NDFP suggests release of political prisoners from presumptive Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

“While we look forward to the realization of the general and unconditionalamnest y of all political prisoners extended by presumptive president
Duterte, we also push for the immediate dismissal of trumped-up charges against National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace
consultants,” Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said at today’s hearing of multiple murder charges against Benito and Wilma
Tiamzon, Adelberto Silva, Vicente Ladlad, Randall Echanis, Rafael Baylosis, Satur Ocampo and Prof. Jose Maria Sison.



The Tiamzon couple and Silva are among the 18 peace consultants of the NDFP who are detained under the BS Aquino government; while Ladlad, Echanis, Baylosis and Ocampo are temporarily released on bail for the same recycled criminal charge. Sison, the NDFP’s chief political consultant, has been a political refugee based in the Netherlands since 1988.



“The Tiamzons are also facing fabricated charges of kidnapping with serious illegal detention at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, murder and frustrated murder in Laoang, Northern Samar and illegal possession of explosives in Toledo, Cebu,” Palabay said.


“The continued detention of the NDFP peace consultants violates not only the GPH-NDFP agreement on safety and immunity guarantees, but also an
expression of how the Aquino regime turned against the peace negotiation in derision.”


“Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, is currently suffering from “spondylolisthesis”, a displacement of a vertebra, while Silva already underwent triple
angioplasty, “which makes their release our urgent call,” Palabay said.


“While we await for the release of all political prisoners, we also prepare to send the biggest criminal in jail—BS Aquino, for all the crimes he committed against the Filipino people,” she added.


Karapatan cited the 318 victims of extra-judicial killings, 30 enforced disappearances, 583 cases of frustrated killings, the 106,068 victims of forced evacuations mostly in Mindanao communities, and the 543 political prisoners who are all victims of BS Aquino’s counter-insurgency program

Oplan Bayanihan. ###

http://www.karapatan.org/Karapatan%2C+progressive+groups+call+for+immediate+dismissal+of+false+charges+against+peace+consultants

Thirty years of EDSA UPRISING

*Press Statement*
*February 25, 2016*
 
*Reference: Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Chairperson, 0917-5616800
*
* Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580*

*30 years of EDSA uprising:
<http://www.karapatan.org/30+years+of+EDSA+uprising%3A+People%E2%80%99s+discontentment+persists%2C+rage+mounts>People’s
discontentment persists, rage mounts
<http://www.karapatan.org/30+years+of+EDSA+uprising%3A+People%E2%80%99s+discontentment+persists%2C+rage+mounts>*
http://www.karapatan.org/30+years+of+EDSA+uprising%3A+People%E2%80%99s+discontentment+persists%2C+rage+mounts
 
Thirty years after the people’s victory to overthrow the Marcos fascist,
corrupt, and puppet regime looms the threat of the return of the Marcos’
son, confidently inching his way to the realm of power with his well of
resources from the loot of the past. The past that Marcos Jr. arrogantly
refers to as the country’s glorious days.
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan chairperson said the threat of the return
of the Marcoses “Clearly, shows that after 30 years of EDSA and five
succeeding regimes later, the same unjust social structures that
necessitate a revolution persist,” adding that, “only a determined people
and their decisive action can bring about a genuine change—freedom and
prosperity, a humane society and just and lasting peace.
 
The five regimes who held the reins of power, she said, “not only failed to
uplift the nation, but also to truly serve the majority of the poor
Filipinos. They harped on the wrongs of the preceding regimes to cover up
the essentially the same oppressive and exploitative system they
perpetuate. The masses have been anesthetized for a second after EDSA have
awakened to the same harsh realities, unchanged by the promises and hopes
of EDSA.”
 
Hilao-Enriquez added that the BS Aquino regime, the latest of the regimes
that followed the dictatorship “desperately failed to sustain the people’s
victory and fulfil their hopes. Instead, like his predecessors, he
continued to deceive the people with statistics of a farce development,
albeit the statistics of the increasing number of poor and hungry,” which
is ironic, she said, because B. S. Aquino III is a son of a Martial Law
martyr, Ninoy, and the so-called icon of democracy, Cory.
 
BS Aquino, like his predecessors, catered to his clique and foreign
master’s interest to the detriment of the greater majority. He compromised
sovereignty with his signing of the controversial Enhanced Defense
Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). He gave up patrimony by allowing foreign
corporations to engage in unbridled exploration and extraction of the
country’s mineral resources.
 
“Unemployment, landlessness, corruption, dwindling social services, low
wages and pensions that could not cope with continued spiralling of prices
of basic commodities, criminal negligence of victims of disasters, high
cost of education worsened by new policies, such as the K-12, and a lot
more debacles characterized the B. S. Aquino regime.”
 
Worse, Hilao-Enriquez said, “he adopted past administrations’ solution to
quell the people’s unrest. He activated his killing machine with a
rehashed counterinsurgency operational plan, Oplan Bayanihan, courtesy of
Pentagon.”
 
As Aquino steps down, he leaves behind a grim statistics of 306 extra
judicial killings, 27 enforced disappearances, 15 massacres, 108,938
evacuees mostly from militarized areas, 557 political prisoners, including
19 National Democratic Front peace consultants.
 
Realization from experience is a catalyst. No substantive change will occur
for as long as the interest of the ruling elite and its US imperialist
master is top of the agenda. No substantive change will occur for as long
as the great majority remains in its dire plight. “Only the people’s
collective and decisive action can reverse the oppressive and exploitative
system we are all in,” ended Hilao-Enriquez. ###