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Call to international networks in support of Morong 43 and all political prisoners!

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Today, December 3, the Morong 43 started their hunger strike for freedom.  December 6 would be the 10th month of their illegal arrest and detention.

We demand their immediate and unconditional release.  The 43 health workers, who were attending a grassroots medical training, are victims of illegal search, arrest, detention and torture.  They are ridiculously charged with illegal possession of explosives. The pieces of evidence against them are either planted or inadmissible since these are, in legal jurisprudence, “fruits of the poisonous tree”.

Charges against them can be withdrawn if only President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will heed the advice of respected legal minds including the Secretary of Justice. That he continues to pass the burden to courts can either mean ignorance of the legal process or propensity for sticking his head in the sand.

Aside from the main venue of the hunger strike at Camp Bagong Diwa, a Support the M43 Hunger Strike Center has been set up in Manila for the families, other relatives, friends and multi-sectoral networks and individuals who will be on sympathy hunger strike or fasting.  Cultural groups plan to perform at the center.

Political prisoners in various detention centers and prisons in different provinces will hold their own fasting and/or sympathy act such as noise barrage and others.  Their actions aim to cap the year’s campaign to free all political prisoners especially those who have long been deprived of their liberty like Angie Ipong in Misamis Occidental, Eduardo Serrano and Eduardo Sarmiento in Camp Crame and Sandino Esguerra in Camp Bagong Diwa.

Let us drum up international support for the Morong 43 and all political prisoners. You may:
–          Join the hunger strike on December 6, their 10th  month anniversary in jail, and issue a statement of support;
–          Organize sympathy fasting or a few-day hunger strike;
–          Picket the Philippine Embassy and demand freedom for the Morong 43 and other political prisoners especially Ipong, Serrano, Sarmiento and Esguerra;
–          Highlight the hunger strike in your commemoration of human rights week and December 10 International HR Day;
–          Lobby with your parliament, congress and/or senate;
–          Write your ambassadors stationed in the Philippines;
–          Encourage international organizations/institutions and those in your network to send support statements to the hunger strike (addressed to Malacanang cc Philippine Embassy in your country, Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima and Karapatan);
–          Keep those postcards coming, we want them by the thousands;
–          Circulate this and further announcements plus the hunger strike bulletins which we will issue from time to time;
–          Solicit financial and material support for the Morong 43, other political prisoners and their families; and
–          Share your ideas with us and others so we can have a variety of support actions.

Free the Morong 43!
Release Angie Ipong, Eduardo Serrano, Eduardo Sarmiento and Sandino Esguerra!
Free all political prisoners!

Statement of the Morong 43 on Day 1 of their hunger strike

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December 3, 2010
Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan

Today we begin our hunger strike. This is the only course of action left us to end our continued illegal detention, there being no clear action by the government for our unconditional release.

On December 6, we will be on our 10th month in detention. We were arrested last February 6 by a joint AFP-PNP operation based on a defective warrant. We were tortured physically and psychologically, deprived of sleep, subjected to various indignities, threatened with harm, denied legal counsel for several days and illegally detained until now. Planted evidence was used and false charges were filed against us. Our human rights continue to be violated. Every day in jail is an injustice to us.

For the last 10 months, our families and friends from different sectors have never stopped working for our release. Even the international community was alarmed over our illegal arrest and continued detention. Various human rights advocates here and abroad have been unceasing in staging activities and protest actions calling on the President Benigno Aquino III to withdraw the charges against us.

The Department of Justice has conducted a review of our case. The findings have been submitted to President Aquino. The president himself has admitted that our arrest was based on a defective warrant and that “evidence wrongly gotten cannot be used.” Yet despite these findings, there are no clear indications that the charges against us will be withdrawn anytime soon.

Our action today and in the succeeding days is a call to President Aquino to simply order the withdrawal of the case against us forthwith so that we may be immediately and unconditionally released. We believe it is only fitting that we stage this hunger strike as the world observes Human Rights Week. We fight not only for our freedom but for the freedom of all political prisoners nationwide.

FREE THE MORONG 43!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Joint Statement on the International Day of Solidarity for the Political Prisoners

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We, families, friends & comrades of political prisoners in the Philippines and Turkey join our hands today, December 3, 2010 – the International Day of Solidarity for the Political Prisoners, in calling for the immediate release of All the Political Prisoners in Turkey and the Philippines.

We strongly urge the Turkish and Philippine government to stop all forms of torture and isolation to the prisoners in the country.

We believe that the 6000 political prisoners in Turkey and the 375 political prisoners in the Philippines should be released immediately without preconditions.

These political prisoners are not criminals and should be freed immediately to continue their invaluable service to the people of Turkey and Philippines in working for class and national struggles.

We likewise join the international community of people’s movement in calling for the immediate release of the Morong 43, the forty three health workers who are were illegally arrested, tortured and detained, and all political prisoners in the world who are languishing in various jails and detention centres.

