In a moment, anytime today we will be hearing loud bangs and celebrations coming across the world as we close this year’s chapter. A few days ago, we were also delighted at how we joyously celebrated Christmas Day and how we also stood in solidarity with those who were unable to do so because of the many struggles they were facing.
For years, Southern Tagalog has been one of the priority areas in the government's counterinsurgency program. Social injustice breeds resistance, and the struggle for land, jobs and decent life has been met by vicious attacks.
In the almost three decades that she has been residing at the PNR FTI compound in Taguig City, Nelia has yet to have access to a piped water system into her own home. The irony, she said, is that their community sits at a stone’s throw away from a high-end estate, whose residents would never have to experience this.
Despite the filing of a perjury case against Jhed and Jonila, they continue standing with the poor whose lives would be put in peril with the reclamation of Manila Bay.
The Manalo brothers continue to fight for justice as Bulacan court acquitted retired major Jovito Palparan over the kidnapping and illegal detention charges.
By all indications, the coming year will see the continuation and even intensification of devastating wars in the world.
Even if these calls of climate activists and CSO members’ reverberated at the venue of the COP, their voices were not heard at the negotiations of world leaders. Some of the CSOs were allowed to sit in as observers but not to participate in the negotiations.
Civil society organizations called the US’s pledge a measly contribution compared to its aid for war and militarization. They also demand that the funds should truly serve the communities in the Global South.
The right to development of indigenous peoples in the region has been ignored since the beginning of the project. The United Nations defines the right to development as “an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.”
“These people are innocent civilians being tagged by the NTF-ELCAC as NPAs. Out of their desperation, they are using the civilians for their report on the counter-insurgency program."
The warning declared by various groups in 2020 – that the ATA would be used by the government to intimidate and harass human rights defenders, activists and dissenters – has become a reality.
By YANNI ROXAS Bulatlat.com I thought I was going to another historical film na pinatay na naman ang bida (where the protagonist was killed) and leave me sad, sour and hopeless. Had "Gomburza" the movie not won second place at the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival I...
For workers in Southern Tagalog, repression is as normal as resistance.
The struggle for their right to housing taught them that they have bigger fights to win.
Despite attempts to deviate himself from his predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr has continued a counterinsurgency policy which resulted in gross human rights violations.
The 55-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called on its members to launch a rectification movement to recover from admitted setbacks suffered in recent years.
The readings for this last Sunday of Advent are full of “messianic expectation”. They exude a hope and trust which has endured through occupation and exile and grown stronger in persecution. It is a hope centred on the key promise of God given to David, that David’s house and his kingdom would be established forever (2 Sam.7:16). After the Exile, the people longed for another David, the shepherd boy anointed by God who became a great warrior, defeated enemies in battle and united the 12 tribes around Jerusalem. With the defeat of the Davidic dynasty the people asked where was God’s promise? We see the struggle of the community with this dilemma in the Royal Psalms. Psalm 89 begins praising God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to all generations but this trust in God is being tested as the psalmist laments “where is thy steadfast love of old, which by thy faithfulness thou did swear to David” (v49).
What a sad Christmas season this is for the peace-loving peoples of the world. Devastating wars are being waged, most notably, today, in Palestine and Ukraine. Soldiers are dying, civilians are suffering and dying too, and there seems to be no power on earth that will stop the gunfire.
Sugarcane has lost its sweetness in Batangas province. The past year has been bittersweet for sugarcane plantation workers since one of the largest sugar mills in the Philippines closed down. They are still struggling to salvage what is left of their livelihood and of the whole sugar industry in the country.
A Quezon City assistant city prosecutor dismissed the environmental case filed against activist and cultural worker Maximo Santiago and three others after they burned an effigy during the State of the Nation Address last July.
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