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“It is distressing that the community of barangay San Antonio would lose somebody like Hon. Froilan Reyes, especially now when his leadership is needed during a time of great crisis brought about by COVID-19.”
“We must realize that giving the people and organizations behind them permission to gather and use our personal information means that we do pay for their services - not in cash but at the cost of our attention, privacy, and security.”
The recent conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former reporter-researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. brought to the fore cyber libel as a weapon against journalists.
"Is this is the kind of government we will give power to in the implementation of an Anti-Terror Law?"
The situation in jail, according to transport group Piston, "gave the jeepney drivers higher risks of contracting the coronavirus disease."
“Throughout the past regimes, Danding was able to amass great wealth, power, and influence after plundering the coco levy fund collected from small coconut farmers during Martial Law."
“We don’t want aid, what we need is to get our livelihood back. What can we get from the government’s aid? A few kilos of rice and cans of sardines? Those aren’t even enough to feed our family for a day. Our request is to get our livelihood back, we’re not expecting the government to help us, so can they at least allow us to help ourselves?”
"It is very alarming that the (Philippine police) continues to fail as a good example of a gender-sensitive institution.”
The challenge for American activists and organizers is to now elevate these contradictions towards the primary question of class struggle; something that hasn’t been done since the Black Panther Party of the 1960s.
Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat fears that with the looming passage of the anti-terror bill, more incidents of harassment and abductions might take place.
“It is not loneliness that is the cause of death in Muntinlupa but neglect and mismanagement. The Supreme Court needs to act now with the greatest exigency to save human life.”
In their tens of millions, the workers, peasants and the lower middle class are hungry and angry at the Duterte regime and are eager to move against it. The professionals and entrepreneurs have been deprived of income and have fallen into debt and bankruptcy and are ready to join the toiling masses in concerted actions to protest and make demands. Even the big compradors and landlords who are not his close collaborators now consider him a plague worse than the COVID-19 virus.
The issue here goes beyond Rappler as other dominant and alternative news media organizations are also under attack. Ressa only becomes a convenient target because of her high profile. That's what she has in common with ABS-CBN which is a leading network. The chilling effect becomes clear by targeting both of them.
“Allowing this administration, the added leeway and greater authority that come with a newer, more oppressive anti-terrorism law would open the floodgates to graver forms of abuses. The dangers that come with the Anti-Terrorism Bill are all too real to be ignored, and we cannot and should not wait until the final nail in the coffin has been hammered down.”
The students were subjected to abuse and intimidation, with one student choked by an officer in plainclothes while he was trying to explain. One student was also labelled as a “recruiter for the New Peoples’ Army.”
Various groups assailed today yet another attack against press freedom in the country, with a Manila court handing down a guilty verdict against Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa and their former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the trial was "a test run for the latest weapon the State can now wield to intimidate and silence not only the media but all citizens who call out government abuse."
Members of the religious community are among those who have opposed and joined the growing clamor to stop the signing into law the controversial anti-terror bill, saying this will threaten the people’s “hard won freedoms.”
Despite warnings from Malacañang that joining protest is prohibited, thousands braved the rains and joined the party-themed protest against the anti-terror bill.
The very act of spreading fear reveals this administration's fear of the power of the people.
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