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"ATC's terrorist designation is just another nefarious device concocted by those who reckon they can and must go around or against the Constitution and the rules of law, fair play and common decency to silence those who speak and clamor for change.”
On the day KMP leader Joseph Canlas was buried, two elderly, ailing peasant activists were arrested.
Karapatan called the ATC a 'copy-paste' of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that ‘incites violence’ now legitimized by the Anti-Terror Law.
“There is nothing most fearful, most oppressive and most unjust than the way political prisoners are being treated under this regime.”
“How can the ATC, three years hence, claim to have ‘verified and validated information’ against these peace consultants when it has already been proven in court that there is none? The ATC regurgitating false assertions has been a most dangerous weapon especially in the heat of oral arguments on the terror law.”
“The victory of the Bakwit School 7 is a testament to the truth and the legitimacy of the calls of the Lumad and the existence of the Bakwit School. This victory only proves that the NTF-ELCAC only peddles lies and that their stories bear no truth nor any weight when it comes to the fight for social justice."
“Under a regime that takes pride in treason, tyranny, mass murder and plunder, the legal standards are degraded to the level of murderers and the standard of learning is also demeaned when Marxism or communism is merely equated to terrorism.”
It also revealed that the red-tagging of lawyers and judges under the present administration has led to the killing of more lawyers and judges at 54 compared to that during the term of Arroyo where 45 lawyers and judges were killed in the line of work.
Renato Reyes Jr. of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said the designation "is arbitrary, no clear standards, no specific terrorist acts cited, just a sweeping accusation."
Esperon, who sits as the vice-chair of the terror council, refused to provide Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe the names of those they will designate as terrorists as it may preempt the ATC.
“It is not merely provocation. What I fear about is the phrase ‘provoke the government’ is too vague so as to include any kind of provocation. It did not say that to provoke a government to do or to abstain from doing an act. Just it stated that to provoke the government."
A daughter's last conversation with her dying father and the abominable situation inside the Angeles city jail that led to another death of a political prisoner. Joseph Canlas was the ninth under the Duterte administration and the fourth since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This function is within the High Court’s judicial duties to protect the right to life and health of those in government custody. They include the political prisoners like Joseph Canlas who had various comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension but was never tested for COVID-19 until he was brought to the jail’s quarantine section.”
Gen. Debold Sinas’s term was characterized by raids using what human rights groups labeled as “defective, copy-paste warrants.” These operations resulted in killings and arrests of farmers, indigenous peoples, and human rights defenders.
“A remorseless human rights violator like him doesn’t deserve a peaceful retirement. We will continue to fight impunity by working to make sure that active or retired generals who abuse their power like Sinas are put behind bars."
The mañanita general's notion of despedida proved to be a series of raids and arrests in Southern Tagalog and Bicol, according to human rights groups.
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay lamented that the justice department's task force is not doing enough to resolve the extrajudicial killings in Calabarzon.
“The militarist and punitive framework of policing the pandemic in the form of policies resulting in mass arrests and detention of alleged violators runs counter to the purpose of quarantine protocols which is to protect and uphold people’s health."
“We implore the Canadian government to take action on these concerns with urgency, as our country further descends into an authoritarian state."
Justice Edgardo Delos Santos questioned the “undue delegation of power” provided to the council, saying that the law is silent on how it will arrive at the conclusion in designating persons or groups as terrorists.
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