Davao City – About a hundred volunteers coming from various networks of Exodus for Justice and Peace (EJP) will gather here today for the launching of a mercy mission dubbed “Duyog sa Panaw”.
Duyog sa Panaw is a solidarity journey that enjoins peace advocates from all walks of life to participate in giving spiritual, material, moral, [...]

Political activists in the Philippines do not only have to contend with the seemingly never-ending assassinations of their colleagues. Lately, according to them, the Arroyo regime has resorted to filing criminal charges left and right against activists, in some cases bringing those arrested to areas in the country where political activism is weak or nonexistent, such as Oriental Mindoro, apparently so that they are deprived of crucial support from their family and colleagues.

Continuing Harassment of Leftist Activists
(New York, October 29, 2008) – The Philippine authorities should immediately release Remigio Saladero, Jr., a labor lawyer who was arrested on charges that appeared to be politically motivated, Human Rights Watch said today.
Philippine police arrested Saladero on October 23, 2008, at his law office in Antipolo City, in Rizal [...]

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano today assailed what he described as a looming crackdown by the fascist Arroyo regime against mass leaders of the progressive people’s movement in Southern Tagalog region.
Mariano issued the statement after the police last night arrested Anakpawis party-list provincial coordinator Rogelio “Ka Mamay” Galit.
Galit, 49, is also the spokesperson of [...]

November 4, 2008
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PHILIPPINES: Prosecution is not a political tool
The arrest and subsequent detention of four activists, including a
labor lawyer, on separate occasions in October and November of this
year raised serious questions regarding how public prosecutors
function in the Philippines. The irregularities in the filing of
charges in court and the [...]

As of November 3, almost 30 activist leaders from the Southern Tagalog chapter of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and its allied organizations as well as party list groups are facing arrest warrants for criminal charges of multiple murders and frustrated multiple murders while facing separate charges of arson. First to be arrested was Atty. Remigio [...]

Multisectoral alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) today said that the political persecution of activist leaders in Southern Tagalog shows how the Arroyo administration continues to brazenly use the country’s trial courts to silence its staunchest critics.
The group issued the statement as activists led by members of Bayan’s Southern Tagalog regional chapter trooped to the Department [...]

The human rights alliance Karapatan is outraged by the recent legal offensive of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration against the legal democratic organizations particularly in Southern Tagalog, including two of its officials namely Karapatan-Southern Tagalog Secretary General Doris Cuario and Karapatan-Batangas Coordinator Dina Capetillo among those falsely accused.

Based on the monitoring and documentation of the NUPL and the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL) from 2001 to 2008, at least 13 lawyers and a judge have been subjected to surveillance by suspected state agents and 11 received death threats.

The third quarter of 2008 saw a surge in abductions and disappearances, arrests and the use of torture. Extrajudicial killings continued, with Mindanao suffering the most number of civilian casualties. These are among the findings of the human rights group Karapatan in its latest quarterly report. Download the document here (PDF, 500mb)

By Arthur Allad-iw | Human Rights Reporting Project  |  World church representatives meeting here to forge new links with indigenous peoples’ groups have lined up to condemn the disappearance of activist James Balao, blaming the authorities for his abduction.

On March 21, 2008, Edgar de la Cruz Candule, a 23-year-old Aeta, was picked up by policemen in Zambales. What followed was a nightmare, as the cops tortured him and accused him of being a Communist. According to human-rights groups, Candule’s case illustrates the dangers caused by a skewed interpretation and application of the Human Security Act.

The international community should demand accountability from the Burmese military government for the brutal crackdown in September 2007 on monks, activists, and other civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Repression in Burma has increased and the military government has failed to deliver on promises it made a year ago, despite international efforts at mediation.

Suspected agents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines allegedly abducted Nelson Balmaña on Sept. 21 and Florencia Espiritu on Sept. 22. The two men are organizers of the group Sto. Niño Lubao Farmers’ Association in Lubao, Pampanga.

By Fr. Shay Cullen

When I asked 13 year old Jonathan to draw a picture of himself in jail he drew a stick like figure of a small boy hanging half way up the bars of a prison cell. Behind him a bigger figure was hitting him with a stick. That was his punishment every time [...]