x

KARAPATAN-SOUTHERN TAGALOG
BAGONG ALYANSANG MAKABAYAN-SOUTHERN TAGALOG

PRESS RELEASE
9 December 2011
Email: karapatan.st@gmail.com / bayan.st@gmail.com
References: Glen Malabanan Leo “XL” Fuentes
DeputySecretary General, KARAPATAN-ST Secretary General, BAYAN-ST

HR cultural caravan push for Mendiola amid police blockades:
Dispersal of Occupy Mendiola but one of Aquino’s numerous assaults on human rights

In their 5th day of staging the Human Rights (HR) cultural caravan in the Southern Tagalog (ST) region, militant groups have arrived in the National Capital Region and are determined to expose the Aquino administration’s true color which is “tainted with the people’s blood” with their firm decision to march to Mendiola.

The groups headed by Karapatan-ST and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN)-ST condemned the recent state repression of the government manifested by the brutal dispersal of the youth camp-out and Occupy Mendiola.

‘Aquino no different from Arroyo’
After the dispersal the other day, the Manila Police District closed in on the streets near Mendiola making it difficult for protesters to set-foot in Mendiola. Glen Malabanan, deputy secretary general of Karapatan-ST slammed this move by state forces saying it “violates the consitutionally guaranteed right of the people to protest” and is “no different from that during Gloria Arroyo’s time”.

“Mendiola is a public area, as well as in any other public place in the country, wherein the people can hold their protests to address directly to the government the greivances that are not resolved. Is Aquino ignorant to the symbolic meaning of Mendiola in upholding genuine democracy in this country?” Malabanan said.

The HR cultural caravan, an annual event by Karapatan-ST and is part of the week-long commemoration of the United Nation’s 63rd International Declaration of Human Rights, aims to increase awareness among the public on their basic human rights as well as show them the current HR situation in the region.

Aquino to surpass Arroyo’s HR violations
 

Malabanan said that the Aquino government’s statistics on HR violations is becoming closer to that of Arroyo’s in her first years in power. In Arroyo’s first two years, Karapatan recorded 167 extrajudicial killings, 851 illegal arrests and detentions, 27 enforced dissappearances and 101 tortures. Meanwhile Aquino’s administration shows a record of 64 victims of Extra Judicial Killings, 205 illegal arrests, 9 enforced disappearances, 51 tortures, 356 political prisoners of which 78 are arrested under Aquino administration.

“The situation has not changed, the two administrations may differ in their number of victims but the facts remain that these cases of human rights violations are still perpetuated by the state with the culture of impunity well intact,” she stressed and added that Arroyo too, who was a master of state violence was not able to solve the crisis with these kind of attitued towrds critics of the government.

Malabanan connected the said human rights records in the counter-insurgency program being implemented. During Arroyo’s time, Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 garnered numerous criticisms to from human rights activists here and abroad. “Now, the U.S. blueprint of state terror in our country is dubbed as Oplan Bayanihan,” she said.

In Southern Tagalog, there are already 13 records of extrajudicial killings (EJK) which include Kenneth Reyes local baranggay captain and head of BAYAN-Batangas, Celito Baccay and Caloy Rodriguez union leaders of the Solidarity of Cavite Workers and the Calamba Water District respectively, and including a youth-leader Lester Barrientos of the Southern Tagalog Cultural Network. All of these cases are linked with military elements behind the plan of killing.

“We are no longer dealing here with hired goons or private armies. These are state armed forces themselves constantly committing crimes against the Filipino people, crimes against humanity, who they are supposed to protect,” Malabanan added.

Malabanan slammed the Aquino’s administration’s lack of political will to solve the killings. No charges have been filed against the perpetrators of EJK since Aquino assumed office.

“Aquino has done nothing to prosecute the biggest culprit behind the bloodshed, that being, Arroyo, who has been receiving special treatment from the government instead, ” she said pertaining to Arroyo’s petition for hospital arrest after being pressed with electoral sabotage charges.

“What do all these double standards tell us? That the future for those who are in power and who can stomach brutally taking people’s lives will not be that bad after all? That people like the Ampatuans can go on a killing-spree and still get a VIP treatment? This is not only unfair. This same future is not even safe for our children,” Malabanan chided.

‘State violence can’t resolve worsening crisis’
Leo “XL” Fuentes, secretary general of BAYAN-ST, stressed that the prevailing crisis in Philippine society have caused the people to be “fed-up” and thus protest.

“Aquino must recognize the legitimate demands of the people, why they opt to address their mistrust to his government through street protests – these are but fundamental processes for a democratic system of governance to work. Now may we ask him, does quelling the protesters invalidate the reason behind the protest?” Fuentes asked.

He noted the latest Social Weather Station on hunger has increased to 4.3 million families or 21.5% of the population which is directly related to the measly wages that workers get and the chronic problem of absence of genuine land reform for peasants. Fuentes also cited that since Aquino’s stay in power, budget cuts on social services, such as education and health, were in their historical height.

“He expects the people to just keep silent while poverty and joblessness plague their lives? Instead of addressing these grievances he answers them with state violence, this won’t resolve the crisis but rather worsens it,” he added.

‘On a global scale of dilemma’
Fuentes also noted that the crisis does not happen only in the Philippines but is within the global scope of capitalism. This, he said, is why “Occupy” movements were formed – which directly holds the greed of the rich and the powerful 1% of the population as accountable to the dismal state of the bottom 99% of the social strata.

“Contrary to what local economists say, the continued economic relliance of the Philippines with that of U.S. economy deeply caused this crisis. You can expect that whatever economic policy the Obama administration takes, Aquino’s government will avidly duplicate,” he said.

According to him, the need therefore for a broad unity of sectoral calls against unjust government policies inspired Occupy movements around the world. “But still, the response of governments who were not sincere with serving the needs of their constituents was state violence –such as that of Aquino’s.”

‘We are not afraid’
Fuentes urged freedom-loving Filipinos to join the said Occupy protests and stressed that the groups are not afraid of what Aquino and his state forces can do to the protesters that are only exercising their rights for freedom of expression.

“We know that we too might be brutally dispersed once we get near Mendiola, but we also know that this is nothing compared to the countless victims –even the unrecorded ones- who fought with their lives in order to change the corrupt and inhumane system into something much more just and genuinely free,” Fuentes ended.

### Contact 09213060622 / 09162790622