AFP the Real Perpetrator of Mass Graves
By Pamilya ng Desaparecidos para sa Katarungan (DESAPARECIDOS)
Posted by Bulatlat
The group of families
of desaparecidos today called on the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to surface the victims of enforced disappearances, instead of
fabricating stories of “mass graves” to harass genuine human rights
defenders.
“From the Marcos
Dictatorship, through the past regimes, it is the AFP which had gone
unpunished for keeping secret detention cells and torture chambers where
they had brought thousands of victims of abductions and illegal arrests.
Instead of digging up actual cemeteries and disturbing the peace of the
dead, the AFP should surface our loved ones whom they have disappeared,”
said Ghay Portajada, spokesperson of Families of Desaparecidos for Justice
(Desaparecidos).
Some 1,500 victims
were disappeared during the Marcos Dictatorship and the succeeding Aquino
regime. The first documented desaparecido was youth leader Charlie
del Rosario, 27, who was abducted by military agents 36 years ago today
(March 19, 1971) at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines campus
in Sta. Mesa, Manila. He remains missing.
The Desaparecidos at
the same time condemned government’s harassment of Bayan Muna party-list
Rep. Satur Ocampo who was arrested and had been detained on multiple
murder charges and the alleged “mass graves” in Leyte.
“Ka Satur had always
been a staunch human rights defender, especially for us families of the
disappeared. It was Bayan Muna, along with Anakpawis and Gabriela
party-list groups which authored House Bill 1556 (later consolidated into
HB 4959) defining and penalizing enforced disappearances,” said Portajada.
Portajada however
said that the enactment of the anti-terror law called the Human Security
Act contradicts the bill’s provision to stop disappearances, and would
actually legalize disappearances.
“At the rate the
government is harassing Ka Satur and other progressive groups and human
rights defenders, we all have to stand up, be outraged and defend our
rights or no one will be left standing under this fascist regime,”
Portajada said. Posted by Bulatlat
Reference: GHAY
PORTAJADA, spokesperson
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.