Justin Umali would like you to think that he is not the corniest person in the room. A full-time activist from Southern Tagalog, he writes stories highlighting local and sectoral issues and community struggles. His hobbies include sending drafts at 2 a.m. and drinking too much coffee.
Justin Umali would like you to think that he is not the corniest person in the room. A full-time activist from Southern Tagalog, he writes stories highlighting local and sectoral issues and community struggles. His hobbies include sending drafts at 2 a.m. and drinking too much coffee.
“These are not isolated incidents,” said Charm Maranan, Defend ST spokesperson. “These are coordinated attacks by the Philippine National Police, by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict to disenfranchise the people from their legitimate demands.”
To carry that weight is to carry on the struggles our comrades left behind. It is to continue the shared struggle that binds us despite our grief and loss, because what we carry is more than our individual wants but the hopes of the Filipino masses – the same hopes that so many of us have paid the ultimate price in order to make it a reality.
According to initial reports by Save Patungan Now Movement, armed elements of the demolition team opened fire at least 12 times at the residents who set up barricades at entry points. Three residents, Neslie Lantar, Erick Dominado, and Ace Amul suffered gunshot wounds.
From December 2020 to December 2021, there have been at least 29,782 human rights violations, or an average of 82 per day, committed by state forces of the Rodrigo Duterte administration.
Karapatan is calling for the immediate dismissal of all “death warrants” issued last March as well as the release of Lino Baez and his co-accused Anakpawis party-list Batangas Coordinator Wilfredo Capareño.
“Staging a demolition exactly on the day we remember the peasant struggle is the highest form of disrespect.”
Lino Baez recounted what was done to him, which included “beatings, pressing the barrel of a gun to his chest, and applying a chemical to his blindfold which made him nauseous.” Baez was also frequently interrogated by state forces, insisting that he was a top-ranking member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog is asking the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Mimaropa and the Regional Trial Court Branch 81 for an explanation to the allegations that Maria Teresa Dioquino is being held in solitary confinement and harassed by military intelligence officials.
Both Lino Baez and Willy Capareño are no strangers to red-tagging and state harassment. The warrant issued against Baez came from the March 7 raid of his home in Santo Tomas, Batangas, where police and military supposedly “found” firearms and explosives. The raid was part of “Bloody Sunday”, which resulted in the deaths of nine activists and the arrests of seven others.
According to the labor federation Drug/Food and Allied Workers Federation (DFA-KMU), Wyeth Philippines managemen6 launched a “team-building exercise” for workers in their Warehouse division when they were instead served redundancy notices.
Jeffrey Bajo Delos Reyes is currently at the provincial hospital in Calapan City and is in critical condition after being shot in the head. He is 37 years old and has been in jail since September 2016.
The recent operations in Rodriguez are the latest in a series of intensified crackdown operations under the Duterte administration. In Rodriguez, Kasiglahan Village has been the target of intensified police and military surveillance following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the years, developers have targeted the highway between Santa Rosa and Tagaytay as a prime development spot. Ayala Land, Inc. and the Lucio Tan-owned Greenfield Development Corporation first began development in Santa Rosa in the early 2000s, much to the dismay of farmers and residents who lived in the area.
According to initial reports received by the group, elements of the Philippine National Police Regional Mobile Force Battalion – Region 4A, PNP San Pablo, and the military arrived at Marcellana and Relao’s house approximately 1 a.m. and arrested the two individuals. No warrants were issued for the two, but they were charged with kidnapping, murder, rebellion and illegal possession of firearms.
The last time I saw you was in a meeting for Hacienda Yulo. You were gaunt and tired from dialysis, and you arrived late in the afternoon when most of us had started in the morning. You could barely keep awake, and yet every time we suggested that you rest, you insisted that you stay in the meeting. “We have to finish this meeting,” you would always assert.
The recent string of harassment and attacks are meant to “silence workers in the lead up to Labor Day.”
“There is a clear and systemic pattern of vilifying human rights defenders as ‘terrorists’ or ‘subversives’ that has started even before the Duterte regime.”
“Our struggle isn’t distinct from the struggles of the nation” was a line he would often say during mobilizations, “which is why the working class must always rise up in solidarity with the rest of the nation.”
“Unionists are not terrorists. Terrorists do not fight for wages, decent conditions, and workers’ rights. Terrorists are those who intimidate, arrest, and kill people who stand up for justice and the common good.”
PAMANTIK-KMU has stated before that the Duterte administration is specifically targeting labor activists and unionists. These attacks, the group claims, intensified since the start of lockdown due to COVID-19 on March 17, 2020.
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