Friday, June 27, 2014

Press Release: BS Aquino ignores views of Int’l community on impunity in the Phils—Karapatan

Press Release:
June 27, 2014

Reference:      Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
                        Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580

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BS Aquino ignores views of Int’l community on impunity in the Phils—Karapatan 

“As military generals, those who murder and torture, get promoted and plunderers of the nation’s coffers receive special treatment in jail, the Aquino government is on full blast promoting impunity. Impunity is fostered by counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, the symbol of killings, torture and other human rights violations.”
 
This was Karapatan’s reaction to the promotion of Philippine Army Colonel Medardo Geslani to brigadier general. Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said Geslani is among those implicated in the massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists and two human rights lawyers, in Maguindanao nearly five years ago.
 
Palabay said the Aquino administration has been promoting military generals who were involved and accused of masterminding the many cases of torture, killings, and enforced disappearances.
 
She cited the appointment and promotion of Gen. Eduardo Año, who was charged with the abduction of activist Jonas Burgos; generals Aurelio Baladad and Jorge Segovia, who were charged with civil and criminal cases for the torture and illegal detention of the health workers known as the Morong 43; and, Gen. Ricardo Visaya, the ground commander during the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre where 13 striking farmworkers were killed.
 
Palabay said, “This policy and practice of promoting known human rights violators from the military indicate the Aquino administration’s disregard of the recommendations of Prof. Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in his 2008 report to the UNHRC. The BS Aquino government also ignored the views and recommendations of several governments during the Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines in 2008 and 2012.”
 
Karapatan asserts that not one military high official involved in rights abuses was prosecuted and convicted under Aquino’s term. “Aquino is following the footsteps of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in shamelessly supporting and giving accolades to these monsters!” she added.
 
Palabay headed the delegation of an ecumenical group of human rights advocates at the 26th United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland this June 2014.


Palabay also met with various human rights organizations, individual advocates and foreign government institutions in Switzerland, Germany and Austria to inform them on the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines. Dr. Chaloka Beyani, UN special rapporteur on internally displaced persons, is set to visit the Philippines this year. ###


PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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http://www.karapatan.org/files/karapatan_logo.png
Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. 





Wednesday, June 25, 2014

News release |SELDA demands immediate release of 3-month pregnant activist

Reference: Roneo Clamor, SELDA national coordinator, 0917-5965859



Samahan ng Ex-Detainees labansa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) strongly condemned the illegal arrest and detention against 3-month pregnant woman organizer Maria Miradel Torres on June 20 in Lucena City.

According to Karapatan-Southern Tagalog, Torres was suffering from pregnancy-related bleeding and was very weak when she was arrested by elements of the Southern Luzon Command headed by Lt. General Caesar Ronnie F. Ordoyo. Torres was immediately brought by the military to Camp G. Nakar in Lucena City.  The military claimed that Torres is wanted for murder case filed before the Regional Trial Court in Infanta, Quezon.


On June 23, in the guise of “military camp rules,” Torres’ relatives were denied entry by the military despite the demand from Torres’counsel.


“This is a blatant violation of the Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or under Custodial Investigation (RA 7438). Torres has the right to be visited by his family, legal counsel or human rights organizations,”Roneo Clamor, SELDA’s national coordinator said.


Section 2 of RA 7438 states,” Any person arrested or detained or under custodial investigation shall be allowed visits by or conferences with any member of his immediate family, or any medical doctor or priest or religious minister chosen by him or by any member of his immediate family or by his counsel, or by any national non-governmental organization duly accredited by the Commission on Human Rights of by any international non-governmental organization duly accredited by the Office of the President,” Clamor added that “immediate family” includes the arrested person’s “spouse, fiancé or fiancée, parent or child, brother or sister, grandparent or grandchild, uncle or aunt, nephew or niece, and guardian or ward.” Torres was surreptitiously transferred from Camp Nakar to Taguig City Jail-Female Dorm in Taguig City early this morning where seven women political prisoners including Andrea Rosal are currently detained.


“Torres needs immediate medical attention especially because her pregnancy falls within the critical period. Torres must be immediately brought to a hospital for pre-natal care and not in a congested detention cell where she is prone to acquire communicable diseases. Jailing her makes her prone to abortion. We will not allow another episode of Andrea Rosal’s tragedy,” Clamor said.


