GROUPS demanded justice for the victims of human rights violations and called for accountability for people behind continued abuse towards sectoral groups on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
To commemorate the 76th International Human Rights Day, Karapatan Southern Mindanao Region (SMR) staged a picket on Tuesday at Freedom Park, Roxas Street, together with allied organizations.
The group called for accountability for the human rights violations of former President Rodrigo Duterte and under the current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration.
“As we commemorate the International Human Rights Day, we must actively involve ourselves in the fight for our rights, for justice, and for genuine national liberation especially with the harrowing situation of human rights in the country,” Grecian Asoy of Karapatan-SMR said.
Asoy, a paralegal of Karapatan, shared that human rights defenders who are at the forefront of the struggle, are continuously charged with trumped-up cases to derail their work.
She cited as an example Jay Apiag, who is facing six trumped-up cases which includes four for attempted murder and another case for illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Apiag was the former secretary general of Karapatan.
The protest commemorated the victims of state-perpetuated killings, red-tagging, political prisoners, and enforced disappearance.
Marklin Lariosa, son of William Lariosa who was a trade union organizer of the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno- Southern Mindanao Region (KMU-SMR), in a message expressed his grief as they have no leads as to his father’s whereabouts, eight months after the enforced disappearance.
Marklin shared his father is supposedly turning 64 this month but they won’t be able to celebrate since he is no longer with them anymore, and have no information about him.
Lariosa was allegedly nabbed by elements of the 48th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Butong, Quezon town, Bukidnon on April 10.
Kat Dalon, Sabokahan Women Indigenous Group vice chairman reiterated the call for justice over the death of lumad student Kuni Cuba,16, by state forces in Sultan Kudarat on June 8.
Cuba, as Dalon shared, was red-tagged as a member of the New People’s Army, by the state forces.
She stressed the continued reclamation of ancestral domains and presence of militarization forces the IP communities to wander the streets of the city and resort to begging.
The group reported, as of June 2024, over 100 individuals have already been extrajudicially killed nationwide.
It added that in Southern Mindanao Region alone, there are around 49 political prisoners, 2 cases of enforced disappearances, 6 cases of arbitrary or illegal arrest and detention, 30 cases of red-tagging or terror-tagging, and 38 cases of threats, harassment, or intimidation.
