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 [...]

Honored for Courage in Exposing Abuse and Seeking Justice
(New York, September 15, 2008) – Five brave and selfless advocates of human rights from Burma, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan have been awarded the prestigious 2008 Human Rights Defender Awards, Human Rights Watch said today. All five have been persecuted and threatened for their [...]

Pahayag ni G. Oscar Empeño, ama ni Karen Empeño (dinukot na UP student noong June 26, 2006 sa Hagonoy, Bulacan)

Ano ba ang writ of amparo? Proteksyon saan at nino?
Proteksyon ba ito sa mga biktima na gustung isulong ang katotohanan sa ating lipunan o ginawa lamang ito para may masabi lang ang pamahalaan na sila ay [...]

The nongovernment group Kabiba Alliance, a children’s right advocate based in Davao City, circulated photographs (such as the one at left) of children maimed and killed allegedly during military air strikes in Maguindanao. According to reports, the air strikes — supposedly aimed at Moro rebels — killed civilians, five of them children. The photos, which show graphic and grisly images of the children, can be viewed here.

Karapatan said it welcomed Tagaytay 5 to their newfound freedom and urged them to file criminal charges against state security forces that abducted them, kept them incommunicado and detained them despite their innocence.

Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano today dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately disarm and dismantle the armed vigilante group Reform Ilaga Movement in the province of North Cotobato saying “the resurrection of the dreaded armed group will only escalate the armed conflict in the region and lead to massive human rights abuses.”
“We demand Ms Arroyo [...]

By Leila M. de Lima
At the heart of this conflict really isn’t the failure of the BJE to materialize, or the breakdown of the negotiations of the MOA-AD. It is not the rogue armies that the AFP must hunt. These are causes. The heart, the heart — bled profusely — of this conflict is the civilian.

Reporters Without Borders called today for more police to investigate the killings of five journalists in the Philippines this year, including the latest victim, former radio presenter Rolando Anjo Julia, in the central province of Camarines Sur.
“Until the motives for these crimes have been discovered and their authors punished, people will continue to doubt the [...]

Olympics Open on Bloody Anniversary
(New York, August 7, 2008) – Twenty years after the uprising in Burma, the military government continues to sharply restrict fundamental rights and violently suppress dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. The anniversary falls as the Olympic Games open in Beijing, while the Chinese government gives crucial support to Burma’s repressive [...]

The murder in broad daylight of Capiz broadcaster Martin Roxas on Thursday, August 7, mocks government’s claims that it has brought down the incidence of extrajudicial killings, particularly the murder of journalists.
Roxas, 32, is the fourth journalist murdered this year and the 59th since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001.
The brazenness with which [...]

New York, August 7, 2008—Motorcycle-riding gunmen killed radio commentator Martin Roxas today in the second brutal shooting of a broadcaster in the Philippines this week, according to local and international news reports.
Two men shot Roxas in the back as he drove his motorcycle from DYVR station in Roxas City, on the country’s central Panay island, [...]

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – A radio broadcaster was killed on 7 August 2008 by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle in Roxas City, Capiz. Capiz is approximately 411 kms southeast of Manila.
Martin Roxas, program director of dyKR-Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in Roxas, was shot in the nape. Roxas was himself on a motorcycle. He was pronounced [...]

In a statement, the NUPL says it “strongly criticizes the recent spate of decisions by the Court of Appeals dismissing amparo petitions which are indicative of a failure to comprehend the intent and nature of the new judicial remedy that initially brought a ray of hope for the victims, families and human rights defenders. These decisions unfortunately disregard the actual state of human rights in the Philippines today that has prompted the promulgation of the new remedy in the first place.”

Several years ago, I was able to get inside several highly secured jails for the first time. I was so shocked by what I saw I couldn’t sleep for nights after. The jail visits revealed children as young as ten were being held in detention with adults and many suffered degrading physical and sexual abuse, [...]

The warden of the Davao Penal Colony in Davao del Norte has not released radio broadcaster Alexander Adonis despite being paroled by the Department of Justice Board of Pardon and Paroles as early as December 2007 and the posting of a bail bond for another libel case. Adonis was jailed after one of the country’s most powerful politicians, Davao City congressman and now House Speaker Prospero Nograles, sued him for libel.