Provinces
In Cotabato City, the KAWAGIB Moro Human Rights and Suara Bangsamoro led a march-rally.
The Liga ng Kabataang Moro from Cotabato City and North Cotabato, Suara Talyawid (farmers), SBW (Suara Bangsamoro Women) ANAKBAYAN Cotabato, Gabriela Cotabato and Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society joined the protest.
In Davao City, activists held a protest at the people’s park. They carried placards bearing the pictures of their slain and missing colleagues.
In Cavite, four major churches convened the Cavite Commemorative Committee for Human Rights.
On December 11, a forum on human rights was held at the Imus Cathedral. Speakers at the forum included Editha Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos; former political prisoners Axel Pinpin of Tagaytay 5 and Pastor Berlin Guerrero; and Tessie Galit, wife of Rogelio Galit, peasant leader accused of multiple murder & frustrated multiple murder in Mindoro Oriental along with 71 others.
An ecumenical service followed at 1 p.m. presided by Most Reverend Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle of the Imus Diocese of Cavite; Bishop Gabriel Garol of United Church of Christ in the Philippines; Bishop Pedro Ojascastro of the Philippine Independent Church, Diocese of Cavite; and, Rev. Aristotle Balatan, District Superintendent of the Cavite United Methodist Church.
At 3:00 p.m., protesters held a “Walk for Human Rights.” They went to Camp Pantaleon Garcia in Imus for a dialogue with the Provincial Police Director Hernando Zafra.
Overseas
Filipinos in Hong Kong also commemorated the International Human Rights Day. About 50 members of the HK Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) held a protest action in front of the Philippine Consulate General.
Filipinos in Hong Kong held a protest in front of the Philippine Consulate, December 10. (Contributed photo)
Eman Villanueva, spokesperson of the HKCAHRPP said, “As the world commemorates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is but right to expose the fact that in the Philippines, the rights to life and basic civil and political liberties are trampled upon by the president herself and its well-oiled fascist machinery that is the armed forces.”
Villanueva said the human rights situation in the Philippines is in an “all-time worst” during the seven-year reign of GMA.
Meanwhile, Filipinos in New York City offered a special mass dedicated to the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines.
Entitled “Misa Para sa Kapayapaan at Karapatang Pantao” [Mass for Peace and Human Rights], the mass was sponsored by the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, a local advocacy group in New York, and held at the Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the Filipino Apostolate of the Archdiocese of New York lower Manhattan.
Berna Ellorin, a member of NYCHRP, read a quote from Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference in the Philippines (CBCP), “Today, is a day of shame and embarrassment….because of the innumerable human rights violations that have remained unexamined, unexplained and unsolved or covered up by events [in the Philippines].”
Fr. Erno Diaz who led the ecumenical service said, “We must remember that Jesus was a victim of a violent human rights violation for doing good, as was Filipino saint San Lorenzo Ruiz. We must continue to pray for those who are being persecuted for struggling for peace and human rights.”
Members of Anakbayan New York/New Jersey and Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment also gathered signatures calling for the dropping of charges against the Southern Tagalog 72. (Bulatlat.com)
