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Following the controversial online interview of the son and namesake of the late dictator, Bulatlat revisited the YouTube vlog of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his apparent attempts of whitewashing the horrors of martial law.
Today, the 49th year since the imposition of the Marcos dictator, Bulatlat is providing facts and context to these claims.
Another Philippine court acquitted a peace consultant over trumped-up charges stemming from the infamous "search warrant factory" that led to the arrests of scores of activists and human rights workers.
Juan Macababbad handled several cases, particularly in defense of indigenous peoples and protection of the environment.
To date, there are 31 unionists who remain in detention for trumped-up charges and 56 trade unionists extrajudicially killed in the country.
“It is imperative that the Council heed the Filipino people’s call to conduct a probe on the rights violation under the Duterte administration amid impunity and failure of domestic mechanisms to provide redress to victims and hold perpetrators accountable.”
A group of human rights lawyers in the Philippines said that the “overwhelming support” that the International Criminal Court received from approximately 1,530 individual victims and 1,050 families who fell victims of the government’s “war on drugs” may lead to a formal investigation.
Human rights group Karapatan documented 19 victims of enforced disappearances under the Duterte administration. This despite the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012 supposedly in force.
“Karapatan-Central Visayas expresses indignation over another attempt of the state to withhold the body of a peasant rights advocate from her family..."
For human rights group Karapatan, they see no other actor that would have the resources and motivation to take down their website but the Duterte administration.
“The questions left unanswered and the inconsistencies not clarified belies the existence of probable cause which justify the issuance of the search warrants. For this reason, the warrants should be quashed."
"These attacks only benefit those who want to silence us and our human rights work amid a pervasive state of impunity in the country."
“Certainly, no evidence was presented showing that Anakbayan is the recruiting arm of or somehow connected to the CPP-NPA.”
“We will be with them (in every) stage of the process; we will be with them until the end."
“The pattern of the police’s use of search warrants, planting evidence and effecting the arbitrary arrests and detention of individuals like Pastor Dan Balucio is a glaring form of weaponization of the judiciary against activists and dissenters.”
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.
Filipino farmer groups have called on the Duterte administration to stop targeting their ranks as they are being rounded up and forced to “surrender” as alleged members of the New People’s Army.
“One year after he was killed, the announced investigation by the Task Force on Administrative Order 35 has yet to show any significant progress towards determination and arrests of suspects. As we assert the struggle for just and lasting peace, we also ring the call for justice for Ka Randy and all peace consultants, and to stop the killings in the Philippines."
"Why will they run again in the next elections? They should have been finding solutions to our problems right now instead of focusing on the next elections."
“They tried to bury hundreds and thousands of us; they did not know that we were seeds.”
“Rather than listen to all the valid criticisms, DND continues to brush aside the damning evidence against them by escaping institutional accountability.”
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