Sufficient, Affordable, and Stable Electricity are the People’s Right

News Release

January 8, 2014

Reference: Vince Casilihan

Cellphone number: 09481390488

“A government feeding its people to the sharks” is how Vince Casilihan of Karapatan-Bicol describes the object of the people’s fury that effected the repossession of Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) by member-consumers last January 6.  “It was therefore just for Albayanos to retake the electric cooperative from the voracious San Miguel Energy Corporation and fight the anti-poor case of ALECO’s privatization,” he said.

The human rights alliance condemns in particular the incursion by the Albay PNP, reinforced by security forces of San Miguel Energy Corporation, on the demarcation between strikers and state forces. Hurt were negotiators Fr. Alex Bercasio of the Redemptorist Congregation and Atty. Donna Escio of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, when the two were shoved by police and security forces and pinned to the gate during the foray.

Drones To Kill Filipino Civilians Too

News Release

December 16, 2013

Reference: Vince Casilihan

Cellphone number: 09481390488

“It is despicable for a government to scurry on beefing up its fangs in the face of grinding poverty, injustice, and discontent.” This is what Vince Casilihan of Karapatan-Bikol has to say in reaction to the Aquino government’s plan on purchasing unmanned aerial vehicles or drones to be used in intelligence and combat operations.

The Aquino government has provided P684 million to the Department of National Defense for the acquisition of six drones for the Philippines Marine Corps. The human rights group Karapatan-Bikol believes that no later will the other branches of the Armed Forces of the Philippines follow suit in employing drones in it’s counterinsurgency campaign. To this, Casilihan criticizes Aquino’s “crooked” concept of addressing armed conflict. He said, “Here is a warfreak of a government buying more weapons, instead of allocating public funds to education, health, agricultural subsidies, and other social services – whose dearth are among the legitimate grounds for waging armed opposition.”

KADENA BICOLANDIA Links People’s Dissent to Oppose Aquino’s String of Predicaments

News Release

December  10, 2013

Reference: Vince Casilihan

“Oppressed people when united lose nothing but their chains.”  This is how Vince Casilihan of Karapatan-Bikol rephrases the motivation of a great thinker, as the human rights organization spearheads today’s commemoration of International Human Rights Day with an expanse of mass actions along the major roads of Bicol region.

Dubbed as KADENA BICOLANDIA, Casilihan describes the extensive network of protest actions as a demonstration of Bicolanos’ dissent against the Pork Barrel Scam, graft and corruption, and various torments imposed by the Aquino regime on Bicolanos. “Adversity after adversity, Noynoy Aquino is at the forefront of inflicting a chain of problems on the people,” points Casilihan. “While we are hunched with sweat and blood at toiling to create the nation’s wealth, Aquino and his hacendero-comprador ilk run amok at stealing public funds and sanctioning the further violation of our rights and legitimate demands,” Casilihan added.

The Karapatan-Bikol spokesperson enumerates the string of hardships Bicolanos face to the worsening of their daily survival: “We have thieves for lawmakers, and The Lord of Thieves for a president; our people live in the dark, literally, as we have greed-driven capitalists taking over ALECO, CASURECO 3, and soon, SORECO and the rest; we are left with toxic wastes while large foreign mining corporations are monsters plundering our minerals; we have rabid dogs donning AFP uniforms and running around on a killing binge targetting protesters.”  The list goes on, Casilihan furthers, as he likewise draws attention to age-old landlessness of peasants, escalating prices of goods and services, and the declining value of stagnant wages, among others.

To this, Casilihan reaffirms the aptness of KADENA BICOLANDIA as the people’s opposition to the Aquino regime’s ills. “We face Aquino’s string of predicaments with Bicolanos’ protests linked across the region,” he sums up. To be likewise participated in by various progressive organizations, KADENA BICOLANDIA will be started off from Quirino Highway in the town of Sta. Elena, Camarines Norte, all the way to Matnog and Bulan towns in Sorsogon. One hundred ten (110) mass action centers will be put up in key places along Quirino and Maharlika Highways, as well as along the roads of Catanduanes, and all over the three major islands of Masbate. Protest concerts in the major urban areas will conclude today’s activity.

