News Updates - 26 January 2010 (Tuesday)

Army, Comelec, PNP vow to respect human rights
By Armand M. Galang
Manila Times – www.manilatimes.net
Tuesday, 26 January 2010

CABANATUAN CITY: Police military and election officials have to respect human rights in conducting checkpoints in connection with the rule against carrying ban during election period.

“We will be conducting another round of our COP’s [chiefs of police] to make sure guidelines are properly followed and human rights are respected,” said Senior Supt. Ricardo Marquez, director of the Nueva Ecija police provincial office during a conference among the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Army (PA) and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) here over the weekend.

Lawyer Fernando Cot-om, provincial election supervisor, stressed the need for a strong cooperation among the agencies at every point of election-related activities.

But Marquez said that based on previous feedbacks reaching his office, most Novo Ecijanos were all-praises to policemen conducting checkpoints.

The police have arrested at least 10 people, including law enforcers and businessmen, for alleged violations of gun ban since its imposition on January 10.

Appropriate charges, according to Marquez, have been filed before the provincial or city prosecutors’ office.

Cot-om said that under the rule, any apprehension should lead to provision of appropriate documents and evidence and should be filed before the prosecutor’s office. “What we need is strong coordination,” he stressed.

Col. Felicito Trinidad, commanding officer of the Army’s 702nd Infantry Brigade who was assigned to sit with his counterparts at the security council for Nueva Ecija this election, said they would abide by the Comelec resolution, which provides that the military shall keep distance from politicians.

Marquez also noted that except for some provinces in Mindanao, “only in Nueva Ecija a police checkpoint yield AK-47,” and other high-powered guns.

But condition in several areas, including San Jose City, he noted have greatly improved from the previous elections.




Group to probe human rights violations in Maguindanao massacre
By Ellalyn B. De Vera
Manila Bulletin – www.mb.com.ph
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Two months after 57 individuals were killed in Maguindanao in one of the most gruesome election-related violence in the country, human rights group Karapatan launched a fact-finding mission to document cases of alleged human rights violations in the aftermath of the massacre.

Human rights workers and advocates belonging to Karapatan headed to Cotabato City last weekend for the National Interfaith Mission for Peace and Justice in Maguindanao.

Karapatan secretary-general Lovella de Castro said one of the objectives of the mission would be to pursue justice for the victims and families of 57 individuals, mostly women and journalists, who were brutally killed on their way to the municipality of Shariff Aguak.

The mission also aims to document incidents of human right violations in the aftermath of the massacre.

According to the initial reports received by Karapatan through its local chapter in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), more than a thousand families from several barangays in Ampatuan, Rajah Buayan and Sharrif Aguak were forced to flee their homes due to fear of being caught in the crossfire between government troops and the Ampatuan’s private armies.

About 100 armed men allegedly belonging to the Ampatuan political clan killed 57 persons last November 23.

Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., tagged as the mastermind in the massacre, is currently being held at the National Bureau of Investigation on multiple murder charges filed by the Department of Justice.

De Castro, one of the head conveners of Kalinaw Mindanao, a coalition of human rights and service-oriented institutions, organizations, and concerned individuals, led the contingent to Maguindanao.

Kalinaw Mindanao is led by groups such as Alliance Against Impunity in Mindanao, Pagbabago! Movement for Change, Karapatan, Kawagib Moro Human Rights Alliance, and Barug Katungod Mindanao.