The Aktionsbündnis Menschenrechte -Philippinen (AMP) and its member organizations express their deep concern about the recent human rights developments in the Philippines and especially about the arrest of human rights defender and United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Dan Balucioon May 2, 2021.
UCCP Pastor Dan Balucioisa dedicated and well-known human rights activist, community organizer and coordinator of Andurog Mayon, an Ecumenical Disaster Response and Management Committee in Albay Province. In this function he lately coordinated the ongoing humanitarian response in communities affected by the typhoons Rolly and Ulysees. Through his humanitarian activities in the Philippines, he ispart of the civil society movement that facilitates the governments humanitarian response to disasters such as typhoons. He is committed to serve the poor and vocal in his criticism of the current administration under President Duterte. Pastor Dan Balucio is also a member of the South Bicol Conference (SBC) which has a close partnership with the Protestant Churches in Germany.
Mariing kinokondena ng Moro Human Rights Defender (MHRDNet) ang patuloy na garapalang pag-atake ng bansang Israel sa Occupied Palestinian Territory, partikular sa East Jerusalem at sa Gaza Strip. Ang walang habas na pamboboma ng Israel na target ang mga pook ng sibilyan ay patuloy na pumapatay at pumipinsala sa mga inosenteng buhay lalong lalo na sa mga kababaihan, matatanda at walang muwang na mga paslit.
Malinaw na ang pananalakay ng Israel sa mamamayan ng Palestina ay tahasang pagyurak sa mga International Laws partikular na sa mga Humanitarian and Human Rights Laws na karapatdapat kondenahin at singilin ng buong Mundo.
Nanawagan ang MHRDNet ng pakikiisa ng lahat lalo na sa Bangsamoro para suportahan ang panawagang itigil ng Israel ang Kriminal na pananalakay at panlulupig nito sa Palestina. Ganundin sumasabay ang MHRDNet sa malawakang panawagan upang umakto na ang United Nations Security Council para mamagitan at mapatigil ang walang pakundangang karahasan.
Natapos ang third quarter nang walang dumating na printed modules
Ngayong araw magtatapos ang Third Quarter para sa School Year 2020-2021 at magsisimula ang Fourth Quarter sa Lunes, Mayo 17, 2021.
Kung tutuusin ay halos patapos na ang kasalukuyang school year at papasok na uli tayo sa susunod na taong-pampaaralan, ang SY 2021-2022 na maagap na itinakda ng DepEd sa Agosto 23, 2021. Inaasahang distance learning muli ang sistema ng susunod na school year dahil na rin sa sitwasyon ng COVID sa ating bansa. At habang lubos ang suporta ng mga guro sa edukasyon sa ilalim ng pandemya, hindi naman maaaring pikitan natin ang mga pagkukulang ng Kagawaran ng Edukasyon (DepEd) upang maihatid ang ipinangakong serbisyo para sa ating mga mag-aaral at mamamayan. Ang mga pagkukulang kasi na ito, bandang huli ay mga guro ang siyang magpupuno at mahihirapan.
Tama, natapos na ang third quarter pero hanggang ngayon ay marami pang mga paaralan sa halos lahat ng mga dibisyon- probinsiya at lungsod sa bansa ang wala pa ring printed modules. Kung mayroon man ay kulang na kulang ito o kaya’y soft copy lamang na ida-download ng mga guro ang ibinigay sa kanila.
OCEANA’s MINING PERMIT RENEWAL – 25 more years of violence and destruction
LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights) believes that President Duterte’s impending renewal of the mining agreement of OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (OGPI) for another 25 years presents clear and present danger – not just to the Tuwali people in Brgy. Didipio, Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, but to other rural and indigenous communities in the country.
The renewal of OGPI’s Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) assures another 25 years of violence, harassment, destruction of the environment, loss of livelihood, and the deterioration of health which will affect not only the people of Didipio, but the whole province of Nueva Vizcaya. These are the very reasons that for more than 25 years, the Tuwali community has been consistently opposing the Australian-Canadian mining corporation even before it has been granted its FTAA in 1994.
Hinggil sa harassment ng PNP sa pagkilos ngayong Mayo Uno 2021
KINOKONDENA ng Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) – kasama ang iba’t ibang samahan ng manggagawa na ngangalsada sa Dakilang Araw ng Paggawa – ang ginawang pagharang ng kapulisan sa planong pagmartsa sa kahabaan ng Espana Avenue patungong Mendiola.
