Military

Surigao refugees want to go home for Christmas

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Dec 09, 2007

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Poor sanitation, lack of water supply, malnutrition, poor resistance to diseases and heavy congestion continue to threaten the health of evacuees in Surigao del Sur. “They experience not only human rights violations,” a human-rights advocate said. “Their basic right to health services are also not being answered by government.”

Davao militants learn lessons from Trillanes’s botched coup

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Dec 05, 2007

By CHERYLL D. FIEL | Davao Today

For the militants in Davao City, if there is one thing to learn from the botched coup at the Manila Peninsula Hotel led by Lt. Senior grade Antonio Trillanes IV and Brigadier General Danilo Lim, it should be this: “Banking on spontaneity is not enough.”

The other story of Luisito Bustamante

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Nov 20, 2007

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 Peoples 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.

Amparo brings out missing youth held captive by militiamen

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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.

Mother of missing youth files amparo petition

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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)