By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“We fear that at the end of Aquino’s term, the Arroyo administration’s bad human rights record would be approximated, if not surpassed by the AFP,”—Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“We have decided to file for moral and exemplary damages against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her security officials for violation of our rights. This is but a small step to end impunity in our country. Yet, this a step forward in our long march for justice,” Gary Liberal, spokesman of the Morong 43, said.
By MARYA SALAMAT
According to the Katungod-SB report, a soldier acting as team leader interrogated the children, asking them if they have a gun. When the children answered no, the soldier accused them of lying.
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – A political prisoner criticized the Aquino administration’s new counterinsurgency program, describing it as a “sugarcoated bullet.” Randy Felix Malayao, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), said that legal offensives against critics and activists continue to be part of the new administration’s counterinsurgency strategy.…
By RONALYN V. OLEA
The Aggay family was on their way to Villa Cielo village in Gattaran, Cagayan when the two armed men fired at them.
The “war on terror” policy pursued by the past Macapagal-Arroyo administration should be declared as good as dead and should be abandoned by the incumbent President. That policy was based hook, line, and sinker on former U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr.’s neo-conservative theory linking Iraq to the 9/11 bombings. Now, an Iraqi defector who was the primary source of so-called intelligence reports that were used to make a case for Bush’s Operation Iraqi Freedom has confessed that he made the whole story up. (By Center for People Empowerment in Governance / bulatlat.com)
By RONALYN V. OLEA
According to Karapatan, there are 37 victims of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino government, at an alarming rate of one victim per week. “As the Aquino government talks peace, his troops are once again on a killing spree,” Karapatan spokesman Roneo Clamor said.
The peace talks now going on in Oslo between the government and the NDFP, having moved on to the deep-seated problems that have been sustaining the CPP-NPA-led armed struggle over 40 years, were the subject of editorial comment in this newspaper the other day. I think that certain points were correctly spotlighted and interpreted in the editorial, but it is amiss on others. By SATUR C. OCAMPO / bulatlat.com
The government and the AFP have consistently harped on the line that the “insurgency” is the obstacle to development, to wit: “If only the armed rebels stop fighting the government and lay down their arms, there will be peace and development in our country”. This kind of thinking is totally blind to the real roots of the armed conflict and is incapable of appreciating, much less grasping, the need to address these roots in order to achieve a just and lasting peace. By CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO / bulatlat.com
Press Statement 02 February 2011 KARAPATAN lauds Heidi Mendoza. She not only upheld government accountability as a public auditor. She dared face the powerful military institution to unravel a can of worms of plunder and corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) – at the risk of her own and her family’s security.…
By RENATO M. REYES JR. Like a Rolling Stone Posted by Bulatlat.com Second of two parts First part: Oplan Bayanihan: Grand Psywar Scheme and Continuing Violence Against the People Flawed premises Oplan Bayanihan is based on flawed premises and a denial of the historical roots and basis of the armed conflict in the country. Oplan…