Ang ginawang harassment ng PNP ay paglabag sa lehitimong ehersisyo ng mga karapatan sa pagpapahayag at pagtitipon para iparating ang karaingan hindi pa sa rehimeng Duterte kundi sa malawak na publiko.
EILER’s Labor Day Statement: Filipino workers suffer the most but struggle the hardest amid the pandemic and economic crisis
We celebrate Labor Day during very trying times. The working class continue to suffer the brunt of the deteriorating health system, and economic crisis due to years of neoliberal impositions further worsened by the pandemic.
One of the most vulnerable sectors to COVID-19 is the working class. The regions with the most concentration of workers are reported to have the highest rate of infection. Workers are forced to go to work without mass testing, effective contact-tracing, and the absence of vaccination.
A year into the pandemic, Philippine economy has not recovered. Yet, despite a -9.6%, GDP growth, workers are still able to create P17.9 trillion in GDP.
Ang pandaigdigang araw ng mga manggagawa ay mahigpit naming niyayakap bilang mga araw din ng mahigit sa 90% mananakay ng motorsiklo.
Kami ay mga manggagawa din!
Bahagi kami ng mahigit apat na milyong walang trabaho o natanggal sa trabaho dahil sa pandemya. Bahagi rin kami ng mahigit anim na milyon na walang maayos o permanenteng mapapasukang trabaho. Katulad ng mga manggagawa at mga maralita, pumipila din kami para makakuha ng kakarampot na ayuda at pumipila din kami sa mga community pantries upang kahit paano ay may maipakain sa aming pamilya.
Katulad nila umasa din kami na mawawala na ang endo endo sa ilalim ng administrasyong ito, dahil karamihan din sa amin ay mga kontraktwal. Kaso binola lang pala tayo ng palpak na presidenteng ito at vineto niya ang batas na magwawakas sana sa endo.
Lifting ban on new mining projects: another incompetent COVID-19 response from the government
Executive Order 130 only serves the business interests of few, not the Filipino people
Quezon City — Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) partners and members were devastated by the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 130 lifting the ban on new mining projects. The group stated in a press conference that the order is another incompetent COVID-19 response from the Duterte administration only serving the business interests of few in power, not the Filipino people.
One week before Earth Day, President Duterte issued EO130 citing the “significant economic benefits” of opening the country to new mining agreements. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) identified mining and river dredging as primary economic drivers of post-pandemic recovery.
New synergies to reduce torture and ill-treatment in police custody in South East Asia
The Association for Prevention of Torture (APT), Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) in Malaysia, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) and Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) in Thailand are launching a three and a half year cooperation, to foster national and regional synergies to prevent incommunicado detention and forced confession in the three countries. The European Union supports this cooperation.
Torture and ill-treatment are more likely to happen in the first hours of detention. This was confirmed by the independent research commissioned by the APT, “Does Torture Prevention Work”, published in 2016. Forced confession and incommunicado detention have been prevalent in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, for many years. According to thematic reports issued by SUARAM, TFDP and CrCF, these illegal practices continue due to several enabling factors: the gap between existing laws and practice; the on-going trends and culture in policing; and the persuasive narrative that supports these practices in the name of public security and safety.
Emerging stronger: New NUJP leaders call on fellow journalists to unite, resist attacks March 22, 2021
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) has weathered a storm alongside colleagues in the profession but we still face rough seas ahead, if not rougher.
The systematic red-tagging of the NUJP, media outlets, and journalists has intensified in the past five years, endangering the lives of members of the press toiling hard to keep the people informed. Aside from being branded as enemies of the state, journalists have reported receiving threats telling them to stop being critical of government or be silenced.
This amid other attacks on press freedom including threats of closure and other forms of harassment that our colleagues from Rappler, ABS-CBN, and alternative media outfits have faced under the Duterte administration.
Hindi kailangang ibabad sa isang linggong virtual inset ang mga guro (Sagot ng TDC sa opisyal na pahayag ng DepEd ngayong araw, Marso 16, 2021)
Sa kabila ng malawak na pagtutol mula sa hanay ng kaguruan, ipinilit pa rin ng DepEd Central Office ang paglulunsad ng in-service training (INSET) sa pamamagitan pagpapanood lamang sa YouTube Live sa lahat ng guro.
