Manila, February 25, 2006 | Before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced Proclamation 1017, which put the country under a state of national emergency, a spate of unsolved killings and other human rights violations of legal political activists have been on the rise. Human rights organizations and other groups claim that these human rights violations by perpetrators believed to be from the military or Armed Forces of the Philippines-sponsored vigilantes are being done on a national scale and is a direct assault not only to human, civil and democratic rights not only of the victims but on legitimate peoples’ movements as a whole.

Then, there was the declaration yesterday. The proclamation is a response to alleged “conspiracy” between “the elements in the political opposition”, “extreme left” and “extreme right”, which is fuelled by certain segments of the national media to bring down the government of Arroyo. To “save democracy”, Arroyo ordered the violent dispersals of rallies and warrantless arrests of activists by the police. The good news, though, is that all the groups of activists, who were arrested yesterday, were released last night after hours of detention at Camp Karingal.