JAN-MAR 2008
96 cases of right violations recorded -- Karapatan
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 23:49:00 05/13/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The first three months of the year saw 96 incidents of human rights violations, including six cases of extrajudicial killings, 10 incidents of illegal detention, and one case of abduction, the rights group Karapatan said on Tuesday.
In its Karapatan Monitor, the group claimed that two separate incidents of extrajudicial killings were reported as early as January. It identified the victims as Tildo Rebamonte and Ronald Sendrijas. Meanwhile, a certain Flaviano Arante was allegedly abducted on January 25.
Karapatan said members of the Philippine National Police-Regional Group seized Rebamonte in the village of Claveria, Masbate on January 12. Four days later, the police claimed that Rebamonte was killed in an encounter with the communist New People’s Army.
Meanwhile, Sendrijas was a former political detainee and a member of the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensiyon at para sa Amnestiya (Selda, Organization of Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty). Sendrijas, an environmental activist, was killed on January 17 in front of Paz Pharmacy in Tagbilaran City.
Karapatan said that a total of 96 incidents of human rights violations were already reported from January to March this year. Human rights violations include extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, illegal arrest, torture, abduction, and illegal detention.
Those who experienced forced evacuations or displacement comprised the biggest number of victims of human right violations. Karapatan placed the number of victims at 7,442. This was followed by indiscriminate firing with 5,459 victims, and food and economic blockade with 3,042.
From 2001 to present, Karapatan said that the total number of victims of extrajudicial killings already reached more than 900, most of them were members of leftwing groups.
As of 2001, militant partylist group Bayan Muna had the most number of victims of extrajudicial killings with 132. This was followed by militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) with 104 victims of extrajudicial killings, and Anakpawis with 49 victims of extrajudicial killings.
The Karapatan monitor is a quarterly update on the incidents of human rights violations in the country.
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