Human Rights – Page 13 – ellen tordesillas

Kaya naman pala eh

Published by Ellen on December 11, 2010

Ang pagpalaya sa mga Morong 43 ay nagpapatunay na kung gusto talaga, mahahanapan ng paraan. Kaya gawin.

Salamat naman at nagkaroon ng “political will” si Pangulong Aquino na pakawalan ang Morong 43, ang 43 na health workers na nakakulong ng sampung buwan mula pa nang sila ay inaresto noong Pebrero habang sila ay nasa outreach program.

Sa kanyang memorandum order na pinalabas noong Biyernes, sinabi ni Aquino sang-ayon siya na may pagkukulang sa batas ang pag-aresto ng 43. Ito ay nangyari ng malapit na matapos ang termino ni Gloria Arroyo na walang pakundangan nilalabag ang karapating pantao ng mamamayan..

Aquino orders dropping of charges vs jailed health workers

Published by Ellen on December 10, 2010

By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Radyo Inquirer

President Aquino ordered the Department of Justice to withdraw the charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against 43 health workers arrested in Morong, Rizal, on suspicion of being members of the communist New People’s Army.

“The medical workers were arrested in the waning days of the Arroyo administration on the suspicion that they were aiding NPA insurgents. These are valid concerns. Nevertheless, we recognize that their right to due process was denied them,” President Aquino said in a brief televised speech on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

“As a government that is committed to the rule of law and the rights of man, this cannot stand. Therefore, I have ordered the DOJ to withdraw the informations filed before the court,” Aquino added.

A breakthrough for ‘desaparecidos’

Published by Ellen on December 1, 2010

In the Philippines, if someone kills somebody, he can be charged with the crime of murder. If the criminal is smart and just makes his victim disappear from the face of the earth, he cannot be charged with any crime because there is no body to prove murder.

That’s why nobody has been charged for the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, activist –farmer and son of press freedom crusader Jose Burgos, Jr, since he was abducted by what appeared to be members of the military April 28, 2007. The same is true with the case of University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan who were picked up by members of the military from their boarding house while they were doing field work on June 26, 2006.

In the case of the six workers of Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) workers abducted on October 14, 2000 by members of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and remain disappeared up to this day, Corporal Rodrigo Billones has been convicted but of kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Despite strong evidence, he was not charged with enforced disappearance due to the absence of an anti-enforced disappearance law.

Thanks, Professor Co

Published by Ellen on November 20, 2010

Leonardo L. Co, 56, one of the country’s top botanist ,who was serving as biodiversity consultant of Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC), was killed together with his two companions Nov 15 while gathering specimen seedlings of endangered trees with a five-member team of civilians in Kananga, Leyte.

Manuel Paete, EDC resident manager identified identified the other fatalities as Sofronio G. Cortez, a forest guard day of EDC-Environmental Management Division, and Julius Borromeo, a member of the Tongonan Farmers Association (Tofa).

Co is a specialist in plant taxonomy and ethnobotany.

Early reports said Co’s team was caught in a cross fire. Later reports said there was no cross fire and that they were mistaken as NPA’s

Slain botanist heard begging for mercy: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101119-304043/Slain-botanist-heard-begging-for-mercy

His remains lie at the Funeraria Paz on Araneta Avenue. It will be brought to UP this afternoon for the wake until Sunday.

Following is Business Mirror’s editorial last Nov. 17 which encapsulates our sentiments:

Thanks, Professor Co

It’s hard to find words to capture the sense of loss of the Philippine science community, not only for themselves but for the future of this country, at the untimely, tragic demise of University of the Philippines botany professor Leonardo Co, in an unfortunate crossfire between soldiers and rebels in Leyte this week. Indeed, as some reports go, the military unit that might have (the shooting-by-friendly-fire angle is still being investigated) snuffed out his life was filled with deep remorse on knowing the encounter had claimed an innocent life—and what a life it was.

Burmese Dissident Is Freed After Long Detention

Published by Ellen on November 13, 2010

By The New York Times

YANGON — Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was freed from seven and a half years of house arrest on Saturday and was greeted at the gate of her compound by thousands of jubilant supporters.

