MANILA — The killings of activists and journalists have become so untenable that it would be enough to destroy the credibility of the upcoming May 2007 elections.
This was the warning aired by the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) as cases of killings and attempted murders of activists and journalists escalated over the past two weeks.
Press STATEMENT
20 APRIL 2007
“WE WILL FIGHT TILL THE END!”
Two decades of unwavering struggle for peoples’ rights of Lourdes Rubrico, the abducted urban poor leader in Dasmari?as who surfaced seven days after her captors freed her in the middle of the night in a shopping mall of the said municipality, made her what she is today after she decided to go after her abductors by filing a criminal and administrative suit today at 11 o’ clock in the morning before the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City.
MANILA — Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran slammed anew Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez for the latter’s rude and boorish behavior when Gonzalez dialogued with officials of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) this afternoon. Gonzalez himself said that he told the IPU officials Canadian Senator Sharon Carstairs, IPU secretary-general Anders Johnson and IPU HR committee secretary Ingeborg Schwarz to ‘go home’ and ‘stop meddling in the Philippines’ affairs.’
MANILA — The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the latest attack on the media by forces out to silence the truth in the country. This time motorcycle riding assailants attacked Delfin ?Sonny? Mallari Jr., a correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and has covered stories of peasants in the area and is close to KMP. According to Danilo ?Ka Daning? Ramos, secretary general of KMP, ?what they did to Sonny was despicable and dastardly, Sonny was just out performing his job as a straight reporter and a very good one at that,?
MANILA — The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today assailed the Arroyo government?s inaction over the enforced disappearance of two leading activists in Panay, Nilo Arado, the chair of Bayan-Panay and SELDA leader Luisa Dominado.
The two activists were amubshed along with Liboy Garachico, Karapatan-Panay leader last Thursday, April 12 in Oton town in Iloilo. Garachico survived gunshot wounds and is now in stable condition. Arado and Dominado were taken by unidentified men on board two vehicles.