DAVAO CITY Human rights group Karapatan- Southern Mindanao sharply rebuked President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo’s speech delivered at the 62nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York last Friday. The president, in her address said that Philippines is the most democratic country in Asia-Pacific Region and did not even tolerate human rights violations in the country.
“How dare she would say without batting an eyelash that Philippines remained to be the most democratic country in the region and further boasting that her government is respecting and upholding human rights? The truth is, since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became the president since 2001. There are 886 extrajudicial executions and 179 abductions, mostly political activists which numbers of killings and disappearances are convincingly attributed to her administration Karapatan Secretary general Kelly Delgado said.
“In fact, her government is putting the country to an undeclared Martial Law. The tandem of Human Security Act (HSA), an anti-terror bill passed into law against terrorism and Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), government’s counterinsurgency program against communists’ rebels are some of the tools of a dictator leader to quell those critical to her administration and this is far from the real essence of democracy,” Delgado said.
“The fact that UN must know is the continuous victimization of her administration under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s command and the crackdown on political dissent constitute to the alarming escalation of human rights violations in the country even though in the wake of efforts of the Supreme Court to end the extrajudicial executions and involuntary disappearances once and for all. Still, her administration and its armed machinery are still on the verge of executing human rights violations,” Delgado said.
“Is she a president that has a political will to resolve the escalating human rights violations? Does her government upholds, respect and did not tolerate human rights violations? Definitely not! Her speech just like herself is ‘hypocrite’. Adding to that majority victim of human rights violations under her present administration have not yet been given justice until now,” Delgado said.###
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Extrajudicial Killings
