MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 11, 2013)- Human rights group Karapatan has criticized Filipino leader Benigno Aquino for his dismal human rights record.
It also lambasted a statement by government press man Sonny Coloma who was quoted as saying that Aquino is one with the Filipino people’s pursuit for human rights – by pushing for the ‘right of the Filipinos to a better life.’
The group branded the statement as “a miserable attempt to salvage the dismal human rights record of the Aquino administration.”
“Aquino has only made lives better for the foreign plunderers, the few rich politicians and businesses, but made the lives of the poor worse than before. With the rising costs of fuel, electricity and railway rates, the high prices of basic goods and social services, and the increasing number of homeless families due to demolitions, Aquino cannot hoodwink the Filipino people into believing that it is respectful the right of the people to better lives,” Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
“Even the National Statistical Coordination Board concedes that at least one out of five Filipino families live below the poverty line despite government pronouncements of economic growth. Coloma’s statement is stupendously unbelievable against the backdrop of corruption scandal plaguing the Aquino administration, and its criminal negligence of the typhoon victims,” she added.
Karapatan said it holds the Aquino government accountable for its gross violations on the rights, lives and livelihood of the Filipino people, especially the poor majority.
“Aquino’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Bayanihan has claimed 152 lives of peasants, indigenous peoples, urban poor and other marginalized sectors. In the first week of December 2013 alone, Karapatan has documented four cases of extrajudicial killing, including the murder of typhoon victim-survivor and tribal leader Pedro Tinga by elements of the 71st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. Clearly, Aquino and his minions in the military and police are the primary perpetrators of the violation against the people’s right to life. No amount of human rights rhetoric coming from Malacanang can cover up for Aquino’s accountability to the Filipino people,” Palabay said.
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