Malinaw ang intensiyon ng memorandum na nilagdaan ni Undersecretary Alain Pascua noong Marso 4, 2021 (DepEd OUA MEMO 00-03-21-0063), ito ay para sa lahat ng mga guro, hindi boluntaryo at panonoorin ng live sa iisang platform, ang YouTube.
Philippines: Rights organisations call for release of activist Teresita Naul on her first anniversary in detention
Ahead of human rights defender Teresita Naul’s first anniversary in detention on 15 March 2021, civil society alliance CIVICUS and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) call for her immediate release.
Teresita Naul was arrested on 15 March 2020 in Lanao del Sur, on the southern island of Mindanao, by the national police and the Philippines Army (AFP) on fabricated charges of “kidnapping”, “destructive arson” and “serious illegal detention”. Police claim she is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA), an armed Communist rebel group responsible for an attack on the military in Agusan del Sur in December 2018, although there is evidence proving that she was in another part of the country on that day.
Profiling of lawyers is an assault to the administration of justice
On March 12, 2021, a certain Police Lieutenant Fernando G. Calabria, Jr., Chief Intelligence Officer of Calbayog City Police Station wrote a letter to the Office of the Clerk of Court of the Calbayog City Hall of Justice “requesting” a list of lawyers representing supposed communist-terrorist group (CTG) personalities in court. The letter shows that the request is supposedly in compliance with the order of “PNP higher offices” to which the data will be submitted. Attached to the letter is a table of the data being requested from the clerk of court, to wit: “Legal Personality, Affiliations, Client (CTG Personality), Mode of Neutralization, Case Filed, and Status”.
AMRSP solidarity statement for Mayor Aquino’s death, Otto de Vries, bloody Sunday, and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines
From AMRSP FB page
We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.’ – Jeremiah 8:15
What is happening in our land?
Violence continues to spiral uncontrollably and with such impunity in our beloved land. So much pain and anguish, hatred and division have afflicted our peoples and nation that we seem indifferent to these deadly events happening in our midst.
Centerlaw statement on the recent wave of attacks against lawyers and activists
Bloodshed continues at the hands of the police and military, with the latest crackdown on activist groups resulting in the deaths of nine individuals in the CALABARZON region. This comes immediately in the wake of a public kill order made by the Chief Executive, with a call for the police and military to ignore human rights. The assault on members of the legal profession is likewise unrelenting with the attack on Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen, counsel for one of the petitions against the Anti-Terror Law.
CenterLaw once again condemns the culture of killing and violence that continues to thrive under the auspices of power. The series of violent attacks and arrests that took place within the span of a week is but a grim reminder of the larger pattern of impunity plaguing the country. They are repeated intrusions on fundamental liberties and civic spaces reserved for the healthy and constitutionally protected exercise of dissent. The unbridled use of violence in law enforcement operations is incompatible with the rule of law and has no place in Philippine legal order. What is more alarming is that procedural rules before the courts have been exploited to facilitate and lend legitimacy to the attacks.
CenterLaw calls on police officers and members of the armed forces to carry out their duties with full respect for legal processes and within the confines of the law. We repeat our demand for accountability for all past abuses and to put an end to the terror that has become so commonplace in our society. We also call on the Supreme Court to undertake its duty by promulgating rules aimed at safeguarding constitutional rights. Life and liberty are sacred. They must be protected at all times against any and all forms of threat and attack.
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Statement on the brazen attack on the life of the human rights lawyer, Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen | CHR VI
The Commission on Human Rights Region VI strongly condemns and denounces the brazen attempt on the life of Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen by unknown assailants in the evening of March 3, 2021 along General Luna Street in Iloilo City.
The increasing number of violent attacks against lawyers deserves utmost attention and condemnation to the highest degree. Lawyers must never be subjected to attacks for merely performing their duties. Lawyers are essential for the attainment of justice and the rule of law. Regardless of who they represent, lawyers must be given enough freedom to freely exercise their profession without threats of attack and violence upon their person.
The Commission on Human Rights calls upon our Philippine National Police and other law enforcement officers to swiftly and effectively investigate this case and to bring the perpetrators to justice. We also urge the government to provide measures in order to safeguard the rights of the people against such attacks.
