NewsRelease | Rights victims on BS Aquino’s 5th SONA “We have seized to believe justice will be served under the Pork Barrel King”

Hustisya Jul 27 03:48PM -0700 
News Release
28 July 2014
 

Reference: Cristina Guevarra, secretary general, Hustisya +63949-1772928

Rights victims on BS Aquino’s 5th SONA “We have seized to believe justice will be served under the Pork Barrel King”

 

“We have seized to believe justice will be served to victims of human rights violations under the Pork Barrel King. If Pres. Aquino himself
arrogantly abuses his power to defend the DAP while intimidating protests through barricades and heavy police and military deployment, how do we expect a haciendero president will make justice attainable even to victims of rights violations?” said Cristina Guevarra, Hustisya secretary general as they joined in protests on the occasion of Pres. BS Aquino’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA).
 

Joining in the Monday’s protests are families of victims of extrajudicial killings, victims of torture and relatives of political prisoners under BS Aquino. Hustisya regional and provincial chapters also joined SONA protests in different cities and provinces nationwide.
 

“We join the people’s outrage against DAP, which was used to embezzle more funds in the hands of the president, making it his own pork barrel. We share the call to hold the Aquino government accountable in the DAP, in as much as we demand accountability and justice for the people whose rights were robbed and denied by this administration,” said Guevarra.


Human rights groups are taking into account some reports that DAP funds were funnelled into the military’s counter-insurgency program. In earlier statements, Karapatan said the DAP was used directly and indirectly to sow terror among the people through the AFP and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) through projects channelled to paramilitary groups engaged in ‘peace negotiations’ with the government.


According to Guevarra, they are outraged that extrajudicial killings continue a week into Pres. Aquino’s fifth SONA. “Amid the DAP controversy, terror and human rights violations continue,” said Guevarra.


Karapatan Southern Mindanao reported that Gregorio Galacio, 38 years old, was killed on July 19 in Compostela Valley, Mindanao. A member of Hustisya, Galacio was the father of Grecil Buya, the nine-year-old girl killed by elements of the 28th Infantry Batallion of the Philippine Army in March 2007. Grecil was falsely tagged by the AFP as an “NPA child warrior”, which they would later retract. None has been punished in the killing of Grecil.
 

“Since Pres. Aquino delivered his first SONA, victims of rights violations have increased in number. His inaction and implementation of Oplan Bayanihan has in effect tolerated human rights violations and committed the same atrocities against the people,” said Guevarra.


Karapatan has documented 204 victims of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino government.
 

Oplan Bayanihan is the counter-insurgency campaign of the Aquino government, which is said to focus on peace and development. Rights groups, however, have called for the abolition of Oplan Bayanihan which, according to them, continues the same policy of quelling discontent and rights abuses.
 

“Even high-profile cases remain unsolved. The Reyes brothers who killed Palawan broadcaster Gerry Ortega are on the loose. So is Jovito Palparan, whose men abducted UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan. The Burgos family keeps searching for Jonas. Victims of the Ampatuan massacre continue to cry from their grave. What has happened since?” Guevarra asked.


The group said the four years of Pres. Aquino has been long enough.
 

“For a president who bragged about serving justice and holding perpetrators accountable, but failed to do so after four long years is unforgiveable. It is best for the victims and for the people if Pres. Aquino steps down,” said Guevarra. ###


--
Hustisya National Office
2/F #1 Maaralin cor. Matatag Sts.
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City 1100 Philippines

Telephone: (02) 434-7486 | (02) 435-4146
Mobile: 0949-1772928
E-mail: hustisya.national@gmail.com

PRESS RELEASES: | “Medalla de Horror” for BS Aquino’s fifth SONA—Karapatan

publicinfo Jul 28 01:38PM +0800
Press Statement
July 28 2014

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580

Pres. BS Aquino faces the nation on today, July 28, with three impeachment cases slapped against him—two for his presidential pork called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and one for entering into the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States government. All the impeachment cases boil down to BS Aquino’s betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

“The DAP is spreading like the plague, hounding the Aquino government, at the expense of the ordinary taxpayers. Now, the executive and legislative branches who benefitted from the DAP act as BS Aquino’s PR machinery in its defense,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Palabay said that “even the newly installed AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gregorio Catapang shamelessly called on the soldiers to defend DAP, because through DAP the AFP has been pampered with billions of money for its terror campaign against the people. “ The AFP is the chief implementer of the BS Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan, a counterinsurgency program similar to Gloria Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya.

