Groups stage protest action against rights violations

RELIGIOUS groups and activists held a series of separate rallies across the country on Thursday to condemn human rights violations, political oppression and extrajudicial killings.

In Manila, protesters gathered inside the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) compound to stage a solidarity fast on behalf of political prisoners.

“We, leaders and members of civil society organizations, hold a solidarity fast to show that we are with the political prisoners in their calls for justice and immediate and unconditional release,” said Franciscan Sister Crescencia Lucero, deputy executive director of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines.

Meanwhile in Batangas province, members of Christian and school-based youth organizations rallied in front of a court building in Rosario town to call for the release of student leader Maricon Montajes and her companions.

Montajes was arrested in June last year, along with fellow students Romiel Cañete and Ronilo Baes –three of 336 political prisoners in the country that protesters want released.

“Arresting people and taking their freedom and rights because of mere suspicion, and even going to such measures as creating trumped-up charges to ensure that these people remain in jails echoes nothing but paranoia,” said Kristine Valerio, head of the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines.

In Davao, about 5,000 members of religious, militant and community organizations joined in a march to a local park to call for an end to extra-judicial killings.

“We have known that these incidents of summary killings have been rising, and for almost two decades now these killings have not been solved,” said Alberto Sipaco,

In the southern Philippine city of Davao, about 5,000 members of religious, militant and community organizations marched to a local park calling for an end to extra-judicial killings.

“We have known that these incidence of summary killings has been rising all these times, and for almost two decades now these killings have not been solved,” said Alberto Sipaco, CHR director for Southern Mindanao.

Father Joel Tabora, president of the Ateneo de Davao University, said it should do better in molding “leaders that are respectful of human rights and dignity.”

Lieutenant General Arthur Tabaquero, commander of the military’s Eastern Mindanao command, said all military activities are “concentrated on the enforcement of human rights.”

Report from ucanews.com