Human Rights

Missing farmer’s Ma files raps vs Army

DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) -- A farmer last seen beaten and forcibly taken allegedly by soldiers on July 4 is missing, according to the human rights group Karapatan. Witnesses saw Alvin Lopez, 25, a farmer and resident of sitio Maot, Barangay San Jose in Monkayo town of Compostela Valley Province hogtied, and forced into a military vehicle during a military operation. Alvin's mother, Erlinda, 46, sought Karapatan's help to locate his son. She filed a complaint Tuesday before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the region against the military's 26th Infantry Battalion based in the area. Read on.

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A Pattern to Madness

(first of three parts)

Killed on the feast of San Isidro, the patron saint of peasants, Celso Pojas fell just a few steps from the gate of the KMP office in Maa. (contributed photo)

First, their groups have been tagged as the legal fronts of the Communist New People's Army. Then, top military officials make public statements suggesting they're enemies of the state. Finally, before anyone could stop to consider, they are killed. This pattern emerges in the extrajudicial killings of activists in the country, which have become more pronounced in Davao City and neighboring provinces of Compostela Valley as the government's 2010 deadline to wipe out the Communist insurgency looms. After Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo exposed the existence of a military document linking some individuals and civil society groups to the Communist movement, Davao Today finds it urgent to look into the pattern of the killings of activists in this part of the country. Read on.

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Top military officers a no-show at the amparo hearing

DAVAO CITY -- High-ranking military officers earlier named in the Davao lawyers' petition for writ of amparo failed to show up in court for the scheduled hearing on Wednesday. This was the second time that Judge Jose Manuel Castillo of the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 called a hearing on the amparo petitions of Davao-based lawyers, Carlos Isagani Zarate, Lilibeth Ladaga and Angela Librado-Trinidad. Read on.

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