Reference: Vince Casilihan
December 10, 2014
Karapatan-Bikol, the alliance of human rights advocates in
the region, spearhead today’s commemoration of the International Human Rights
Day. Protest marches will be held in various centers of the region to condemn the
state’s attacks on the social, economic, and political rights of the people. In
the face of continuing rehabilitation from successive natural calamities, the
people most particularly battle man-made disasters in the forms of economic
plunder, corruption, and militarization.
The Aquino government has remained the people’s foremost
tormentor as it persists in carrying out anti-national and anti-democratic
programs. In order to defend and
maintain its plunder and corruption, Aquino’s regime has unleashed Oplan
Bayanihan to suppress and attack those who fight the government’s evils.
BS Aquino turns its back on the people and instead emboldens
the AFP, PNP and other state armed groups to continue with their flagrant violations
of human rights and international humanitarian law. Across the countrysides of
Bicol, 9th Infantry Division and PNP Region 5 troops create virtual
garrisons as they continue to position themselves in the middle of civilian populations,
and occupy public structures such as schools and day care centers, chapels, and
barangay halls. Needless to say, various other attacks on the people result
from these military and police operations that plague the people for months.
On top of harassments, extra-judicial killings, abductions,
and destructions of livelihoods instigated by Oplan Bayanihan, Bicolanos in
particular likewise confront natural calamities, and the subsequent government’s
criminal abandonment and misrepresentation of calamity victims in exchange of
public funds. In the name of calamity victims, crooked government leaders cash
in on hyped natural disasters, in the process uprooting the people from their
homes and livelihoods, and leaving them in evacuation centers hungry and
anguish-stricken.
Karapatan-Bikol calls on well-meaning citizens of the region
to unite with the victims of the Aquino government and condemn its continuing
violations of the people’s rights. Alongside the demands for putting an end to
Oplan Bayanihan and punishing the fascist 9th ID and PNP, we also state
our claim for the punishment of calamity fund thieves, and the just relief and
rehabilitation of disaster victims. ###
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