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PROGRESSIVE organizations and activists from all over the country held a rally near the House of Representatives (HOR) as President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 25.
About 30,000 activists, including thousands from Mindanao, Visayas and Bicol, were allowed along Batasan Road that has never seen a rally as big in at least two decades. Read more
SONA ng Bayan 2016: 40 libo nagmartsa patungong Batasan
Tinatayang hindi bababa sa 40 libo ang nagmartsa mula sa iba’t ibang sektor at progresibong organisasyon sa pangunguna ng Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) mula sa Commonwealth Avenue patungong Batasan Road kaninang umaga. Ipinakita ng BAYAN ang kanilang pagsuporta sa mga maka-mamamayang programa ng bagong administrasyong Duterte sa kanyang unang SONA sa araw na ito. Naglakbayan ang mga delegasyon mula sa Mindanao, Eastern Visayas, Bicol, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon at Northern Luzon patungong Maynila bitbit ang “agenda ng mamamayan” para kay Pangulong Duterte.
Commonwealth Avenue to Batasan Road, Quezon City
July 25, 2016
YOUTH and sectoral groups formed a “human chain” at Mendiola, Manila last Friday to support the resumption of the formal peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
The human chain is part of the metro-wide action led by Kapayapaan, a group of advocates who call for a just and lasting peace, in anticipation of the formal negotiations in Oslo, Norway presumably on August 20 to 27. Read more
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved the new “inclusive roadmap to peace,” Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said in a press conference, Tuesday.
“There will be inclusivity in Duterte’s roadmap to peace,” Dureza said.
He explained that the approved “inclusive roadmap” will go over the engagements with the Bangsamoro factions, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the closure of arguments with other rebel groups. Read more
IN ITS effort to rid the National Penitentiary at Bilibid, Muntinlupa City of suspected corrupt Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) personnel, the Rodrigo Duterte government fielded the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force as jail guards.
In an unprecedented move, the elite police unit that was formed and trained as an anti-insurgency force is now tasked to rid the country’s premiere jail of dangerous drugs laboratories and operations.
There have been numerous reports that suspected drug lords are operating drug rings from their jail cells that have become luxurious apartments through the collusion of suspected corrupt BJMP personnel.
THE GOVERNMENT peace panel has decided to postpone the resumption of its formal peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) anew to August 20 to 27.
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) chief peace negotiator and Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III told Kodao Productions this morning that they will first have to secure the release of NDFP negotiators who are still detained.
Bello said that they still have to formally inform the NDFP of the adjustment.
Both panels originally scheduled the talks on the third week of this month but later entertained the possibility of rescheduling the formal negotiations on the last week of July or second week of August for the GRP to effect the release of more than 20 Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG)-protected NDFP consultants and staff.
The GRP through its peace panel member Hernani Braganza also said that they want the formal talks to be held after President Rodrigo Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address on July 25.
The NDFP through its chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison earlier said they are willing to give the GRP time to release NDFP consultants Allan Jazmines, Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria and others JASIG-protected consultants.
Asked earlier about the possibility of another postponement, Sison told Kodao that it is better to ask the GRP on the final dates. (Raymund B. Villanueva)
AS THE Philippines claimed victory against China over the West Philippine Sea due to a favorable decision at the arbitral court on sea disputes in The Hague, The Netherlands, research group IBON Foundation urged President Rodrigo Duterte to assert national sovereignty versus China and the United States.
IBON in their 2016 Midyear Birdtalk held at UP Diliman last Saturday said that the real conflict is between the two superpowers China and US.
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines,
and Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines
July 13, 2016
THE PHILIPPINES is now in an overwhelmingly superior or far more advantageous position than ever before in legal, political and material terms after the clear-cut judgment of the Arbitral Tribunal in favor of the Philippines against China’s spurious claims of historic rights over more than 90 per cent of the South China and in particular over more than 80 per cent of the exclusive economic zone and 100 per cent of the extended continental shelf of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea. Read more
MANILA—The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) has completed its peace panel in time for the anticipated resumption for formal talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) later this month, its chief negotiator in an interview said.
GRP negotiating panel chief and Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello said they have completed their negotiating team with the addition of two lawyers who will represent marginalized sectors.
“Now we have Atty. Angela Librado, who will represent the women sector, and Atty. Noel Felongco who will represent the indigenous peoples,” Bello said. Read more
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte asked Vice President Leonor Robredo to head the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, making her a member of his Cabinet.
Robredo accepted the appointment, made through a phone call while Duterte was in a press conference in Malacañan Palace last Friday.