BY BULATLAT

The militant women’s group GABRIELA earlier today filed charges of human rights violations, physical injuries, and abuse of authority against Manila Police District (MPD) Director Supt. Roberto Rosales at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Office of the Ombudsman earlier today.

The charges were filed in connection to the March 25 dispersal by the MPD’s Civil Disturbance Management Unit of a GABRIELA protest action near the US Embassy in Manila.

“The women of Gabriela are not the first to have been assaulted by Rosales and his men,” said GABRIELA spokesperson Joms Salvador. “Rosales shamelessly makes it appear that protesters deserve to be treated savagely. This attack against our civil liberties must be stopped.”

“We are doing this in defense of the basic freedom and civil liberties of Filipinos,” Salvador also said.

The protest action was against the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which grants extraterritorial and extrajudicial “rights” to US servicemen visiting the Philippines for military “exercises”. The said agreement was ratified by the Philippine Senate and signed by then-President Joseph Estrada in 1999.

“It is the ultimate affront to our sovereignty as a people that Filipinos fighting against US foreign domination, as exemplified by the Visiting Forces Agreement, are being assaulted for their patriotism,” Salvador said.

The group added that they expect both the CHR and the Office of the Ombudsman to “immediately and appropriately” act on their complaint.

“Rosales and his men must be held accountable and punished,” Salvador said. (Bulatlat.com)

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Commission on Human Rights, GABRIELA, Office of the Ombudsman, Supt. Roberto Rosales, US Embassy in Manila, Visiting Forces Agreement

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