ADVERTISEMENT
I don’t have enemies nor have I hurt anybody. Who else would have the ulterior motive to kill activists? Isn’t it the military?”-- Dexter Ian Selebrado, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilpinas organizer
“Gerald [Salonga] was subjected to a 13-hour interrogation. His captors warned that they would harm his mother if he does not admit that he’s a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).”
“Colonel Reuben Espartinez is using the judicial process to pursue his caprices.” - Dr. Alex Montes
"It has been four years and so far we have nothing but motions. Palparan may be long gone but this case would be far from over." – Concepcion Empeño, mother of disappeared UP student Karen
“To support a choice of detention facility – as with any other decision in life – there must be validated, adequate, relevant, and objective data. To invoke demons and ghosts from the past, real or imaginary, to avoid the Spartan conditions, rigors and limitations of an ordinary civilian jail – and get away with it with impunity – is to thumb one's nose against the justice system.” – National Union of Peoples Lawyers, in a motion for Palparan’s transfer
While many Filipinos are losing sense of the lessons of Martial Law and the Marcos dictatorship, activists and some history teachers are still keeping the light on the subject.
“There is a probability that rules of engagement were violated, that there could have been excessive use of force and that even if the members of the NPA had no more capacity to fight back, they were still slain or ‘no quarter’ was given during the conduct of the AFP military operations.”-- Cordillera Human Rights Alliance
Are political prisoners at Camp Bagong Diwa better off now, under a supposed democracy, than during Martial Law?
“If States are really in good faith in adopting the UNDRIP and adhering to international human rights standards, why did they not accept and consider our proposal and call for an end to militarization of indigenous peoples and their territories?” – Windel Bolinget, Cordillera Peoples Alliance
“The people will always resist. Aquino is treading the path of authoritarian rule by seeking a second term and by wanting to clip the powers of the Supreme Court while keeping Congress in his pockets.” -- Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bayan
“His death is the face of martial law in our country today. He suffered and died because of the cruelty and injustice of this government that speaks of ‘democracy’ but denies the rights of political prisoners.” – Cristina Guevarra, secretary general of Hustisya
“It is amazing how, an injustice, whether this be an extrajudicial killing, an enforced disappearance or torture, gives birth to people who would have otherwise lived a different life, but had now taken up the cudgels for the killed, the disappeared and the tortured.” – Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos
“President Aquino has never thought of the safety and security of its citizens, yet, the butcher Palparan, with hundreds of victims of human rights violations, gets top priority for protection, not unlike the treatment the plunderers get in this rotten regime.” – Karapatan
Col. Pepito Flamenco, warden of Bulacan Provincial Jail, and Sr. Supt. Ferdinand Divina, acting chief of the Bulacan police, admitted that the supposed threats to Palparan’s life are “speculative.”
Related story | ‘Special treatment’ | Groups slam transfer of Palparan to military jail
“It is evident that government forces had put civilians’ lives at risk and have also hampered the children’s right to education. Therefore, it is just to call for the military to immediately stop their operations in the said communities, and to call for the government to disband the paramilitary groups in the area, particularly the Bagani Forces.” -- Rural Missionaries of the Philippines - Northern Mindanao
SPECIAL REPORT: “There is no let-up in extrajudicial killings with BS Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan.” – Karapatan
“This is just one of his delaying tactics. He does not want to be convicted. He wants to be spared from the conditions of a regular jail.”-- Mrs. Concepcion Empeño, on Jovito Palparan Jr’s motion for reconsideration seeking transfer to a military jail in Metro Manila
“We have done everything we could. But we are faithful to what we started and we will pursue it until the end.” – Edita Burgos
Women, labor and human rights groups gathered in Santa Rosa City to commemorate the enforced disappearance of Ben and the brutal assassination of Tita Mely.
“As we remember those who have died in the line of fire, we must protect those who are left standing, especially those who are one with the people in their causes, principled, weather-beaten and under attack. We shall carry on, Rudy.”
A community of readers and supporters that help us sustain our operations through microdonations for as low as $1.