MILITANT groups in Negros Occidental will mark the 72nd International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2021, with protest action.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Negros acting chairman Pete Pico said the mobilization is aimed at seeking justice and accountability for all victims of extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.
Pico said in the last six years, 376 human rights workers, members of the indigenous groups, labor leaders, trade unionists and even journalists were killed.
In Negros Occidental, 76 unresolved summary killings and drug-related cases, including those alleged “nanlaban” (fought back), have been recorded. Forty-one of them were in Bacolod City, he said.
“As if not enough, trumped-up charges and illegal arrest pervaded the country with a high record 2,725 illegal apprehensions and detentions completely disregarding constitutional guarantee of due process and right to counsel,” Pico also said.
Bayan-Negros, in a statement, noted that the Department of Justice had stated that hundreds of drug-related cases miserably failed or did not comply with procedure required of arrest and filing of cases.
The group further said political dissenters and Human Rights Advocates are either silenced, cowed and intimidated if not recklessly and irresponsibly red-tagged because of the Anti-Terror Law and Executive Order number 70.
With this, the group is calling to abolish the Anti-Terror Law.