PinoyAbrod.net

According to news report, the CIDG said that Valle’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Davao-based columnist Margarita Valle, 61, was reportedly released after being arrested by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on June 9, Sunday.

According to news report, the CIDG said that Valle’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity.

Valle was arrested at the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental while waiting for her flight back home to Davao. Warrants of arrest were issued on Dec. 2011 by a Misamis Occidental regional trial court for multiple murder with quadruple frustrated murder and damage to government property and in Sept. 2006, issued by a court in Pagadian City for arson.

A witness said Valle has a resemblance to the suspect but is not “the actual suspect who is the subject of the warrant.”

Valle’s son, Rius, Save our Schools Network spokesperson alerted in social media that her mother was arrested and lost contact with her. The CIDG held Valle for almost nine hours, a report said.

Mart Sambalut, National Union of Journalists in the Philippines-Davao City chapter chair condemned Valle’s arrest.

Sambalut said Valle is a reporter since 1980s as one of the pioneers of Media Mindanao News Service during the Marcos regime. Valle later became an administrative officer for MindaNews in 2001 and a writer for Sunstar Davao until 2018.

She is also known for her community development work partnering with different non-government organizations focusing on peace development, environmental protection and community capacity and ability programs. She is also active in advocating for Human Rights in Mindanao.

With Valle’s arrest, Sambalut said, they “Fear of the possibility that journalists working in communities may be a future target of the threat, harassment and killings as Mindanao remains under the power of martial law.”

Meanwhile, Rius thanked those who help them locate her mother and worked for her release.

“My words are not enough to express my utmost gratitude to all. Di ko kayo ma isa-isa dahil halos buong Pilipinas naghahanap sa kanya, (I could not thank each and every one of you as the whole country searched for her.)” he said in a Facebook post.

Rius said they will stay vigilant and vow to hold into account those who are behind the arrest of his mother.

“If they can do this to a journalist, what will prevent them from doing this to ordinary citizens? We will hold them accountable,” he said.

The post Cops release Davao-based columnist arrested for mistaken identity appeared first on Bulatlat.

“If the Duterte government has nothing to hide, it should be open and receptive to these forms of investigations, instead of being the foremost impediment to justice and accountability.”

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan dared the government to allow the United Nations to look into the human rights situation in the Philippines. This after 11 UN human rights experts expressed their deep concern on the state of human rights in the Philippines and asked the UN Human Rights Council to form an independent investigation into human rights violations in the Philippines.

“If the Duterte government has nothing to hide, it should be open and receptive to these forms of investigations, instead of being the foremost impediment to justice and accountability,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay in a statement welcoming the UN expert’s call for investigating rights violations in the Philippines.

President Duterte has not welcomed any international body to look into the reported rights violations in the country. Just recently, the Duterte government withdrew from the Rome Statute after families of the victims in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs submitted their cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Read: Why kin of drug war victims charged Duterte for mass murder before ICC

“The government’s favorite line of defense when confronted with investigations is to bring up the concept of sovereignty on issues that involve accountability. This call is grounded on real reports that can be validated and ascertained, but were instead disregarded by the Philippine government,” Palabay reiterated.

In response, the Palace called the UN experts statement as “intellectually challenged” and “outrageous interference on the Philippines sovereignty.”

“We anticipate the desperate response from the government and its mouthpieces,” Palabay said.

“Duterte and his henchmen are not the victims, but are deliberate and conscious actors in the string of violations perpetrated against individuals and communities,” she added.

Meanwhile, Palabay said they support the call for the UN HRC to conduct an independent investigation in the country. She said such call of the UN experts is an apt and urgent response to the human rights crisis faced by the Filipinos today.

‘Human rights emergency’

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) also welcomed the UN experts statement saying that in three years of impunity under President Duterte, “Philippines is now in a state of human rights emergency.”

“The grave abuses of human rights committed with impunity by Duterte’s military and police, as well as by state-attached paramilitary forces and death squads, must indeed be investigated, exposed and condemned. Duterte’s grave crimes and the Filipino people’s clamor for justice must be made known across the world,” the CPP said in a statement.