In conclusion, Casilihan echoes the people’s determination: “Not only with arms united, but fervor after fervor, we will conjoin with the last man on the link to demonstrate our relentless struggle to break the chain of ills being forced upon us by Aquino and the system that he represents.”

 

Thrash Bureaucrat Capitalism – the Foundation of Corruption, Deceit of “Righteous Path” Rhetoric, and Militarization!

Karapatan-Bikol’s Statement on the 65^th-year commemoration of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights 

December 10, 2013

Reference: Vince Casilihan 
Cellphone number: 09481390488

The people must denounce and fight the US-Aquino regime in its all-out sponsorship of the rotten political system which spawns corruption, deceives the people with the lies of “Matuwid na Daan”, and institutionalizes militarization as the state’s foremost fangs of oppression and primary defense of the ruling system’s evils.

The ever-decaying ruling system gravely damages the people. Bureaucrat Capitalism, essentially the ruling class’ mode of running government as a money-making enterprise, breeds the extensive and deeply-rooted corruption. While the people labor in creating the nation’s wealth, they are being robbed of their yield by landlords and big capitalists elected into public office. They are denied services and rights while politicians wallow in stolen money.

With the Pork Barrel King Noynoy Aquino at the forefront of corruption, his regime babbles on the deceitful “Matuwid na Daan” rhetoric in order to conceal their theft. Subsidized by public funds, Aquino the Lord of Thieves employs his Public Relations experts with the exclusive task of distorting the truth and depicting him as the “Nemesis of Corruption” in the face of glaring evidences of his theft and crookedness in government.

Worst, Aquino’s regime intensifies militarization as its fundamental buttress in perpetuating power. Generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines likewise bloat with the people’s money in exchange for their compliance in the armed suppression of the people’s resistance. AFP’s attacks on the lives and livelihoods of the people in the name of Oplan Bayanihan has the ultimate goal of quelling the people’s militant fight and keeping Aquino and his class in power.

But regardless of intensified Oplan Bayanihan, the people do not cower. Instead, they seethe with anger at the AFP’s violation of their rights. In particular, Bicolano masses are enraged at the 9^th Infantry Division Philippine Army’s brutal counter-insurgency campaign in the region. Those condemning Aquino’s evils, those resolute in advancing the rights and welfare of the oppressed and exploited, are the ones being attacked and targetted for murder by the mercenaries of the regime. Under Aquino’s three years in power, Karapatan-Bicol has documented 1, 255 cases of human rights violations in the region. These  violations have attacked 13, 906 individuals, 38 of whom are victims of extrajudicial killings.

It is just to loathe 9^th ID’s aggression on the Bicolano people. But beyond battling human rights violations being committed by the AFP, the people ultimately direct their rage against the rotten ruling system. They remain firm in fighting in order to gradually defeat a rotten system that steals public funds, poisons the people’s minds, and assaults just struggles.###


Read in Filipino

Burukrata Kapitalismo: Ugat ng Kurapsyon, Panlilinlang ng Matuwid na Daan, at Militarisasyon, Ibagsak!

Pahayag ng Karapatan-Bikol sa Paggunita sa ika-65 taon ng Pandaigdigang Deklarasyon ng Karapatang Pantao

Disyembre 10, 2013

Reference: Vince Casilihan 
Cellphone number: 09481390488

                                              

Dapat kasuklaman at labanan ng mamamayan ang rehimeng US-Aquino dahil sa sukdulang pagtataguyod nito ng bulok na sistemang nagpapasimuno ng korapsyon, lumilinlang sa mamamayan sa kasinungalingan ng “Matuwid na Daan”, at nagpapatibay sa militarisasyon bilang pangunahing pangil sa pagtatanggol sa kabuktutan ng naghaharing sistema. 