“We challenge the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Human Rights to immediately investigate and file appropriate charges against those who illegally arrested Maria Miradel Torres. We demand that the murder case against Torres be withdrawn by the Department of Justice. Maria Miradel Torres must be released immediately on humanitarian grounds! BS Aquino’s apparatus of repression, the AFP, PNP and the BJMP must be held accountable.”Clamor concluded. ###




Thursday, June 19, 2014

Katribu news Release | Lingkod Katribu slams relief center raid

   

  URGENT RELEASE: Lingkod Katribu slams relief center raid
 (International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines)



ICCHRP logo (downloaded image)
ù
News Release
June 19, 2014
Reference:     Kakay Tolentino +63917-8364710, Lingkod Katribu Program Head
                       Lea Fullon +639982972500, Public Information Officer


Lingkod Katribu slams relief center raid


Lingkod Katribu condemned the raid done of a relief center in Iloilo. “This attack is an outrage, an affront to donors here and abroad who had contributed to provide relief to the people devastated by super typhoon Yolanda,” Kakay Tolentino, Lingkod Katribu program head said.

The Panay Center for Disaster Response (PCDR) office based in Jaro, Iloilo was ransacked by three unidentified men at around 1 o’clock in the morning of June 19. Three people, who are staff and volunteers of the disaster response center,  were handcuffed and their faces were partly covered with packaging tape. The masked men seized laptops, memory sticks, printed documents, hard drives, mobile phones, logbooks and cameras.


PCDR provides relief aid to typhoon Yolanda-struck communities in Northern Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, and Aklan. It has served about 50,000 families in the region with relief and rehabilitation assistance - food, non-food, shelter, among others.


“This direct attack against volunteers and personnel of a disaster relief center is enraging. We condemn these acts of terror to the people and institutions providing relief and rehabilitation to the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda,” Kakay Tolentino of Lingkod Katribu said.


Lingkod Katribu, the disaster and relief program of indigenous peoples group Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) cooperates with PCDR to extend relief to indigenous communities in Panay Island affected by the Yolanda typhoon.


Tolentino supported  PCDR’s suspicion that the military are responsible for the ransack. “This is no ordinary robbery. The operation was precise, targeting objects that would not normally be the quarry if they intended to loot the place. PCDR is correct to assume that this is part of Oplan Bayanihan, that apparently brands even those providing humanitarian relief as insurgents,” Tolentino said. “The attack on the staff and volunteers of PCDR is similar to the terror activities by military death squads  and mercenaries perpetrated against activists, indigenous peoples, environment activists, and other progressive groups.”


Oplan Bayanihan is the internal security program of the Aquino government criticized by human rights organizations as the ‘blueprint’ of human rights violations and impunity in the Philippines.


According to Tolentino, PCDR staff has been previously charged by the military with trumped-up cases but later dismissed by the court as without merit.


“It is an outrage that the people who had willingly offered their time and effort to make up for the government’s criminal negligence in providing relief and rehabilitation for the survivors of Yolanda are now being targeted and treated as enemies of the state. This is truly a dire state for human rights in the Philippines,” Tolentino remarked.


The United Nations has been requested to send special rapporteurs to the Philippines to conduct probes on extrajudicial killings, human rights violations, forced evictions, and extreme poverty, after Philippine human rights workers submitted their reports to the 26th United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland. “The UNSRs are also requested to investigate the snail's pace response of the Philippine government to the issues and needs of the survivors of super typhoon Yolanda. Seven months after the typhoon struck, many provinces in Eastern Visayas are still in crisis,” Tolentino remarked. “This recent attack on a relief center must also be included in the assessment of the government’s response to typhoon Yolanda, and the state of human rights in the Philippines,” Tolentino said. #


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Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)
National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Organizations in the Philippines
Room 304 NCCP Building, 876 Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue, West Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines

Monday, June 16, 2014

But what independence?

