ILOILO CITY - Around 2,500 protesters joined a march rally here to mark the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights.
The Iloilo rallyists led by the militant Bagong Alyasang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) assembled at the public plazas of Molo and Jaro Districts before marching to the grounds of the Iloilo provincial capitol where a program was held.
They carried an effigy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The speakers took turns in denouncing the Arroyo administration for what they said was the worsening human rights violations in the country marked by the continued killings of activists and journalists, enforced disappearances and harassments of political dissenters.
"This administration is becoming the worst in human rights violations but it has remained callous amid the international outcry over the human rights situation of the country," said Bayan-Panay spokesperson Edgar Pelayo.
Similar protest actions were also held in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan and in Roxas City in Capiz.
In Tacloban City, about 300 members of various human rights groups in Eastern Visayas staged their protest rally also to mark the anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration.
"Ms. Arroyo's administration should be ashamed of observing the human rights day considering that its track record in respecting the rights of individuals is very poor," said Flor Acbo, regional secretary general of Bayan-Eastern Visayas chapter.
"GMA's record is worse than Marcos," Acbo said on Wednesday.
He said the killing of innocent civilians and activists remained to be a hallmark of the Arroyo administration in so far as human rights violations were concerned.
Lawyer Kathrina Castillo, regional secretary general of the Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas, said that the military continued to be the "top human rights violator" in the country.
Castillo alleged that all the 123 human rights violations, including the five extra-judicial killings that occurred in Eastern Visayas since January up to October 2008, were all perpetrated by the military.
"Because of their intensified campaign in the country side, especially in Samar, about 3,000 persons were dislocated this year," Castillo said.
She also said that violation of human rights in the remote villages would escalate with the all-out campaign of the soldiers in the region to crush its insurgency problem by 2010.
The protesters started marching from the Santo Niño Shrine -- constructed by Imelda Marcos when she was first lady -- on Real Street, passed through the major streets and ended up at the old bus terminal where they staged a short rally.
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