The CPP said that aside from the countless extrajudicial killings, the Duterte government have perpetrated hundreds of cases of political imprisonment, filing of trumped-up charges and legal harassment, threats, armed raids of entire communities, hamletting and occupation of rural villages, population control, food and economic blockade, and so.”

“Any investigation must subject to critical inquiry both Duterte’s drug war, as well as his counterinsurgency directive ‘to end local communist armed conflict’ and its various components including Mindanao martial law, Memorandum Order 30, Oplan Kapayapaan, Oplan Sauron and Oplan Kapanatagan,” the CPP said in a statement.

It added that the grave state of rights abuses in the country is a “direct result of Duterte’s official and public order for state forces to disregard human rights in carrying out his security directives.”

The statement was released by the UN experts on June 7. It expressed concerned over the current state of human rights situation in the Philippines citing the killing of alleged drug users and peddlers under the government’s campaign against illegal drugs as well as the killing of human rights defenders in the Philippines.

The statement was signed by the UN Special Rapporteur (UNSR) on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, the Chair of the Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice, UNSR on the Right to Food, UNSR on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, UNSR on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, UNSR on the Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UNSR on the Right to Health, UNSR on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNSR on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, and the UNSR on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.

The post Karapatan to Duterte: ‘Allow UN independent probe on rights violations in PH’ appeared first on Bulatlat.

“It is time for the Human Rights Council to take action against these sustained attacks on human rights defenders and independent watchdog institutions.”

By BULATLAT

MANILA – It is about time for the United Nations Human Rights Council to take action against the human rights violations in the Philippines, said UN human rights experts in a joint statement issued on Friday, June 7.

At least 11 human rights experts signed the statement, including UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of the indigenous people Victoria Lucia Tauli-Corpuz and Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard who roused the ire of President Duterte years ago when she said that killings brought about by the so-called “war on drugs” should be investigated.

“We are extremely concerned over the high number of killings which are being carried out across the country in an apparent climate of official, institutional impunity,” the experts said in a statement.

They asked the Human Rights Council to conduct an independent investigation to look into the increasing cases of human rights violations in the country.

The Human Rights Council is a body made up of 47 UN Member States elected by the UN General Assembly.

The experts said that they have “recorded a staggering number of unlawful deaths and police killings in the context of the so-called war on drugs, as well as killings of human rights defenders.”

“Very few independent and effective investigations have taken place, independent media and journalists are threatened, the law has been weaponized to undermine press freedom, and the independence of the judiciary is undermined,” they added.

“It is time for the Human Rights Council to take action against these sustained attacks on human rights defenders and independent watchdog institutions,” the experts said in the statement.

The experts said they have brought to the attention of the Philippine government the cases of what they described as “gross human rights violations” in the past three years. However, Duterte’s response is not welcoming.

They noted cases such as extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, including of children, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, trade union and land right activists.

“Those cases also included allegations of arbitrary detention, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment, gender-based violence against women human rights defenders, attacks against the independence of judges and lawyers, freedoms of expression and of assembly, as well as people’s right to food and health.”

“Sadly these cases are just the tip of the iceberg with many more cases being reported regularly,” the experts said.

In many cases, they added, the alleged perpetrators are members of state security forces, paramilitary groups or individuals linked to them.

They also criticized the government for not condemning human rights violations and the attacks against its critics including Duterte’s intimidation of the UN Special Rapporteurs and Supreme Court judges.

“Instead of sending a strong message that these killings and harassment are unacceptable, there is a rising rhetoric against independent voices in the country and ongoing intimidation and attacks against voices who are critical of the Government, including independent media, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists,” the experts said.

In the rising number of these violations, the experts said, there is no indication that the government will “fulfill their obligation to conduct prompt and full investigations into these cases, and to hold perpetrators accountable in order to do justice for victims and to prevent re-occurrence of violations.”

“There are now thousands of grieving families in the Philippines. We call on the international community to do everything possible to ensure that there will be no more,” the experts said.

The post UN experts seek independent probe into rights violations in the Philippines appeared first on Bulatlat.