Two men on board a motorcycle arrived outside the compound of Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Groun (PDG) in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, at approximately 9:30 a.m. One of them took photographs of the vicinity using a mobile phone, while the driver remained on standby.
“The arrest and harassment of development workers not only undermine their ability to serve vulnerable communities but also erode the democratic freedoms enshrined in our Constitution,” said PDG in the letter.
“This chronic rice crisis is an insult to the Filipino people. As an agricultural nation, it is unacceptable that the basic staple of rice has become a symbol of food insecurity and exploitation.”
“With Duterte’s invocation of his role as lawyer and prosecutor as some kind of authority in his recent testimony at the hearings at the House of Representatives and the Senate, we believe it is time for victims of human rights violations to speak up.”
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the inquiry is an “important step in coming up with a clear picture of how prevalent red-tagging is across the country and its detrimental effects on the conduct of human rights work, and what accountability mechanisms can be adopted to put a stop to it.”
Fisheries groups are opposing the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing commercial fishing vessels to operate within 15 kilometers of municipal waters.
At least ten security guards posted for duty along the Central Luzon Link Expressway spent last Christmas with no wages.
Martial law survivors fear that the appointment of Geraldine Faith Econg could reverse hard-won gains in the anti-martial law struggle.
For Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the maximum suggested retail price is just a band-aid solution and does not address the root cause of the continued rise in rice and food prices—the lack of support for local farmers, neoliberal agricultural policies, and the importation of cheap rice that undermines local production, as well as the absence of genuine rural industrialization.
“This is a dangerous and malicious act of red-tagging by the BJMP. They are using an unverified social media post from a discredited source to justify surveillance and monitoring of a sitting member of Congress and political prisoners.”
Human rights group Karapatan criticized the Philippine government’s push for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, saying Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is misleading both national and international audiences with a record of extrajudicial killings and military repression.