The agriculture department said 18,000 farmers have been affected, and at least 17,000-hectares of crops were destroyed. In Catanduanes alone, local government officials estimated at least P400-million ($8.26-million) damage to the abaca industry and 90 percent of their public infrastructure reduced to rubble.
A 22-year-old activist from Smokey Mountain shares how from being her parent's perennial headache, she rose to the challenges of fighting for their community through now jailed activist Reina Nasino's help.
Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of the Diocese San Carlos and co-chairperson of the Church People - Workers Solidarity said that the proposed 2021 national budget “does not guarantee adequate health care especially to the poorest of the poor and those severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Time and again, human rights organizations have called for independent investigation of mounting cases of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arrests and filing of trumped-up cases, to name a few.
The death of the three-month-old daughter of political prisoner Reina Mae Nasino has again brought to the fore the flaws of the justice system and the viciousness of government's counterinsurgency policy.
Last week, Bulatlat’s very own Martin’s Purrspective came up with a comic strip on how students, mothers, and teachers are faring on the first week of the ongoing distance learning. But what happens when the mother is also a teacher and a lawmaker batting for the rights of Filipino students and teachers?
As a mother myself, I cannot begin to fathom how Andrea felt, and how Reina feels now. I have been struggling to find the right words. But there are, simply, no words enough to aptly describe the pain, the rage, the emptiness, and despair.
It is the Duterte administration's responsibility to provide these basic demands for enough learning modules per student, available gadgets and laptops for both student and teachers for online classes, adequate health measures are in place to ensure health safety for both teacher and student, and sufficient teaching expenses allowances for our teachers in this new normal for education."
The World Council of Churches urged the UN Human Rights Council to create an independent and impartial investigative mechanism on the rampant extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the Philippines, consistent with the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was released in June 2020.
At a time when Filipino families are being told to stay at home, urban poor families in Intramuros said they have not received any relocation program at all. Residents also lamented that the Manila police has been assisting the private company in carrying out the demolition.
“We cannot accept the Court’s reasoning that it is barred from compelling the executive to protect the people’s right to health ‘in a certain way or to a certain degree’ and ‘no matter how dire the emergency’ when it is obvious that the current response is a huge failure and places our people’s health and safety in peril."
At a time when health infrastructure and concerns of health workers demand to be addressed, the Philippine government takes a sharp turn and reveals it true priorities.
With at least three government agencies reportedly investigating, family and friends of slain peace consultant Randall Echanis have yet to get a lead on who is behind his cold-blooded murder.
Gierran himself admitted to media interviews of being “very scared” with the new tasks ahead as he does not know public health. Putting another retired military or NBI officials with little or no experience may put people’s lives in peril, according to CURE Covid.
“Who will benefit from this? Who red-tagged her in the first place? I cannot think of anyone else but state forces.”
Zara, who loved the sea, who loved to eat seafood and their local rice cake dipped in chocolate sauce, who worked tirelessly and selflessly, was murdered in one rainy evening. Yet, her fire burns eternal.
She was among the frequently red-tagged activists in Negros island. In 2018, her name and photo appeared in posters in the streets of Negros as one of the alleged ranking officials of the Communist Party of Philippines.
Randall Echanis, an unassuming man of peace, had sown and cared for enough seedlings to fill hectares of social activists who will not tire of pursuing justice and seeing into reality his fervent dreams – a bountiful harvest for Filipinos.
With the Philippine government set to provide the next wave of aid for pandemic-hit Filipinos, residents of urban poor community Payatas in Quezon City said they received none since March.
"I condemn the persistent harassment of PNP [Philippine National Police] La Loma-QCPD [Quezon City Police District] and their brazen act of snatching the remains of my husband Randall Echanis from us."
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