“Is this where the people’s budget goes?” asked KPL Rizal Chairperson Edz Pascual. “Instead of addressing the youth’s problems such as high tuition fees, inadequate facilities, teachers, and a lack of budget for education, [schools] are prioritizing partnerships with the 80th IBPA, who wastes our money in spreading misinformation, threats, and intimidation.”
“The right to free speech is not absolute; it imposes limitations on
its exercise to ensure that it will not impinge upon the rights of others. It does not protect defamatory statements,” the local court declared.
In all cases of enforced disappearances, Irene Khan urged them to provide information on the policies, procedures and measures adopted to prevent and investigate enforced disappearances carried out by members of State security forces or any other agent acting on their behalf or with their acquiescence.
“It appears that the NTF-ELCAC is using its powers to protect key economic interests in the country. This has nothing to do with anti-terrorism or anti-communism. The gross overreaction to people trying to defend their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is totally unacceptable.”
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said last week that he does not see any need to abolish the National Task Force to End the Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). He claimed that red-tagging does not come from the government but from “kung sino-sino” (other people). There is irony in Marcos’s statement. NTF-ELCAC, a task force created by virtue…
On May 3, Tarra’s parents were again approached by people claiming to be from NTF-ELCAC, including a so-called“supervisor. They showed photos of Tarra participating in various activities and insisted on personally speaking to Tarra out of fear that he might “go to the mountains.” They said that on their next visit, they would like to speak to his parents again with forms and documents for them to sign.
“The Philippine government will become a laughing stock in the international community if it does not heed SR Khan’s findings.”
“These people are innocent civilians being tagged by the NTF-ELCAC as NPAs. Out of their desperation, they are using the civilians for their report on the counter-insurgency program.”
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.
This was the top-of-mind step that Ian Fry, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, urged the Philippine government to take as he wound up a 10-day official visit in the country last Wednesday.