“Such is a case of a people held up by its own government and gunned down by its supposed protector, the AFP. It is using the people’s money against the people. This makes all those who express disgust over the corruption in the government vulnerable to military harassment and other forms of human rights violations,” Palabay warned.

Atrocious human rights record: Aquino’s Medalla de Horror

“This is likely as the four years of the BS Aquino government is marked by human rights violations, his medalla de horror, committed against those opposed to the anti-people policies and programs of the government,” said Palabay.

She cited the 117 peasants killed in defending their right to land against the big time land grabbers that are the big business corporations and plantations; and the 49 indigenous peoples who were victims of extrajudicial killing when they fought for their ancestral lands against foreign big mining corporations and other ‘development’ projects. (See separate table on Civil and Political Rights committed under the Aquino government).

From July 2010 to June 2014, Karapatan recorded 204 people who became victims of extrajudicial killing, and 207 victims of frustrated killing.

“However Aquino blames his predecessor for all his and his regime’s woes, he cannot deny his similarity with Gloria Arroyo in perpetuating corruption and terror. A continuum exists,” Palabay said citing the case of the killing of Gregorio Gelacio on July 19, 2014. Galacio is the father of Grecil Buya, the 9-year old child killed during the Arroyo regime because the military said she was a child combatant.

Galacio sought justice for the killing of his child. In the process, he became a victim himself of military harassment and red tagging. About 10 men surrounded Galacio’s house and shot him. He sustained six gunshot wounds and died on the spot.

Karapatan in earlier statements said the DAP was used directly and indirectly to sow terror among the people through the AFP and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) through projects channelled to paramilitary groups engaged in ‘peace negotiations’ with the government.

Jail the Plunderers, Free all political prisoners “The DAP controversy also brought to fore the situation of prisoners, including the political detainees, as those initially charged with plunder were sent to ‘special’ detention cells and accorded special privileges such as immediate hospitalization without any court order and special visitation rights, among others,” Palabay added.

She said that the inequality and inconsistency in the government’s attitude between the common crime violators, the political detainees and those accused of plunder started off the call to “jail the plunderers, free all political prisoners.”

There are now 504 political detainees, most of them arrested through trumped up criminal charges. There are 53 who are sick and 42 elderly who deserve to be released on humanitarian ground. “There are also 15 peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) who should not be in jail if only the government is serious in its so-called peace initiatives and sincere in its commitment to implement previously-signed agreements,” Palabay added.

Karapatan said that the inhuman jail condition and the inequality before the law is embodied in the case of Andrea Rosal—arrested when she was seven months pregnant, dumped into a cramped jail, went through the maze of bureaucratic red-tape before she was hospitalized, and eventually lost her two-day old daughter Diona.

Similarly, Miradel Torres, four months pregnant, was arrested for criminal charges. Miradel was diagnosed with threatened abortion. Yet, like Andrea, she was made to travel for hours from Quezon province to Taguig City Jail; and transported back and forth the jail and hospital for check-up, instead of confining her immediately to the hospital. “Like Andrea, and unlike Atty. Gigi Reyes, she needed a court order for her hospitalization.”

Karapatan believes, “The construction of a ‘first-class jail’ for the likes of Enrile, Estrada, Revilla and Reyes adds insult to the injury.” The said ‘first class jail’ is partly funded with DAP funds amounting to Php 20 million.

Palabay said the “paranoia of Aquino on the rising people’s dissent against his government is apparent through his cohorts’ attempts to give him untrammeled political power through emergency powers and the deployment of military and police poised to quell the exercise of free speech and freedoms of assembly in the protests during his SONA.”

