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Where the Court of Appeals feared to tread

The CHR Investigation on human rights violations committed against and the conditions of the arrest and detention of the Morong 43 must be supported!

The human rights alliance Karapatan expressed its disgust at the Court of Appeals’ dismissal of the petition for the writ of habeas corpus filed by the relatives of 43 health workers who were arrested early February.

“It is now very apparent that this Court is becoming an arm of the Oplan Bantay Laya counter-insurgency program by handing down this abominable decision,”  declared Jigs Clamor, deputy seceretary general of the human rights alliance Karapatan and husband of the detained Dr. Merry Mia-Clamor, one of the Morong 43.

Human rights alliance Karapatan, Kawagib Moro Human Rights Center and other human rights organizations in Mindanao, which formed the “Justice for Gregan Cardeño Movement,” supports the quest for justice of the family of the 33 year-old Gregan Cardeño, who died under mysterious circumstances on February 2, barely two days after being hired as an interpreter for US troops under the Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF)-Balikatan in Camp Ranao, Datu Saber, Marawi City, home of the 103rd Brigade of the Philippine Army.

Gregan Cardeño, a family man from Ipil, Zamboanga, applied as an interpreter for the US forces with the contracting company which hire employees for the troops in Zamboanga  He and his family were very happy that he would have a job that will earn money for the family.

On February 1, his wife, Myrna, even accompanied him to the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City, where Gregan was airlifted with three American soldiers, supposedly to Cotabato City then to his place of assignment in Camp Siongco, Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat Municipality, Maguindanao.

Two days later, Myra Cardeño claimed her husband’s body in La Merced Memorial homes in Zamboanga City. Gregan Cardeño allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself, midnight of February 2, 2010.

Rights group warns of more gross and systematic violations as the Arroyo regime is now implementing martial law tactics against dissenters

The human rights alliance KARAPATAN is raising the alarm that the Arroyo regime through her generals, is now implementing martial law tactics against its supposed “enemies.”  

Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson of the Alliance pointed out that this is being shown by the military’s illegal arrest of the 43 health workers, its brazen disregard and violation of the law, specifically RA 7438, its outright initial defiance of the Court order to present the victims to the Court, and its intransigence in keeping the victims in a military camp where military elements continue the torture of the detainees, denial of medical attention to the victims and harassments of relatives.

The Arroyo regime, through her generals’ martial law treatment of the 43 Health Workers and the military’s blatant disregard for human rights and violation of the law, is setting the pattern for the military’s conduct of beating its Oplan Bantay Laya 2’s supposed deadline to end the insurgency this year.  “It is no wonder why the military continues its vilification campaign against KARAPATAN and other progressive people’s organizations; through this campaign, the military seeks to justify its fascist ways of silencing legitimate criticism of inimical government policies by legitimate people’s organizations whose members are vocal in their dissent and opposition, “said Hilao-Enriquez.

Human rights alliance Karapatan today joins the relatives and different groups and organizations in support of the release of the illegally arrested 43 health workers, at the hearing of the petition for the writ of habeas corpus at the Court of Appeals.

The relatives filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus at the Supreme Court and the high court’s First Division granted it yesterday, ordering the AFP to present all of the 43 health care workers who were forcibly taken on February 6 in Morong, Rizal, before the appellate court.

“We welcome this response of the SC,” Karapatan Secretary General Lovella de Castro said. “The arrest and detention of the health workers are illegal and they should immediately be freed.”