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In a letter of allegation submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial/Summary or Arbitrary Executions Ms. Agnes Callamard yesterday, April 10, 2017, Karapatan submitted documentation on forty-seven (47) victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines under the Duterte administration, in line with the continuing counter-insurgency program of the government.

As they expressed their support for the continuation of the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, more than 200 Canadian trade unions, churches, ecumenical organizations, solidarity and human rights organizations, academics, journalists and individuals in Canada also called for the release of all political prisoners in the Philippines. 

“The military’s refusal to suspend all military operations and pull-out from communities, despite overwhelming clamor of peasants and national minorities, and the poisonous duet of warmongers Delfin Lorenzana and Eduardo Ano to sabotage the continuing peace talks reveal their disdain for free land distribution and genuine agrarian reform,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, after the fourth round of talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in The Netherlands on April 3 to 6, 2017. 

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has further exposed themselves as lying, desperate fascist dogs. In the military’s malicious attempts to justify its dirty war and rights violations against the people, meanwhile sabotaging efforts for a just and lasting peace, it is resorting to laughable narratives, ridiculous plot twists, and raw dishonesty,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay during a mass action of peasants and Lumad at the Department on National Defense (DND), Quezon City, on April 7, 2017 to call for an end to AFP’s all-out-war and the pull-out of troops in communities.

“The mass arrest of 58 individuals, 17 of them minors and 8 are elderly, is a testament to how the urban poor are easily dismissed in favor of private individuals and businesses. We call on the attention of Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista for such hypocrisy in his own backyard when he is among the designated panel advisers in the peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Jigs Clamor on the arrest of 58 urban poor residents in Apollo, Tandang Sora, QC, on April 3, 2017.