Human Rights

Child-rights groups warn vs HSA’s effect on kids

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."

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Angging blasts proposal to scrap juvenile-justice law

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!

Continue ReadingAngging blasts proposal to scrap juvenile-justice law

Rotaract Club provides assistance to Agdao schoolkids

By Rose B. Palacio

The Rotaract Club of Munting Pag-asa Davao district 3860, a duly recognized and registered member of the Rotary International, a worldwide service organization known in 161 countries, has provided assistance to malnourished schoolchildren in Ubalde Elementary School along Agdao, Davao City.
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Moros have had it with GMA’s all-out wars

COMMENTARY | By Amirah Ali Lidasan

Who committed the beheading and why did the perpetrators commit such act is a very controversial and sensitive issue that should have been responded to with discretion rather than warmongering. For weeks, it is as if every Muslim has to answer for it.

Continue ReadingMoros have had it with GMA’s all-out wars

Since 2000, more than 1,700 civilians killed, wounded in terror attacks, mostly in Mindanao


Clarita Gragasin, 61, traveled to the Koronadal market on May 10, 2003. She was sitting in a rickshaw tricycle when a bomb detonated about five meters from her. Shrapnel from the bomb killed her instantly. ? 2006 John Sifton/Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch: Since January 2000, radical armed Islamist groups in the Philippines have carried out over 40 major bombings against civilians and civilian property, mostly in the south of the country. They have killed civilians indiscriminately -- Christians and Muslims, men and women, parents and children -- and left behind orphans, widows, and widowers. Hundreds of other victims have suffered severe wounds, burns, and lost limbs. In all, the bombings and other attacks have caused over 1,700 casualties in the last seven years, more than the number of people killed and injured in bombing attacks during the same period in neighboring Indonesia (including the 2002 Bali bombings), and considerably more than the number of those killed and injured in bombings in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain.

Continue ReadingSince 2000, more than 1,700 civilians killed, wounded in terror attacks, mostly in Mindanao