Torture survivors Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo have filed their appeal before a Malolos court that earlier acquitted retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and several members of the military auxiliary force earlier this month.
After three years of postponements, presentations, and hearings, the trial of former Army general Jovito Palparan on the abduction and torture of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño has come to an end.
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star The quotation is from Fr. Pete Montallana, a Catholic priest who has spent 20 years as missionary among the Agta-Dumagat tribe in the Quezon portion of the Sierra Madre mountains. By continuing to violate the Agta’s human rights, he says, the state security forces…
Indigenous peoples answer the Aquino administration’s “deception, dispossession and destruction” with defiance.
Arrest Palparan, kin of victims ask Aquino (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / Bulatlat.com)
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MALOLOS, Bulacan – As the world commemorated the 149th Human Rights Day, Mrs. Erlinda Cadapan, mother of missing activist Sherlyn, took the witness stand at the Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 14. Her more than six years of searching for Sherlyn, second of her five children, led her to this…
Video: Justice remains elusive for Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star As we wind up 2011, we find some grounds to be guardedly optimistic that in 2012 our people’s long-hobbled quest for justice can gain momentum on two fronts: against graft and corruption in high places, and against impunity from wanton human rights violations. Former…
A case against impunity
When he retired and after his appointment to the National Security Council fell through because of widespread opposition, Palparan has evaded media attention – in contrast to his frequently hogging the headlines during his days in military service. He must have thought that by doing so, he could escape responsibility for the long lists of…
A local human rights group cast doubts on what the military claims to be a mass grave of the communist movement’s purge victims. They said the site was actually a “no-man’s land”, where the village population evacuated to escape military operations. BY JOHANN HEIN B. ARPON Bulatlat.com Tacloban City – A local human rights group…