By HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Extrajudicial killings condemned, but no accountability

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

A report by the ICG says both Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation are restarting the peace process warily. “Quite apart from the difficulty of negotiating the territory and powers of a sub-state, Manila wonders about the MILF’s command and control, especially given a recent split, and the MILF wonders about the government’s backbone.”

There are thousands of ghost employees in the city’s payroll, most of them supposedly working for the councilors. Each of the 26 councilors has 124 employees but only 20 or so of them are real flesh-and-blood employees. The others are non-existent. They exist only in the payrolls and in the personal data sheets, most of which are fake. Somebody collects and pockets their pay every month.

The truth is that as in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US and its NATO allies are jumping at the opportunity presented by the internal strife in Libya to control the latter’s oil resources by deposing Kadafi and installing a more friendly and pliant regime. Libya has the largest confirmed oil reserves in Africa, three times that of the US and nearly one tenth of the world total.

In its first report on the Manila hostage crisis, the Incident Investigation and Review Committee provides a detailed reconstruction of what happened at the Quirino Grandstand on Aug. 23. Although this report does not contain the committee’s conclusions and recommendations, it is clear from what it says where accountability for the fiasco lies.

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.