The group said that while paying lip service to UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Michel Forst’s report on the invaluable contribution of human rights defenders, the government accused rights activists in the Philippines of “[using] the cover of human rights defenders to protect, cover, or promote agendas of deceit and violence.”
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chapters all over the Philippines will hold candle-lighting activities later today, Friday, February 28, to press for media freedom and the franchise renewal of embattled media network ABS-CBN.
Here is a timeline of how organizations have been helping the network weather its worst storm since it was sequestered during Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law:
In a press conference at the HOR’s media center, the media group submitted to Bayan Muna Representative Karlos Ysagani Zarate about eight thousand signatures as well as a flash drive containing nearly 200 thousand signatures it gathered since it launched the petition signing campaign in January when plans by the Office of the Solicitor General to file a quo warranto petition were reported last January.
Hong Kong domestic worker Eleveneth Baldero said she fears losing her job due to the travel ban imposed by the Manila government to the Chinese territory. Contractual workers like her may be fired if unable to return back to their employers on time as Philippine authorities have prevented Filipino citizens from travelling to Hong Kong and the rest of China.
Buhay party-list Rep. Jose “Lito” Atienza wondered what has been keeping the House Committwe on Legislative Franchises from tackling the 11 pending bills on the ABS-CBN franchise renewal, hinting that the delay was supposedly to allow “shady” deals.
“That is why we also challenge government to make contractualization and all its iterations absolutely illegal as the President repeatedly promised in the past. The millons of contractual workers and the NUJP are still waiting,” the media group said.
The group said the red-baiting tactics of the government lump together civilian activists with the armed combatants of the New People’s Army in a bid to make them targets of military combat operations and legal offensives.
The NUPL said that Calida’s “feudal treatment” of a fellow lawyer based on his self-professed superiority does not speak well neither of the office he represents nor of the profession.
The NUJP said Calida was being boorish, “a classic example of a government factotum who mistakes his position of authority as a license to throw his weight around.”
