The struggle for justice of victims of enforced disappearance and other human rights violations has been an uphill battle with victory almost out of sight for years. After eight long years, however, the families of six desaparecidos in Agusan del Sur scored a breakthrough with the conviction of Army Corporal Rodrigo L. Billones on 18 July 2008.

Last April 13, 2010, the families embark on another hard fight toward complete victory by filing a case of murder against other officers and members of the 62^nd Infantry Battalion, 8^th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army, which used to be stationed in Agusan del Sur, who were implicated by Army Sergeant Esequias Duyogan in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against Billones.

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) - Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) - Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng mga Maralita ng Lunsod (KPML) - Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)

Workers and urban poor launched this morning their own version of Christ Passion of the Cross in Welcome Rotunda, Quezon City. The depiction is a timely reminder of the sacrifices of the workers and urban poor in today’s advent celebration. Ironically, the workers who produce the nation’s wealth are being pushed further into deep poverty and helplessness. The issue of contractualization continues to wreck havoc on the lives of the workers that is becoming a rampant scheme or practice of most companies. In the same manner that the country’s urban poor are threatened by the unabated demolition of their abode and worst they were left without any relocation endangering their subsistence and right to live.

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) unequivocably condemns the violence perpetrated by the owners and management of Goldilocks against the legal and just actions of striking workers at the Mandaluyong cake plant at 11 o’clock this morning.

Unprovoked, two Goldilocks vans ferried some 40 company “contractuals” to be pitted against the striking workers. The vans attempted to ram through the picketline, the scabs threw sand at the eyes of the strikers and the aggressors hurled rocks against those blocking the gates. Six of the striking workers were hurt.

The Philippine Government must implement UN recommendations on prohibition of torture

The United Against Torture Coalition (UATC)-Philippines, an alliance of human rights organizations against torture, calls on the government to follow and implement the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) Concluding Observations on the elimination of torture in the country.

The CAT monitors the compliance of State parties to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Philippines, as a State party, submitted its second periodic report, 2009 April 28-29 to the 42nd session of CAT in Geneva, Switzerland. The report was submitted sixteen years late.