April 14, 2010
Press release

As the May 10 elections draw near, presidential candidates have yet to make a concrete statement on how they intend to bring justice and closure to the numerous cases of human rights violations committed under the current Arroyo administration, change group Pagbabago! People’s Movement for Change said today.

Pagbabago! challenged the presidential candidates to outline in detail how they intend to address the more than 1,000 cases of extrajudicial killings, the more than 200 cases of enforced disappearances, as well as the hundreds of illegal and politically motivated detention such as the controversial case of the Morong 43.

The group made the statement as it joined other organizations in a protest march in Manila highlighted by a parade of mock coffins draped in flags of different people’s organizations whose leaders and members had been assassinated or abducted by elements widely believed from the military.

“We are saddened and alarmed that the presidential contest has again
degenerated into political mudslinging and personal attacks between the candidates while the deeper and more important issues such as the appalling human rights situation in the country have been left largely unaddressed,” said Pagbabago! spokesperson Dean Roland Tolentino of the UP College of Mass Communication.

Tolentino urged voters to choose candidates who will present the most
concrete platform on human rights, including how they plan to make
accountable the likes of Gen. Jovito Palparan, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales, and President Gloria Arroyo herself for their role in the murderous Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL).

Human rights groups have blamed the government’s counter-insurgency program OBL for the spate of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other forms of human rights abuses that specifically target unarmed political activists and civilian populations. Even the United Nations (UN) through its Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Mr. Philip Alston has raised concern about the OBL and its impact on human rights especially political and civil liberties.

The Pagbabago! leader also noted that the most gruesome massacres in the country’s recent history took place under the Arroyo administration as he cited the Hacienda Luisita massacre in November 2004 and the Maguindanao massacre in November last year.

“As a country and as a people, we could not move on even if a new
administration takes over unless an acceptable and a just closure on the killings and abductions is realized. The climate of impunity that the Arroyo administration has systematically bred for nine years will prevail even after the elections and will result in more human rights atrocities as long as the perpetrators and brains behind the OBL are left unpunished,” Tolentino added. (Bulatlat.com)

Reference: Dean Roland Tolentino, Pagbabago! Spokesperson
www.pagbabago.org

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