Hermon

Atty. Hermon C. Lagman was a militant labor and human rights lawyer during martial law. He taught the workers not only labor rights but also the value of critical and decisive thinking, self-reliance and steadfastness, collective leadership, and shared responsibility. He motivated trade unions and workers’ organizations to assert and defend their rights even in defiance of the martial law ban on strikes and other concerted activities.

https://youtu.be/qVpYHa4Nyj0

The commission of enforced disappearance, which is a multiple violation of human rights, has been unabated in the Philippines. The Marcos regime registered the highest number of reported victims at 882, followed by the Cory Aquino administration at 825. There were 340 reported victims under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 94 under Ramos, 58 under Estrada, and 25 under the present Aquino government.

Porferia

Having been raised and sent to school by the religious, Porferia Acuram became a church-based volunteer worker. She served not only her fellow Subanens, but all those who needed her help including victims of encounters between the military and the insurgents, some of the latter she would bring to the hospital. On July 19, 1989, she solicited food from the Red Cross for two wounded communist rebels. She was arrested along with her husband later on the same day.

https://youtu.be/ZECH6bt9Kj0

The commission of enforced disappearance, which is a multiple violation of human rights, has been unabated in the Philippines. The Marcos regime registered the highest number of reported victims at 882, followed by the Cory Aquino administration at 825. There were 340 reported victims under the administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 94 under Ramos, 58 under Estrada, and 25 under the present Aquino government.

Celio

The militarization of Zamboanga del Sur in the 1980s to counter the communist insurgency spawned numerous arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. One of the municipalities that were transformed by the military into virtual “no man’s land” was Tigbao. Suspected rebels and their supporters who were tortured and killed were dumped by the sidewalks or haphazardly buried. In April 2001, after almost a month of digging, FIND’s exhumation team unearthed the remains of 12 desaparecidos, 7 of them on the campus of Tigbao Elementary School.

https://youtu.be/h6cz8uARHTw

February 2016 Issue: The Voice

Unbowed: Asia fights for truth and justice

Unlike in some countries where the number of cases of enforced disappearances and other forms of human rights violations is decreasing, Asian states are witnessing an upsurge in new cases. It is quite unfortunate that we do not have many examples of ways to solve this problem in Asia, which the governments can follow to end the vicious cycle of impunity.

In the Philippines, former president Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law had ended but the phenomenon of enforced disappearance has not. Suharto’s dictatorship in Indonesia had also collapsed but Aceh and West Papua continue to witness enforced disappearances. Nepal has seen an end to its armed conflict, yet the leaders who swore to protect freedom and democracy deny the people of justice. Sri Lanka has seen 60,000 people disappeared over the last several years. The Bangladeshi government claims to prosecute the alleged perpetrators of crimes committed in the 1971 war for independence, but its hands are also drenched with the blood of its own people. South Korea demands justice for the transgressions of North Korea, but hardly sees anything outside of it. In Kashmir, disappearances continue and India still refuses to tell the truth about the 8,000 people disappeared and has yet to prosecute perpetrators.