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The warning declared by various groups in 2020 – that the ATA would be used by the government to intimidate and harass human rights defenders, activists and dissenters – has become a reality.
For workers in Southern Tagalog, repression is as normal as resistance.
The struggle for their right to housing taught them that they have bigger fights to win.
Despite attempts to deviate himself from his predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr has continued a counterinsurgency policy which resulted in gross human rights violations.
The 55-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) called on its members to launch a rectification movement to recover from admitted setbacks suffered in recent years.
The readings for this last Sunday of Advent are full of “messianic expectation”. They exude a hope and trust which has endured through occupation and exile and grown stronger in persecution. It is a hope centred on the key promise of God given to David, that David’s house and his kingdom would be established forever (2 Sam.7:16). After the Exile, the people longed for another David, the shepherd boy anointed by God who became a great warrior, defeated enemies in battle and united the 12 tribes around Jerusalem. With the defeat of the Davidic dynasty the people asked where was God’s promise? We see the struggle of the community with this dilemma in the Royal Psalms. Psalm 89 begins praising God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to all generations but this trust in God is being tested as the psalmist laments “where is thy steadfast love of old, which by thy faithfulness thou did swear to David” (v49).
What a sad Christmas season this is for the peace-loving peoples of the world. Devastating wars are being waged, most notably, today, in Palestine and Ukraine. Soldiers are dying, civilians are suffering and dying too, and there seems to be no power on earth that will stop the gunfire.
Sugarcane has lost its sweetness in Batangas province. The past year has been bittersweet for sugarcane plantation workers since one of the largest sugar mills in the Philippines closed down. They are still struggling to salvage what is left of their livelihood and of the whole sugar industry in the country.
A Quezon City assistant city prosecutor dismissed the environmental case filed against activist and cultural worker Maximo Santiago and three others after they burned an effigy during the State of the Nation Address last July.
We live in difficult times. There are ongoing crisis in Israel-Palestine, and Ukraine-Russia, and emerging conflict in the South China Sea. Then there is the climate and economic crises that threaten food security. We are also faced with enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings as well as violation of rights of activists, human rights defenders, environmentalists, workers and farmers, which happen with impunity.
This is the third piece in a row I’ve written about perceivable hindrances to the smooth resumption of formal peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. It had been announced in early December that they had agreed to do so in Oslo, Norway, on Nov. 23.
PISTON and Samahang Manibela Mananakay at Nagkaisang Terminal ng Transportasyon (MANIBELA) announced the continuation of the transport strike from Monday, December 18 until December 25. They also saw the possibility of extending it until December 31, the deadline of franchise consolidation.
Among the issues that those who participated in the NUJP campaign hoped Khan would look into include website blocking, political prisoners, gender-based attacks against women journalists and media killings.
Rights groups stressed that the perjury case filed by former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. in July 2019 was a retaliation for the writ of amparo and habeas data they filed to seek protection from the relentless state-sponsored red-tagging.
Indigenous peoples and environmental defenders attending the Conference of the Parties (COP) 28 in Dubai commemorated the 75th year of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights by protesting the unabated attacks against environmental and human rights defenders.
"Despite Marcos Jr.'s cultivated facade, the sordid figures on rights violations prove that he is his dictator-father's son and his regime, a continuation of that of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte."
“Edna’s detention and deportation shows that the Marcos Jr. administration has not learned the lessons of history. One of these is that no amount of government repression can silence Filipino youth and migrants who will persevere in their activism and fight back against, even oust, repressive regimes."
“We are at the climate conference in Dubai because it is also an opportunity to raise voice. Make people aware that there is an ongoing genocide and that we must call for a ceasefire now."
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