Archive for July, 2007
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Enforced disappearances: An act of terror
COMMENTARY | By Roland G.Simbulan
No administration can match the frequency and methodical manner in which extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have occurred during the six years of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But because there was sustained impunity, with the perpetrators not only still unpunished, but even promoted or even commended, they occur again and again with their own dirty rules.
HONOLULU — Over the past few years, “a distinctive Chinese variety of industrial capitalism has taken shape,” according to East-West Center Senior Fellow Dieter Ernst and Barry Naughton, professor of Chinese economy at the University of California, San Diego, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. This foray into once forbidden economic territory is [...]
Mrs. Arroyo didn’t exactly lie when she talked about the economic surge, but she did try to avoid the truth by failing to mention that whatever economic progress has been achieved has not reached the legions of this country’s poor. In one scary instance — when she declared that she would step down, but mentioned no year, and in the same breath warned that not only was she a strong president, she was no lame duck either — Mrs. came so much closer to telling us poor folk what to expect in the next three years and beyond, and that’s more of the same.
There has been progress in saving and releasing hundreds of small children and youth from the stench-filled cells across the Philippines. President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered last July 16 that all children be released from the prisons, police jails and so-called reception centers, a euphemism for child prisons.
A human rights summit takes the first agonizing step toward finding solutions to the epidemic of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. The solutions proposed will pit judicial activists against the forces of resistance in the executive branch and Congress.
Clarita Gragasin, 61, traveled to the Koronadal market on May 10, 2003. She was sitting in a rickshaw tricycle when a bomb detonated about five meters from her. Shrapnel from the bomb killed her instantly. © 2006 John Sifton/Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch: Since January 2000, radical armed Islamist groups in the Philippines have carried out over 40 major bombings against civilians and civilian property, mostly in the south of the country. They have killed civilians indiscriminately — Christians and Muslims, men and women, parents and children — and left behind orphans, widows, and widowers. Hundreds of other victims have suffered severe wounds, burns, and lost limbs. In all, the bombings and other attacks have caused over 1,700 casualties in the last seven years, more than the number of people killed and injured in bombing attacks during the same period in neighboring Indonesia (including the 2002 Bali bombings), and considerably more than the number of those killed and injured in bombings in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain.
Only in areas of conflict and failing states are journalists killed on the same scale as in the country whose press was once referred to as “the freest in Asia”. The killings are outstanding enough to put the country in the map as, at one point, “the most murderous place in the world for journalists” (Committee to Protect Journalists), and in another, as “the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists next to Iraq” (Reporters Sans Frontieres).
“Today, we raise the bar in our campaign against terrorists who kill, bomb and maim to enforce an ideology of evil,” the President said. “Talk is cheap. It is action that counts. I ask the public to give the Human Security Act a chance.”
Outgunned. Members of the MILF in Maguindanao. (Photo by Carlos H. Conde)
The Philippine military has a sordid history of complicity with the same insurgent groups it ostensibly fights, which includes a long-standing practice of selling weapons to the rebels, said Eliza Griswold, a journalist who has covered South Asia extensively; her stories have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic and other major publications. “The United States has supplied the Armed Forces of the Philippines with high-tech weaponry that some members of the [Philippine military] have gone on to sell to the insurgents,” she said. 
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“The vague language of the Human Security Act invites the government to misuse it,” said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. “The Philippine Congress should repeal or revise the act to comply with human rights standards.”
