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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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.
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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By Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno
Supreme Court
(Delivered on April 18, 2007 on the occasion of the conferment of the
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of the East.)
?Tomorrow begins in the East,? trumpets the motto of this venerable
institution of learning. In his last moments in Bagumbayan, our national
hero Jose Rizal stared at tomorrow in the eye, veered his bullet-riddled
body to the right and fell lifeless on the ground ?face turned towards
the rising sun in the east. From the cradle to the grave, Rizal
consecrated his life to fight for the human rights of our people.
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MANILA — ?It?s double standard and there?s no other way to call it.?
This was according to GABRIELA Secretary General Emmi De Jesus who accosted the Macapagal-Arroyo administration for its quick responses when it comes to complaints and requests from US citizens yet plays blind and deaf to the murder and rape of its own people.
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