PRESS RELEASE

10 May 2013

NZ groups join Filipino Mothers’ Appeal to Aquino: Surface the victims of enforced disappearance, release political prisoners!

Philippine solidarity groups in New Zealand are raising alarm that there will be more brazen state-sponsored human rights abuses after the GPH’ unilateral termination of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“We have just heard that Estelita “Nanay Neneng” T. Tacalan, a 60-year old peasant rights advocate, went missing for 10 days. Though she was eventually surfaced by the military, it is deplorable that she now faces trumped-up charges – the same fate suffered by over 300 political prisoners in the Philippines. With the termination of GPH-NDFP peace talks, we fear the Aquino government will further ignore the calls to stop the abductions, killings and filing of trumped-up criminal charges against political activists,” Cameron Walker, spokesperson of Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS).

"When I visited the Philippines last year, I met Angie Ipong of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, who, like Nanay Neneng, was abducted by state forces and held incommunicado before being surfaced to a prison to face trumped up charges. Angie was physically, mentally and sexually abused by her captors. While Mother's day is being celebrated, it is disturbing to hear that mothers like Nanay Neneng, Angie Ipong and many others have been grossly violated by state security forces," Walker lamented.

In an earlier statement, APS together with Wellington Kiwi Pinoy (WKP) and Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa (PSNA) noted, “The GPH’ unilateral termination of peace talks with the NDFP bodes ill for human rights. This major setback in the GPH-NDFP peace talks is a serious mid-term crisis which will likely spell more brazen human rights violations in the next three years of the Aquino administration.”

“In the spirit of international solidarity, we echo the appeals of Mrs Edita Burgos and all mothers of the disappeared for Pres. Aquino to do everything in his power as Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine military to surface Jonas Burgos and all the victims of enforced disappearance. We join the demand of the families of “Nanay Leleng” and all political prisoners for Pres. Aquino to grant unconditional amnesty and stop the government forces from committing any more illegal detention and torture,” Walker concluded.

ends

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