During the commemoration of the 35th year of declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, different lawyers’ organizations in Davao City came together at the Centennial Park not only to light candles for judges, lawyers, and paralegals who were victims of the abusive law. They were also there to denounce the Human Security Act, which they called “illegal.” The lawyers describe the present state of the country as even worse than during martial law. They see more human-rights abuses under the law. On the same occasion, the lawyers launched HOTLINE 296-0070; people who are faced with HSA-related violations can call and ask for help. (davaotoday.com photo by Cheryll D. Fiel)
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
Children�s 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 military�s Joint Special Operations Force.
On this day of the desaparecidos, Anakpawis �SOCSKSARGEN calls for the immediate surfacing of abducted labor leader Jaime �Jimmy� Rosios.
Rosios, a Board Member of Yellow Bus Lines Employees Union, and a vocal critic of the YBL management�s unfair labor practices, was abducted by armed men aboard a Tamaraw FX, just outside the Yellow Bus garage in Koronadal City, South Cotabato last August 11, 2007.
“There is no dignity, in policy nor in practice, in the way our indigenous peoples are being treated. Indigenous communities are being displaced and threatened by mining concessions; they are being massacred supposedly in the name of development. There is an ethnocide going on in this country,” Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said.
