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Alan Jazmines stealthily transferred to Bicutan jail without notice and valid reason—Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Alan Jazmines stealthily transferred to Bicutan jail without notice and valid reason—Karapatan

Karapatan Public Info Desk, Press Statement, June 29, 2012 – Government authorities should immediately explain the sudden, stealthy transfer of political prisoner Alan Jazmines from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan early this morning of June 29.

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan slammed the move “because it reeks of treachery. Alan Jazmines was not even allowed to call his legal counsel and the Custodial Center has not provided any reason for the haste in Jasmines’s transfer.”

“The chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) should likewise answer for the PNP’s action. We learned that she was with Supt. Cesar Magsino, chief of the PNP Custodial Center, when Jazmines was transported to Bicutan. The CHR chairperson could have at the very least facilitated Jazmines’s request to talk to his lawyers,” added Hilao-Enriquez.

Earlier, Karapatan submitted to CHR complaints on the ill-treatment and increasing restrictions of political prisoners at the PNP Custodial Center and at the Fort Bonifacio Headquarters, PA Custodial Center, 191st MPBn., HHSG, PA where Tirso Alcantara, another NDF consultant, remains in solitary confinement for over a year and a half already, in complete violation of RA 7438, the law that supposedly enumerates the rights of a detained, accused person.

Alan Jasminez is among the 14 peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) currently detained in various jails in the country, whose releases are being sought for by the NDFP Panel. Ramon Patriarca, another NDFP detained consultant in Cebu experienced a similar treatment. On January 25, 2012 he was, without notice, taken straight to a military stockade in the AFP-Central Command in Camp Lapu-Lapu, Lahug, Cebu City after attending a hearing and did not even have time to pack his things.

In the past, several attempts were made to isolate Alan Jazmines from his co-detainees in Camp Crame. Jazmines recently figured in the news when he wrote a letter to the Department of Justice, CHR and Karapatan saying that “The FBI maintains an office inside the detention center itself and in a unit in a nearby condominium…”

Hilao-Enriquez said that “the pattern of repression of political prisoners is becoming evident as shown in the case of Jazmines, Alcantara and Patriarca. For two years, Aquino has not lifted a finger to act positively on the situation of the political prisoners who are unjustly detained. He has instead allowed the plight of the political prisoners to worsen, to the point of even betraying and forgetting his own father’s sufferings in jail.” ###

Reference: Marie Hilao Enrique, Chairperson, +63917-5616800
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580
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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 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.

‘Asan si Palparan?’ A call for artworks

ICHRP Secretariat
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‘Asan si Palparan?’ A call for artworks

The Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) is calling on artists to submit artworks in pursuit of justice.

ASAn si Palparan? (ASAP) is a collection of artworks in the style of Larry Alcala’s “Slice of Life” and Martin Handford’s “Where’s Waldo”. A contribution from you can help bring to the general public the plight of several victims of human rights violations conducted by the military forces in the country and eventually bring justice to them by finding, convicting and jailing Maj. General Jovito Palparan Jr.

General Palparan, notoriously known as the “Butcher,” is responsible for the abduction, torture, killings and/or disappearances of several of our kababayans—activists and ordinary folks in the provinces—including UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno who remain missing to this date. Palparan personifies the prevalent state of impunity in the country, as he continues to evade the warrant of arrest against him. The warrant of arrest is a result of the persistent struggle for justice of the mothers of Cadapan and Empeno.

All artworks must play on the idea of searching or looking for Palparan in any format, be it a maze, puzzle, spot-the-difference, or any popular activity/game. All artworks must be 8 inches by 8 inches, square format, colored or Black & White on white ground/paper. Interested contributors can submit their works either by:

1) Email to concernedartistsphils@yahoo.com. Artforms must have 200 dpi resolution, 8inch by 8 inch square format; or
2) Snail mail/ hand deliver at Erythrina Building,  #1 Maaralin cor Matatag Sts., Brgy. Central, Quezon City.

Deadline for submission of artworks is on August 15, 2012.

Artworks will be displayed on the internet as viral advertisements on social networking sites  in time for the celebration of International Day of the Disappeared on August 30.

We are calling on artists and cultural workers like you to participate in our effort to help bring justice to the victims of enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings.

Justice to all human rights violations victims!
End Impunity in the Philippines now!

Torture still in practice under the Aquino govt –Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Torture still in practice under the Aquino govt –Karapatan

Karapatan Public Info Desk, 27 Jun 2012, Press Statement –   As the world commemorated on June 26 the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Aquino government continues to employ torture on political prisoners as in the case of Tirso Alcantara, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to the peace process.

“There is too much duplicity in the air. The AFP held a ‘run against torture’ on June 26 yet it has been named as the perpetrator in most of the 96 torture cases Karapatan has documented under the Aquino government. Noynoy Aquino portrays himself and his counter-insurgency program as pro-human rights yet human rights violations continue with impunity; even failing until now to jail ‘The Butcher’ Gen. Palparan. The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention Against Torture yet political prisoners like Alcantara and Ramon Patriarca are kept under solitary confinement and denied of their rights,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan.

In a sworn statement dated June 16, 2012, Alcantara enumerated the ill-treatment he experiences in detention in Fort Bonifacio such as,solitary confinement, deprivation of sunning and limited visitation rights, being served with food with dirt, trash, broken pieces of glass and fecal matter and ‘mentholated’ water that caused him vomiting and loose bowel movement. Even the medicine given him by a person who pretended to be a doctor caused him nausea, palpitations and terrible pain on his neck. Patriarca, on the other hand, was also forcibly transferred from the Danao Provincial Jail, a regular detention facility, to the AFP Central Command in Cebu.

