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Human rights group Karapatan chided the military’s so-called renewal of “commitment to uphold human rights” amidst the continuing rights violations, injustice and impunity under the P-Noy administration. 

Former political prisoners led by the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto today welcomed the recently filed resolution of some 38 congresspersons strongly urging Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III “to grant general, unconditional, and omnibus amnesty to political prisoners…who are victims of political repression and charged or convicted of political and/or common crimes on acts in furtherance of their political beliefs.”

Human rights group Karapatan today asserted that, “the issue of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) is not a numbers game,” in reaction to Malacañang’s statement that disputed Karapatan’s documentation of 64 victims of  EJKs under the Aquino administration.

“We will not stop until our quest for justice is done. GMA and her cohorts in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) involved in our illegal arrest, torture and detention should answer for the many abuses committed in violation of our rights. We hope that there is no more delay in the proceedings because we will keep knocking on the doors of the court to achieve justice, “said Gary Liberal, R.N., spokesperson of the Morong 43 and one of the plaintiffs named in the civil suit.

“In the name of justice, GMA should end up in a detention facility and not under house arrest,” asserted Jigs Clamor, deputy secretary general of human rights group Karapatan.“ Clamor added that, “GMA should not be accorded special treatment. Instead, she must account for all the human rights violations committed under her regime.” 

In GMA’s nine years in power, Karapatan has documented the following violations and the corresponding number of victims of her Oplan Bantay Laya:

TO INSIST ON GMA’S RIGHT TO TRAVEL AS HER “RIGHT TO LIFE” IS THE HEIGHT OF ABSURDITY, INSENSITIVITY AND INJUSTICE.

"There  will be more human rights violations under new Philippine Army Chief Major General Emmanuel Bautista and Oplan Bayanihan," Cristina Guevarra, secretary general of Hustisya (Victims United for Justice) warned the public today.

"Justice is justice, it cannot mean anything else. Definitely, it cannot mean war,” claimed Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General of human rights group Karapatan, in reaction to Pres. Aquino’s declaration of “all-out justice” in the aftermath of the series of incidents involving the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“As in the past, civilians are likely the casualties of an all-out war against the MILF. Moro areas have been ceaselessly attacked by the military but that did not solve anything. It only fans centuries-old biases against the Moro people,” said Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General of Karapatan.

The AFP’s refusal to stop using Special Civilian Armed Auxilliary (SCAA) to protect the interests of mining corporations demonstrates the AFP’s connivance with corporations that plunder the country’s mineral resources,” said Jigs Clamor, Deputy Secretary General of Karapatan, reacting to the statement of Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos, AFP public affairs chief that SCAA “would enhance security in the area and would prevent a similar incident to happen.” Col. Burgos was referring to the NPA attack in the mining sites in Claveria, Surigao del Norte.