Photo Gallery I Protestors turn Pahiyas fete into funeral march
Instead of reveling in Lucban to celebrate the famous Pahiyas festival in honor of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers, townspeople of trooped to Quezon City to denounce the intensified counterinsurgency operations in South Quezon. Hundreds of protestors from various sectoral and rights organizations in Southern Tagalog marched to the Department of National Defense, where they placed a real-life coffin surrounded by placards bearing the names of human rights victims. The protestors, then, rallied to the Commission on Human Rights to file charges against the military and held a caravan on their way to the House of Representatives, where they were violently dispersed.
STeX Film: “Mistaken For”
For decades, government counterinsurgency programs in the Philippines, one after another, have caused grave human rights violations to innocent civilians especially in the countryside. The incumbent Aquino administration’s Internal Peace and Security Plan “Bayanihan” (Cooperation) or Oplan Bayanihan is no different. Oplan Bayanihan is but a replica of its predecessor, Oplan Bantay Laya, a counterinsurgency … Read more
Justice on Canvas
April 25, 2012, Wednesday – Karapatan-ST, in coordination with Artists’ Arrest, and other human rights groups, showed their sentiments in line with the commemoration of the 9th death anniversary of comrades Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy through an art exhibit set up just along the entrance of the crowded Redemptorist Church in Baclaran. In April 22, 2003, the two aforementioned human rights activists, following a Karapatan-ST-led Quick Response Team (QRT) investigation about reported extra-judicial killings in Mindoro Oriental, were brutally slayed supposedly by military proponents headed by Gen. Jovito Palparan and were believed to be holding evidences of oppression by the said general. After nine years and mere three days and several court studies, the case still had not been resolved, thus the continuous call for justice remained at hand.
Family, friends and collegues slam 9 years of injustice in Eden and Eddie slay case
April 20, 2012 – Human rights group Karapatan-Southern Tagalog and regional peasant organization Kasama-Timog Katagalugan staged a rally today at the Department of Justice and Mendiola bridge to commemorate the ninth death anniversary of their slain comrades, Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy.
Remembering Eden and Eddie
On April 21, 2003, two prominent activists from the Philippines’ Southern Tagalog Region, Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy, along with nine other members of a human rights quick response team (QRT) were abducted by suspected military men in the Island of Mindoro. Eden was then the secretary general of human rights group Karapatan – Southern Tagalog, and Eddie was the chairperson of the regional peasant alliance, Kasama-TK. The next day, their bodies were found, bearing signs of brutal torture.
