Politics

In US Senate Hearing, Amnesty Int’l Suggests Ways to Stop Political Killings in the Philippines


Satur on YouTube. Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo “testified” to the US Senate hearing through a video uploaded to YouTube. Click on image to watch the video.

In its testimony to the US Senate yesterday, Amnesty International cited the Philippine government’s weak responses to the political killings, the ineffective investigations, the McCarthyist mentality in the military and the government, the abuses of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. It made several recommendations, among them that the human rights laws and agreements, among them the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law that the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front signed, be respected. It also asked Washington to send a “strong and clear message” to Manila that U.S.?Philippines relations “will suffer if the current trend in political killings continues and if Philippine authorities fail to bring past abusers to justice.”

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Inter-Parliamentary Union Sends Team to Look Into Satur, Beltran Cases

IPU to ask UN bodies on “continuing crime” doctrine

The prestigious Inter-Parliamentary Union, the organization of the
world’s national legislatures, will send a team of senators to Manila
to investigate first-hand the legal persecution of the Batasan 6,
specifically the arbitrary detention of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
and the short-circuited issuance of the arrest warrant on Bayan Muna
Rep. Satur Ocampo.

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UN Calls for Repeal of New Anti-Terror Law

The United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights, Martin Scheinin, said today the recently passed anti-terrorism bill, called the Human Security Act, should be changed or abolished since, according to him, “implementation of this law could have a negative impact on human rights in the country and undermines the rule of law.”

“I am concerned that many provisions of the Human Security Act are not in accordance with international human rights standards,? Scheinin said, in this statement published on the UN website.

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