VOL. XXX NO. 51 3 Sections 32 Pages P18 MONDAY : APRIL 4, 2016 www.thestandard.com.ph editorial@thestandard.com.ph
One Cebu decides to back Duterte
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CHR: FARMERS ON THEIR KNEES SHOT By Rio N. Araja and Christine F. Herrera
THE director of the Commission on Human Rights for Region 12 said Sunday police in Kidapawan City who fired their weapons at protesting farmers had clearly violated their human rights. “There were violations of human rights and the United Nations guidelines on the use of force by the law enforcers. The farmers were already on their knees when shot by policemen,” said CHR Re-
gion 12 Director Erlan Deluvio. Deluvio said five members of the regional CHR team had gone to Kidapawan City to investigate the incident. “We were able to gather infor-
mation, witnesses and affidavits sworn under oath. We have a formal report,” he said. Television footage of the violent dispersal showed a prima facie case of human rights abuses that the policemen were the assailants, he said. He added, however, that the CHR team has yet to get the side of the police, or examine the culpability of the provincial police director or even the chief of the Philippine National Police under the doctrine of command responsibility.
About 6,000 farmers and lumad blocked the Davao-Cotabato Highway to dramatize their demand for the immediate release of calamity funds and 15,000 sacks of rice because they were starving as a result of the drought brought about by the El Niño phenomenon. The protesters said instead of getting rice, they received bullets, water cannons and batons. They claimed the firing began when Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista arrived at the protest site.
Deluvio said the failure of the government to provide the farmers with food amid severe hunger is also a human rights violation. “There is negligence, too, on the part of the local officials. Food deprivation is a violation of human rights. For their part, these officials should have primarily addressed the problem of hunger. If we cannot force them to give food provision [from their own funds], they must have taken other actions. There are other ways to seek food aid,” he said. Next page
Stand-off. Heavily armed police forces block around 300 farmers from Makilala, North Cotabato, who wish to go to the Spottwoods United Methodist Church compound in Kidapawan City to seek food relief due to the drought.
Aquino refuses aid for Tacloban
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Lights out at Terminal 3: 14,000 miss flights A POWER outage plunged the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 into darkness overnight, forcing flight cancellations that stranded thousands on Sunday. As many as 78 flights by the country’s largest carrier Cebu Pacific were canceled, affecting nearly 14,000 passengers, the company said in a statement. Flag carrier Philippine Airlines also
said some of its flights were cancelled or delayed but could not immediately say how many. The blackout hit Terminal 3, which services mostly domestic flights, late on Saturday and power was not restored until before dawn on Sunday. Exhausted passengers sprawled on the floor as check-in counters and luggage carousels shut down. Long queues
formed outside the terminal as entrances were closed until power was restored. Terminal 3 handles an average of 350 domestic and international flights daily, according to data from the Transportation Department. It is one of four terminals in a complex that was once dubbed by the travel website Guide to Sleeping in Airports as the Next page