The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines is alarmed over reports that no less than the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has prevented a reporter from covering legitimate news events in Mindanao, particularly in the province of Basilan.
“In Davao City in Mindanao, several corpses were found bearing placards similarly suggesting they that were criminal offenders. What is shocking is the implied acceptance by the authorities and the public regarding this practice without seriously reflecting on the tremendous implications if it is allowed to continue,” says the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Across Mindanao, Lumad vs. Lumad as firms gobble up tribal land
Childrens vulnerabilities have further been aggravated by reports from the DSWD in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that on August 19, eight kids aged 4 to 16 years old from Indanan, Sulu, were arrested and tortured along with their parents by the militarys Joint Special Operations Force.
“By compromising national patrimony to the Dutch and allowing their companies full and unhampered access to Philippine natural resources, the Arroyo government was able to secure a deal with the Dutch government to go after Prof. Sison and the NDF in the Netherlands,” said Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.
By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today
The NDF says the arrest of Jose Maria Sison signaled the end of the peace negotiations. And any local peace talks, which the government and the military now favor, would be pointless. The regime will end up talking to itself, said Gregorio Ka Roger Rosal, the communist partys spokesman.
Free Joma. Supporters of Sison hold a rally in Utrecht. (Photo courtesy of arkibongbayan.org)
“There is no dignity, in policy nor in practice, in the way our indigenous peoples are being treated. Indigenous communities are being displaced and threatened by mining concessions; they are being massacred supposedly in the name of development. There is an ethnocide going on in this country,” Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said.
By COLLETTE CUIZON | Davao Today
The Philippines’s anti-terrorism law could be misused by the military, the groups said, adding that there would be constant disruptions in the lives of children because of the HSA. “Even in places where there is no actual fighting, classrooms are oftentimes transformed into evacuation centers, disrupting school classes. Children bear the trauma when their parents are illegally arrested and detained, or, in worst cases, killed.”
By ANGELA LIBRADO-TRINIDAD
We have hoodlums in robes, we have cheats at the highest echelons of the government, we have crooks in Congress, landgrabbers and killers well-entrenched in state machineries and business, and the irony is, despite the laws available to victims, to the poorest among us, these criminals appear decent and held with high regard in our society. We see the young shoplifter, the young molester or the young drug pusher and, alas, we are immediately agitated to have them removed from our sight and from the streets!
Abu Sayyaf
in Basilan:
A deadly
redux
