UAA: Human rights activist Benjamin Bayles assasinated

6/15/2010 10:35:00 PM


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Benjamin Bayles was a member of the human rights organizations Karapatan and September 21 Movement, as well as of the Bayan Muna party-list. He was shot on June 14, 2010, by hooded gunmen believed to be members of the Philippine army. Dateline Philippines reported on it. Bayles' killing follows closely after the deaths of two journalists less than 48 hours before his.

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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.