Victim Tortured, Interrogated to Confirm Military Accusations vs Detained UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero

Even as the family and co-workers of UCCP Pastor Berlin Guerrero continue to cry out for freedom and justice for Pastor Berlin, another UCCP worker, Pastor Rodel Canja suffered torture in the hands of military agents. For four days, armed men alternately [...]

Leila de Lima. (Photo by John Alliage Morales/Inquirer.net)

For somebody who barely warmed her seat, the actions and statements by Leila de Lima, the new chair of the Commission on Human Rights, are impressive, probably unprecedented. Let’s just hope that this is not ningas-cogon, that de Lima is motivated by a genuine concern for human rights and not by the need to prove her mettle.

The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists invites you to a press briefing on the latest developments in the prosecution of the alleged masterminds in the murder of Marlene Esperat (Criminal Case No. CBU-82237 also known as People of the Philippines vs. Osmeña Montañer et al.).
The briefing will be held on Wednesday May 28, 2008 [...]

(Hong Kong, May 26, 2008) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
has launched today a campaign blog which documents cases involving
various forms of arbitrary deprivation of life in the Philippines.
The blog entitled ‘Slaughter of Innocents’ chronicles how
a class of people have been systematically murdered on an almost daily
basis. The blog may be accessed at:
http://noprotection.blog.humanrights.asia
Moon Jeong Ho, [...]

Between February 4 and May 14, 2008, the Asian Legal Resource Center has been alerted to 17 murders in General Santos City and it is believed that this is not an exhaustive list. Seven of those murdered, including a 16-year-old boy, have been accused by the police investigators of having criminal records, being former detainees or persons involved in committing motorcycle robberies. In several other cases, the victims are persons illegally working as motorcycle taxis, who were killed when criminals stole their motorcycles.

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the family of Mr.
and Mrs. Samuel and Flora Guerrero, parents of Pastor Berlin Guerrero,
will lead a Pilgrimage Walk for Freedom and Justice at 2:30 pm today
to dramatize the call for the immediate release of Pastor Berlin.
“When my husband Pastor Berlin was ripped from our family’s arms [...]

A military man as peace adviser? A hawk for the dovish tasks of peace negotiations? It shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Arroyo regime of ironies and mockery has done as badly and even worse. It’s a national security regime disguised as a democracy, a reign of assassins cloaked in legal cloth. It’s a regime of mockery in which an Hermogenes Esperon for peace adviser makes as much sense as a Raul Gonzalez for justice secretary.

By Fr. Shay Cullen
It’s good to know that there are idealistic and well-meaning military officers ready to oppose corruption and speak the truth. Some wrongly took up arms to oppose the government corruption last year and were conditionally pardoned recently by the President. Other military officers of conscience in the Armed Forces of the Philippines [...]

The military may have cut off his head and mangled his face and body. But Rey Cayago’s face and name could never be forgotten by his colleagues, his family, and the migrants and their families whom he had helped.
BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 15, May 18-24, 2008
There is a face to the growing number [...]

House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur C. Ocampo today condemned the killing of an official of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas on Thursday in Davao City and blamed it on President Macapagal-Arroyo’s order to carry on counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya 2 that includes extra-judicial killings.
The KMP identified the victim as [...]

BREAKING NEWS | Celso Pojas was the secretary-general of the Farmers’ Association of Davao City and spokesman of the KMP in Davao.

Pojas during a press conference in October last year. The words on his hat reads “Land, not bullet.” (davaotoday.com file photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Related story: Satur Slams Arroyo for Killing of Davao Peasant Leader

Journalists from Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon observed World Press Freedom Day today, May 3, at the shrine of Marcelo del Pilar, the national hero and revolutionary propagandist, in Bulacan. They also said a prayer for the Filipino journalists murdered over the years. (Photos by Carlos Conde/pinoypress.net)
Jose Torres Jr. (left), [...]

By JOEL SIMON and SHEILA CORONEL | Committee to Protect Journalists | The nearly perfect record of impunity in the Philippines has had a devastating impact on the free flow of information and has inhibited coverage of human rights and corruption issues in the communities affected by violence.

Among the recommendations put forth at the UNHRC’s review of human rights in the Philippines is the intensification of efforts to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.

House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo today denounced the Arroyo government’s renewed overt surveillance with apparent intent to harass and intimidate the human rights lawyers defending him and fellow party-list representatives in Congress in three murder charges filed against them on April 18 in Nueva Ecija Regional Trial Courts.
“We condemn [...]

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan slammed the surveillance of Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo by suspected military and police agents.
Based on news reports, at around 6:00 this morning, six suspected military and police agents in civilian clothes positioned themselves in front and at the vicinity of Ocampo’s house at Soldiers Hills, Quezon City. Ocampo just arrived [...]

Ethical standards are waning in the medical profession, HEAD says, because “much focus is given to the ‘mass production’ of health professionals. Students are trained to meet ‘global’ standards so that they can work abroad, instead of how to genuinely care for patients.”

The chairman of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDFP) Human Rights Monitoring Committee Fidel V. Agcaoili today
expressed outrage over the appointment of Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita as head of the GRP 44-team delegation to the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on April
11.
Agcaoili said that Ermita’s record as the US pointguard and [...]