‘Still no justice’ | Torture survivors under Arroyo govt testify before IPT
“I really believed, while I was in there, that they were really going to kill me.”
“I really believed, while I was in there, that they were really going to kill me.”
As a survivor of abduction by the Philippine military in 2009, my heart went out to the Burgos family after I heard the favourable news of the Philippine Court of Appeals ruling last week on the case of Jonas Burgos. After years of presenting the case before the...
By RONALYN V. OLEA
While victims and their families continue to suffer, torturers walk free. So how can I be at ease in the world when human rights violations and torture exist? – Melissa Roxas
MANILA -- The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) filed a manifestation at the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) on Tuesday regarding its recent resolution absolving the military from its liability on the enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas and her two other companions Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc. (Photos by Tudla Productions / bulatlat.com)
PRESS RELEASE 25 April 2011 The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for covering up the Armed Forces of the Philippines' (AFP) responsibility for the abduction and torture in 2009 of Fil-Am activist Melissa Roxas...
By RONALYN V. OLEA
"There is a lack of due process for the CHR to come up with this conclusion. By doing this, the CHR Resolution makes it obvious that it wants to distract the investigation away from the AFP as being the real perpetrators.” -- Melissa Roxas
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Human rights group Karapatan said that with the CHR resolution, "the crime of torture will have its heyday under the Aquino administration."
The ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Human Security Act of 2007 is the latest in a series of negative decisions the Supreme Court made with regard to human rights, lawyer Edre U. Olalia said.
Fil-Americans picketed the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles June 20 to call for the immediate ouster of embattled President Macapagal-Arroyo. by Angel Buensuceso Contributed to Bulatlat Bulatlat.com Los Angeles, California - More than 30 Filipino protesters...
Papo was ever eager to know better the workers and peasants that he depicted in his works. He either lived with them or he renewed his links with them through visits and serious social investigation... He made manifest his position on social reality not only in the...
Dear Friends, I want to urge you to help us in the effort to demand that the Philippine military release the 43 healthcare workers that were illegally arrested and detained on February 6, 2010 in Morong, Rizal, Philippines. This issue is close to my heart because I...
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Human-rights advocate welcome the signing into law of Republic Act 9745, which penalizes acts of torture in the Philippines. The challenge now, they say, is for the Arroyo administration to effectively implement it, given its sordid human-rights record.
November 11, 2009 Dear U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I am writing to you because you are going to visit the Philippines to meet with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I would like to appeal for you to discuss the gross human rights violations happening...
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Under the bill, no justification can be offered that would allow torture and other inhuman punishments. Those who torture will be penalized as principals, as well as their superiors in the military, police or law enforcement establishments who ordered it.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
The Court of Appeals has granted the Filipino-American activist's amparo and habeas data petitions, saying that Melissa Roxas’s story was credible. But it also pointed out that Roxas failed to show that the military was behind her abduction and torture, hence President Arroyo and elements of the armed forces cannot be made respondents in the case.
The Philippine military, through its attack dogs Pastor Alcover and Jovito Palparan, are trying to discredit the Commission on Human Rights and its chairperson, Leila de Lima. Human-rights groups are understandably concerned. “Now that the CHR chairperson insists on the mandate of the commission, they consider her as an enemy,” Marie Hilao-Enriquez of Karapatan said. “That is the most dangerous mindset.”
Freedom from torture is a non-derogable right, meaning that states cannot violate this right under any circumstances, even in a state of emergency or martial law. By insisting that Melissa Roxas is a communist guerrilla, the Arroyo regime not only practically admits that it tortured her -- it seeks to justify the atrocity, thus violating the very international instruments that it had earlier agreed on.
“Keeping silent is like silencing forever all the voices that have been silenced,” says Melissa Roxas. A writer, poet, community health worker and, incidentally, an American citizen of Filipino ancestry, Melissa Roxas is altogether something else. Last May, she and...
Video: "This Is For All of Us!" -- Melissa Roxas
Video: Melissa Hearing Turns Into a Witchhunt
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