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/

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.

An international media group on Monday demanded prompt action from the Philippine government for two alleged abuses against media workers last week.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) sought the immediate arrest of men who allegedly shot and wounded Randy Makiputin in Valencia City in Bukidnon on November 26.

The IFJ questioned the alleged rough treatment that presidential guards gave Northern Luzon-based journalist Adela Wayas at a presidential event in Baguio City, also last weekend.

“The attempt on Makiputin’s life is reprehensible, regardless of the motives of his attackers … It is a shameful reminder that killings and attacks on media workers continue to be a very real threat to freedom of expression, human rights and a healthy media landscape in the Philippines,” IFJ Asia-Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said in an article posted on the IFJ website.

Makiputin, 39, is a broadcaster 0f Radyo Abante based in Maramag town in Bukidnon province.

Citing data from the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the IFJ said at least four motorcycle-riding men ambushed Makiputin at 7 p.m. Friday.

Makiputin sustained a gunshot wound to the back of his head, and is now in stable condition.

The local police are investigating the incident, and are yet to establish whether the attack is related to Makiputin’s work with Radyo Abante.

The incident occurred only days after the country marked the first anniversary of the infamous Maguindanao massacre, where 58 people, 33 of them journalists, were killed.

Baguio journalist

Meanwhile, the IFJ said the NUJP’s Baguio-Benguet chapter questioned the alleged mistreatment of a local journalist in Baguio City also on Friday.

According to the IFJ, the PSG allegedly shoved Northern Dispatch journalist Adela Wayas at the opening of a fastfood outlet there.

“Presidential guards allegedly shoved Wayas as she attempted to enter the site of a media stunt featuring President Benigno Aquino III to mark the opening of a popular chain restaurant,” the IFJ said.

The IFJ said the PSG and police reportedly questioned Wayas’ media credentials after she covered a student protest outside the venue.

The guards allegedly asked Wayas if she was a “companion” of the protesters and prevented her from entering the venue to report on Aquino’s speech.

IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries. – VVP, GMANews.TV

In one of the harsher foreign assessments of the Philippines in recent times, a Hong Kong-based human rights group has called the Philippines a “broken and lawless nation.”

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) drew this conclusion after two more recent murders in Mindanao, where the victims were executed in front of family members, one of them in the presence of three young daughters.

But the non-government body also made an apparent reference to the eight Hong Kong tourists who died in the Manila hostage crisis last August 23 after botched police negotiations and a rescue attempt, describing the Philippines as a place where citizens “cannot hope to protect the foreigners on its soil.”

‘A broken and lawless nation’

In an article on its web site, the AHRC stated:

“In a country where an individual can no longer protect himself, he cannot protect his family; a family that cannot protect its members, cannot protect the community where they belong; and a person, a family and a community that cannot protect itself cannot protect a Nation. A Nation that cannot protect its own citizens, their families and the community where they live cannot hope to protect the foreigners on its soil. It is a broken and lawless nation.”

AHRC said it has become an “illusion” and “absurdity” for anyone to claim that there is protection and security for people in the Philippines.

The Philippine National Police and government spokesmen have a habit of assuring the foreign community that the country is safe, in the face of travel advisories to the contrary issued by foreign governments.

The human rights body said it has become ordinary for killings to be carried out by policemen, the military and the paramilitary forces working for them, and for killings to be perpetrated in broad daylight in crowded public places and in front of the victims’ families in their own homes.

Unreported cases

“Hundreds if not thousands” of stories go unreported and this has been taking place in the country for many years now, the AHRC lamented.

“A system of justice can still continue to exist on paper, structure and appearance, but its existence is meaningless once it departs from its original role of being a protector, it becomes the very opposite of what it was supposed to be; that is the protector of those within the system, protecting those who are already protected; securing those who are already secured. This is the type system that each Filipino lives in daily in their own country. Unless there is a discussion and organic realization by those who are part of the system of the need for reform to reexamine their purpose, its existence remains an object of contempt,” it said.

Mindanao murders

The AHRC cited the murders of Reynaldo Labrador of Davao City and Vicente Felisilda of Mawab, Compostela Valley, who were executed in front of their families.

Labrador, 39, was shot at 7:30 p.m. last Sept. 3 in front of wife Leonisa and daughters Reylon, 10; Raquel, 8; and Jennifer, 4, at their home in Paquibato District in Davao City.

He was a member of the Paquibato District Farmers Association (PADIFA), a local chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

The gunmen escaped after the shooting. They left a note at the victim’s house that read: “Demonyo ka! Hiposon ka!” (You’re evil! You must be killed!)

Felisilda, 38, a farmer with four children and a member of Bayan Muna, was shot dead last September 9 at 7 p.m.

Both the KMP and Bayan Muna are leftist groups that the military has tagged as being communist front organizations. The Philippines has seen a spate of extrajudicial killings of activists committed by what international observers say are agents acting on behalf of the military, or by soldiers themselves.

What happened to Felisilda illustrates the brazenness exhibited by killers in the prevailing culture of impunity, the groups claimed.

The victim and and his elder brother Allan were resting inside a small hut in Mawab town, Compostela Valley after extracting meat from coconut shells on their farm.

While the brothers were resting, two gunmen arrived. They were wearing civilian clothes and armed with cal-.45 pistols.

“At first the two greeted the brothers and tried to make conversation with them by asking what they were doing. However, suddenly one of them shot Vicente at close range. Startled by what he saw, Allan ran for safety to a cliff nearby,” the AHRC said. – HS/TJD, GMANews.TV