“The pork scam, the PDAF and DAP, exposed the filthy governance that BS Aquino tried to cover-up in his earlier years. However, it also brought out the best in our people—the vigilance, the unity, and the will to change the bankrupt system that breeds corruption and exploitation of our people. The impeachment of BS Aquino is definitely just the beginning of the people’s show of unity,” ended Palabay. ###

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Press Statement | Karapatan on BS Aquino's SONA: Delusions, lies, crocodile tears - all signs of a beleaguered President

 Press Statement

July 29, 2014

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, 0917-3162831

Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580

"The web of lies woven by BS Aquino during his SONA on the alleviation of poverty in the country, job creation, and immediate response to disasters reflects his disconnect with the real world. By all indications, the lives of the majority of Filipinos have deteriorated immensely under his watch. Shedding crocodile tears to gain the sympathy of the public is straight out of a poorly made script to save face amid rising people’s protests and three impeachment cases,” Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said on BS Aquino’s SONA. 

Karapatan also condemned the arrest of four activists during the SONA - Maria Luisa Garcia, 46, and Rosita Labarez, 57, of Controlled Economic Zone Federation; and Rodel, 33, and Rochel Ann Tortola, 12, of Migrante International, all resident of Bgy. Holy Spirit, Quezon City. A stun gun was used to immobilize Rodel and Rochel Ann Tortola, while they were inside a jeepney. All were released after intervention by Karapatan paralegals and lawyers from the National Union of People’s Lawyers.

 "The repressive measures used against the protesters—the overkill presence of police and military, the layers of barriers and concertina wires and container vans, and the water cannon and stun guns are tell-tale signs of a beleaguered presidency. The layers of barricades literally and figuratively show the isolation of BS Aquino from the people," Palabay said.     
  

"In just four years, Aquino has used up all of Cory’s magic," Palabay said. Aquino now faces three impeachment complaints for his presidential pork, the Disbursement Accelaration Program (DAP) and the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the Obama Administration. "Caught with nothing to gain people's trust, BS Aquino resorted to emotional blackmail by again invoking the name of his parents," Palabay said.

"BS Aquino even had the gall to boast of the arrest of the Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon when the arrest was a violation of the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. The peace negotiation between GPH and the NDFP has been stalled despite billions of pesos poured into the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)," Palabay said. 

Karapatan has documented 204 victims of extrajudicial killings and 207 cases of frustrated killing committed under the Aquino regime. There are 99 victims of torture, 21 enforced disappearances and 504 political prisoners. "With Aquino’s desperation to stay in power and the full blast modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, more rights violations will be committed as its protector, the AFP, sow terror to silence opposition," she said.

"But the Filipino people will bow down. With pride and courage, we will continue fight to break the bankrupt system which the rich and the powerful, like BS Aquino, benefitted from at the expense of the Filipino people," Palabay ended. ###  

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Press release | SONA 2014 & Hacienda Luisita: What happened to BS Aquino’s promises?

Press Release

Reference: Florida "Pong" Sibayan

AMBALA Chairperson, +639293201477

July 27, 2014

A new video by the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Tudla and the Luisita Watch network narrates the saga of farmworkers and reports on the current state of land reform and human rights in Hacienda Luisita. The 13-minute video primer can be accessed via Youtube:http://youtu.be/2jyAB7So5Yc

In the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year, President BS Aquino made special mention of his family’s controversial sugar estate, Hacienda Luisita with promises of land distribution and social justice. “Kung may isa man pong paksang paboritong ikabit sa pangalan ko, ito ay ang Hacienda Luisita,” Aquino said, while claiming that land distribution was underway, not only within his family’s long-disputed estate but in all other landholdings covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Days before this year’s  SONA, however, farmers in Hacienda Luisita continue to struggle with landlessness. Today, more than a hundred farmers have been evicted or are currently under threat of eviction from foodcrop farms they have been tilling for nearly a decade. In fact, whole communities are under constant threat of being wiped-out to make may for grand plans to convert the estate into a commercial hub, while the Cojuangco-Aquinos continue to control the sugar plantation and mill.

During the 2013 SONA, Aquino played his usual blame game and attributed land reform backlogs to the previous administration’s “defective land records system.” But Aquino, who was already President two years before the SC proclaimed its landmark decision on Hacienda Luisita, cannot invoke blamelessness. He not only failed to push his relatives to withdraw their opposition to the just prospect of land distribution – he directly used power and influence to ensure his family’s hold on Hacienda Luisita.

The current fiasco over bribery and landlord compensation culled from Aquino’s patently anomalous and unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) says it all.  

