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| Photo from InterAksyon.com |
MANILA, Philipines – (UPDATE) The mothers of missing University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño filed a complaint before the Department of Justice on Wednesday against retired Major General Jovito Palparan, several military personnel and a number of John and Jane Does for violations of the Anti-Rape Law, Revised Penal Code, the rights of arrested and detained persons, and the international covenant against torture.
(To read the full complaint, click here)
Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, accompanied by their lawyer, Edre Olalia of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and representatives of human rights groups met with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima before formally filing their complaint.
“I guess this is a very important day. This is a human rights violation … With the filing of this joint complaint affidavit, you can expect that the department will thoroughly study this and will properly handle the case,” De Lima assured the two mothers.
She said the case represented “the accountability that the Filipino people are trying to extract from the previous administration, from the previous officials, both civilian and military, not only in the area of graft and corruption but also in the areas of human rights violation.”
“Sa pagsampa naming ng kaso ngayong umaga sa DOJ, malaki ang pag-asa namin na maso-solve ang aming problema sa pamumuno ni Justice Secretary De Lima kasi po naniniwala kami sa kanyang pagiging human rights advocate. Malaki ang pag-asa namin na makakamit namin ang katarungan sa aming mga anak, pati na ang lahat ng biktima ng enforced disappearances at extrajudicial killings (With our filing of this case at the DOJ this morning, we have great hopes that our problems will be solved under the lead of Justice Secretary De Lima because we believe in her as a human rights advocate. We have great hopes that we will find justice for our children, and all victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings),” Concepcion said.
“Ang paghain namin ng kaso sa tanggapan ng DOJ ay isang privilege na dapat naming gawin hanggang makamtam naming ang tagumpay sa paghahanap sa aming mga anak na ang pagkakaalam namin yung may kasalanan nito ay security forces ng ating bansa. Sa umagang ito, simula ulit kami sa paghahanap at pagsigaw na hindi kami tumitigil sa paghahanap ng aming mga anak. Di lamang po kami papayag na mayakap ang aming mga anak sa panaginip lamang dahil alam namin na tauhan ng gobyerno ang may kagawaan. Dapat ilitaw nila (Our filing of the case at the DOJ is a privilege that we should carry out until we succeed in finding our children who we know were taken by the security forces of our country. This morning, we again begin our search and shout that we will not stop searching for our children. We will not be content to embrace our children only in our dreams because we know that government agents are responsible. They should surface them),” Erlinda said.
Read full article @ InterAksyon.com (link above)
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