COMMENTARY
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is not yet off the hook. She may have to face her day of reckoning as a private citizen, probably even before her term ends in 2010.
This short film, by the independent filmmaker Jon Red, is one of the public service advertisements on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines that were banned for public exhibition by government censors, who said these films “are presented unfairly, one-sided and undermines the faith and confidence of the government and duly constituted authorities for public exhibition.” Click here to view the other films.
Martial Law still exists in Mindanao, particularly in Moro areas under the pretext of pulverizing terrorists. Thirty-five years later, the public is still being made to believe that the terrorist scare justifies anti-people measures like the Human Security Act and all-out war in Moro communities, even during Ramadhan, the holy month of fasting.
With HSA, poor communities most vulnerable to rights abuses
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is alarmed over reports that no less than the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has prevented a reporter from covering legitimate news events in Mindanao, particularly in the province of Basilan.
“In Davao City in Mindanao, several corpses were found bearing placards similarly suggesting they that were criminal offenders. What is shocking is the implied acceptance by the authorities and the public regarding this practice without seriously reflecting on the tremendous implications if it is allowed to continue,” says the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Across Mindanao, Lumad vs. Lumad as firms gobble up tribal land
Childrens vulnerabilities have further been aggravated by reports from the DSWD in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that on August 19, eight kids aged 4 to 16 years old from Indanan, Sulu, were arrested and tortured along with their parents by the militarys Joint Special Operations Force.
“By compromising national patrimony to the Dutch and allowing their companies full and unhampered access to Philippine natural resources, the Arroyo government was able to secure a deal with the Dutch government to go after Prof. Sison and the NDF in the Netherlands,” said Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.
By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today
The NDF says the arrest of Jose Maria Sison signaled the end of the peace negotiations. And any local peace talks, which the government and the military now favor, would be pointless. The regime will end up talking to itself, said Gregorio Ka Roger Rosal, the communist partys spokesman.
