"Try harder in defending your human rights record, Pres. Aquino,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “because the people know the real score of the human rights situation in the country under your regime. And, with the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement now signed, the human rights situation is bound to get worse before it gets any better.”
"Try harder in defending your human rights record, Pres. Aquino,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “because the people know the real score of the human rights situation in the country under your regime. And, with the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement now signed, the human rights situation is bound to get worse before it gets any better.”
Karapatan said, “For its puppetry to the US government, the Aquino regime is guilty of treason for the US re-occupation of the Philippines and the sell-out of the country’s sovereignty through the EDCA. It is guilty for the systematic human rights violations perpetrated under the Oplan Bayanihan, and directed by the US through its Counterinsurgency Guide of 2009."
The US-Aquino regime is responsible for the 192 cases of extrajudicial killings, 21 of these happened in the first quarter of 2014 alone; It is responsible for the 21 enforced disappearances, 94 cases of torture, 631 cases of illegal arrest and detention, and for the almost 40,000 documented victims of forced evacuation. “The US-Aquino regime should be held accountable for all of these," Palabay said.
"Obama’s visit is also a stamp of approval for the Aquino regime’s crime of corruption against the Filipino people. Obama faced Aquino who is as guilty as his men who are involved in carting away billions of pesos which should have been used to uplift the lives of the poor Filipinos. Obama’s visit legitimized the Aquino regime’s criminal negligence for the death of thousands of Filipinos brought who were victims of typhoons Yolanda, Pablo, Sendong,” she said.
Philippines, a party to US’s war mongering
“The US even used the typhoon and its impact to justify the EDCA. The EDCA is nothing but a magnet for war, and not a mechanism for “peace and friendship” as US president Obama claims it to be,” Palabay also said.
According to Palabay the US’s Asian pivot brings its interventionist wars to Asia, "Like what it did to Haiti, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries using different pretexts like "humanitarian aid", "restoration of democracy", or "mutual assistance". This is the fate of the Philippines and many other Asian countries,” Palabay cited.
"With EDCA, the Philippines becomes a party to US occupation and intervention of other countries and the oppression and repression of the struggling peoples of the world.” Throughout history, Palabay said, the US government has been engaged in covert operations to assassinate, plot coup d’ etat, bomb communities, torture, and even supported terrorists to secure its economic, politico-military interest in all parts of the world."
Karapatan cited the provocations of the US in the disputes between North and South Korea and Israel and Pakistan to justify military assistance to its allied countries; and how it sabotaged countries like Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela.
"The Filipino people, together with the rest of the struggling peoples of the world, are ever more defiant to bring US imperialism down, including its puppets like BS Aquino," Palabay concluded. ###