Two retired Supreme Court (SC) justices, a former Vice President, and at least 52 petitioners asked the High Court to intervene and take measures to stop the attacks against the petitioners and counsels of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 or R.A. 11479.
A group says high school students have become open targets for police brutality and vigilante kills, now that the Department of Education requires them to undergo random drug testing
Conde further said that with the spate of killings, “the Aquino administration needs to declare that the attacks on journalists are a national catastrophe that threatens fundamental liberties.”
“Someone said fear and anxiety make impunity thrive. My impression is forgetting is the bigger enemy of accountability, and the biggest ally of impunity. When we forget, we allow criminals or human rights violators to get away with murder,” said Carlos Conde, Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch.
In House Resolution 302, Bayan Muna asked the committee on peace, reconciliation and unity to investigate whether or not the government terminated the tripartite review of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF, which claimed that this provoked their members to march into Zamboanga City on September 9.
Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW reacted over this report. “Government forces should not be making blanket assumptions about whether individuals are rebels based on whether they have proper documents or not. Officials can check those leaving the conflict zone, but they need to ensure that civilians have safe passage and are not put at unnecessary risk.”
By TYRONE VELEZ
Davao Today
Luzviminda Ilagan, who represents Gabriela Women Partylist, said she was aghast that there was no mention of justice in Pres. Aquino’s SONA for the killing of indigenous peoples and their defenders.
In separate statements, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (ICCHRP) called Aquino to act on extrajudicial killings, and abuses brought by mining and militarization in communities.
