“We condemn this government’s continuing pretensions of going after erring government and military officials while in reality, its efforts are geared towards hunting down people whom it perceives as its ‘enemies’. While the likes of Palparan and Reyes who have clear charges against them continue to roam freely, activists and ordinary people are arrested and detained arbitrarily on trumped up criminal charges to conceal the political nature of their arrests and detention,” said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan’s chairperson. 


Hilao-Enriquez added that, “in the case of Nueva Ecija, around 100 soldiers of the 56th IB-PA and policemen under the Nueva Ecija Police Provincial office even resorted to staging a gunfight with supposed members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and planted evidence to justify the arrest of five people, including a former political detainee and a minor. One of those arrested was tending his farm when soldiers saw him and tied him up.” 


Lastly, Hilao-Enriquez called on the P-Noy government “to stop persecuting people whom it considers as ‘enemies of the state’. The more the government does this, the more it proves to the whole nation that it is no different from the Arroyo regime. The government should instead turn its gun to the real fugitives and enemies of the people, those who are clearly rights violators and criminals, those with real crimes against the people.”





Media Release 
April 11, 2012 
 

Reference: Marie Hilao Enriquez, Chairperson, 0917-5616800 
 Angge Santos, Media Liaison, 0918-9790580 

Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights 
2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central District 
Diliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101 
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146 
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

Go after the fugitives Palparan and Reyes, not ordinary citizens and activists–Karapatan