Labis na pumipinsala sa mamamayan ang tumitinding kabulukan ng kasalukuyang sistema.  Ang Burukrata Kapitalismo, na sa esensya ay pagpapatakbo ng gubyerno bilang isang negosyo ng mga naghaharing uri, ang siyang pinag-uugatan ng malaganap at malalim na korapsyon. Habang ang mamamayan ay lugmok sa pagpapakahirap upang lumikha ng yaman ng bansa, pinagnanakawan lamang sila ng mga panginoong maylupa’t malalaking negosyanteng naluklok sa gubyerno. Pinagkakaitan ng serbisyo at karapatan ang mamamayan samantalang naglulunoy sa pinagnakawang pera ang mga pulitiko.

Activists claim Palparan man sowing terror in Bicolandia

       March 23, 2013                                                                                              Reference: Vince Casilihan 

       Press Statement

                                                                                                                  

Activists claim Palparan man sowing terror in Bicolandia 

 Manila, Philippines- The human rights watchdog Karapatan-Bicol on Saturday revealed that one of military officers allied with former army general Jovito Palparan Jr. is taking charge of the counter-insurgency campaign in the urban barangays of Legaspi City, Albay province. 

"The progressives and ordinary people of the main capital of Albay and the entire Bicol Region are placed under the spyglass of an extreme danger posed by Oplan Bayanihan courtesy of Col. Ricardo Visaya, a military protege of The Butcher and certified Godfather of Extra Judicial Killing who is no other than former Army Major Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.," said Karapatan-Bicol  Vince Casilihan in a press statement.   

"Col. Visaya who possesses the same brutal quality and fascist mindset of Palparan is set to spread state terror in the heart of Bicolandia as head of the peace and development council of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Bicol region," Casilihan stressed. 

Military rules in Bicol region

Schools and village halls are being used as camps by soldiers. Residents have to seek the permission of the military and sign in their logbooks whenever they go in and out of the community.

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

GUINOBATAN, Albay – Before Felix Paz, 81, became a peasant leader in the Bicol region, he was a farmer himself. Having his own share of hard work in the fields during his days as a farmer, Paz toldBulatlat.com, life is harder for farmers now because – they do not just worry about making a living. Their rights are violated by no less than the government itself.

Paz was among the supporters of farmers from communities in Guinobatan, Albay who held a protest action last Feb. 25. Though it coincided with the commemoration of the first EDSA uprising in 1986, their protest was far from celebrating the supposed restoration of democracy in the country.

Peasants from Bicol region held simultaneous protest actions in Guinobatan, Albay, Bato, Camarines Sur and in Barcelona, Sorsogon against the continuing militarization in their respective communities.

“We are united in fighting for our basic rights,” Vince Casilihan of Karapatan – Bicol, said.

Panunupil at paglaban sa Bikol

http://pinoyweekly.org/new/2013/03/panunupil-at-paglaban-sa-bikol/

PNoy reminded in Bicol visit over unsolved killing of student activist Cris Hugo

CRIS HUGO RARE PHOTO. Before his death Cris Hugo is the LFS Regional Coordinator in Bicol, National Council member of LFS and Grand Chancellor Alpha Phi Omega (APO).

By Joey Natividad
Special Correspondent

CITY OF NAGA, Bicol Region (BicolToday.com/21-Mar-2013) – Human rights group on Tuesday expressed dismay over the unsolved killing of student leader Cris Hugo 7 (seven) years ago in Legaspi City, reminding the tragic incident that wasted the student’s life in 2006, as the nation mourns over the recent suicide of student Kristel Tejada in Manila, and over reports of President Aquino’s visit in this city for the Liberal Party rally on Thursday, March 21.

