Media Releases

While it is a definitely a glimmer of hope in these bleak times to see the bayanihan of communities looking out for each other’s needs through solidarity efforts and mutual aid initiatives such as community pantries, they are nonetheless a damning indictment of the Duterte government’s criminal negligence of people’s rights and welfare — of its glaring failure to uphold the State’s duty such as providing aid to households and communities hard-hit by the crisis.

Human rights alliance Karapatan supported the call of families and friends of political prisoners for the government to enact a clear plan and schedule of the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines for Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs).

Human rights alliance Karapatan contended that the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s (AMLC) order to freeze the assets, bank accounts, and properties of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran Center in Davao City for allegations of terrorist financing is “based on flat-out lies,” as the group slammed the Duterte government for “brazenly targeting and persecuting church workers and religious institutions, which have only been working tirelessly to help those in need.”

Amid the surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, State forces “continue to terrorize the Filipino people without letup,” human rights watchdog Karapatan said, as the group condemned the recent killings of Negrense activist Jesus Pason Jr. and Camarines Sur barangay captain Elmer Casabuena, as well as the arrest of peasant leader Oscar Balonga in Bohol.

The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency’s (NICA) “utterly baseless and dangerous red-tagging” of the Senate employees’ union presents a “clear urgency for the Senate to pass measures to define and penalize red-tagging, and to protect unionists, activists, and human rights defenders from such threats and deadly rhetoric — especially from government officials.”

One month after the Bloody Sunday raids throughout Southern Tagalog last March 7, the mothers of slain fisherfolk leaders Ariel Evangelista and Anna Mariz “Chai” Lemita-Evangelista pressed Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the House of Representatives and the Senate to conduct an independent investigation into the killing of the couple as well as the other victims in the police and military raids which led to the killings of nine activists and the arrests of at least four others.

Human rights alliance Karapatan called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the judicial harassment of human rights workers from Karapatan following the recent arrest of Karapatan – Caraga paralegal Renelyn Tejero along with the trumped-up attempted murder charge filed against Karapatan National Chairperson Elisa Lubi and Karapatan – Southern Mindanao Region Secretary General Jayvee Apiag.

Sa paggunita ng ika-19 na anibersaryo ng pagpaslang kay Benjaline “Beng” Hernandez, muling iginiit ng grupong Hustisya (Pagkakaisa ng mga Biktima para sa Hustisya) ang panagawan para sa katarungan sa mga biktima ng “pasismo ng estado.”

Former political prisoners under the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) hit the Duterte administration after charging two officials of human rights alliance Karapatan with attempted murder.

Mariing kinukundena ng mga biktima ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao sa ilalim ng grupong Hustisya (Pagkakaisa ng mga Biktima para sa Hustisya) ang paggamit ng mga larawan ng dating mamamahayag pangkampus at human rights worker na si Benjaline “Beng” Hernandez sa mga propaganda kontra-komunismo sa mga lungsod ng Davao at Makati kamakailan.