Member organization: Karapatan

After a long-winded session, the Philippine Senate shamelessly reneged on its duty to hold accountable Vice President Sara Duterte for misusing more than Php600 million in her Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF). For hours, the vast majority of senators gave speeches that were variations of the same theme set down by the Supreme Court — …

KARAPATAN: Shameful, shameless Senate in a shameful, shameless government Read More »

KARAPATAN welcomes the acquittal by the Taguig City Regional Trial Court Branch 70 of five activists arrested in Laguna almost seven years ago on trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives (IPFE). Collectively known as the “Sta. Cruz 5,” the activists—National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Adelberto Silva, veteran union organizer Ireneo …

KARAPATAN welcomes acquittal of peace consultant, four others in trumped up charges Read More »

KARAPATAN and the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) welcomed the dismissal of trumped up frustrated murder charges against indigenous rights advocate Myrna Cruz-Abraham. In a five-page decision by Judge Conrado T. Tabaco of the Aparri Regional Trial Court Branch 9, the court granted Abraham’s demurrer to evidence, effectively dismissing the frustrated …

Rights groups welcome dismissal of trumped up charges vs indigenous rights advocate Read More »

KARAPATAN condemns the continuing judicial harassment against its detained Eastern Visayas human rights worker Alexander Philip Abinguña and community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, and the questionable role played by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Region 8 in such harassment. Abinguña and Cumpio have been slapped with additional trumped-up charges of double murder and …

KARAPATAN decries add’l trumped up charges vs detained rights worker, journalist Read More »

KARAPATAN strongly condemned the spate of attacks on human rights defenders in Mindanao and called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct a thoroughgoing probe. Warren Cahayag, one of the founding paralegals of the Union of Peoples Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) in 2005, was shot five times by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Barangay Calumpang, …

KARAPATAN condemns recent attacks vs Mindanaoan human rights defenders Read More »

KARAPATAN welcomes the Court of Appeals decision granting the privileges of the writs of amparo and habeas data in favor of the daughters of Felix Salaveria Jr., an indigenous people’s activist and cycling advocate who was abducted on August 28, 2024 and has been missing since then. The decision of the Former Thirteenth Division of …

Rights group welcomes recent CA decision on missing activist, scores gov’t failure to investigate and surface desaparecidos Read More »

“Ikaw ang mahiya, kayo ang mahiya sa inyong mga krimen at pagtatakip ng katototahanan sa mamamayang Pilipino. Shame on Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s for covering up truths and crimes against the people in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA),” said human rights alliance KARAPATAN. “Marcos had the gall to call out those who plunder …

Marcos’ SONA covers up truths and crimes vs the Filipino people Read More »

Whatever glittering words Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) will fail to enthrall. Casting a pall on his SONA is the calamitous effect his three-year rule has had on the people’s civil and political rights. Contrary to his cultivated image of a president who respects human rights, Marcos …

Marcos Jr.’s three-year presidency: Calamitous to people’s rights Read More »