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Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Only 6 of 50 HR plaints prosper
IN A span of five years, only six of more than 50 complaints of human rights violations filed with the courts have prospered and are being tried now.
These cases were filed since the inception of an anti-human rights violations group in Central Visayas in 1999.
Committee
Karapatan-Central Visayas secretary general Dennis Abarrientos said though, that several others, mostly those reported since 2002, are now pending with the joint monitoring committee, which was organized after the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front.
The group documented 3,133 cases of violations involving 172,821 individuals during the Arroyo administration and has warned of the President dismissing high-profile cases, like the Hacienda Luisita labor dispute, as isolated incidents.
“The open brutalities of the government were again brought to the fore in violent dispersal of striking farm workers in Cory Aquino’s Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac.
Fourteen workers, supporters and bystanders were massacred when an army tank rammed the picket line and soldiers and police sprayed bullets on the demonstrators. Two kids and a mother were also killed due to suffocation from heavy tear-gas smoke,” the group said in a press statement.
Activities
Despite the slow turn of the wheel of justice, Abarrientos believes they should continue exposing these violations to the public.
In time for the observance of 56th International Human Rights Day on Friday, Karapatan has organized several activities to remind the administration of its duties and responsibilities under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which the Philippines is a signatory.
Military
Rev. Ray Gelloagan, Karapatan national vice chairman, expressed concern over areas where the police don’t investigate cases of abuses involving the military.
Even the unsolved killings of journalists show the government could not go after those who want to cripple down the society, said Bro. Jun Jardinico, also of Karapatan.
In Central Visayas, which accounts for 3,000 of the country’s 5,557 cases of human rights abuses from January to November this year, cases of illegal detention and physical assault are allegedly still committed by the military in Bohol.
Liza Serenio, secretary general of Karapatan Bohol, said the situation in their province has worsened.
Interrogation
Farmers Elias Ream-bonanza, 37 and a father of three, and Primitivo Ararao, 29, related their experiences of being forced by uniformed men to identify insurgents in their barangay in Calape town just last month.
The uniformed men, whom Abarrientos believes belong to the Special Forces, tied them to a tree and hit them during the interrogation. (CYR)
(December 8, 2004 issue)
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