Former Davao City councilor Luzviminda Ilagan, the national chairperson of the Gabriela Women?s Party, is one of this year’s five recipients of the city’s Datu Bago award, which will be given out later this month during the Araw ng Dabaw celebrations.
DAVAO CITY ? Residents of Carmen, a village in Baguio District, this city, stormed City Hall this week to press for their longtime demand to be relocated to a safer area due to the threat posed by possible landslides.
Mothers, their small children in tow, trooped to the office of City Administrator Wendel Avisado on Tuesday and expressed their fears about the possible avalanche of loose soil, water and boulder from the mountains.
By Tyrone A. Velez
davaotoday.com
DAVAO TODAY — They came from as far as Basilan, Agusan del Norte and Misamis Oriental. Some 30 people, who are families and survivors of extrajudicial killings and human-rights abuses presented their cases to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston who arrived in the city last Sunday as part of his 10-day visit to the country to investigate atrocities.
All in all, 20 cases from the six regions in Mindanao involving 33 violations — such as killings, frustrated killings, forced disappearances and harassments — were presented to Alston. Of the 20 cases, 10 came with testimonies. The presentation of cases were facilitated by Karapatan, the human-rights group.
Leftist groups and the military are jockeying for position and the opportunity to be heard by the United Nations rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, who is scheduled to arrive today in Davao City.
By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com
Related story: Victims? Families Say UN Rep Visit Won?t Stop Killings
DAVAO CITY — The human-rights group Karapatan has prepared at least 20 cases of political killings in Mindanao that it would present to Philip Alston, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings who is scheduled to arrive here today.
The cases are among the grave human-rights abuses that if proven, Karapatan said, might blacklist the Philippines out of the group of nations that respect and uphold human rights.
The arrival here of Alston promises to be a battle of cases between progressive human rights groups on one hand and the government military and the police on the other as both sides try to wrest the opportunity to be heard by Alston.
In a privilege speech at the City Council today, Davao City Councilor Angging Librado expressed the fear that the recently passed Anti-Terrorism Bill might be used against local officials. “Deceptively titled the ‘Human Security Act of 2007,’ there is nothing more perilous than this draconian measure which is certain to curtail the rights of critics of the present administration, the rights of ordinary folks, and even the rights and privileges of local public officials like us,” the activist councilor told her colleagues.
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