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CAGAYAN DE ORO — Civil society groups presented a 12-point human rights agenda which they believe candidates for the mid-term national elections should support. “For candidates who will become elected officials in May, the agenda that will be laid out in this...
Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel said that the move was “a step in the right direction” but he warned that merely withdrawing from the task force is not enough. "There is no place for agencies that put students and teachers in danger within our educational institutions."
“Is this where the people’s budget goes?” asked KPL Rizal Chairperson Edz Pascual. “Instead of addressing the youth’s problems such as high tuition fees, inadequate facilities, teachers, and a lack of budget for education, [schools] are prioritizing partnerships with the 80th IBPA, who wastes our money in spreading misinformation, threats, and intimidation.”
"The right to free speech is not absolute; it imposes limitations on
its exercise to ensure that it will not impinge upon the rights of others. It does not protect defamatory statements," the local court declared.
In all cases of enforced disappearances, Irene Khan urged them to provide information on the policies, procedures and measures adopted to prevent and investigate enforced disappearances carried out by members of State security forces or any other agent acting on their behalf or with their acquiescence.
“It appears that the NTF-ELCAC is using its powers to protect key economic interests in the country. This has nothing to do with anti-terrorism or anti-communism. The gross overreaction to people trying to defend their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is totally unacceptable."
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said last week that he does not see any need to abolish the National Task Force to End the Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). He claimed that red-tagging does not come from the government but from “kung sino-sino” (other people). There is irony...
On May 3, Tarra’s parents were again approached by people claiming to be from NTF-ELCAC, including a so-called“supervisor. They showed photos of Tarra participating in various activities and insisted on personally speaking to Tarra out of fear that he might “go to the mountains.” They said that on their next visit, they would like to speak to his parents again with forms and documents for them to sign.
"The Philippine government will become a laughing stock in the international community if it does not heed SR Khan's findings."
“These people are innocent civilians being tagged by the NTF-ELCAC as NPAs. Out of their desperation, they are using the civilians for their report on the counter-insurgency program."
For workers in Southern Tagalog, repression is as normal as resistance.
The struggle for their right to housing taught them that they have bigger fights to win.
This was the top-of-mind step that Ian Fry, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, urged the Philippine government to take as he wound up a 10-day official visit in the country last Wednesday.
Rights groups said UN Special Rapporteur Ian Fry’s visit to the country "puts on center stage the sinister role played by the NTF-ELCAC and the dangerous impact of the terror law on the lives and safety of environmental human rights defenders in the country."
"I call on the Philippine government to respect this right and establish a truth reconciliation process to investigate the unlawful killings by the military, hold those accountable for these killings and provide reparations for those who suffered."
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.
“They [soldiers] should be the ones protecting our youth who speak up, not the ones repressing our rights to speak out." - Aila Joy Esperida, editor-in-chief of The Democrat.
NUPL Chairperson Edre Olalia said that while they did not achieve full legal redress, the decision "can be viewed as a loud warning shot, as it were."
“Now that the truth is out, we demand that everyone involved in the abduction, enforced disappearance and fake surrender of Castro and Tamano be held accountable, especially NTF-ELCAC."
What we witnessed is the bravery of two environmental defenders in the face of outright repression.
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