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Human rights alliance Karapatan condemned on Thursday, April 23, the demolition of the makeshift shelters of more than 78 families in Maisan, Brgy. 432, Sampaloc, Manila, saying that the Philippine National Police did not show compassion, especially to Filipinos living in the margins of the society and who are, at the same time, most at risk to the dangers posed by the present pandemic.

Six weeks into the enhanced community quarantine, President Rodrigo Duterte’s militarist response to the COVID-19 pandemic has only resulted to worse and more brutal attacks on human rights and civil liberties in the form of mass arrests, inhumane punishments, and violence against so-called violators of the “enhanced community quarantine” policies. 

With the worsening threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights group Karapatan reiterates its call for the release of all political prisoners, especially those at high risk of contracting the disease and those detainees who should have been freed after serving their prison sentences.

Nearly five weeks into the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, the government seems to be gearing for intensified State repression, human rights watchdog Karapatan warned, with President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat of a martial law-like military and police takeover to curb the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. 

Human rights watchdog Karapatan decried the government’s continuing militarist response to the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic following the illegal arrest of volunteers set to distribute humanitarian aid to urban poor and peasant communities in Norzagaray, Bulacan as well as the arbitrary arrest of a screenwriter in Cebu City over a satirical Facebook post regarding the halting of mass testing in an urban poor community in the city.

No more excuses and no more delays for the release of political prisoners, human rights group Karapatan strongly asserted, as the Supreme Court (SC) is set to deliberate today, April 17, on the petition seeking the temporary release of sick and elderly detainees to combat the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic inside the country’s highly congested prisons.

Recommendations of the Philippine House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice for the decongestion of the country’s overcrowded jails through release of prisoners is a welcome and urgently needed move, human rights alliance Karapatan said, as the country combats the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Karapatan reiterated that political detainees, most especially the sick and elderly, should be granted release on humanitarian grounds. 

Our first brilliant idea is to give Jonathan Malaya a refresher on reading comprehension. It was the Philippine National Police Cybercrime Division together with barangay officials that accommodated the malicious allegations of Joshua Molo’s former teachers and they were the ones that coerced him into filming an apology video repudiating his criticism of the government.

Conduct mass testing and not mass arrests, human rights alliance Karapatan urged authorities as they reiterated their urgent appeal for the release of political prisoners and the mass decongestion of detention facilities in the country to stem the outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Rights group Karapatan assailed the violent dispersal of the “barikada ng mamamayan” (people’s barricade) in Barangay Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya yesterday, April 6, 2020. The residents, with the support of environmental advocates, initiated the barricade to prevent the entry of the oil tanks of mining company OceanaGold Corporation, with the expiry of the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) of the said company last June 20, 2019.