Posted by Belarmino Saguing
Rome, Italy 16 June 2014


Ceremonies of Procamation of Philippine Independence, Luneta Park, July 4, 1946 (downloaded Photo)

On July 4, America’s own Independence Day, the Philippine Islands became, by the grace of Wall Street, the habitat of a “free, independent nation.” That is what the words say in the Tydings-McDuffie Act passed by the US Congress in 1934 and now put into effect. A 10-year period of transition, of “political tutelage“ in the art of self-government, will come to a close. The Philippine Commonwealth will become the Philippine Republic. The US high commissioner packed his bags and depart. The Stars and Stripes was be ceremoniously lowered and the Philippine flag just as ceremoniously hoisted. The bands will play. The crowds cheered. Wall Street’s government, with a cynical smirk, have demonstrated its “sincere devotion” to the cause of freedom and independence for all the peoples of the world, its moral superiority over the older empires which hold their colonial subjects in bondage without promise or hope of freedom.

Underneath all the pageantry and fanfare, and lurking behind the formal grant of independence, is the ugly fact of continuing and even tighter domination of the Philippines by Wall Street and its government. Behind the façade of supposed sovereignty stands the reality of colonial servitude. Only the outward political form is being changed. From a colony, the Philippines are being converted merely into a semi-colony.

Let us take a look at the hard realities. As a condition of putting into force the act of independence on the date specified in 1934, the US government last year demanded the right to establish its own military bases in the Philippines and to maintain them in perpetuity. Navy Secretary Forrestal stated that the US will “continue to bear responsibility for the security of the Philippines, and will have to have bases, and strategic areas supporting those bases, to carry out that responsibility.” Sergio Osmena, the former Philippine president, readily acceded to this “request.” His successor, Manuel Roxas, stands by the commitment. The “independent” Philippine Republic must permit the US to establish air, ground and naval bases in the Islands wherever the US Joint Chiefs of Staff deem them necessary. A treaty specifying locations, facilities, transit rights and personnel is to be negotiated between the US and the Philippine Republic after July 4. More accurately, Washington will draw up a document and Roxas will sign on the dotted line as directed. The Philippines will thus be brought under more extensive American military control than at any time during the preceding half-century of US rule.

The reality is as stark as in the realm of military affairs. The Philippine Republic was  compelled, by treaty with the US, to grant extensive rights to American capital and American business. By way of return, the Philippines are to receive from the US $625,000,000 as aid in reconstruction, plus the privilege of staying inside US tariff walls for another 28 years. The Filipinos were not to be permitted, however, to spend the “grant-in-aid” as they wish. Materials and technical services are to come largely from the US Personnel of US agencies were assigned to the Philippines for planning and administering reconstruction. Moreover, none of the money will become available until the Philippine Government accepts the provisions of the Philippine Trade Act of 1946. This act provides that Philippine exports to the US shall continue to be duty free until 1954. During the 20 years thereafter, or until 1974, exports to the US are to be subject to a progressively increasing tariff until, by 1974, US trade with the Philippines is on the same basis as trade between the US and other countries. In addition, Philippine exports of certain items are to stay within volume quotas during this period.

However, stiff conditions are attached to the 28-year tariff postponement, which was ostensibly intended to give the Islands time for economic recovery and an opportunity to adjust toward the day when they will be outside US tariff walls. The Filipinos were required to amend their constitution so as to permit American businessmen and American capital to enter the Philippines on the same terms and with the same rights as Filipino businessmen and capital. Moreover, Philippine exports limited by quotas are to be allocated, as the US may specify, among Philippine exporters (mostly American) who were in business before the war. Finally, the Philippine currency unit, the peso, is to be pegged to the US dollar. The Wall Street carpet-baggers thus established a highly favorable position for themselves as investors and traders, and with constitutional guarantees at that. It is not difficult to foresee a period of unbridled economic swashbuckling by these dollar-greedy hogs, who under the guise of granting independence werere in reality fastening more firmly the shackles of colonial exploitation on the mass of poverty-stricken Filipinos. On a greater scale than ever, the Islands’ riches will be siphoned off by these parasites. All possibility of a rounded economic growth will be stultified, as it was in the past, and development tailored to the specifications of Wall Street. The Philipines will remain a collection of plantations, with a few factories processing profitable export crops. The economy will remain backward, the people poor.

