Human Rights – Page 16 – ellen tordesillas

‘It’s like Rwanda’: UN expert on Maguindanao massacre

Published by Ellen on November 30, 2009

by Romel Regalado Bagares

COTABATO CITY.–Peruvian forensic anthropologist Dr. Jose Pablo Baraybar didn’t like what he saw when he visited for the first time Sunday the massacre site in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan town.

Take note of the backhoe with the marking 'Province of Maguindanao'

“It reminded me of something—it’s just like Rwanda,” said Dr. Baraybar after spending a few hours in the area in the company of Commission on Human Rights Chair Leila M. De Lima, British forensic investigator Chris Cobb Smith and lawyers from the Center for International Law (Centerlaw).

Baraybar said the “topography of the crime” in Ampatuan town is eerily similar to that he had found as a United Nations expert serving in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Singson bucks Malacañang suggestion to go on leave

Published by Ellen on September 7, 2009

From GMA News TV: Singson backtracks, now claims he saved partner’s life

From Abs-Cbn online:

Denies using gov’t resources in his marital row

Refusing to heed advice from the Office of the President, Deputy National Security Adviser Luis Singson said he would not voluntarily go on leave and denied he used government resources in his marital conflict.

In a long distance telephone interview with ABS-CBN News and dzMM on Monday, Singson said he will not go on leave despite getting an advice from the Palace that he should do so out of delicadeza.

“Hindi ako magleleave dahil inosente ako diyan. Ako ang biktima rito. Hindi ako mag-leleave,” Singson told dzMM in an interview with Vic Lima and Karen Davila.

Malacañang to Chavit: behave

Published by Ellen on September 4, 2009

Gloria Arroyo’s deputy national security adviser beat his common-law wife and her boyfriend and all she could say is “Behave.”

From ABS-CBN Online

The Office of the President on Friday advised deputy National Security Adviser Luis Singson to “behave” and submit himself to due process after his common-law wife, Rachel ‘Che’ Tiongson, disclosed on Thursday the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of Singson.

Click here http://abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/03/09/chavits-wife-reveals-physical-abuse for photos of Che Tiongson, Singson’s common law wife.

“Our advise to Singson is to behave accordingly as an upright citizen and submit himself to due process of the law,” said Press Secretary Cerge Remonde.

Remonde said he was not aware if President Arroyo’s deputy national security adviser used government resources to spy on Tiongson.

Burma Court Finds Aung San Suu Kyi guilty

Published by Ellen on August 12, 2009

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was Tuesday ordered to stay under house arrest for 18 months.

by Andre Marshall/Bangkok
TIME

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will spend another 18 months as a prisoner of Burma’s military junta, a Rangoon court decreed today. She was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man called John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house in Rangoon in May. Yettaw, who has been in poor health, was sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was initially jailed for three years with hard labor until a special order from junta chief General Than Shwe was read out in court commuting her sentence to 18 months under house arrest. The verdict has prompted further global outrage and renewed calls for stronger action against the dictatorship. Suu Kyi has already spent more than 13 of the past 20 years in jail or detention.

Tribute to Ka Rene

Published by Ellen on June 9, 2009

Renato Peñas, vice-president of PAKISAMA (National Movement of Peasant Organizations), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen almost midnight of June 5 while on his way to his farm in Sumilao, Bukidnon.

His assailants made sure he was killed. Surviving the first shots, he crawled but three more shots pierced his chest and back. His two companions survived.

Five days earlier, Ka Rene as he was fondly called by comrades in the struggle for justice for farmers, was jubilant over the passage by Congress of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program with extension reform CARPer) he has invested so much labor, hunger, sweat and much, much more.

Palparan’s ‘legacy’ lives on in Mindanao

Published by Ellen on April 26, 2009

by Germelina Lacorte VERA Files Retired Army general Jovito Palparan will be reinventing himself as a party-list representative in Congress, but his legacy of anti-communist…

Ted Failon’s multiple tragedy

Published by Ellen on April 19, 2009

I pray that nobody, especially lesser mortals like me, will go through the multiple tragedy that happened to Ted Failon, one of the country’s top broadcasters.

It was tragic enough that a suicide has happened to the Failon family. It was double tragedy that a number of them became suspects and worse, they became victims of police arrogance and cruelty.

Many who witnessed the policemen’s rough treatment of Max Arteche and Pamela Arteche-Trincheta, siblings of Trina, Ted’s wife, who passed away Thursday, as well as that of their driver and household help lament that if that can happen in a case involving a broadcast celebrity under the glaring lights of live TV, how much more to ordinary citizens.

Shocked

Published by Ellen on April 18, 2009

Pinapahalagaan ko ang serbisyo ng mga pulis sa ating bayan. At alam kong maraming maayos na mga pulis kahit na alam ko din na marami ang hindi matino, na hindi naman pambihira sa lahat na organisasyon.

Alam ko rin na ang kasalukuyang liderato ng Philippine National Police sa ilalim ni PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa, ay sumisikap na maiba ang hindi magandang paningin ng publiko sa mga pulis. Nagustuhan ko ang programa ni dating PNP Chief Avelino Razon na “Mamang Pulis” na naglalapit ng pulis sa mamamayan.

Ngunit ang pinaggagawa g Quezon City Police kay Ted Failon ng ABS-CBN, lalo na sa kanyang mga kamag-anak ng kanyang yumaong asawa si Trina at at kanilang mga kasambahay, ay talagang shocking. Mabuti lang nandoon ang crew ng ABS-CBN at nakita ng bung Pilipinas ang ilegal at brutal na pag-arestado sa kanila.

World moves closer to truth about Cambodia’s ‘killing fields’

Published by Ellen on March 30, 2009

by Luz Rimban VERA Files PHNOM PENH—In a village 15 kilometers south of this city, tourists from all over the world arrive every day to…

Gaza should concern us

Published by Ellen on January 14, 2009

gaza
I plead “guilty” to not having paid attention to atrocities in the Gaza strip in the Middle East.

I know that our own problems here should not be an excuse to be oblivious to the inhumanities being perpetrated on other people in other parts of the world.. We should join hands in condemning lawlessness and injustice, wherever they are committed. They have no place in a civilized world.

Harry Roque, professor of Public International Law at the UP College of Law and at the Philippine Judicial Academy and chairman of the Center for International Law, enlightens us with the following commentary:

Category: Human Rights