Out of the 6,453-hectare estate, only 4,915 were declared agricultural in use under the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme which the SC revoked in 2012. Upon election, Aquino proudly proclaimed that he has divested all shares in the family sugar business that he directly managed – but played dumb as to the existence of more than a thousand hectares of Luisita agricultural land that the first Cojuangco-Aquino President, his mother, Cory, “hid” from CARP in 1989. If PNoy really wanted to prove “good faith,” he could have easily pointed these areas out without reference to the “defective records system,” and immediately ordered distribution of more than a thousand hectares of Luisita land, even before the SC decreed the same for the rest of the 4,915 under HLI.

These “hidden” agricultural lands have actually “resurfaced” around the same period as last year’s SONA – and have since been fenced and heavily-guarded by armed private personnel, police and military units beholden to yellow corporations like TADECO, Luisita Realty Corporation (LRC) and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT). In December 2013, the DAR did issue a belated notice of land reform coverage (NOC) for some 358 hectares in two Luisita villages, but this NOC did not stop the Cojuangco-Aquino family from evicting farmers, bulldozing ready-to-harvest palay, and slapping trumped-up charges against hundreds of tillers. A full company of the 3^rdMechanized Battalion is even stationed within a 250-hectare area claimed by TADECO.

In the 2013 SONA,  Aquino also promised that his administration can definitely accomplish the issuance of NOCs for ALL CARP-covered landholdings all over the country by this year. However, no other NOCs have so far been issued even for landholdings under Cojuangco firms in Luisita. The sugar mill CAT, where Presidential sister Kris Aquino sits as a director, is actively contesting coverage of hundreds of hectares claimed by farmworkers.   Today, thousands of the so-called “beneficiaries” have been dislocated, or are under threat of wholesale disqualification. The DAR’s chaotic lot allocation process cunningly complemented the rampantaryendo (lease) system and buy-back offers unleashed by yellow financier-agents.

Unknown to the public – principally to most of the 52 survivors and relatives of victims who filed the complaints –criminal charges against perpetrators of the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre were dismissed in 2010, during the very first year of BS Aquino’s term as President. Today, more human rights violations are piling up in Hacienda Luisita.A farmer leader was murdered last November.  Burning of farmhuts and homes, destruction of crops, and looting of farm animals and tools have become common occurrence.  Farmers are mauled, serioulsy injured, nabbed and detained in series of incidents involving private security men, police and the military.  

Even the DAR has been directly involved in evicting tillers and destroying crops using government equipment and resources. Incidents last June 25, July 3 and 8 have resulted in the destruction of a farmhut and around 50 hectares of productive palay and organic food crop farms cultivated under the AMBALA’s bungkalan. Another questionable eviction notice was issued farmers only last week, stating that a cooperative farm hut will be destroyed by the DAR today, July 27, a Sunday – a day before the President’s SONA.

With the reign of terror and impunity perpetually hanging over Hacienda Luisita, farm workers can only pin their hopes in the campaign to oust this corrupt and despotic landlord president. ###

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Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura

(Agricultural Workers Union)

Philippines

Follow UMA Pilipinas on Twitter

Why OFWs in Rome want BS impeached

Posted by Belarmino Dabalos Saguing
Rome, Italy 27/07/2014

For selling the country to the hogs and for his betrayal of people’s trust. Undelivered BS promises to OFWs. For his failure to raise workers salaries and implementing genuine agrarian reforms and to solve the county’s chronic unemployment.

Promise 76: Enforce State Policy of not pursuing overseas employment as development strategy	Promise 77: Prioritize the protection of overseas Filipino workers and their families
Promise 78: One-stop shop for overseas workers	Promise 79: Review the budget of the OWWA
Promise 80: Improve OFW services in Philippine foreign posts	Promise 81: Invest in training and upgrading of skills of OFWs
Promise 82: Protect OFWs from fixers, scammers, and traffickers	Promise 83: Address OFWs financial and social problems
Promise 84: Global trading master plan to benefit OFWs	Promise 85: Engage the participation of the migrant sector and civil society in governance
Promise 86: Strengthen reintegration programs for returning migrants	Promise 100: Review the National Defense Act of 1935
Promise 119: Propagate measures to prevent trafficking in persons	Promise 129: Boost AFP Modernization Act
Promise 130: Address the situation of Filipinos in Sabah, Malaysia	Promise 132: Maximize Partnership for Growth with US
Promise 156: Reintergration program for the OFWs	·           ·         Promise 77: Prioritize the protection of overseas Filipino workers and their families

NO MORE BS!

