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.”
If media persons in Manila are raising a howl for being detained for hours without committing a crime, imagine how hard it would be for one to be sentenced to about six years in prison just because one could not afford a lawyer.
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.”
At the height of the stand-off at the Manila Peninsula Hotel, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said President Arroyo called him. “She asked me how we are doing here and if she still has my support,� Duterte saida. �I said, �Yes, ma’am.�”
For more coverage of the Makati standoff, visit PinoyPress.
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 People�s 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.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte suspected the 12-year-old Mariannet Amper could have been raped, based on the findings bared by the medico legal officer who conducted the autopsy. The mayor, who ordered the girl�s body exhumed five days after burial, said it was possible that rape could have driven the girl to kill herself. He also said that it�s also possible that someone could have killed her.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed to help the Davao broadcaster jailed for libel now that a full blown war has erupted between him and close administration ally Congressman Prospero Nograles over what people perceive as the first salvo of their fight for the 2010 elections.