Human Rights

Groups Hit Military?s Red-Baiting, Warrant Vs. Luque

DAVAO CITY ? The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Southern Mindanao said Monday it was strongly behind Alvin Luque, the group?s former secretary-general here who is believed to be in hiding now, and vowed to continue fighting what it called as the ?Arroyo regime?s political repression.?

?We decry the fact that under the current regime defending the limited democratic rights of the people and fighting for a just cause are being defined as crimes,? says Ariel Casilao, the acting secretary-general of Bayan in Southern Mindanao.

Bayan said it saw the decision by a local court, which upheld the state?s arguments and ordered Luque?s arrest, as part of the calibrated and systematic attack against critics of the Arroyo regime.

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Washington Think Tank Urges Bush to Act Vs. Arroyo?s ?Dictatorial Methods?

But despite ?waning? U.S. support of her, Arroyo not on shaky footing, says analyst

DAVAO CITY ? The United States government should now review how its military aid and security assistance to the Philippines are being spent by the Arroyo administration, a policy analyst of a major American think tank said this week.

Washington should also pressure President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into ensuring that killers of Filipino journalists are brought to justice, said Dana R. Dillon, a senior policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a respected and influential American think tank, in an op-ed piece published last Sunday by Fox News.

Dillon criticized the Arroyo administration for, according to him, resorting ?to the methods many dictators use to silence criticism.? Arroyo, he said, ?appears to have given up on convincing her constituents of her competence.?

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?Commander Dante? Surrenders

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By Cheryll D. Fiel
davaotoday.com

DAVAO CITY ? ?Commander Dante,? the most wanted man in this city who have been blamed for terrorizing residents in Paquibato District the past months, is now in the hands of the authorities.

Police identified ?Commander Dante? as Dante Lumuyod, a 38-year-old resident of Gumitan, a village in Paquibato.

Lumuyod was presented to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte Monday afternoon after he surrendered to the police and the military last Saturday in Paquibato, a hinterland district of the city, known for being the battleground between the military and the communist New People?s Army.

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Who Needs the Death Penalty?

Commentary: Hackles by Carlos H. CondeI dare speculate that the Catholic Church used the Hello Garci scandal to wangle concessions from the embattled president, such as the commutation of all death sentences. Because had the Church, as an institution, spoke out against her and called on the public to topple her, Arroyo wouldn?t have lasted in Malacanang this long.

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