As during the post-Aguinaldo regime and the Commonwealth periods, the American imperialists were joined with the native Filipino exploiters, the hacienderos or landed capitalists, in robbing and oppressing the overwhelming mass of downtrodden taos or farmers. It is these native exploiters that the Roxas administration represents. The native exploiters are only too eager to be the junior partners of American imperialism. They shouted loudly for Philippine independence all through the years, only in order to retain the leadership and control of the genuine independence movement of the masses. But the kind of “independence” they sought, the only kind of “independence” they really want, is that which is to be formally consummated this July 4.

These wealthy Filipino parasites collaborated with the Japanese imperialists, who protected them and their estates and moneybags from the wrath of the landless tao. When Japan was defeated the taos, long in revolt, rose up in angry rebellion. A tremendous mass movement, still powerful, threatens to topple the whole system of landlord parasitism. The agrarian movement represented by the Hukbalahaps has the hucienderos trembling on the great estates. They are glad to have at their elbow a powerful ally and guardian to help them preserve “law and order.” For this they have sold out the independence movement, become parties to a brazen fraud, and turned the Philippines over, once more, to Wall Street. Roxas and his government are more than willing to serve as a political façade behind which Wall Street will share with them the exploitation of the Philippines, in the same way that the Indian bourgeoisie and the Indian princes, who have accepted the latest British plan, are content to share in the continued despoliation of India by British imperialism. It costs Wall Street little to exalt the Filipino bourgeoisie, to give them “face,” by a formal grant of independence which is empty of real content except continued colonial servitude and poverty for the mass of the people.

The fake independence be given to the Philippines, quite apart from its local significance, was in the nature of a world gesture by American imperialism. The global economic needs of this swollen Colossus require it to smash the colonial monopolies of the older imperialist states. It must break into these CIOEd markets. Already during the war it had begun to elbow its way in. Today these colonial lands are all in revolt against the imperialist violators. Is this not, then, a propitious time to plant in the minds of the colonial bourgeoisie of India, for instance, the idea that American imperialism is liberal and benevolent as compared with British imperialism, which is reactionary and violent? “Look! – haven’t we given the Philippines their independence, as we promised we would?” The day may not be far distant when the native Indian exploiters will be looking for a more “generous patron.” And what more “generous patron” could be found than Wall Street? It is not important whichever date they choose to celebrate this 'independence', it is still a fake independence

The journalistic liberals, those doughty defenders of anything vile and reactionary so long as it parades in liberal vestments, have already extolled Philippine “independence” as a “model” of benevolent political enterprise, as living proof that the United States “keeps its word” (in contrast, for example, with perfidious England), as a conclusive demonstration that America is not an imperialist power.

One thing is certain: The Filipino masses will not be deceived. For 50 years they have fought for their independence, against Wall Street and against Japanese imperialism. Before that they battled to free themselves from the cruel grip of imperial Spain. The fight must and will go on until genuine freedom and a chance to create a better life for the masses is assured.

Keep the struggles against US Imperialism. The Katipunan revolution for true freedom and genuine independence lives on in the hearts of the freedom loving Filipino masses.

Long live the Katipunan revolution!

Down with US and Filipino capitalist parasites!

Long live Andres Bonifacio’s Sovereign Republic of Tagalog!!!

Dismantle the fake Tuta government of the Philippines


Struggle for real liberty AND Genuine Democracy in the truly independent Philppines!!!


Source: wikipedia
















Monday, June 9, 2014

June 12, Pagdiriwang ng matinding Identity Crisis ng bansa

Posted by
Makabayang Supremo
Rome, Italy 09/06/2014




Para sa mamamayang mapagmahal sa kanyang sinilangang Bayan ay isang wagas na kaligayahan ang makamit ang tunay na kalayaan ng kanyang Bayan at makita ang pag-unlad nito at ng kanyang mamamayan. Subalit bakit sa napakatagal na panahon ng ating pagdaraos sa Araw ng Kalayaan ay patuloy at lalong naghihirap ang nakakaraming mamamayang Pilipino? Balik tanawan natin saglit ang kasaysayan ng ating Araw ng Kalayaan.

