BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat
December 3, 2007 - 5:30 p.m.
Human rights group Karapatan said that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration has been put on the defensive by strong local and international pressure to put a stop to the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Karapatan noted a decline in the number of cases of extrajudicial killings in its 2007 report presented to the media, Dec. 3.
But Karapatan still recorded 68 victims of extrajudicial killings from January to October this year. In 2006, the victims of killings were 209 and in 2005, 197.
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan secretary general, attributed the decline to the continuing protests and calls for justice by victims of human rights violations, people’s organizations, human rights groups and individual human rights defenders both here and abroad. "The U.S.-Arroyo regime has been put on the defensive since 2006 and more so in 2007 as international censure forced it to account for its human rights record," said Hilao-Enriquez.
The report also cited as another pressure point for the government the set of conditions tied to U.S. military aid for 2008. The report stated, "The Arroyo government is required to make a show of its adherence to human rights covenants, while at the same time sustain its full support to Bush’s ‘war on terror,’ which is actually a war of terror."
Karapatan also commended the efforts of the Supreme Court related to the killings and enforced disappearances. Enriquez said the writ of amparo was effectively used to surface at least two abducted activists but noted that others were not as successful such as in the cases of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, and Jonas Burgos.
Karapatan demanded, "There should be a stop to the extra-judicial killings. The disappeared should be surfaced and political prisoners freed. The national policy Oplan Bantay Laya, which embodies the U.S.-Arroyo regime’s state terrorism, should be junked immediately." Bulatlat
