KARAPATAN:
Despite drop in rights abuses, still no ‘vibrant democracy’
By Abigail Kwok
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 18:37:00 07/21/2008
Filed Under: Human Rights
MANILA, Philippines -- While the incidence of extrajudicial killings may have decreased in the second quarter of this year, the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) maintains that the country still does not enjoy a “vibrant democracy.”
The right group released its second quarter Karapatan Monitor on Monday, which acknowledged that extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances committed against activists have decreased from April to June.
But the group said the government is no “human rights advocate.”
“Karapatan condemns the continuation of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, illegal detention, torture, hamletting, forced evacuation and other human rights violations against men, women and children,” the group said.
From April to June, Karapatan monitored seven cases of extrajudicial killings, 11 frustrated killings and two abductions.
But Karapatan gave credit for this to “UN special rapporteurs, representatives of international NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], foreign lawmakers…and to Chief Justice Reynato Puno who supported us in our defense of human rights in the Philippines.”
The human rights violations reported by Karapatan include the alleged abduction and “psychological torture” committed against Rose Ann Gumanoy, the daughter of slain peasant leader Eduardo Gumanoy.
Rose Ann was presented to the media last July 10 and denied allegations she and her sister Fatima were kidnapped by military men. But Rose Ann’s mother maintained her daughter was kidnapped.
Last May 15, peasant leader Celso Pojas, 45, was gunned down by unidentified men in Davao City allegedly by “military death squads as part of the government’s counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya [Freedom Watch] I and II,” Karapatan said.
On the same day, Randy Malayao, 39, was abducted by unidentified men. Malayao, who was former vice president of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), was also a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in Cagayan Valley.
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