Batay sa mga nakasulat sa libro nga kasaysayan ng Kasarinlan ng ating Bansang Pilipinas, sa pangunguna ng mga Rebolusyonaryong katipunero, noong Agosto 1896 ay nagsimula ang paghihimagsik ng mga mamamayang Pilipino laban sa pananakop ng mga Kastila. Noong ika-12 ng naman ng Hunyo 1898 habang may gyera sa pag-itan ng Espanya at Amerika ay idineklara ni Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo ang ating kalayaan mula sa pananakop ng bansang Espanya. Hindi tinanggap ng Bansang Amerika at Espanya ang deklarasyong  ito ng Kalayaan ng Pilipinas kung kaya’t sumiklab ang digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano.

Sinabi sa isang lathala sa "La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana” (PEBRERO 8, 1898) Kinilala si Andres Bpnifacio bilang pangulo ng Republica Tagala (Andres Bonifacio, Titulado ‘Presidente’ de la Republica Tagala)

Agosto 24,1896, Pinulong ni Andres Bonifacio sang Kataastaasang kapulungan (Supreme Council) ng KKK at idineklara nila ang sandatahang reboòusyon laban sa kapangyarihang kolonyal ng Espanya. Sa pulong din na ito itinatag ang katipunan bilang pambansang pamahalaan at gumawa ng isang eleksyon ng mga opisyal na mamumuno sa hukbo at sa bansa.

Ang pamahalaang ito ay binalangkas buhat at ibinatay sa isang demokratiko at moral na simulaing nasasaad sa Cartilla de KKK or primer of the Katipunan na sinulat ni Emilio Jacinto. IUdineklara ng Katipunan ang kalayaan buhat sa imperyo ng Espanya noong Agosto 23, 1896. Ang katotohanang ito ay kinilala maging ng records ng US Library of Congress  na nagtalang : "the Katipunan insinuated itself into the community by setting up mutual aid societies and education for the poor." At sa talaan ding ito nakasulat na “how Bonifacio, with a 30,000-strong** KKK "proclaimed Filipino independence on August 23, 1896.

Matapos ilunsad ng Katipunan ang pagaalsa laban sa mga Kastila ay siniulan ding hugisin ang lihim na kilusang rebolusyonaryo upang maging hayaga at de facto na pamahalaang rebolusyonaryo na pinamumunuan ng Supremo bilang pangulo na namumuno sa isang gabineto na kinabibilangan nila Emilio Jacinto, Secretary of State; Teodoro Plata, War; Aguado del Rosario, Interior; Briccio Pantas, Justice; and Enrique Pacheco, as Secretary of Finance.
Kahiman minamaliit ng ilang historian na nakasandal sa Amerikanismo ang liderato ng kaunaunahang pamahalaan ng Pilipinas ay lumantad din ang mga katibayan na si Bonifacio at hindi si Aguinaldo ang tunay na unang Pangulo ng tunay unang Republika ng bansa. [The Katipunan was more than a secret revolutionary society; it was, withal, a Government. It was the intention of Bonifacio to have the Katipunan govern the whole Philippines after the overthrow of Spanish rule," Gregorio F. Zaide, who wrote a history of the Katipunan, was quoted in an article by historians Milagros C. Guerrero, Emmanuel N. Encarnacion, and Ramon N. Villegas.]

Sa kabilang dako naman, iginigiit ng ilang “opisyal” na historians ang Pamahalaang itinatag ni Emilio Aguinaldo sa Tejeros na ayon kay UP Manila professor Danilo Aragon "Iyon ay isang masasabi mong maneobra para matanggal na si Bonifacio sa puwesto. Habang andoon ang Katipunan hindi siya matatanggal. So pinalitan nila ang agenda," UP Manila professor Danilo Aragon said in "Case Unclosed: Ang Lihim ng 1897".

"Yung klase ng trapo politics na mayroon tayo ngayon, ay nagsimula pa noong panahon pa nila Aguinaldo sa Tejeros Convention.
Nandoon na 'yung lokohan, panlalait sa mga kandidato na walang pera,"Dagdag pa ni Aragon.

Naniniwala ang Makabayang Atas ng Supremo na ang dapat na araw ngKalayaang dapat ipagdiwang ng Pilipinas ay ang deklarasyong ng kalayaan ng Katipunan: Agosto 23, 1896 at hindi Hunyo 12.


Ipagdiwang ang Kalayaang ipinundar ng Dakilang Bayani at hindi dapayt ipagdiwang ang araw ng kalayaan na ipinahayag ng mga dakilang taksil sa rebolusyon.