By JESSICA EVANS | Human Rights Watch
One year ago, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III became the Philippines’ president after pledging to introduce reforms to protect people’s basic rights. But the longtime problem of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances with clear links to the military continues. The military denies any involvement, and police investigations into these crimes inevitably stall.

By HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Aquino’s first year and human rights

This poster hangs outside the army base along a busy road leading to The Fort and to the airport, for all the public to see, a few days before the commemoration of Marcos’s declaration of martial law on Sept. 21. It is offensive. It dishonors not only the other men in those posters who genuinely defended this country but the whole Filipino nation as well who suffered under Marcos’s tyranny.

Dencio Madrigal
Commander
Valentin Palamine Command
Regional Operational Command, NPA-Far South Mindanao Region
May we express our deepest concern over the recent events in FarSouth Mindanao on the unconscionable exploitation of minors by the 39th Infantry Battalion of the 10th Infantry Division — AFP. Its most recent victim is “Boy” (not his real name), a 17 year old of Brgy. Tagaytay, Magsaysay, Davao del …

I am Chandu Claver. My family was the target of an ambush by suspected State agents nearly four years today on July 31, 2006 in the province of Kalinga. My wife Alice was killed, as a result. Because of continuing threats on what remained of my family, I was forced to seek political refuge in Canada.

Doctors said the present detention of the female detainees is cramped and damp making the pregnant women and the rest of the detainees susceptible to infectious diseases. They recalled that President Noynoy Aquino’s father Benigno Aquino Jr., who was then a political prisoner under Marcos dictatorship, was himself allowed to have an emergency bypass operation for humanitarian reasons.

In Philippine society where people often know everyone in their communities, torture is known to be a common practice. People know who the torturers in their locality are, and where victims are taken to be tortured.

MANILA — “Consciously put in place protections for human rights during martial law in Maguindanao,” the independent Commission on Human Rights urged the government including the military during International Human Rights Day (10 December).
The Commission en banc made this call immediately after the session of Congress that considered the imposition of martial law in Maguindanao late 9 December. …

The brutal killing of 57 people in Maguindanao, including some 30 journalists, should be seen as a watershed moment for the Philippines, according to two United Nations human rights experts.