IMPEACH AQUINO THE PORK BARREL KING !!!

Press Statement | Political Prisoners to on fast up to BS Aquino's SONA

Political Prisoners to on fast up to BS Aquino's SONA

publicinfo Jul 25 10:08AM +0800
Press Statement
July 25, 2014


 

Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
                    Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580

"To show their disgust to the BS Aquino administration, political prisoners start their fast today that will last until BS Aquino's State of
the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 28," announced Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general. Rights groups led by Karapatan and Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) staged protest actions in solidarity with the political prisoners' call to JAIL THE PLUNDERERS! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
 

In front of Camp Crame PNP Headquarters, members of the rights groups held “prison bars” with photos of political prisoners demanding for their release and to jail those who carted away billions of pesos of people’s money through the PDAF and DAP. Camp Crame has 12 political prisoners, including National Democratic Front peace consultants Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, Eduardo Serrano and Renante Gamara.
 

Also on fast are the political prisoners at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) Maximum and Medium Security, Special Intensive Care Area-1 and Taguig City Jail-Female Dorm in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City.


Female political prisoners from Taguig City Jail issued a statement saying, "Sa paglulunsad ng apat na araw na pag-aayuno,nais naming ipaabot ang aming sigaw ng pagkondena kay Presidente Aquino sa kanyang mga pagkakasala sabayan, lalo na kanyang brutal na kontra-insurhensiyang kampanyang Oplan Bayanihan, ang kanyang pang-ekonomiyang programa na public-Private Partnership at ang DAP na isang paraan niya upang mangulimbat sa kabang-yaman ng bansa." (In our four-day fast, we want our voices heard in condemning Pres. Aquino for his sins against the people, especially his brutal counter-insurgency campaign, Oplan Bayanihan; his economic program
the Public-Private Partnership; and, the DAP as his way of siphoning off the people’s money.)


"Ang patuloy na pagdepensa at pagtatanggol ng papet na rehimeng US-Aquino sa kasuklam-suklam na paglustay ng salapi mula sa kabang yaman ng bansa, dapat itong panagutin sa pamamagitan ng pagsasampa ng kasong criminal, pagpapatalsik sa pwesto at paglalagay sa loob ng piitan," (The US-Aquino regime should be held accountable, face criminal charges, be ousted and jailed for pilfering the people’s money),” the NBP political prisoners said in a separate statement. They are scheduled to march inside the compound
to show their protest on BS Aquino's misuse of public funds through the creation of DAP.


“The detention of activists and those perceived as ‘enemies of the state’ and their condition inside jails poses a stark contrast with how the BS Aquino treats the plunderers, especially the beneficiaries/defenders of the presidential pork. It is Aquino’s way of asserting his ‘ignorance’ in the said crime,” Palabay said.


After the picket at Camp Crame, Karapatan and SELDA members went to the Office of the Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process (OPAPP). Karapatan condemns the so-called peace initiatives of the Aquino government through OPAPP while it supports paramilitary groups through its Php 2.067 billion allocation from the presidential pork, the DAP. OPAPP and the paramilitary groups such as the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in the Negros provinces are engaged in ‘peace negotiation’. ###

Rights group hits OPAPP’s peace business

Press Statement
July 25, 2014


Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831
Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580

Karapatan today said the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process’ funds from the Disbursement Allocation Program (DAP) is 300-400 percent bigger than its approved budget in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2011 and 2012.
​

A total of Php 2.294 to 2.542 billion went to OPAPP for 2011 and 2012. The amount covers the combined GAA 2011 and 2012 approved budget of Php of 475 million, and the Php1.819 billion and Php 248 million given through DAP in 2011 and 2012, respectively.


Secretary General of Karapatan, Cristina Palabay, said, “Is the OPAPP deliberately evading public scrutiny by not including their proposed
projects for proper allocation in the GAA? Did they find DAP as a way to evade scrutiny for the large amount of money that goes to OPAPP?”
 

Karapatan observed that while OPAPP acknowledged the Php248 million DAP in 2012, the figure was not included in the Malacañang’s release of DAP-funded projects.
 

