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Elizabeth Principe’s release followed a protest by supporters today in front of Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police, and after Principe held a brief hunger strike to denounce the military’s attempt to prevent her from being freed despite a court order dismissing all charges against her.
Marie Hilao Enriquez, secretary-general of Karapatan, told Bulatlat that the military refused to release Elizabeth Principe’s clearance papers. “This is already a case of illegal detention since the court has already ordered her release,” Enriquez said. Principe was supposed to be freed Monday night.
A Bulatlat.com Exclusive Having to leave the Philippines for the United States when she was nine years old was a particularly painful experience for Filipino-American Melissa Roxas. Her desire to trace her roots brought her back to the country of her birth where, in May, soldiers kidnapped and tortured her for days.
“How can we claim to be under a democracy when a political prisoner continues to languish in jail even as all the trumped-up charges filed against her have already been dismissed?”
A farmer in Compostela Valley who last seen beaten and forcibly taken allegedly by soldiers on July 4 remains missing. Alvin Lopez, 25, a resident of Monkayo was hogtied and forced into a military vehicle during a military operation. Alvin’s mother, Erlinda, has filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights against the military’s 26th Infantry Battalion. Read the full story
While authorities dismiss the recent bombings in Quezon City, Jolo, Iligan City and Cotabato City as mere pre-Sona “noises,” critics, martial-law era activists and analysts believe that an Arroyo regime desperate enough to hold on to power is capable of anything, including using its iron fist on Filipinos.
A Call for Help from OFWs in Sabah
To many Filipinos in the southern Philippines, Sabah represents salvation. Beckoned by the vast palm-oil plantations in the Malaysian state, they go there in droves seeking employment that they could not find in their homeland. Once there, however, many of them are confronted with the reality of neglect and abuse that is far brutal than the one they had left behind.
Obito Marquez, 31, a peasant activist from Occidental Mindoro, was taken just outside his house in Taguig City on June 21 by four armed men in civilian clothes. A search by relatives and colleagues led to the Philippine police headquarters. His lawyer said Marquez was tortured, blindfolded and handcuffed for four days, refused access to legal counsel, and interrogated.
Dr. Rogelio Peñera, an AH1N1 expert with the health department killed on June 24, was also active in a group of progressive doctors who provide basic medical services to the poor. Five of his colleagues at the Davao City-based United Integrated Health Services Foundation are included in the military’s order of battle.
There are signs that Dennis Rodinas was tortured, his wife says. The military asserts that he was a leader of the NPA in Western Mindanao and that an “explosive component” was found on him. His family says the charges are fabricated.
Related story:
Church Worker Missing After Being Arrested By Police and Turned Over to Military
Dennis Rodinas, a lay worker of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, was subjected to “custodial debriefing” at a military camp in Misamis Occidental and has not been heard from. His family is concerned that he may end up the latest victim of human-rights atrocities in the Philippines.
A Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in Maguindanao
One of them, Juanito Carabeo, is now with his parents but has refused to talk about the torture that he, like Melissa Roxas, went through. The other, John Edward Jandoc, has not been heard from, although the human-rights group Karapatan said he is now with a relative. He, too, refuses to talk about the abduction and torture.
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