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.

Former Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. urged Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to immediately start the investigation and prosecution of cases of corruption and other irregularities against officials of the Arroyo administration.

The appointments made by President Benigno Aquino III raise more questions than hope, according to the umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
“It remains to be seen how most of the cabinet appointees will perform or how they will prove to be any different from the previous administration. The Aquino officials will be confronting the many problems left behind the outgoing …

Goodbye to all that. (Click photo to enlarge and read caption)

In this webcast interview by Bulatlat.com and Kodao Productions, Leila de Lima, chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, talks about the dismal human-rights record of the Arroyo regime. She also talks about the death threats she said she received.

Although yet to be confirmed by President-elect Aquino, it is widely believed that de Lima will be appointed as his secretary of justice — a position, she said, that would fit in nicely in her campaign to protect and promote human rights.

As the changes in transition from the Macapagal-Arroyo government to the new Aquino term slowly unfold before the public’s eye, Free the 43 Health Workers Alliance today said that Commission of Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Leila de Lima’s appointment as the new Secretary of Justice comes as a welcome and positive development.
“More than anybody in Mrs. Arroyo’s administration, Chairperson de …

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. …

“In spite of the scale of efforts to directly or indirectly curb corruption, we come face to face with the realization that the breadth of the problem is not only significantly larger than the efforts against it, but corrupt practice has enjoyed a longevity and permanent entrenchment that requires nothing short of a society-wide transformation.”

FATHER SHAY CULLEN   BIO   |   MORE POSTS
There are brave and courageous people in Davao, defenders of the human rights and children who have protested the killings for many years but they have received warnings and death threats and some of them have been assassinated on the street.