"Sobra nang pahirap ang pitong taong paghahanap! Sobra na talaga!" (Seven years of searching is too much of an agony. It’s just too much!) Concepcion Empeño and Linda Cadapan, mothers of missing Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan decried as the disappearance of their daughter reached its 7th year. It was on this day, seven …
On Aquino’s 3rd year “No matter how the Aquino government denies the use of torture, state security forces in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) resort to and apply it to their victims, inside and outside prison,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan.
The bombing of communities, especially the resource-rich ancestral domain of indigenous peoples, in northern and southern Philippines is part of the Aquino government’s war tactics as it intensifies the implementation of its own version of Oplan Bantay Laya, the Oplan Bayanihan.
"The recent statement of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) is a much needed boost to the Filipino people’s call to resume the peace talks and to end the culture of impunity in the country," Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of Karapatan, said. Established in 1946, the IADL is an organization of lawyers worldwide, which has …
Int’l lawyers group urges resumption of peace talks, prosecution of rights violators Read More »
“The recent electoral exercise only produced more of the same well-entrenched political clans, rights violators, and peddlers of the country’s resources to foreign big business,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, characterizing the results of the 2013 elections.
1. Toru HASHIMOTO, the mayor of Osaka and a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Association, a political party with over 50 lawmakers in Parliament, remarked on May 13 that the “comfort women” for the Japanese Army during World War II was “necessary” in maintaining discipline in the army and providing relief for soldiers. “When soldiers …
Karapatan deplored the enforced disappearance, illegal arrest and detention of Estelita T. Tacalan, a 60-year old peasant organizer and rural health worker in Misamis Oriental, as a “recent case of rights violation legitimized by the Joint Order No. 14-2012 of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense.” The …
DND-DILG hit list legitimizes rights violation vs 60-year old peasant organizer Read More »
The hearing for the petition of the writ of habeas corpus in relation to the arrest and detention of security guard Rolly Panesa wrapped up on May 9 at the Court of Appeals as two more witnesses of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were presented by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) …
AFP holds on to recycled witnesses and lies as hearing on Panesa case wraps up Read More »
“With eight months left to Oplan Bayanihan’s self-imposed deadline to supposedly render the CPP-NPA-NDF insignificant, the Aquino government is again turning the table against the NDFP negotiating panel, in a bid for a graceful exit from the peace talks and to justify intensified attacks, not only against the CPP-NPA-NDF, but more so against the ordinary …
GPH is after military solution, not peace negotiation Read More »
Human rights group Karapatan today deplored the recent assignment of Brig. Gen. Ricardo Visaya as “acting commander” of the 4th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army based in Cagayan de Oro City.