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Climate Justice Group calls on Duterte to take Paris Agreement seriously; PH vulnerable to destruction from climate change
On February 24, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged the reality of the negative impact of climate change through his weekly national address, citing the rapid increase of flooding in multiple areas, “Noong una, ‘yong climate change medyo ano [sic] pa ako noon na parang ayaw ko maniwala. But ngayon, sobra talaga ang tubig na galing sa langit because of [sic] umiinit ho ang planeta”. In 2016, President Duterte refused to sign the Paris Treaty on behalf of the country citing the Philippines’ need to industrialize, before finally agreeing to sign it in 2017 after pressure from several climate justice groups.
It has been proven through scientific research that flooding comes as a consequence of industrial mining operations and deforestation, a fact that which President Duterte fails to acknowledge in his weekly address, concluding his statement on increased incidences of flooding in the country by stating that “there is only one thing really that can save this planet, it’s God. Maybe we should pray more, whatever the God.” Philippine Movement for Climate Justice’s National Coordinator Ian Rivera states that, “With this kind of thinking, and coming from a head of a country that is most vulnerable to climate change, will the Filipinos be saved from the impacts of the climate crisis? Prayer must always be supplemented by action—and for this anthropogenic climate crisis, what we need is a president who understands the science and the leadership it so requires for concrete efforts. The situation is still not hopeless.” He continues that the country may still reduce the negative effects of climate change, should the administration remain ambitious in following through with our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the treaty, as well as “the moral charge to demand those actions from rich polluter countries”.
The Philippines remains one of the most vulnerable nations to the destructive effects of climate change. PMCJ calls on President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration to put climate justice at the forefront of the Philippine survival from the climate crisis. Through concretizing efforts towards an ambitious NDC, and upholding our country’s end of the Paris Agreement, it is possible to reverse the catastrophic effects of climate change, and achieve a global temperature of not more than 1.5 degrees c.
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Guevarra report to the UN deflects culpability, accountability from Duterte, shields him from justice
File photo
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday regarding his initial findings on the extrajudicial killing of drug suspects in the government’s war on drugs. Guevarra mainly highlighted police errors and operational breaches in anti-drug operations in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga and Cavite, including failure to follow protocol in processing crime scenes and lack of ballistic and paraffin examinations.
It audaciously glossed over the widescale failure to follow protocol and proper procedure by security forces and skipped mentioning the overall policy which directed these killings, then created the environment of impunity for the perpetration of these crimes, downgrading the systematic and brazen disregard for rule of law into individual lapses of judgement by a few bad elements in law enforcement.
Operation Double Barrel, launched by the national police at the prompting of President Duterte, obliterated the rule of law, targeted specific members of the Philippine population for extermination, and violated Constitutionally guaranteed human rights.
Guevarra’s report not only deflects accountability from the President but misrepresents summary executions in the Philippines as mere procedural failures, while maintaining the illusion that domestic mechanisms are intact. This despite the glaring lack of conviction and censure with the mounting death toll from the so-called war on drugs that has abated little in spite of the pandemic.
President Duterte repeatedly promised executive clemency to police should they be convicted of crimes in the conduct of the war on drugs; Duterte encouraged community residents to kill neighbors who use drugs; Duterte issued unverified narco-lists of alleged top drug lords, following which several named therein had been “neutralized” mostly by unknown gunmen.
In his 2020 State of the Nation address the president reiterated that the government will combat COVID19 “with the same fervor as our campaign against illegal drugs, criminality, insurgency…” indicating the continued overarching policy of heavy-handed, repressive measures against violators of local quarantines. According to Human Rights Watch killings went up 50 per cent during the lockdowns.
Now there are attempts to apply aforementioned Operation Double Barrel (Oplan Tokhang) against ‘left-leaning personalities and organizations’ in the northern provinces, sparking concerns of escalated EJKs and human rights violations if enforced. Despite Guevarra’s report of official failures and lapses in the Oplan’s operations, the policy is in full gear, and remains the central theme of Duterte’s governance.
These, along with the government’s non-transparency in its so-called inquiry, the exclusion of families of victims of extrajudicial killings, the Commission on Human Rights and civil society, and most of all the deafening silence in the halls of justice for the more than 30, 000 cases of summary killings, betray the hollow efforts of the Justice department to escape international accountability.
Immediately, in light of the DOJ report, nothing less than the total revocation of Oplan Double Barrel, the prosecution of the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, providing justice to victims’ families, and the overhaul of the national drug policy towards a rights-based and humane approach can indicate steps in the right direction.
