Human Rights

Samin hits police clamp down on civil liberties, from the Manila Peninsula to Surigao del Sur

While we express indignation in the detention of Bishop Julio Labayen, former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr, media people and other personalities in the aftermath of the Peninsula Hotel stand-off,…

Continue ReadingSamin hits police clamp down on civil liberties, from the Manila Peninsula to Surigao del Sur

The other story of Luisito Bustamante


Tortured. Luisito Bustamante shows the burns on his neck and marks of the metal chain on his his feet which were used by his captors to bind him. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)


By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Luisito Bustamante, 22, admitted during a court hearing that he was a member of the Communist New People?s Army (NPA). He told the court that not even his fingertips was touched when he was in military captivity, belying any possibility of torture. But an hour after the hearing, Luisito told a different story. He showed his mother and friends the burn marks on his neck and back, the scars on his ankles that had been, days before, tied with wires.

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

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 girl?s body exhumed five days after burial, said it was possible that rape could have driven the girl to kill herself. He also said that it?s also possible that someone could have killed her.

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

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

"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 child?s advocacy group volunteer to write verses, and government and civil society group to press the government for more attention to children?s rights. The night after he heard about the girl?s 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.

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