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“Although Vilma Salabao’s remains have been released, this does not absolve the AFP and PNP’s barbarity.”
“The government should act immediately as the health of Echanis and her baby is at high risk, especially in overly congested, poorly equipped prison conditions where social distancing is impossible and mass testing for COVID-19 is ignored.”
Farmers in Buntog have been struggling for decades to assert their rights to the land, which they and their ancestors have lived in since 1911.
“Is [Año] justifying the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and PNP’s [Philippine National Police] massacre of five farm workers and caretakers? The mutilated genitals and broken fingers of Jhonatan and Niño Alberga? Is he justifying how the PNP Baras and the AFP’s 2nd Infantry Division are fermenting Vilma Salabao’s remains and continued refusal to turn them over to her family after three weeks, seven requests, and superficial requirements?” the group asked.
The 16 Tumandok leaders arrested were staunch defenders of their ancestral domain.
"...We are seeing yet again this pattern of non-observance to existing laws and inhumane treatment towards the accused.”
Karapatan-Central Luzon said the arrest and detention of Philip Alcantara is but another attempt to force his father to surface and surrender to the military.
12th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (12IBPA) troopers and the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas swooped down on Tumandok communities in Calinog in Iloilo and Tapaz in Capiz and killed nine civilians in a Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operation (SEMPO).
“Parang binuhusan ako ng malamig na tubig. (My enthusiasm was immediately put off) If you could just imagine the mental anguish that we feel because all along we thought we will be with him this Christmas.”
“Although it is so close to Christmas, [202nd Infantry Bridgade commander] Alex Rillera is still in the business of stealing corpses.”
“When lawyers, prosecutors, and workers in the justice sector are murdered with impunity and alarming regularity, no one feels safe; our people lose trust and faith in our government and its justice system, and the unscrupulous are emboldened to take the law in their criminal hands.”
“The situation will worsen if we are silent... Now is the time to fight, to speak, and to push for genuine social change.”
"Impunity. When the police think they can do anything, including shoot unarmed civilians at point blank, and when they show us how human life has very little value nowadays. #StopTheKillingsPH.”
“This is most definitely a global issue...We must not allow the call for human rights to be hijacked. Accountability must be part of the justice and democratic system.”
Church leaders expressed alarm and concern at the deteriorating prospects for peace as shown by the Rodrigo Duterte government’s demonization of human rights.
“How many more people need to suffer the fate of the dozens of individuals killed – red-tagged as terrorists and then end up dead? Health frontliners like them who rendered invaluable service and sacrifice especially during the pandemic were not only exposed to a deadly virus but to a dangerous political environment."
“There is no doubt that the policies and operations under the Duterte administration are responsible for the onslaught of extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations under the ‘war on drugs.’ State officials and police forces were both brazen and confident that they would enjoy impunity in their crimes.” -- Rise Up
“Rights are not won through silence, through fence sitting and inaction. Rights are won and claimed through difficult, arduous, beautiful, creative and vibrant struggle.”
“Ka Joaquin was unarmed and was convalescing. He was detached a few months ago from the main office of the NDF-Mindanao to undergo medical checkups and to recuperate from partial paralysis.”
Teddy Casiño of Bayan said the Duterte administration is the "number one human rights violator."
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