By Bohol Island News Staff | 02:52 PM December 10, 2019
Farmers group Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon (Humabol) led on Tuesday, December 10, a rally in Tagbilaran City to protest “suppression and abuses of human rights” and “fight the Duterte dictatorship, and demand justice for all victims of state terrorism.”
December 10 is the 71st International Human Rights Day.The groups comprised of the Hugpong sa mga Mag-uumang Bol-anon (Humabol), Karapatan, Sandigan sa Bol-anong Kakabayen-ang Nag-uma ug Nanagat (Sabakan-Amihan), Bansiwag, Gabriela-Bohol, Bayan-Bohol, Kabataan, Kabatan-unan Para sa Kausaban sa Nasud (Kapakanan), Anakpawis, Anakbayan,
and other causes-oriented groups.
They marched at past 9 a.m. from Plaza Rizal toward CPG Avenue and ended on B. Inting Street near the Tagbilaran City Square for their program.
The groups slammed the continuing extrajudicial killings under the administration’s war on drugs, over three years of Presidente Duterte’s administration.
They also called for an end to other forms of human rights attacks.They also asked to free political prisoners Humabol Secretary General Nelson Lumantas and Anakpawis Bohol coordinator Alvin Fortaliza.
The groups said that the recent wave of attacks against Humabol came after Duterte’s Executive Order 70 that supposedly aims to end insurgency through whole of nation approach but has instead resulted to massive arrests, killings and filing of fabricated charges against organized farmers, activists and critics.
The goups held “Gabii sa Panaghiusa, Sayaw ug Kanta” on Monday night at Plaza Rizal where representatives from different progressive organizations also showed their cultural presentations.
Meanwhile, international organization Human Rights Watch announced on its website that it has arranged for 17 landmarks across the globe including the Empire State Building in New York City to shine bright blue on December 10, 2019 in celebration of Human Rights Day.
From New York to Sydney, Munich to Toronto, the world will light up in solidarity with the fundamental principles of human dignity that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms, and that Human Rights Watch works to defend each day.
“Human Rights Watch is working to build a world where everyone is free to say what they believe, to marry the person they love, can put food on the table and send their kids to school,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “We’re part of a movement that puts the dignity of each and every person on this planet before any politician’s quest for power or profit.”
Countries across the world honor Human Rights Day each year to mark the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights to which everyone is inherently entitled without discrimination of any kind.
Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world.
