Human Rights

Militant peasants to help in CHR probe

?AFP systematically delaying investigation on Jonas? case!?-KMP

MANILA — The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) together with church people from different denominations gathered today at the Miriam College for the Interfaith Rural Congress to call for genuine land reform and to demand that those who were abducted by military forces be surfaced immediately to be with their friends and family. Relatives of the disappeared are also present at the congress.

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Arroyo to 14th Congress: Prioritize bill on human rights victims

MANILA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is renewing her call to the incoming 14th Congress to prioritize the passage of a bill that would provide compensation to victims of human rights violations during the martial law regime, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced today.

The President, for the second time, certified as urgent Senate Bill No. 1745, otherwise known as the Human Rights Victims Compensation Act of 2004, Ermita said.
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Bayan Muna leader in Koronadal abducted

Jing Cardino

Gilbert Rey "Jing" Cardino was abducted at around 11 a.m. today at Crossing, Barrio 2, Koronadal City. At 27, he is the youngest member of Bayan Muna's national council. House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo quickly denounced the abduction and demanded that the military, whom he suspected of being behind the kidnapping, surface Cardino. Joel Virador, also a Bayan Muna congressman, urged Arroyo to order the military and the police to stop these enforced disappearances. "Without such an explicit, publicly stated order, more activists will either be killed or abducted," Virador said.

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Farmers belie police report that argument led to killing of Negros farmers

MANILA — Task Force Mapalad (TFM) belied reports that a heated argument between farmer-beneficiaries and security guards of Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana, Negros Occidental ensued prior to the shooting last Monday that left two farmer-beneficiaries killed and six others wounded.
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Joker slams AFP for derailing human-rights bill

According to Senator Joker Arroyo, the military has lobbied for the junking in the House of Representatives of a bill that seeks to compensate victims of human rights violations during the Marcos dictatorship. The military, Arroyo said, fears that the money would just go to insurgents and rebel groups. In a privilege speech Monday, Arroyo said the military's lobbying "demeans and mocks the legislative process" because it shows that the "military can throw a monkey wrench even at the tail-end of congressional work." Read the rest of this story.

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