Political Bloodbath Continues: Widow of Slain Activist Shot Dead New Wave of Protests Against Charter Change Set in April Comelec’s Automation to Worsen Election Fraud — Watchdog 2008: Another Bad Year for the Philippine Press ‘Unemployment Figures Wrong; Number of Jobless Higher’ ‘Nicole Is Not the Enemy’ ‘Nicole’: ‘My Conscience Bothers Me’ Why Globe Broadband Sucks Big Time Is the Call Center Industry a Bright Spot for New Graduates? 6 Great Ways to Vent Your Frustrations Eating Dirt Is Actually Good For Children Australia Offers 150 Scholarship Slots for Philippines, Asia-Pacific Why Globe Broadband Sucks Big Time
Globe Sucks: Grabe na talaga tong globe broadband ang panget ng service. Ang bilis ma disconnect ang tagal maka... marlon: Hi im marlon reyes of legal age married with 10 years. but until now my wife seek for a child. can you send... Jeanalyn: we have same inquiry of joel medrano but this time..I am jeanalyn legal age with 1 adopted child. and... rjlat: i think kailangan na natin ng bagong mamumuno sa ating gobyerno. ung isang presedente na magtatakda ng mas... ‘Martsa Kontra Cha-cha’ Set What Are 1109, 9006, and 9369 in Arroyo’s Agenda? Environmentalists Slam Arroyo’s Sellout of Lands to Foreigners Recruiting Militants in Southern Thailand New Round of Oil Price Hikes Hit Greenpeace Water Patrol Dismantles Blockade It’s Battle of Good Vs Evil, Church Leaders Say of Cha-cha Fight Satur: Nograles to Blame for Dispersal of Peasant Camp-Out Philippines: A Journalist on Army Target List, Another Shot, Possibly by Soldier In the Philippines, Targeting Journalists
"Sampayan ng Bayan". During its Third Congress on March 27-28, 2009, members of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-US Chapter staged protest actions against RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement through a "Sampayan ng Bayan" where a clothesline with painted shirts spelling out "JUNK VFA" was wrapped around General MacArthur's statue in Los Angeles, California. (Photo courtesy of Bayan-US)
CANDLES FOR BILLANES Members of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) and other multisectoral groups held a candle lighting activity on March 13, 2009 at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani to denounce the increasing number of extrajudicial killings in the country; the most recent was environmentalist and anti-mining activist Eliezer Billanes. (Photo by Kalikasan-PNE)
Goodbye, Rebelyn Thousands joined the funeral march for Rebelyn Pitao, the daughter of a top Communist leader, in Davao City on Saturday. The protesters demanded justice for the schoolteacher, who was brutally murdered allegedly by military agents. (Photo by Barry Ohaylan)
PROTEST OVER REBELYN. Hong Kong human rights groups condemn the abduction, torture, rape and killing of Rebelyn Pitao in a picket protest held on March 11, 2009 at the Philippine Consulate General. (Photo courtesy of BAYAN-Hong Kong)
BERDUGO. Posters accusing the 10th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as "berdugo" (butcher) are posted in major streets in Davao City. The New People's Army (NPA) accused the 10th ID to be behind the killing of 20-year old Rebelyn Pitao, daughter of NPA rebel leader Leoncio Pitao. (Photo by Ruby Thursday More/AKP Images)
Around 10,000 members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) gathered at the football field of Agro-Industrial Foundation College of the Philippines in Davao City on Saturday, March 7, 2009 for their 3rd Grand Summit Gathering with MNLF founding chair Prof. Nur Misuari. Some of the MNLF members traveled from as far away as Zamboanga provinces just for the half day gathering. (Photo by Keith Bacongco/AKP Images)
Teachers Demand Better Wages. Dozens of public-school teachers take to the street of Manila to demand better wages. They also criticized a proposed law that would give soldiers better salaries than those in the civilian bureaucracy. (Photo by arkibongbayan.org)
Beach Boy. A taho (soybean custard) vendor plies his trade in a seemingly desolate landscape, which is actually a beach in Opol, Misamis Oriental. (Photo by Ayi Muallam/PinoyPress)
Lumad Protest. Some 200 indigenous peoples coming from different parts of Mindanao staged a protest at the gate of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command in Panacan, Davao City, on Monday, March 2, 2009, to denounce the human-rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by the military in the indigenous communities. They also called for the repeal of the Mining Act. (Photo by Keith Bacongco/AKP Images)
Ban Balikatan. Activists from the group BAN Balikatan in Bicol held protest rallies on Feb. 25 to denounce the holding of the US-Philippine Balikatan exercises in the region. They criticized President Arroyo for being a "puppet" of Washington. (Photo courtesy of arkibongbayan.org)
NO to BNPP. Members of the Network Opposed "NO" to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Revival ask members of the House of Representatives not to support House Bill 4631 which calls for the revival of the mothballed nuclear plant. Environmental and Civil society groups question the safety of nuclear power plants and instead call for the full implementation of the recently passed Renewable Energy Bill. (Photo by Gigie Cruz/AKP Images)