“Whatever magic the OPAPP and DBM do, such huge amount of people’s money supposedly spent for the peace initiatives of the government did not translate in concrete gains for the people. At best, only allies of the administration benefited from the DAP funds,” she added.
 

“The government’s peace initiatives have become a business venture rather than a sincere effort to go into the root causes of the armed conflict and solve poverty, landlessness and joblessness. Presidential pork oils OPAPP to put up every obstacle it can think of in the peace the process, especially with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, as it continues to ignore all previously signed agreements and commitment. The government continues to insist on the surrender of the members of the revolutionary movement as if this will end the armed conflict,” said Palabay.
 

Even in the guise of livelihood projects through the PAMANA or Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan, Karapatan said OPAPP could not boast of judicious use of billions of people’s money “especially because it is used to finance paramilitary groups like the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) or the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).” Both groups are involved in several cases of human rights violations in the Cordillera region and Negros provinces, respectively.
 

The CPLA got Php 264 million supposedly for projects coursed through PAMANA while the RPA-ABB received Php 31 million.
 

“The peace process should serve the interests of the majority of our people and just a few groups that sow terror. Through DAP the money stolen from the people are used against them. With OPAPP, it becomes worse as paying lip service to the peace process only denies the people of a venue where their basic social and economic problems can be discussed and solved,” ended Palabay. ###

Press release | Days before SONA, Luisita land distribution promise turns into ruthless eviction of tillers

Days before SONA, Luisita land distribution promise turns into ruthless eviction of tillers

Reference:

Florida "Pong" Sibayan

Chairperson AMBALA

+639293201477

In the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year, President BS Aquino made special mention of his family’s controversial sugar estate, Hacienda Luisita with promises of land distribution and social justice.

Days before this year’s  SONA, however, farmers in Hacienda Luisita continue to struggle with landlessness with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) – the main agency tasked to undertake land distribution – contemptuously taking the lead in evicting tillers and destroying their crops using government equipment and resources.

Since June 25, aggressive moves by the DAR to impose its anomalous land distribution scheme with the assistance of local village officials in Hacienda Luisita, such as Chairmen Rael Gatus of Barangay Mapalacsiao and Edison Diaz of Barangay Lourdes (Texas), have resulted in the destruction of a farmhut and around 50 hectares of productive palay and organic food crop farms cultivated under the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita’s (AMBALA) bungkalan. Fully-armed Tarlac police personnel also assisted in the forcible eviction of farmers.  

Three separate incidents on June 25, July 3 and 8 were captured in videos by concerned Luisita residents and were posted on social media. 

No notice was ever made by DAR before it ordered the destruction of the crops and the eviction of the farmers.

 

Gatus, meanwhile, has set a deadline for the destruction of another cooperative farm hut in Sitio Maligaya, Mapalacsiao, a day before President BS Aquino’s SONA. Farmers received the threat through a questionable eviction notice signed by the said barangay official.  

“Government personnel and officials involved in these acts should be slapped not only with administrative cases – they are also criminally liable for the destruction of food and farmlands that we have worked on and fought so hard for,” said Florida Sibayan, AMBALA Chairperson.

 

The land cultivation campaign bungkalan started in 2005, during the height of the Hacienda Luisita Strike. The DAR insists that the acts are legal since they are only “installing farm worker beneficiaries.” According to AMBALA, the DAR’s actions are actually meant to discourage farmers from planting palay and food crops and pave the way for the replanting of Cojuangco-Aquino sugarcane through the illicit aryendo (lease) system brokered by yellow agents such as ex-LTO Chief and Presidential “Kabarilan” (shooting-buddy) Virgie Torres.  

 

The Supreme Court (SC) under Chief Justice Renato Corona ordered land distribution in Hacienda Luisita in 2012.  A motion filed earlier this year by AMBALA to cite the DAR in contempt for its sham land distribution scheme is still pending before the SC.

 

“This reign of terror in Hacienda Luisita complements the Pork Barrel King’s use of the illegal Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) to retaliate and impeach Corona for the landmark SC decision,  and to immediately pay Presidential kin overpriced compensation for land that they will never let go of,” said Sibayan. “Impunity is the only thing that the DAP has accelerated and stimulated, especially here in Hacienda Luisita.”

 

Luisita farmers will join people’s protests during the President BS Aquino’s SONA on July 28.

