"At about 7:25 PM on September 19, 2006, Ms. Abigail Bengwayan, the Public Information and Human Rights officer of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), was assaulted by an unidentified man near the hi-way in Betag, La Trinidad, Benguet on her way home." Thus begins the account of the continued harassment of CPA staff.
Democracy, according to the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, is "a question of human dignity, [a]nd human dignity is political freedom, the right to freely express opinion and the right to be allowed to criticise and form opinions."
But exercising political freedom in the Philippines, which purports itself to be a democracy, can lead to death. Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency of the country in 2001, more than 800 Filipinos murdered in politically-motivated, extra-judicial, targeted killings. Since the 4th quarter of July 2005, one person has been killed every two days. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers.
It is widely believed—and the United Nations support this belief—that state security forces are complicit in these crimes.
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