“We want Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in jail. It’s been almost three months since GMA was issued a warrant of arrest yet she remains free and in an air-conditioned hospital room. This is injustice and not what Mike Arroyo claims,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan. Hilao-Enriquez reacted to Mike Arroyo’s “surreal” statement at the Pasay RTC during GMA’s arraignment today that the “case of electoral sabotage against GMA is injustice.”
“We want Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in jail. It’s been almost three months since GMA was issued a warrant of arrest yet she remains free and in an air-conditioned hospital room. This is injustice and not what Mike Arroyo claims,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, chairperson of Karapatan. Hilao-Enriquez reacted to Mike Arroyo’s “surreal” statement at the Pasay RTC during GMA’s arraignment today that the “case of electoral sabotage against GMA is injustice.”
Hilao-Enriquez added that, “it is P-Noy’s responsibility to ensure that GMA ends up in jail. The P-Noy government should likewise charge GMA for the human rights violations committed under her watch. But under P-Noy, the process of achieving justice for human rights violations is proceeding so slow. Take the case of the fugitive Palparan. It’s been almost three months since he went into hiding yet, we have to feel the government’s efforts to find him and bring him to jail.”
Accoding to Karapatan, the continued freedom of both GMA and Palparan means that the P-Noy government condones their crimes against the people. “Look at how Palparan is tolerated by this government. Palparan continues to dish out press releases to the media that shows his arrogance and contempt, refusing to call himself a fugitive. If he is not, then he should be courageous enough to surface. These ongoing court cases remain for show if in the end GMA, Palparan and their likes are not prosecuted and jailed,” said Hilao-Enriquez.
Karapatan has documented more than a thousand victims of extrajudicial killing under GMA. “Sadly, the killing and other forms of human rights violations continue under P-Noy. Enough of media spins. We want real justice for the victims of human rights violations. We want an end to impunity,” concluded Hilao-Enriquez.