Tribute to Jim Gales from Davao Today on...

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today PANABO CITY — It is supposed to be celebration time for members of progressive partylist groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Kabataan, and Act Teachers. After all, they still managed to win seats in Congress in the recent polls despite attempts to prevent them from...

“Impunity a serious issue that characterized extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines” – Prof. Alston Geneva, Switzerland—”It is very important, in my experience, to try to think strategically and to have a vision of how one really wants to look forward and I...

FUNERAL MARCH. Progressive groups demand justice for the killing of Jim Gales, a Bayan Muna member, on May 19, 2010 by unidentified gunman. (davaotoday.com photo by Jose...

By CHERYLL D. FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – Over a week after the May 10 polls, another activist was killed by still unidentified gunmen in Panabo City. Jim Galez, a member of the regional secretariat of partylist group Bayan Muna, was driving his motorcycle on the road to Barangay Little Panay in Panabo...

(second of three parts) First Part : A Pattern to Madness By GERMELINA A. LACORTE Davao Today The mine-rich jungle of Compostela Valley is not only known for its gold. It�s also where the fight between the government troops and the Communist guerillas is at its fiercest. On its website, the military...

By GRACE S. UDDIN Davao Today Colleagues of Dr. Pe�era condemn his killing. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan) DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) � While more health workers chose to go abroad to look for greener pastures, Dr. Rogelio �Bong� Pe�era, 45, opted to stay. But on June 24 this year, his killers...

(first of three parts) By GERMELINA A. LACORTE Davao Today First, their groups have been tagged as the legal fronts of the Communist New People’s Army. Then, top military officials make public statements suggesting they’re enemies of the state. Finally, before anyone could stop to consider, they...

By Cheryll D. Fiel Davao Today A broadcaster was shot dead in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, according to the latest news alert by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP). Jonathan Petalvero, 43, was in a restaurant when suspects went inside and shot him, the NUJP news alert said, citing police...

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE Davao Today DAVAO CITY�Peers of the slain AH1N1 doctor expressed alarm that the extrajudicial killings in the country no longer spare doctors and health workers giving services to the poor. Dr. Jean Lindo, the chair of the doctors� group Rx for Peace, said the death of Dr. Rogelio...

Unsolved killings alarm Muslims, Christians By Concerned Information News Service/MMNS (August 15, 1987 News Digest Volume 1, August 1987-July 1988 Posted by Davao Today) PALEMBANG, Sultan Kudarat (CINS/MMNS) — Tension has gripped Muslims and Christians in this coastal town as a spate of unsolved...

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY – - -A doctor of the regional health office who headed the epidemiological research and surveillance department, the unit tasked to monitor and address the A (H1N1) flu cases, was shot dead in his car while going home last night. Dr. Rogelio �Bong� Pe�era, 46, was...

Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston Follow-up to country recommendations �...

By Media Mindanao News Service (August 15, 1987 News Digest Volume 1, August 1987-July 1988 Posted by Davao Today) SURIGAO SUR (MMNS) — As thousands of workers trekked to the nearby Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) to collect their pay they could not help but pause locked up...

By Media Mindanao News Service (August 15, 1987 News Digest Volume 1, August 1987-July 1988 Posted by Davao Today) OZAMIS CITY (MMNS) — A student activist was “salvaged” while another was wounded in two separate incidents in what is feared as a “systematic campaign to silence...

CHR to Military: Explain Continued Use of ‘Orders of Battle’ MANILA (Bulatlat/June 18) – The Commission of Human Rights (CHR) has vowed to look into the continuing practice of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) of coming out with so-called �orders of battle� (OB) that lists groups...

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today BOSTON, DAVAO ORIENTAL – - – Ludenio Monzon, the latest victim of extrajudicial killing in Southern Mindanao, knew his days were numbered even days before he was killed. Like most of the activists killed before him, he received warnings and death threats. He was...

By Davao Today DAVAO CITY � Communist New People�s Army (NPA) commander Leoncio Pitao blamed the government for the death of his sister Evelyn Pitao. Although Evelyn was killed by NPA guerillas the previous week because of her links with the military, Pitao, also popularly known as Kumander Parago,...

By Media Mindanao News Service (August 15, 1987 News Digest Volume 1, August 1987-July 1988) DAVAO CITY (MMNS) – Nearly 50 percent of human rights violation incidents in Mindanao where committed by anti-communist vigilante groups, the church-based Task Force Detainees said. In its partial partial...

By Media Mindanao News Service (August 15, 1987 News Digest Volume 1, August 1987-July 1988) DAVAO CITY (MMNS) – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) of Region XI will recommend to Brig. Gen. Recina of RUC XI to disarm the Civilian Home Defense Force (CHDF) elements in sitio Mapula, Paquibato...

Order of Battle – Malicious Forgery or Conspiracy to Murder? By Alan Davis Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project MANILA — Just as there is a law against sedition, so equally there must surely be some law against inciting or conspiring to murder. Read...

By GRACE S. UDDIN Davao Today DAVAO CITY—The name Danilo Santiago first appeared in the media on June 14 last year, a day after a man by that name was killed in Tagum, Davao del Norte. When the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) conducted a public inquiry on the killing of Kumander Parago�s daughter...

By CHERYLL FIEL Davao Today DAVAO CITY � A lumad leader was gunned down just a few meters from the town hall of Boston in Davao Oriental yesterday, bringing to 10 the total number of activist killings in the region since May last year. Ludenio Monson, a Mandaya farmer and leader of Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa...

(Statements from NUJP-Davao Chapter, Carlos Conde, NUJP) Military hitlist proves fascism of state security forces — NUJP-Davao We are aghast at the discovery of an Order of Battle (OB) list by the military which includes our organization, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP),...

Church advocates decried the military’s blanket dismissal of the recommendations by the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) to stop the human rights abuses in the region. They also raised alarm that the military has merely set aside the Order of Battle (OB) containing names of civilians and legal...