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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.
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay lamented that the justice department's task force is not doing enough to resolve the extrajudicial killings in Calabarzon.
“At this crucial juncture when the other institutions have defaulted on us, we fervently welcome these bold and unequivocal declarations, initial steps and further plans from our very own refuge.”
“The multiple deaths resulting from the execution of search warrants, the claims that the police planted evidence in the course of the search, and the perceived misuse of court processes to attack activists and dissenters all demand comprehensive reforms in the issuance of search warrants and their implementation."
“Domestic remedies have been ineffective at providing redress and at halting continued abuses. The power imbalance between victims of state violence, and perpetrators who have the backing of government apparatuses, is grave. Structures to redress this imbalance are lacking.”
She graduated in 2014 feeling on top of the world, not because she was one step closer to escaping the life she left behind in Batangas, but because she finally understood her role as a daughter and a daughter of the nation.
Manny Asuncion was the very definition of an organizer: patient with the masses, always willing to serve the people, and filled with righteous anger against injustice.
“We are deeply worried that these latest killings indicate an escalation in violence, intimidation and harassment and red tagging of human rights defenders.” -- UN
“The attacks on Atty. Guillen and the Southern Luzon activists are not just a condemnable assault on a member of the legal profession and civil society actors, but also a stab to the heart of the Constitution..."
Human rights group Karapatan Timog Katagalugan said Dumagat Sierra Madre members Puroy dela Cruz and Randy dela Cruz were shot dead by the police in Sitio Mina, Barangay Sta. Inez, Tanay, Rizal. Urban poor activists Abner Esto and Edward Esto were also killed by the police in sitio Macaingalan, Barangay Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal as part of the Conduct of Simultaneous Implementation of Search Warrants dubbed COPLAN ASVAL by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines across four provinces last March 7.
"This is not enforcement of the law anymore, this is wild, wild west where they just kill without distinction."
Defend-Southern Tagalog said the incidents, dubbed as Bloody Sunday, took place a day after Duterte ordered his troops again to “finish off and kill all communist rebels.”
When your voice no longer bears the weight
of what you must say, then language must have gone away,
or forcibly buried underground,
silenced the fascist way.
Police were serving search warrants in Cavite, Rizal, Batangas and Laguna at 4 a.m.
Rise Up for Life and for Rights said that the initial findings of the inter-agency panel tasked to review the drug-related killings in the country only “proved the point in the cases of families whose loved ones have been killed – that they were killed in cold blood and that there was cover-up by the police and authorities, while the President cheered them on.”
The Court of Appeals has affirmed an earlier local court ruling that convicted the suspect behind the 2012 murder of Dutch missionary and development worker Willem Geertman.
“Duterte can easily surpass the gruesome record of previous administrations in terms of peasant killings and massacres."
Indigenous peoples organizations and support networks organize a candle lighting activity and noise barrage in Quezon City to call for justice for the murdered Tumandok leaders in Panay.
“Although Vilma Salabao’s remains have been released, this does not absolve the AFP and PNP’s barbarity.”
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