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Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura

(Agricultural Workers Union)

Philippines

News Release | Female political prisoners question the construction of "first class jail"

News Release

24 July 2014

Reference: Roneo Clamor, SELDA national coordinator, 0917-5965859

Female political prisoners question the construction of "first class jail"

Female political prisoners at the Taguig City Jail (TCJ) slammed the BS Aquino government for constructing a "first class jail" meant only for high profile detainees such as pork barrel scammers Senators Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Juan Ponce-Enrile, and other personalities like Atty. Gigi Reyes and Janet Napoles.

"Nakakadismayang malaman na ang ginagawang first class jail ay para sa mga pulitiko at personaheng nagnakaw, nagsamantala at nagpasasa sa kabang-yaman ng bansa (It is disappointing to know that a first class jail is being built for politicians and personalities who pocketed, exploited, and took advantage of  the nation’s coffers),” TCJ female political prisoners said in a statement released yesterday.

The so-called state of the art jail is one of the projects funded by the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), according to Malacanang's list in its effort to justify DAP.  While the total cost of the jail construction remains unknown, an amount of P20 million from DAP was allocated for the said jail. Situated next to the building of Taguig City Jail, the female detainees can see through the corridors the on-going construction of the “first-class jail”.  The facility can house three inmates in a room and will have a courtroom for hearing of cases.

The female political prisoners cannot help but compare their detention facility with that of the planned first-class jail. "Ang mga detenido sa pangkawaniwang city jails ay nagtitiis sa napaka-sikip na espasyo, kulang sa higaan, mahirap na suplay ng tubig, kulang na pasilidad at kagamitan para sa mga may sakit," (detainees in regular jails suffer are cramped in small spaces, there is shortage of beds; and there is lack of water supply and facilities for those who are sick).  

The political prisoners who are in the Taguig City Jail-female dorm are NDFP peace consultant Ma. Loida Magpatoc, Gemma Carag, Marissa Espedido, Pastora Latagan, Evelyn Legaspi, Rhea Pareja, Miguela Peniero, and Andrea Rosal. Mariadel Torres, the four-month pregnant women’s rights activist was also detained at the TCJ-FD before she was brought to the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital due to threatened abortion.

The nine female political prisoners share the fourth floor of TCJ with 130 other female inmates, with four cells allotted to them. Some 28-35 detainees occupy the 6m X 3m cell. In each cell, at least 24 inmates use the triple bunk beds meant for 18 persons only; the rest of inmates sleep on the cold cement floor. At the female dorm, the 1 meter X 30 meter corridor also serves as visiting and activity area for the 139 prisoners. The infirmary at the female dorm has neither a faucet nor a comfort room.

Female detainees live under such conditions while they see Gigi Reyes, who is also detained in the same jail for plunder charge, in her own room beside the warden's office at the first floor. The women prisoners witness how much restaurant food is coming inside the TCJ for Reyes while they had to make do with the measly Php 50.00 a day food ration.

The female political prisoners said constructing a high-tech jail facility is not a solution to meet the needs of the high risk/high profile prisoners. “This will only widen the gap among prisoners.”

The government should instead seriously address the need for reform and rehabilitation of the jails, and provide for the basic needs of each prisoner. "Aanhin ang isang first class jail kung ang karamihan sa mga jail sa bansa ay hindi papasa sa national at international standards," (What do we need a first class jail for if almost all of the jails in the country do not meet the national and international standards?) the statement ended.###

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The Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) is an organization of former political prisoners in the Philippines. Founded on December 4, 1984, SELDA was initiated by newly-released political prisoners of the martial law period.  SELDA’s primary task is to work for the release of all political prisoners and to see to it that humane treatment of those who are still in detention are complied with by the Philippine authorities.  SELDA advocates justice for current and former political prisoners.  It calls for the mobilisation of resources in support of political prisoners, former detainees and their families.  It carries out legislative advocacy for the indemnification and rehabilitation of political prisoners. SELDA goes into partnership and builds solidarity with concerned individuals and groups for the freedom and welfare of political prisoners and all victims of tyranny. 

SELDA National Office: 2/F, Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets, 

Brgy. Central District, Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines

Tel: 632-4347486 Fax: 632-4354146 

Email: selda...@gmail.com, selda...@yahoo.com.ph 

Web: www.seldapilipinas.wordpress.com