Human Rights

INDIGENOUS peoples (IPs) in the country have called on the government to help them fight for their ancestral domain and give them their sense of belongingness in society.

The Department of Justice has issued a memorandum laying down the “standard operating procedure for prosecutors nationwide with respect to their disposition” of cases involving political and media killings.

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UNITED NATIONS — The Obama administration and 14 members of the U.S. Congress are urging the U.N. Economic and Social Council to accredit the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission so it can work at the United Nations.

MANILA, Philippines – The military yesterday denied involvement in the recent killings of two activists in Masbate and Nueva Ecija. Maj. Harold Cabunoc, spokesman of the Army 9th Infantry Division based in Bicol, said they would not resort to extrajudicial killings even if communist rebels have attacked and killed their troops.

MANILA, Philippines – Unexplained killings continue as two more activists – a public school teacher and a farmer – fell to assassins’ bullets in Masbate and Nueva Ecija over the weekend, flouting the Aquino administration’s declaration of an all-out war against murderers of activists and journalists.

3RD IN AQUINO’S FIRST 10 DAYS MANILA, Philippines—An elementary school teacher and member of the party-list group ACT Teachers was killed over the weekend, making him the third member of a leftist group to fall victim to alleged extra-judicial killings in the first 10 days of the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

A 78-year-old leader of a local peasant group was gunned down Friday afternoon inside a military reservation in Central Luzon, and militants have pointed to the military as suspect.

For the first time, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Friday cited two officers of the Philippine Navy in contempt and imposed a P3,000 fine on each of them for their failure to attend several public inquiries of the commission into the forced disappearance of Muhamadiya Hamja. The Navy officers who were fined, the…

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MANILA, Philippines – A day after a journalist was killed in Tabuk City in Nueva Vizcaya, a coordinator of militant group Bayan Muna was shot dead yesterday morning in Kalibo town in Aklan.

MANILA, Philippines – As the son of a revered former president and democracy icon, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino inherits the hopes for change that the Philippine people put in his late mother, Corazon, following the “People Power” revolution of 1986.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – A 75-year-old radio commentator was shot dead in his home in Tabuk City over the weekend, the first journalist murdered during the Aquino administration.

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MANILA, Philippines – The government inter-agency task force handling cases of unexplained killings of media workers and political activists has sent a team of investigators to Davao to investigate recent cases of media killings in the province.

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – A prominent human rights lawyer here was shot dead by still unknown suspects who waylaid him in front of this town’s municipal trial court yesterday morning.

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MANILA, Philippines – Australia and the Philippines signed yesterday a Declaration of Cooperation to support activities that will enhance the investigative capability of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) with an initial P5.2-million grant.

The murders of two journalists triggered a fresh wave of outrage yesterday over a relentless assault on media practitioners in the country, which is now known as the second most dangerous place worldwide for the media, given the many killings of journalists.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A radio commentator was shot dead in Davao Oriental late Monday, the latest attack on journalists, officials said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday welcomed the move of human rights advocates to bring the cause of the “Morong 43” before a global forum.

MANILA, Philippines—Leaders of 13 organizations in Australia and 12 in New Zealand condemned the death of labor leader Edward Panganiban and challenged the incoming administration to render justice to him and other human rights victims.

MANILA, Philippines – The Ecumenical Voice for Peace and Human Rights in the Philippines has brought the “Morong 43” incident to the United Nations Human Rights Council and urged the body to monitor the country’s compliance to obligations and pledges to human rights instruments.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — An international human rights monitoring group has appealed anew to president-elect Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to end the outgoing administration’s “culture of impunity.”

MANILA, Philippines – Human rights defenders have called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to urge president-elect Sen. Benigno Aquino III to fulfill his campaign promise to promote human rights and prosecute the perpetrators of human rights violations in the Philippines.

The European Union (EU) has called for the establishment of a National Monitoring Mechanism (NMM) that would strengthen transparency and accountability of the Philippine government and the society as a whole in addressing extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country.

The surprising flow rate of the Tindalo-1 oil well off northwest Palawan will likely redraw the Philippine oil map. Tindalo-1 flowed a maximum 18,689 barrels of oil per day last week, the most by any well drilled in the Philippines since the Nido find in 1976.

“Ten dead and 300 injured”. This is not the toll of a natural disaster, but of the repression faced by workers attempting to exercise their trade union rights during 2009 in the Asia-Pacific region. The latest ITUC Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights also reports on the cases of over 2000 workers who were…

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – A labor union leader was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding men while on his way to work in Sta. Rosa, Laguna last Thursday, police said.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines –  Environmental activists expressed alarm over the series of killings of known anti-mining crusaders in Cagayan, the latest of which took place on the eve of the election against a local leader of the Alyansa Tigil Muna.