Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
Statement on the Commemoration of EDSA People Power I
22 February 2010
Today, as the nation commemorates the historic EDSA People Power I uprising, the continuing illegal detention and torture of 43 health workers by the Philippine military stands as a manifest and complete reversal of everything that EDSA I stood for.
While EDSA I ended the Marcos dictatorship and all its attendant evils, the Arroyo regime has restored much of these. Patronage politics and crony capitalism are stronger than ever, albeit called by other names.
Imeldific dinners and lavish spending abroad hog the headlines, while more than half of the population goes hungry. Institutions and processes of our so-called democracy are undermined for political exigencies.
Over the last nine years, we have witnessed not just the decline of our social landscape but also the growing ascendancy of military rule.
Today, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police continue to disregard the basic tenets of due process and defy even the highest courts of the land. Today, these state security forces remain the top human rights violators in the country.
Today, like the 43 health workers, everyone and anyone can be their victim.
Anyone can be arrested arbitrarily, handcuffed, and blindfolded for almost two days. Anyone can be deprived of sleep, subjected to hours of interrogation, and denied legal counsel. Anyone can be tortured and harassed sexually while under detention.
Anyone, like the 43 health workers, can subjected to the worst forms of abuse and humiliation simply by being accused, through lies and fabricated evidence, as a New People’s Army member.
All of these are with the blessings of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, AFP commander-in-chief and highest-ranking civilian authority. Hers is a rule marked by everything that was abominable with the Marcos dictatorship: unbridled greed and corruption, insatiable lust for power, and utter dependence on the armed strength of state security forces.
Today, it is not enough that Filipinos live “lives of quiet desperation”. Regardless of what we are doing, we live under the naked power of the military, like a sword over our heads.
The continuing detention of the 43 health workers is an irony, if not a tragedy, that highlights the meaninglessness of any commemoration of EDSA People Power I. The innocents who suffer will earmark our government’s backward march to history.
This kind of existence is unacceptable. We demand change. We demand respect for our basic liberties and fundamental rights. We demand an end to martial rule.
Free the 43 health workers now.
For Reference:
Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712
Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos
Vice-Chair, 0927 483 2325
Dr. Darby S. Santiago
Chair, 0927 473 770
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Doctor’s Testimony Debunks AFP Claims
Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
Media Release
16 February 2010
“I am tired.”
With these words, Dr. Alexis Montes debunked the military’s accusations against the 43 illegally detained health workers and stamped these as malicious falsehoods. Despite breaking down into tears at the end of his otherwise gripping testimony, the 62-year old surgeon detailed every aspect of their arrest and detention, and revealed once and for all the true extent of the human rights violations perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“We admire Dr. Montes for his steadfastness and integrity amidst the physical and mental difficulties he was subjected to by the AFP,” declared Dr. Geneve E. Rivera, HEAD Secretary-General.
The grey-haired and mild-mannered Dr.Montes spoke yesterday before the Court of Appeals, which was conducting a writ of habeas corpus hearing.
“Immediately after the February 6 mass arrests, Dr. Montes was singled out and tagged by the AFP as the leader of a New People’s Army hit squad formed to eliminate then AFP general, Jovito Palparan,”added Dr. Rivera. “But to date, the AFP has yet to show any iota of proof against the man who, for 20 years, was the National Coordinator for Health Services of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).”
In contrast, the doctor was able to provide details as to their incarceration without food and bathroom privileges, and how, at one point, he was forced to inhale an aromatic substance that made him dizzy. The military then interrogated him for hours.
Dr. Montes also revealed how even a fiscal from the Department of Justice, a certain Atty. Romeo Sanson, defiled due process when he merely did a “roll call” of the detained health workers during the inquest, did not explain anything to them, and ignored their demands for their own legal counsel.
HEAD warned about the tactics being employed by the AFP as a clear and present danger to the Filipino people.
“It seems to be the institutional character of the AFP to conveniently resurrect the communist bogey every time they are caught flagrantly violating basic human rights.” Said Dr. Rivera, “The military establishment wants us to believe that they can just call anyone NPAs, detain them while fabricating evidences and witnesses, and then file cases against them to justify their actions.”
“The AFP is now acting as the judge, jury, and executioner. Worse, the DOJ is their willing accomplice in this grave injustice!”
“The military and police are acting as though the Philippines is back in the heydays of Martial Law. The Arroyo government, true to form as a Marcos-copycat, is using its counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya not against the armed rebels but against unarmed civilians,” concluded Dr. Rivera. ####
References:
Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712
Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos
Vice-Chair, 0927 483 2325
Dr. Darby S. Santiago
Chair, 0927 473 7700
Media Release
16 February 2010
“I am tired.”
With these words, Dr. Alexis Montes debunked the military’s accusations against the 43 illegally detained health workers and stamped these as malicious falsehoods. Despite breaking down into tears at the end of his otherwise gripping testimony, the 62-year old surgeon detailed every aspect of their arrest and detention, and revealed once and for all the true extent of the human rights violations perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“We admire Dr. Montes for his steadfastness and integrity amidst the physical and mental difficulties he was subjected to by the AFP,” declared Dr. Geneve E. Rivera, HEAD Secretary-General.
The grey-haired and mild-mannered Dr.Montes spoke yesterday before the Court of Appeals, which was conducting a writ of habeas corpus hearing.
“Immediately after the February 6 mass arrests, Dr. Montes was singled out and tagged by the AFP as the leader of a New People’s Army hit squad formed to eliminate then AFP general, Jovito Palparan,”added Dr. Rivera. “But to date, the AFP has yet to show any iota of proof against the man who, for 20 years, was the National Coordinator for Health Services of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).”
In contrast, the doctor was able to provide details as to their incarceration without food and bathroom privileges, and how, at one point, he was forced to inhale an aromatic substance that made him dizzy. The military then interrogated him for hours.
Dr. Montes also revealed how even a fiscal from the Department of Justice, a certain Atty. Romeo Sanson, defiled due process when he merely did a “roll call” of the detained health workers during the inquest, did not explain anything to them, and ignored their demands for their own legal counsel.
HEAD warned about the tactics being employed by the AFP as a clear and present danger to the Filipino people.
“It seems to be the institutional character of the AFP to conveniently resurrect the communist bogey every time they are caught flagrantly violating basic human rights.” Said Dr. Rivera, “The military establishment wants us to believe that they can just call anyone NPAs, detain them while fabricating evidences and witnesses, and then file cases against them to justify their actions.”
“The AFP is now acting as the judge, jury, and executioner. Worse, the DOJ is their willing accomplice in this grave injustice!”
“The military and police are acting as though the Philippines is back in the heydays of Martial Law. The Arroyo government, true to form as a Marcos-copycat, is using its counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya not against the armed rebels but against unarmed civilians,” concluded Dr. Rivera. ####
References:
Dr. Geneve E. Rivera
Secretary-General, 0920 460 3712
Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos
Vice-Chair, 0927 483 2325
Dr. Darby S. Santiago
Chair, 0927 473 7700
Monday, February 15, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
