of searching is too much of an agony. It’s just too much!) Concepcion Empeño and Linda Cadapan, mothers of missing Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan decried as the disappearance of their daughters reached its 7th year.

It was on this day, seven years ago that Sherlyn and Karen were taken by several armed men in combat boots in Hagonoy, Bulacan. The two women and a farmer Manuel Merino was dragged out of the houses they were staying in, hands tied and blindfolded. Sherlyn, who was pregnant at that time, was kicked at the stomach.

“I am so disappointed with the Aquino government for being inutile in pursuing justice,” Linda Cadapan said. “Seven years of lying and cover up is enough!” Cadapan said further.

“Dapat tigilan na ang pagtatago ni Palparan, o pagtatago sa kanya ng kapwa militar!” (Palparan should come out, or those military mistahs keeping him should give him up!) Mrs. Empeno said. “Isuko na siya ng gobyernong ito at papanagutin sa kasalanan niya! (The government should hand him over and make him accountable to his violations!) added Mrs. Empeno.

“In all the cases of enforced disappearance, none of the perpetrators is ever punished or put to jail,” said Lorena “Aya” Santos, secretary general of Families of Desaparecidos for Justice. “Under the Noynoy Aquino regime, disappearances are still perpetrated as part of its counterinsurgency program, Oplan Bayanihan,” Santos continued.

“There are now 16 documented cases of disappearances and the victims remain missing to date,” Santos said, citing Karapatan’s documentation. “In fact, two incidents of enforced disappearances were reported right after the enactment of the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012,” Santos said.

After seven long years of search, both mothers still hope to find their daughters. Mrs. Cadapan has this message for daughter Sherlyn:”Magpakatatag kayo. Kaming nagmamahal sa inyo, mga magulang, kapatid at mga kaibigan ay di titigil sa paghahanap sa inyo at sa hustisya na maparusahan ang may salarin.” (Be strong. We who love you – your parents, sibling and friends will not stop in searching for you, pursue justice and ensure that the perpetrators are punished).

“Karen, malapit na uli ang kaarawan mo sa July 22, SONA yan. Sasama ako bilang simbolo ng pakikibaka. Yan ang alay ko sa iyong kaarawan. We love you so much . Pakatandaan mo yan,” (Karen, on your birthday, July 22 is also the President’s State of the Nation Address. I will attend (the protest) as a symbol of our struggle. It’s my gift to you. We love you so much, always remember that.) was Mrs. Empeno message to Karen.

Both mothers and other families of desaparecidos joined today’s rally to commemorate the 7th year of disappearance of Karen and Sherlyn and to join the call to stop torture and illegal arrests and detention.

Today is also the 7th year of disappearance of National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celina Palma, a staff Ariel Beloy and his niece Gloria Soco who were abducted at the boundary of Quezon Province and Camarines Norte. According to a witness/survivor, they underwent torture to force them to admit they are members of the New People’s Army.
———————————————————————
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
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.

1...192193194...256Page 193 of 256