MANILA — Bayan Muna Representative Satur C. Ocampo today walks out of his detention cell, the Manila Police District headquarters, after the Supreme Court granted his petition for release upon payment of a P100,000 cash bond.
?I went to the Supreme Court with clean hands and with a clear conscience. I am now vindicated,? said Ocampo, upon being informed of the court?s ruling.
Mass human rights violations such as forced evictions and the destruction of
housing continue unabated in the Philippines, warns the Geneva-based Centre on
Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), and its team of international human
rights experts.
The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has released a report that says an estimated 100,000 people were displaced from their homes in the Philippines due to armed conflicts and human-rights violations. The main displacement movements occurred in Mindanao, the report said.
The National Democratic Front in Notheastern Mindanao issued today a press statement condemning the Philippine military for allegedly killing a civilian and then blaming the New People’s Army for it.
The clashes in Midsayap, North Cotababto, between government troops and MILF guerrillas may have ended but evacuees still live in fear and uncertainty. Many of them have not been able to rebuild their homes and recover the properties that, according to them, were destroyed and looted by soldiers.
By CJ Kuizon
davaotoday.com
MIDSAYAP, North Cotabato — Ten-year-old Abdullah has been having sleepless nights. Early in March, in a village in this town, government soldiers took him at the height of an armed encounter with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). That experience traumatized him deeply.