With HSA, poor communities most vulnerable to human-rights repression


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.

Children?s 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 military?s Joint Special Operations Force.