She stood waving and smiling as people cheered, chanted and sang the national anthem in a blur of camera flashes. She held a white handkerchief in one hand.

“Thank you for welcoming me like this,” she said, clutching the iron bars of her gate as she looked out at the cheering crowd. “We haven’t seen each other for so long, I have so much to tell you.”

She said she would speak again on Sunday at the headquarters of her now defunct political party, the National League for Democracy.

NGO blames Arroyo for Pampanga human rights violations

Published by Ellen on September 26, 2010

By Neil Lim, Maxine Tanya Hamada, Jonal Santos, Richie Supan, Denise Fontanilla, Farah Sevilla, Ryan Gan, Homer Yabut and Eladio Perfecto VERA Files Clark Freeport,…

Saang puntod ka magsisindi ng kandila?

Published by Ellen on September 6, 2010

Bakas sa mukha ng mag-asawang Fernando at Corazon Fortuna ang sakit at hinagpis ng magulang na naghahanap ng anak. Ganoon din ang mag-amang Pitarico Garcia at Pops Cabaltica.

Hinahanap nina Fernando at Corazon ang kanilang anak na babeng si Daryl, 23 taong gulang at estudyante sa Polytechnic University of the Philippines, na nawawala mula pa noong Marso 26 habang nagre-research tungkol sa kanyang thesis sa Zambales.

Unsilenced

Published by Ellen on August 31, 2010

Visiting Italian Lawyer Gabriella Citroni, in a forum marking the International Day of the Disappeared (which was actually last Monday) at the University of the Philippines, said a person disappearing does not follow logic.

“People are born, they live and they die. They don’t disappear,” she said. But it happens. In the Philippines the practice is more known as “salvaging” a cruel play on the word that means “saving”.

Citroni, a professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca, has been active in the United Nations effort to ratify and eventually implement the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Sen. Miriam Santiago files a bill making enforced disappearances a crime.

Citroni said Enforced Disappearances start with deprivation of liberty, followed by concealment or denial of the victim.

In searching for the disappeared kin, relatives often are met with questions by law enforcement authorities, “Who is he? Is there such a person?”

“Can you think of a much worse human brutality than someone telling you that your loved one never existed”, she asked.

Nakakalukang Coco

Published by Ellen on August 22, 2010

ABS-CBN update: Quisumbing says sorry to media

Noong Marso pa pala unang pumunta itong si Ana Evangelista sa Commission on Human Rights at nagsampa ng kaso dahil sa pagkawala ng kanyang asawang si Darius, suspek daw sa panghu-hold up pagkatapos mahuli ng mga pulis.

Meron din ibang pamilya na nagsasabing ang nakikita sa video na pinalabas ng ABS-CBN ng isang taong tino-torture (tinalian ang kanyang ari ay hinihila, pinipilipit tuwing hindi gusto ng pulis ang sagot sa kanilang tanong) ay ang kanilang kaanak na si Vicente Obrigo na napatay sa encounter sa mga pulis noong isang linggo.

Itong si Ana (hindi niya totoong pangalan) ang sinasabi ni Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia “Coco” Quisumbing na kanyang inaasikaso raw kaya limitado ang kanyang oras sa mga reporter. Kaya nagtaray. Click on this site. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/08/20/10/chr-commissioner-coco-goes-loco#ooid=ZwdnZuMTr9BqVNywApk_PWoISyqPS95D

Iba’t ibang klaseng torture

Published by Ellen on August 21, 2010

Iba-ibang klaseng torture ang nakita natin nitong nakaraang linggo.

Una yung kahindik-hindik na video ng turture sa isang hinahalaang holdupper sa Asuncion precinct station sa Tondo, Manila.

Ang pangalawa naman ay ang pagwawala ni Commissioner Coco Quisumbing ng Commission on Human Rights sa media.

Makikita sa video ang isang payat na lalaki ang namimilipit sa sakit na nasa sementong sahig. Tinalian ng kanyang mga torturer ang kanyang ari at tuwing may tinatanong at hindi nagugustuhan ang sagot, hinilia ang tali kaya namimilipit sa sakit.

Category: Human Rights