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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
The failure of investigators to secure the crime scene, the apparent contamination of forensic evidence, and the weak rebellion case filed against the perpetrators have led people to believe that there is a high probability that the Ampatuan clan would walk away with the murder of 57 people, even as the case has generated a strong international concern.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO The Ampatuans' rise to the peak of political power was in no small part due to their ties with the military. In a most ironic twist, the military proposed the extension of martial law in Maguindanao until the 2010 elections purportedly to teach the Ampatuans “how to run peaceful and credible elections.”
A former chief of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), who is also one of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's most trusted men, is one of the directors of a big mining company that operates in a number of provinces, among them Bukidnon, which is one of the provinces where several indigenous-peoples' communities are suffering under a reign of terror perpetrated by the military and paramilitary groups.
When it comes to human rights and democracy, the Arroyo government never fails to provide ironies.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Underneath the never-ending and intensifying political conflict is the permanent and worsening crisis of the economy. The raging economic crisis feeds the growing dispute among the various factions of the political elite contending for control of political power and monopoly of economic spoils – a conflict that has become more pronounced and increasingly vicious under the nine-year old Arroyo administration.
Critics Slam Martial Law as Ruse, Cover-Up
The Cordillera region is not spared from state-perpetuated and state-supported political violence, according to the CPA, citing the provinces of Abra, Apayao and Kalinga as having a history of election-related and politically motivated killings and other forms of violence allegedly allowed to happen through powerful politicians and warlords with goons and private armies.
Ampatuan Massacre and Culture of Impunity
'Maguindanao Folk Live in Fear'
The perpetrators obviously thought that they could get away with their atrocity. The only possible explanation for such impunity is that these people were confident somebody higher up would protect them. We hold the regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo accountable for what happened in Ampatuan. It was her regime that had benefited from the reign of terror in Maguindanao. It was her regime that had encouraged and nurtured the violence that led to the massacre.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
As foreign mining investments continue to encroach into Lumad lands in Northern Mindanao, the military, through its Oplan Bantay Laya, intensifies its campaign to stifle local opposition to these companies. A fact-finding mission found that so far this year, 13 Lumads have been summarily executed while more were tortured and harassed by soldiers and fellow Lumads co-opted by the military.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Two months after the International Labor Organization conducted a fact-finding mission in the Philippines, labor-rights violations escalate in the Philippines, as highlighted by the death of Danilo Belano, a long-time labor organizer, who died while being tailed and harassed by military agents.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Kabataan says the youth have an important role in the coming elections as more than 40 percent of the voters are young Filipinos. "The youth can even dictate who they want to win in the May 2010 elections," says Rep. Raymond Palatino.
When Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was quoted as saying that Arroyo’s first agenda if and when she gets elected in Congress is to pursue moves to amend the 1987 Constitution, it confirmed people’s suspicions that it was all about keeping herself in power.
Arroyo's Complicity in Ampatuan Massacre
By MACARIO PACANA
At the International Peace and Human Rights Summit in Cagayan de Oro City, victims and witnesses of human-rights abuses take turns recounting their appalling ordeal in the hands of the military and its paramilitary forces.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Of the 284 political prisoners in the Philippines, 257 were arrested and detained under the present regime’s Oplan Bantay Laya. In a statement, Selda said the militarist approach of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has scuttled the peace talks between the government and the Moro secessionist groups in Mindanao and the New People’s Army.
Text and photos by JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
It is important not to compromise their principles, the two “senatoriables” from the progressie sector said. Since one of their platforms is good governance, part of it is holding public officials -- either past or present -- accountable. This includes achieving justice for the victims of human-rights violations under the Marcos dictatorship.
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