Reports
KARAPATAN Monitor July - September 2012
submitted on Thu, 10/25/2012 - 14:16KARAPATAN 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 of imposition. Brought to the fore were stories of gross human rights violations during one of the darkest periods in Philippine history.
Noynoy Aquino led the government’s commemoration of the 40th year of martial law and, for the nth time, recalled the sufferings of his family under the dictatorship. A week later, Noynoy Aquino would be seen in the company of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, the architect of martial law, and Imelda Marcos, the dictator’s widow. Meanwhile, victims of martial law still have to see the Aquino government’s will to push for the indemnification of the victims of Marcos’s campaign of suppression. The indemnification of martial law victims remains sidetracked, 26 years after the dictatorship was ousted. So much for justice and indemnification.
KARAPATAN Monitor April - June 2012
submitted on Fri, 07/27/2012 - 12:47
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 Review (UPR) by the UNHRC in Geneva, Switzerland. Expectedly, the Aquino government played its cards close to its vest as State parties and the international community examined the human rights situation in the Philippines. The GPH delegation tried to gloss over the hard facts on the unabated human rights violations and the reign of impunity in the country as it hyped the enactment of one or two national laws and the approval of some international instruments related to human rights.
KARAPATAN Monitor January - March 2012
submitted on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 18:50
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.
2011 Year-End Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines
submitted on Sun, 04/01/2012 - 10:55
Karapatan submission to the Universal Periodic Review May 2012
submitted on Mon, 02/27/2012 - 16:17
KARAPATAN, in consultation with its member organizations and other
related organizations, is submitting this report on the state of human rights
in the country with recommendations to the OHCHR for the 13th session of the
UPR in the UN Human Rights Council in May-June 2012.
KARAPATAN Monitor June - September 2011
submitted on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 19:09
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 of “peace” and “development.”
KARAPATAN Monitor April - June 2011
submitted on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 13:38
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 year in Malacanang has been prosecuted among the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary arrests, illegal detention and military atrocities in the countryside.
KARAPATAN Monitor January - March 2011
submitted on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:11
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 a profile of human rights violations indistinguishable from that committed by the U.S.-Arroyo regime. President Noynoy Aquino follows closely the U.S. Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Guide whereby all forms of protest are to be barred in the guise of “winning peace.”
2010 Year-End Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines
submitted on Wed, 12/01/2010 - 14:39
THE NOYNOY AQUINO government’s mantra of change is now unraveling its true promise – that it is but a continuation of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s legacy of state terror, political repression and economic exploitation.
KARAPATAN Monitor July - September 2010
submitted on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 16:40
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 of democracy, gave a most welcome promise of pagbabago (change) and daang matuwid (a straight path).
But data and statistics mirroring the human rights situation under Noynoy’s presidency in the first quarter (July to September 2010) of his stint in Malacanang do not augur well for the people.
... So where is the promised change?