Axel Pinpin, Genel Sekreter, KASAMA-TK (Güney Tagalog Köylü Hareketi Federasyonu –Filipinler)
SELDA – Organization of Former Prisoners Against Detention and Arrest in the Philippines
Alınteri (Toil)
Demokratik Haklar Federasyonu (Federation for Democratic Rights)
Halk Cephesi (People’s Front)
Partizan (Partisan)
Partizan Şehit ve Tutsak Aileleri (Families of Partisan’s Martyrs and Prisoners)
Tutuklu Gazetecilerle Dayanışma Platformu (The Platform of Solidarity With Detained Journailsts)


The Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) – Philippines is an organization of former political detainees in the country. Founded in December 4, 1984, SELDA was initiated by former political prisoners during the Martial Law period. It works for the unconditional release of all political prisoners and humane treatment of those who are still in detention; for the advocacy on the conditions of political prisoners, the fundamental reasons for their arrest and detention, and their struggle for justice; mobilization of resources for political prisoners and their families; legislative actions on the indemnification and rehabilitation of political detainees; and promotion of partnerships and solidarity with organizations for the freedom and welfare of political prisoners and victims of tyranny.

Lawyers, doctors, nurses, and health workers march for Morong 43 freedom

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Nearly ten months into unjust incarceration, lawyers, health professionals and health workers march to highlight their call to free the 43 health workers.  From the illegal arrest and continued detention of the Morong 43, the medical and legal professions have been at the helm of the efforts to free the 43 health workers.

“The medical and legal community calls for the withdrawal of all cases filed against the health workers,” Dr. Julie Caguiat, spokesperson of the alliance said.

While President Aquino keeps on claiming a commitment on human rights and moves away from the dark shadows of the Arroyo regime, since it assumed office, it has only resorted up to this to sheer sloganeering on human rights and an evasive stance on the Morong 43.

According to Dr. Caguiat, “how can President Aquino be so callous by insisting on a trial of the health workers and still has not moved to withdraw the charges against the health workers when he himself already confirmed the blatant defects of the arrest which by principle should not merit a judicial review.”

By these pronouncements of the Aquino administration, it virtually sanctions the military’s sinister and illegal behavior within its counter-insurgency program.

“We believe that it is among the salient duties of the government to protect its citizens from injustices especially from the abuses of the state.  However, Aquino is making himself complicit of the past administration’s atrocities by refusing to perform his moral obligations to uphold human rights and enforce the rule of law and heeding only to the arbitrary ways of the military.”

The alliance also said that it is unfortunate that Aquino has the mettle to call for the release of Aung Sang Su Kyi while the rest of the world still has to remind the Philippine government of the urgency of addressing the injustices here in the country.

The group underscored that the continued detention of the Morong 43 portends more days of injustices and violations of human rights and affronts of civil liberties.  Caguiat said “we fear that there will be more similar cases of illegal arrest and detention if the government will not make the correct political stand.”

Among the medical and legal groups who participated in the march included the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, National Union of Peoples Lawyers, International Association of Progressive Lawyers, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Philippine Nurses Association, Free the 43 Health Workers! Alliance and representatives from various medical and legal schools. (Reference: Julie P. Caguiat, M.D. – 0909.1133038 / (+632) 929.8109)

For more information and updates, you may also refer to: http://freethehealthworkers.blogspot.com/

HR under Aquino: ‘Nothing has changed’

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2010 HR REPORT Dec 2010 MANILA, Philippines – “Nothing has changed” in the Philippine human rights situation under President Benigno Aquino and, in fact, violations of civil and political rights are “getting worse,” the human rights alliance Karapatan said Wednesday.

Releasing its 2010 Human Rights Report, Karapatan noted that there have already been 20 extrajudicial killings of activists in Aquino’s first four months, compared to the 18 who died in the last six months of the term of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The report documents human rights violations from January to October this year.

“Contrary to his promised change and daang matuwid (straight or righteous path), PNoy (Aquino) not only did not pursue justice for the victims, he is adding more victims to the already long list,” Karapatan chair Marie Hilao-Enriquez said in a statement. “His promised ‘cases of extrajudicial killings need to be solved, not just identify the perpetrators but have them captured and sent to jail’ statement has fast become an empty forgotten promise as killings continue without letup.  In fact, perpetrators have become more atrocious and impunity is worsening.”

Enriquez singled out Aquino’s appointment of Colonel Domingo Tutaan as head of the Armed Forces’ human rights office, which she called an “alarming message that no essential change will take place in the character of a repressive state.”

Tutaan, she pointed out, is the brother of Lieutenant Colonel Federico Tutaan, whose Army unit was involved in the killing of renowned botanist Leonardo Co and two of his companions in Leyte last month.

The military has claimed that Co died in the crossfire when soldiers clashed with communist rebels. But this has denied by witnesses as well as friends and colleagues of the botanist.

Enriquez also cited the raid on Karapatan’s Camarines Norte., the continued detention of the so-called “Morong 43” and other political prisoners, worsening militarization in the countryside, the extension of the counterinsurgency campaign Oplan Bantay Laya, and Aquino’s refusal to disband militias despite growing observations that these have often been used as private armies by political warlords.

Karapatan criticized Aquino’s granting amnesty to rebel soldiers while leaving the fate of political prisoners to the courts.

“In the case of the Morong 43, it has been admitted by no less than the President himself that the warrant was faulty and pieces of evidence were illegally gotten,” Karapatan said.