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Anti-terror Act to kill EDSA-like People Power actions
A moribund dictatorship finally ended in Edsa on February 25, 1986. That action was called people power – one which was hailed around the world as a bloodless, peaceful revolution. That was thirty-five years ago today, but absent celebrations during the past four years under the Duterte regime, that Edsa spirit has long been lost within the officialdom.
As to the disillusioned public, finding a reason to celebrate Edsa is as hard as finding new, competent post-Edsa leaders as the present regime has also failed their expectations.
Furthermore, it is needless to say that the Duterte regime is anti-Edsa. In fact, it was the failed #30YearsOfEdsa narrative that was utilized by the Marcos-Duterte troll-farms to discredit the so-called ‘yellow candidates’ during the 2016 and 2019 elections. That yellow-tagging narrative was proven effective during the last two elections. And now the shift to red-tagging, with the anti-terrorism law as the administration’s primary instrument.
Under RA 11479 or the anti-terrorism act of 2020 (ATA), it is not just the Edsa spirit that this regime aims to kill but the process itself. The ATA’s overbroad definition of terrorism clearly designates Edsa-like actions as an act of terror.
Had Edsa 86 happened today, Cardinal Sin would likely be charged with terrorist act for calling the people to swarm Edsa to protect renegade leaders such as Enrile and Ramos, while Cory Aquino who claimed the throne as well as protest leaders would also be charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act. So as Gloria Arroyo during Edsa 2, and the Erap supporters in Edsa 3.
However, for this administration, that historic event that inspired similar political revolutions around the globe is now irrelevant and worse, illegal under the ATA. It is because under Duterte, public order is higher than social justice; punishment is better than freedom and due process.
Accordingly, in ecozones the ATA assumes the name of the Joint Industrial Peace Concerns Office (JIPCO), a detachment inside EPZAs that aims to insulate foreign investors from trade unions and other legitimate union activities. In schools it is open surveillance and red-tagging. In Cordillera there is now ‘tokhang’ which targets left-leaning activists. In Congress, it is the attempt to alter the 1987 Constitution.
Thirty-five years and counting and workers remain threatened with the same policies that sent throngs of people into Edsa to drive out a dictator. We are not seeing that kind of revolution happening today despite the severity of the current economic and leadership crises. But surely, people will get to recognize the fact that killing Edsa is not a mandate they have given to Duterte or to his heir apparent.
The Filipinos’ freedom and sovereignty shall never be surrendered.
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OPLAN TOKHANG against “left-leaning” personalities – a Cordillera variant of EJK | LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights) Statement
Poster by LILAK
At the beginning of the Oplan Tokhang in Duterte’s War on Drugs, LILAK along with the human rights community, have already feared that this same violent strategy will be extended to activists, journalists, and human rights defenders. Unfortunately, our fears have been proven right.
More than 27,000 people were killed in this Oplan Tokhang. Nanlaban daw. Now, with the Resolution issued by the Police Regional Office in Cordillera (RLECC-CAR Res 04 s2021), enjoining the members of law enforcement agencies to ‘conduct TOKHANG to known left-leaning personalities in the government, media and other entities” – we fear that the same acts of violence, and impunity, will be committed, as Oplan Tokhang is most notorious for. With red-tagging done in the most irresponsible way by the National Task Force ELCAC, the fear of “nanlaban” as a justification of killings of so-called “left-leaning” entities is very real.
As it is, even without this new variant of Oplan Tokhang, indigenous peoples have been suffering deaths, arrests, and torture from the government. The country has been notorious for having the most number of killings of land rights and indigenous leaders, in the whole world. Recently, we have seen the trumped up charges against Windel Bolinget, chair of Cordillera Peoples Alliance, with a shoot to kill order “’pag nanlaban”. The 9 Tumandok leaders in Panay were killed with police claiming they were resisting arrest. The Tumandok leaders were allegedly members of the New Peoples Army. Two Aeta leaders have been arrested and filed charges of “terrorism’, as they were fleeing from their community, during a cross-fire between the military and members of NPA.
LILAK calls for a serious review and withdrawal of this resolution by the Cordillera government. We are already witnessing so much deaths and violence from the Duterte administration.
Stop the Killings! Break the impunity.
IPLivesMatter #ScrapTerrorLaw #DefundNTFELCAC
Contact: LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights) judy a. pasimio – 09175268341
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