The 59th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be marked by militant groups in Negros Occidental today with protests against extra judicial killings, a power contract inked by Central Negros Electric Cooperative for the purchase of electricity from a coal plant in Cebu, and the privatization of the Bacolod slaughterhouse.

Drivers groups will also announce today the dates of a two-day strike to protest the continuing rise in fuel prices, Jessie Ortega of the United Negros Drivers Operators Center said.

Groups allied with BAYAN Negros will join a rally at the Bacolod public plaza this afternoon to highlight extra-judicial killings and abductions under the Arroyo administration, Fred Caña, Karapatan-Negros secretary general, said.

Protesters from National Federation of Sugar Workers-Food and General Trade, Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas, Kilusang Mayo Uno and other groups affiliated with Bayan will march from the St. John Nepomuceno Parish in Sum-ag, and Talisay City at 8:30 a.m. towards the Redemptorist Church and Lupit Church in Bacolod City , Caña said.

And at 1 p.m. they will again march towards the Bacolod Public Plaza for the rally, he added.

“The so-called steps being taken by the Arroyo government in stopping the killings remain meaningless and superficial if no high ranking official is made accountable and if no policy-shift is made possible,” Caña said.

KARAPATAN and BAYAN are calling for the scrapping of the counter-insurgency program known as Oplan Bantay Laya that they say targets unarmed leftist activists, he said.

Meanwhile, the Freedom from Debt Coalition-Negros and the Kilusang para sa Pambansang Demokrasya will converge at Rizal Elementary School in Bacolod City from 12:30 to 1 p.m. today and march to the CENECO main office for a short program and dramatization of their opposition to Ceneco-KSPC contract.

The whole contingent will later proceed to the fountain of justice for a program to dramatize the different abuses on human rights, the group said in a press release.

The Alyansa ng Mga Trabahador sa Slaughterhouse will join the protest at the Fountain of Justice to oppose the privatization of the slaughterhouse in Bacolod City , which, the AMTS said in a press statement, will deprive people of their means of livelihood.

AMTS is calling for the scrapping of a memorandum of agreement between the Bacolod City government and AVM Bernardo and for the retention of the old slaughterhouse.*CPG

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