Arroyo slammed for slays

12/11/2007 03:53:00 AM

CLAD in black shirts with their faces covered by black veils, female relatives of the victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances held roses as they marched Monday in Manila to mark Human Rights Day.

"The families of the victims continue to mourn because they remain deprived of justice," said Renato Reyes, spokesperson of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

The women in black led some 1,500 activists in calling on the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to stop the extrajudicial killings.

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    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.