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Amid all these, Karapatan said their group and the rest of the human rights community will not stop in its efforts to expose and oppose the brutal extrajudicial killings and the threats and red-tagging that increasingly target not only activists and other human rights defenders but ordinary civilians.
For Karapatan, this recent development is “obviously part of the NTF-ELCAC's so-called ‘whole of nation approach’ of harnessing all available resources to surveil, profile, red-tag, marginalize, persecute and inflict other human rights violations against the poor and other critical voices, including the institutional church.”
"The attempt of these former generals, to pursue judicial harassment against Karapatan, GABRIELA, and RMP through this trumped-up and malicious charges of perjury is a desperate act intended to hound human rights defenders."
Cristina Palabay denounced former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.’s reopening of the perjury case saying this is “but one in a series of renewed attacks against the human rights defenders of Karapatan.”
“With EO 33, which calls for more stringent implementation of FATF recommendations, we can anticipate its dire results: the designation as terrorists of even more political activists and the curtailment of even more pro-people and development-oriented programs on false and malicious accusations of terrorist linkages."
Based on reports gathered by Karapatan, soldiers have been harassing the Fausto couple since last year.
“If there is anything that recent abduction cases prove, it is the existence of secret prisons maintained by state forces, in violation of Republic Act 10353 or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012."
"We are asking the CHR to extend help to the bereaved family of farmer Crispin Tingal and provide them with due assistance."
By RATZIEL SAN JUAN Altermidya MANILA -- The Philippine UPR Watch, a delegation of human rights defenders and advocates participating in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, frowned upon the Philippine government’s response to the UPR recommendations. The...
Karapatan called for the UN Human Rights Council and UN Special Procedures to conduct an independent investigation of extrajudicial killings and other rights violations. “These international organizations should see through the Marcos Jr. government’s attempts to window-dress the dire human rights situation in the country."
"Truth and justice prevailed today against liars and butcher such as former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict."
“The perjury case brought by the government may also be a form of retaliation for the human rights activities of these local human rights defenders. We have seen in recent years that many defenders have been dragged before the courts, smeared, red tagged and murdered in the Philippines. This intimidation should stop immediately."
“Marie dedicated her life in advancing and defending people’s rights – and in the face of a massive human rights crisis in the Philippines as well as the threat of a Marcos restoration and Duterte extension, we turn towards Marie’s life and legacy as a courageous human rights defender as our guiding light in the continuing struggle against tyranny and fascism.”
“We urgently call the attention of independent bodies such as the CHR, fellow human rights defenders, and local authorities to probe these incidents."
For human rights group Karapatan, they see no other actor that would have the resources and motivation to take down their website but the Duterte administration.
"These attacks only benefit those who want to silence us and our human rights work amid a pervasive state of impunity in the country."
In his reinvestigation report dated May 24, Prosecution Attorney James Noel V. Morente stated, “After a careful perusal of the records of this case, this office is constrained to dismiss the instant complaint for lack of probable cause against the aforementioned accused-movants.”
"This award also comes at a crucial time, against the backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating human rights crisis and alarming democratic backsliding in the Philippines, and this award is a recognition of the tremendous challenges we currently face amid worsening attacks on human rights defenders, police brutality, militarization, and the narrowing of civic and democratic spaces in the country."
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