Extrajudicial Killings

UCCP: Killings in Philippines have continued unabated and with a vengeance

May 03, 2007

PRESS STATEMENT

In March this year, a multi-sectoral delegation of human rights advocates traveled to Canada, the United States, and Switzerland to raise in the international arena the issue of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of political repression in the Philippines. Named the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines, the team presented ?Let The Stones Cry Out: An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and Call To Action? to ecumenical bodies, churches, legislators, and the United Nations Human Rights Council. A highlight of the trip was a hearing conducted by the US Senate Committee on Human Rights headed by Senator Barbara Boxer. For a considerable length of time, the media spotlight was focused on the Philippines following that trip. We had hoped that such an international exposure of the issue would move the Philippine President to bring to an end the sorry state of human rights in the country.

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Philippines: Human Rights Violations and the Urgency of Solidarity and Action

The following is a Statement of the General Board of Church and Society of

The United Methodist Church adopted April 28, 2007

?Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance; for truth stumbles in the public square, and righteousness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled. The Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, and was appalled that there was no one to intervene??(Isaiah 59: 14-16 NRSV)
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KMP to COMELEC: ?Investigate AFP for campaigning for Palparan!?

MANILA — The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the ANAKPAWIS party list group called on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and election watch dogs like Kontra-Daya and Bantay Pondo at Boto ng Bayan to investigate the campaigning of top Armed Forces o the Philippines (AFP) officials for the election of the Butcher retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
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Poll-related violence in Philippines fostered by culture of impunity — Beltran

MANILA — Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran today said that the worsening election-related violence in the country is related to the seemingly endless spate of extra-judicial killings targeting political activists and human rights advocates.

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EU Parliament Says Political Killings in Philippines a Growing Problem

In a resolution on the Philippines, adopted by 68 votes to 0 with 0 abstentions, Parliament draws attention to the number of politically motivated killings in the country, which it says has risen dramatically in recent years, as well as the general human rights situation in the country.

The local human rights organisation Karapatan has recorded 180 forced disappearances and over 800 killings, most of them by unidentified gunmen, since 2001. Most of those killed, such as opposition party members, church people, community leaders, peasants, journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, trade unionists, have been accused by the government of being front organisations for illegal armed groups and ‘terrorists’.
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