Hilao-Enriquez added that, “such duplicity is reflected specially on the government’s handling of the issue of political prisoners. The government peace panel promised to work for the release of political prisoners yet it denies that there are political prisoners in the country only because political dissenters are lodged with trumped up criminal charges.”

Karapatan reiterates that Alcantara and the 13 other NDFP peace consultants are protected by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). “They should be out of jail, in the first place if not for the government’s disinterest to keep the peace negotiation going. The government must fulfil its promise to work for their release as stipulated in the documents signed during the peace talks on February 2011,” said Hilao-Enriquez.

“At the very least, the self-professed human rights advocate President could get Alcantara and Patriarca out of military detention centers and into a civilian facility; or the government can heed the offer of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) to “release in recognizance under the collective custodial guarantee of the member churches of the NDFP consultants who are willing to be under the sanctuary of churches.”

The PEPP’s offer was made through a statement issued on February 8, 2012. The PEPP is composed of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF). ###

Stop all forms of torture!
End Impunity in the Philippines now!

Reference: Marie Hilao-Enriquez, +63920-9466207
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.

Aquino’s two years in office marked with continuing rights violations and impunity – Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Aquino’s two years in office marked with continuing rights violations and impunity – Karapatan

Karapatan Public Info Desk, Press Release, 25 June 2012 –   On the eve of the world commemoration of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Karapatan renewed its call for the “People’s Manhunt” for Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. and other notorious human rights violators who remain fugitives from the bar of justice as the human rights group sees the continuation of the climate of impunity in the first two years of the Aquino administration.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan spokesperson, called on the public to remain on the look-out for Palparan, as Karapatan and its member organizations and network will commemorate the abduction of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno on June 26, 2012. The date coincides with the UN commemoration of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Karapatan chapters nationwide will hold protest actions tomorrow as they also asked Facebook users to re-use the online “Wanted Palparan” posters as profile pictures.

“Six years after the abduction of the UP students and six months after the release of the warrant of arrest against Palparan, there has been no meaningful and thoroughgoing effort to arrest one of the notorious poster boys of impunity in the Philippines. This strengthens our belief that the Armed Forces of the Philippines and those in power coddle Palparan, for who would have the resources and political influence to wield his apparent immunity from arrest? Such situation sends out a dangerous message to all human rights violators – that they can abduct, torture, and kill and get away with it,” Palabay commented.

Karapatan said this comes as no surprise as the “pattern of violations in the first two years of the Aquino administration indicate its character and streak of inflicting military terror and violence under its counter-insurgency policy of Oplan Bayanihan.” The rights group has documented more than 76 victims of extrajudicial killings and 96 torture victims, amid the increasing militarization of rural communities.

“Schools, village halls, homes, and other infrastructures for public use are being utilized as military camps, while AFP troops are inflicting fear, harassment, coercion, intimidation, vilification, torture and other forms of human rights violations against whole communities, including that of the Quezon province, in the guise of combat operations against the New People’s Army (NPA). We want them out of our homes, our schools, our communities,” Palabay said.

The groups will also conduct activities leading to the State of the Nation Address of Pres. Aquino on July.

———————————————————————
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.

Still no justice while Arroyo receives kid-gloved treatment from Malacañang -Karapatan

ICHRP Secretariat
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Still no justice while Arroyo receives kid-gloved treatment from Malacañang -Karapatan

Karapatan Public Info Desk, Press Statement, June 21, 2012 –   Today, as the defense lawyers of former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo present their client’s plea for bail at the Pasay Regional Trial Court, human rights group Karapatan joins members of people’s organizations under BAYAN in a rally outside the court premises urging for the immediate junking of Arroyo’s motion for bail and her immediate prosecution for electoral sabotage and human rights cases.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan spokesperson, said that more than six months have lapsed since the arrest of Arroyo based on electoral fraud charges, but her legal maneuvers and Malacañang’s kid-gloved treatment have kept GMA from being brought to justice.

Malacañang’s real intentions to prosecute Arroyo is betrayed by the fact that it has approved the special treatment of Arroyo in detention, being ‘detained’ in a hospital with extraordinary perks as a detained person, and the inordinately slow process of prosecuting her for the electoral fraud cases. The Aquino administration has likewise done nothing to go after GMA for the rights violations conducted under her term, which she has spurred through her counter-insurgency policy Oplan Bantay Laya,” she commented.

Palabay added that Arroyo’s motion for bail should not be granted by the court lest it be considered another significant indication of the prevailing climate of impunity in the country.

A week ago, the European Parliament adopted a resolution noting the “insufficiency” of the government’s ability to effectively combat the widespread impunity of perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. The resolution was adopted after human rights activists led by Karapatan and Philippine UPR Watch conducted lobby activities and meetings with members of the parliament to brief them on the human rights situation in the country. (Full text of resolution may be accessed through this link: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2012-0264&language=EN)

Palabay welcomed the call of the European Parliament for the Philippine government “to take further measures in order to end impunity for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture and bring those responsible to justice,” as victims of rights violations and their kin commemorate the International Day to Support Victims of Torture on June 26. It also marks the sixth year of the abduction and enforced disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño.

“As long as perpetrators of such grave and heinous crimes such as Arroyo and Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. remain free from arrest and prosecution, Aquino and his state security forces bequeath their legacies by not establishing accountability and by their perpetuation of the same pattern of rights abuses through Oplan Bayanihan,” she concluded. ###

End Impunity now!
Reference:Cristina Palabay, Spokesperson, +63917-5003879
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.

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