News item : Foreign, local activists launch probe of
rights abuses in Central Luzon
In this year’s
Aquino SONA, the president would either not mention it or minimize it using the
military’s trumped up and distorted facts propagandas on human rights
violations in the country. So be it. But whichever way probers look at it,
there could be no hiding of the fact that human rights crimes are happening and
most of it are being committed by the military against critics of the system, be
they leaders or members of church organizations, communist insurgents, HR advocates
or progressive oriented organizations and individuals. These assorted critics of
the system, at least for military, are without exceptions, communist or
terrorist.
Some of the
most-mentioned : the APECO area and Luisita, the vast estate owned by the
Cojuangco clan, to which President Benigno Aquino III belongs, the murder
of Dutch missionary and development worker Wilhelm Geertman on July 3 last year.
The Supreme
Court has ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to farmer-beneficiaries,
the land has yet to be parceled out with activist farmers accusing Aquino’s
family of attempting to “sabotage” the high court’s decision.
APECO, which
was created by Republic Act 10083 sponsored by former Senator Edgardo Angara
and his son, former Aurora Representative and now Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny”
Angara, covers 13,000 hectares in five barangays of Casiguran town. Critics of
the project say it threatens the displacement of farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous
people in the affected areas.
Geertman was shot
dead at the office of Alay Bayan Inc., the nongovernmental organization he
headed in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Although authorities have pointed
to robbery as the motive -- the victim had just withdrawn money from a bank --
colleagues and human rights advocates believe Geertman, who had been vilified
by security forces as a rebel sympathizer, was the victim of extrajudicial
execution.
The ICHRPP
probe will be participated by representatives of human rights groups from the
Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Germany, Britain, the US, Canada, Australia,
Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
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