The strong statement by the human rights activists regarding Hugo’s unsolved killing was made to remind the public as President Aquino is scheduled to visit the City of Naga on Thursday for the Liberal Party rally where he will endorse his party senatorial candidates. The campaign is part of his provincial sorties in propping up his Senatorial slate and local party bets.

Cris Hugo was the 85th of the 205 victims of extra-judicial killings in the Bicol Region during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Karapatan lamented that the slaying of Hugo by a gunman, 7 years ago was still unsolved, and that the suspect was a military man. Hugo had been involved in several protest actions with other youth activists in Albay, and that he had been one of the victims in the wave of alleged “systematic killings” launched by right-wing death squads on dissidents under the then Arroyo Administration, beginning 2004- 2010.

The “death campaign” that time had sparked an international justice inquiry that led into the creation of the Melo Commission which investigated the mysterious killing of civilians and known anti-Arroyo leaders and activists. Some members of the media had also fallen as victims to the death squads.

Cris, age 20, was a student leader at Bicol University College of Arts and Letters (BUCAL), in Legaspi City, Albay . He was regional coordinator and national council member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS). He was also the newly elected Grand Chancellor of the Alpha Phi Omega (APO Fraternity) chapter at BU that time.

“Culture of impunity still continues, 7 years have passed. Justice seems illusive for all the victims of Human rights violation under the (then) Arroyo Regime,” Vince Casilihan, Bicol spokesperson of Karapatan informed Bicol Today.com.

“Desperation to quell growing protests, we hold the Arroyo and Aquino administration criminally and politically liable for the killing of Hugo and the continuous attacks against our youth leaders,” he said.

Karapatan believes President Aquino continues to shed the blood of young patriotic leaders whose only ‘faults’ are that they continue to be steadfast and vigilant in upholding civil liberties, and calling for social change despite continuous tyranny and repression perpetuated by this administration.

Casilihan said that while leftist leaders and organizations are seemingly the primary targets of the government’s crackdown, ordinary civilians remain the most vulnerable victims, specially the youth.

“We are calling for the Aquino Administration for immediate action, but it seems a dream for us human rights workers, no one is held accountable from GMA’s victims until now. Cris Hugo is no other than Kristel Tejada, both whom government holds accountability on their early deaths.[BicolToday.com]

URBAN MILITARIZATION SA LEGAZPI, MAPANLINLANG! ILANTAD, TUTULAN!

       March 22, 2013                                                                                        Reference: Vince Casilihan 

       Press Statement

                                                                                                                  

URBAN MILITARIZATION SA LEGAZPI, MAPANLINLANG! ILANTAD, TUTULAN!

Ang urban militarization sa porma ng peace and development ng 901st Infantry Brigade, PA sa pangunguna ng commanding  officer nito na si Col. Ricardo R. Visaya ay bahagi ng mapanlinang na Oplan Bayanihan  (OPB) ng rehimeng US-Aquino. Malinaw na ang urban militarization na ito sa mga  barangay ng Arimbay, Rawis, Bigaa, Pawa, Victory  Village,  Tamaoyan, Tula-Tula, Lapu-lapu ay nakatuon pangunahin sa mga militante at progresibong organisasyong masa at progresibong grupong Party List  sapagkat alam ng publiko na wala namang presensya ng mga rebelde sa mga lugar na ito.

            Si Col. Ricardo R. Visaya ay masugid na tagapagpatupad ng tigmak-sa-dugong Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) ng rehimeng Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Eksperto siya sa vilification campaigns  at harassment laban sa mga progresibo’t  militanteng organisasyong masa at Party List groups.

            Noong kasagsagan ng pananalasa ng Oplan Bantay Laya, kumander  siya ng 69^th IB  PA  sa ilalim ng komand ng berdugong retiradong heneral na si  Jovito Palparan.  Dumanas ng harassments at  vilification campaigns ang mga progressive and militant organizations sa Central Luzon sa kamay ng dalawang Army Officers na ito.