Human Rights

Duterte says rape, not poverty, could be behind Mariannet’s suicide

by
Nov 17, 2007

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte suspected the 12-year-old Mariannet Amper could have been raped, based on the findings bared by the medico legal officer who conducted the autopsy. The mayor, who ordered the girls body exhumed five days after burial, said it was possible that rape could have driven the girl to kill herself. He also said that its also possible that someone could have killed her.

Suicide of 12-year-old girl moves pastor to paint, child worker to compose verses

by
Nov 15, 2007

“My Diary” by Pastor Jurie Jaime. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today

The suicide of the 12-year-old girl has moved a pastor to paint; a childs advocacy group volunteer to write verses, and government and civil society group to press the government for more attention to childrens rights.

The night after he heard about the girls death from the television news, Pastor Jurie Jaime, of the United Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) in Tibungco, stayed up in his parsonage throughout the wee hours in the morning, crying and angrily splashing paint on his canvass.

Amparo brings out missing youth held captive by militiamen

by
Nov 11, 2007

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

The youth earlier reported missing after he was held in a checkpoint of Task Force Davao in barangay Malabog surfaced when the Regional Trial Court (RTC) served the writ of amparo to militiamen on Tuesday. But Bebelita Bustamante, the mother, said she still feels uneasy because the militiamen holding his son still refused to release him.

Davao journalists troop to Ombudsman to support beaten colleague

by
Nov 09, 2007

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

The journalists trooped to the office of the Mindanao Ombudsman as Sembrano filed a criminal case of grave coercion, grave threats, physical injury, and an administrative case of grave abuse of authority against against the Compostela Valley provincial board member Neri Barte, who allegedly attacked him inside the announcer’s booth at around 6:15 a.m. of October 23.

Show of Support. Colleagues demand justice for Radyo Natin Compostela Broadcaster Roel Sembrano. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Mother of missing youth files amparo petition

by
Nov 09, 2007

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

On the night of October 27, 22-year-old Luisito Bustamante and his friends and younger sister Libby were on their way to Malabog to distribute handbills for the approaching barangay elections when they were accosted at a checkpoint by elements of the Task Force Davao. Bustamante was held and has not been found since.

Taken. Bebilita Bustamante, mother of the missing Luisito Bustamante, and Kelly Delgado, secretary general of Karapatan Southern Mindanao, show the petition for the writ of amparo that they filed at the sala of Judge Isaac G. Robillo Jr., Regional Trial Court Branch 13 in Davao City. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Davao broadcaster jailed for libel is depressed, thinks of suicide

by
Nov 06, 2007

Silenced and Abandoned. Lex Adonis inside the Ma-a city jail in June. (davaotoday.com photo)

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Gladys Adonis, the wife of jailed Davao Alexander “Lex” Adonis, said her husband has been admitted to the prison hospital in early October.
She said Adonis, an anchorman of Bombo Radio-Davao sentenced to four and a half years in prison early this year, had been feeling utterly “abandoned and depressed,” and is thinking of ending his life.

The fugitive of Talaingod

The fugitive of Talaingod

by
Oct 23, 2007

Datu Guibang Apoga, the chieftain of the Ata-Manobo tribe in the hinterlands of Talaingod, has been in hiding for a decade now.

In Mindanao, war shatters the Ramadan

In Mindanao, war shatters the Ramadan

by
Oct 18, 2007

The military continued attacking Muslim communities even during the Ramadan, according to human-rights and Moro groups. “When entire communities get displaced by war, how are you going to celebrate Ramadan?” one of them asked. “Ramadan completely loses its meaning. Foremost in your mind, when you’re in an evacuation center, is how to survive, where to look for food, or to keep yourself from being harassed, or get hit by a bomb.”