Quarterly report on the human rights situation in the Philippines
Months into the end of Oplan Bayanihan’s Pahase 1, human rights violations continue to belie the conjured picture of "peace and development" of the three-year US-Noynoy Aquino regime. Oplan Bayanihan (OpBay) is Aquino’s version of Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).
KARAPATAN Monitor July – September 2012 There has been no substantial change from martial law to Noynoy Aquino, especially in the human rights situation in the country. This is the logical conclusion one could draw after the horrors of repression during martial law were recalled and highlighted during the commemoration of its 40th year …
More than 20 country members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) called attention to the continuing extrajudicial killings (EJK), enforced disappearances, torture and other human rights violations (HRVs) and the prevailing climate of impunity in the Philippines. On May 29, 2012, the Philippine government went through the second cycle of the Universal Periodic …
The second year of Pres. Noynoy Aquino’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan marks an escalation of military operations and consequent human rights violations. One year short of its target to end insurgency in 2013, combat military operations intensify, alongside and complemented by continued surveillance, intelligence gathering and civil-military operations.
Oplan Bayanihan (OpBay), the counter-insurgency program of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, heightens the use of civic-military activities in communities as a cloak over intensifi ed combat operations and attacks against the people’s leaders and organizations. It is even more deceptive than, but equally vicious as the previous government’s Oplan Bantay Laya because of adornments …
It has been a year since President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was elected president. His and his government’s performance has been mediocre. Specifi cally, his campaign promises relating to human rights remain unfulfilled. Noynoy failed to render justice to the victims of human rights violations (HRV) under the U.S.-Arroyo regime. No one during his first …
Why is it difficult to ascertain when Oplan Bantay Laya ends and Oplan Bayanihan begins? Is it because one is no different from the other except for different names and the latter’s use of deceptive words like “respectful of human rights,” “development-oriented activities” and “peace”? The first quarter 2011 data gathered by Karapatan present …
President Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino III, was elected as the 15th President of the Philippines in May this year, in the midst of the people’s disgust with Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s rule characterized by fraud, corruption scandals, abuse of power and bloody human rights record. Noynoy, heir to Cory and Ninoy Aquino who are both publicly admired as icons …
Election-related violence and the continuing spate of extra-judicial killing, as Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) fails to meet its target of putting an end to the communist revolutionary movement, characterize the human rights situation in the Second Quarter of 2010.
The first quarter of 2010 is marked by mass arrest, detention and torture of health workers and farmers. Arresting security forces utilized fabricated charges and unfounded accusations. Consistent with 2010 as the end-year of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), extrajudicial killing and harassment and vilification of legal organizations and personalities continue. Of …
