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The culture of violence in the country’s military institutions continues to be evident in an alleged case of maltreatment and hazing resulting in the death of a cadet – this time from the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy.
The recent granting of numerous motions to quash cases that were enabled by questionable warrants proves that errors have been made.
"With these developments, we enjoin the Tumandok people in their struggle to fully attain justice by holding the judges, the armed forces, and Duterte accountable to the Tumandok and the Filipino people."
“For accountability and justice to hold sway, we press that a review be made of all cases that emanated from the sala of those judges who turned their courts into a search warrant factory that led to the arrest and outright killing of activists."
“Targets are mostly chest – where vital internal organs are located including the heart and the lungs and can be deadly.”
"The State itself is directly involved in planning, implementing and sanctioning widespread human rights violations.”
The groups are firm that the filing of charges against them and their members are pure harassment as these charges were later dismissed by the courts.
“Release your incontrovertible evidence in public.”
Critics of the anti-terror law have long assailed that it will be used to silence dissent. A year on, progressives said the law has left bank accounts of non-profit organizations and political prisoners frozen on allegations that they are financing or supporting terrorism.
“It is terrifying to see so much state power wielded with impunity against the powerless, defenseless and innocent. Yet it is also tragicomic that the high and mighty would plunge into such a squalid abyss for such puny gains, and ultimately counterproductive outcomes."
“The UCCP, along with other churches, have already sacrificed many of its fine sons and daughters, those who champion the rights of the disadvantaged. Despite the attacks, the UCCP and other churches and church organizations have never wavered in accompanying the poor and the oppressed."
In his reinvestigation report dated May 24, Prosecution Attorney James Noel V. Morente stated, “After a careful perusal of the records of this case, this office is constrained to dismiss the instant complaint for lack of probable cause against the aforementioned accused-movants.”
“We shall continue to work in all possible venues to seek justice, make this regime accountable for its crimes, and put a stop to the killings or else, this will go on and on as long as Duterte remains in power and beyond."
Human rights group Karapatan said that this would only lead to more human rights violations in the context of the numerous reported cases of extrajudicial killings especially with the police and military’s repeated use of the ‘nanlaban’ (fought back) narrative, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and other grave violations.
FARDEC denounces to the highest degree this series of attacks that harks back to Negros Island's Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) that massacred innocent farmers in 2018 and 2019. Tabada is a barangay councilor and leader of esteemed commitment that greatly helped (in the) implementation of our projects for peasant communities in Bohol.
“With his death, Jesus Alegre is now free at last from worldly greed, oppression and injustice. But his widow and son, both unjustly convicted and imprisoned for the last 16 years, continue to languish and suffer in separate jails.” -- Bishop Gerardo Alminaza
In a statement, Karapatan said at least 22 families in sitios Panukmoan and Manluy-a of barangay Diatagon in Lianga left their village on June 23 because they “no longer feel safe staying in their communities due to the constant harassment and threats made by troops of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion.”
“He was not only a senior citizen but (he was) gravely sick long before he died. The repeated call for his and his wife Moreta’s immediate release based on humanitarian grounds along with other elderly and sick political prisoners were also ignored."
With the death of another political prisoner in jail, Kapatid reiterated their call for the promulgation of the writ of kalayaan – a legal remedy proposed by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in his separate opinion to the SC ruling on political prisoners' petition.
This is the second massacre in Diatagon, Surigao del Sur.
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