Task force on EJKs urged to probe killing of Bayan Muna coordinator last year By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News
Published April 26, 2021 12:34pm The son of slain activist Jory Porquia on Monday urged Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to let the inter-agency task force on extrajudicial killings handle the investigation. Porquia, a coordinator for Bayan Muna party-list, was killed on April 30, 2020 inside his rented home in Iloilo City by still unidentified suspects. His son Lean said that since Porquia was killed, they were never consulted nor approached by any police investigating team. “It seems that they don’t want to resolve the case, they seem to be uninterested in investigating who are the perpetrators and prosecuting the criminals,” Lean said.
Kin of victims of Calabarzon raids, slain labor leader meet with DOJ investigators Bayan By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News
Published April 21, 2021 7:32pm Families of the victims of Calabarzon raids and the wife of slain labor leader Dandy Miguel on Wednesday met with the officials of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to discuss developments on the investigation into these incidents. In a statement, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said the group had a meeting with Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and the officials of the AO 35 task force on extrajudicial killings. “We found the meeting very encouraging as the process of investigation as well as the participation of witnesses were clarified. We will continue to seek justice for those who were killed and unjustly detained,” Reyes said.
Tonyo Cruz
It must be said from the get-go that President Duterte cannot complain right now about the outcome of his administration’s response to the pandemic. Portrayed as the savior of the country, he should own the fate that his pronouncements and policies have wrought.
Congress backed up his declarations placing the entire country under a state of public health emergency and a state of calamity, and passed laws allowing extra powers, allocating new funds and letting the government borrow more money.
Surveys and studies have also shown that the public cooperated almost fully with last year’s strict lockdown: Filipinos lead the world in mask-wearing, and Google said most Filipinos stayed in. The abuses mostly occur in places where the promised “ayuda” did not reach the public, with authorities cracking down on protests. Authorities have enforced quarantine rules: lenient to top public officials, while very strict to the powerless. Private motorists are favored,
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You Are Here:Home → 2021 → March → 18 → Global mission finds local remedies for rights victims in PH illusory
Global mission finds local remedies for rights victims in PH illusory
Progressive groups stage a protest condemning the recent case of police brutality. (Photo by Altermidya)“Domestic remedies have been ineffective at providing redress and at halting continued abuses. The power imbalance between victims of state violence, and perpetrators who have the backing of government apparatuses, is grave. Structures to redress this imbalance are lacking.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
MANILA – Human rights violations in the Philippines have intensified and the domestic remedies available for the victims are not working.
(FLICKR / FILE PHOTO)
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Thursday night, March 11, said there has been a determination that the killings fall under the jurisdiction of Administrative Order (AO) 35 that created the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and Other Grave Violations of the Right of Life, Liberty and Security of Persons.
“The DOJ will endorse the investigation to the AO 35 committee, as there is sufficient evidence that the victims were members of cause-oriented groups carrying out legitimate dissent,” Guevarra said.
AO 35 was issued in 2012 by then President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III.
Aside from the DOJ as lead agency, AO35 inter-agency committee is composed of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of National Defense (DND), Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Director of the National Bureau of Investigation