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Red fighters welcome 3rd rectification movement, CPP reports on NPA’s 55th anniversary

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The New People’s Army (NPA) has “wholeheartedly welcomed” the third rectification movement recently launched by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the revolutionary Left reported.

In its traditional NPA founding anniversary statement published today, the CPP’s Central Committee said all of the guerrilla army’s regional commands have responded positively to the rectification movement launched last December 26 on the occasion of the Party’s own 55th founding anniversary. 

“They have responded positively and are presently carrying out summing-up conferences and study meetings to identify the errors and shortcomings in order to rectify these, and steadily and comprehensively carry forward all revolutionary tasks,” the CPP said.

In a nearly eight thousand word statement entitled “Set to blaze the revolutionary armed struggle for national democracy! Carry out the critical and urgent tasks to rectify errors and advance the revolution!” the CPP said the NPA and all other revolutionary forces are in the process of identifying and getting rid of the ideological roots of “past errors, weaknesses and shortcomings.”

The Party said the NPA had been stalled by military conservatism in recent years resulting in fewer tactical offensives against Manila government’s armed forces.

The CPP also acknowledged the loss of veteran NPA commanders in the ongoing total war that started after former President Rodrigo Duterte terminated peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, a strategy that is continuing under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

NPA defeat ’wishful thinking’

The underground Party said their third rectification movement is frustrating government plans to annihilate the NPA however, similar to how its Second Great Rectification Movement has salvaged their revolution from total self-destruction in the 1990s.

This report is in stark contrast to Marcos Jr.’s announcement last January that the NPA has suffered “strategic defeat,” citing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claims that there are no more active Red guerrilla fronts left in the country.

The CPP dismissed the new (AFP) deadline of June 2024 as the date for the destruction of all Red guerrilla fronts and the end of this year as the annihilation of the entire NPA.

Last Tuesday, March 26, Chinese outfit XinhuaNet reported national security adviser Eduardo Ano’s reiteration of AFP’s claim of the NPA’s strategic defeat and total annihilation by year-end.

On the same day, however, the NPA in Quezon province announced it ambushed a 30-man unit of the 85th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay Doña Aurora, Calauag  town.

Three government troopers were wounded in the attack, Apolonio Mendoza Command-NPA spokesperson Cleo del Mundo reported.

The Manila government has declared Quezon province as “insurgency-free” and was put under the so-called Stable Internal Peace and Security category only last June.

All NPA regional commands intact

In today’s statement, the CPP Central Committee said that all 14 NPA regional commands remain intact and is starting to arrest its reverses through intense ideological activities such as the study of Marxist, Leninist and Maoist writings as well as those of its founding chairperson Sison.

The CPP said the NPA is in the process of correcting its military conservatism and directed the guerrilla army to launch attacks to regain strengthen and defend the people from widespread human rights violations resulting from intense government military operations.

“In response, the enemy poured even greater amounts of funds and resources to its counterrevolutionary war and has further intensified its campaign of encirclement and suppression,” the CPP said.

“This has now taken the form of relentless and widespread campaigns of armed suppression against peasant communities, aerial bombing and artillery shelling and large-scale combat operations in scores of guerrilla fronts across the country.”

Acknowledged as the army engaged in the longest armed revolution in Asia, the NPA was founded on this day in 1969 in Barangay Sta. Rita in Capas, Tarlac, a few months after Sison and several others re-established the CPP in neighboring  Pangasinan province a few months earlier in December 26, 1968. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

NDFP consultants welcome return of peace talks to national level

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Detained National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants welcome reported dialogues to revive stalled formal peace negotiations with the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), expressing hope to join the talks if efforts succeed.

Long-time NDFP consultant Vicente Ladlad said they welcome efforts to resume formal peace talks with the GRP and the start of its policy changes regarding negotiations with the revolutionary Left.

“It is good they (GRP) decided to elevate peace talks to the national level once again and reverse former president Rodrigo Duterte’s policy of so-called localized peace talks,” Ladlad said.

The 30-year veteran of the GRP-NDFP talks noted that Duterte was of the “mistaken” belief that the GRP shall have eliminated the NPA by the end of his term in June 2022.

“Apparently, they realized that under Marcos Jr., they realized that the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA (New People’s Army)-NDFP is still a viable force. That is why they are going back to negotiating with the NDFP,” Ladlad added.

Following Duterte’s cancellation of formal negotiations in mid-2017, no local CPP, NPA and NDFP formation has also officially engaged the GRP in so-called localized peace talks, the groups clarifying they have only authorized the NDFP Negotiating Panel to negotiate with the Manila government.

Outstanding issues

Ladlad said that one of the hurdles in efforts to revive the talks is Vice President Sara Duterte’s open opposition to the policy change on negotiations with the NDFP.

He said the vice president’s statement on the peace efforts was “very hostile and belligerent” to her president, Marcos Jr.

In an interview after the simultaneous announcement by the NDFP, GRP and the Royal Norwegian Government—Third Party Facilitator of the peace talks–of ongoing dialogues to revive negotiations last December, Vice President Duterte said it was “an agreement with the devil.”

NDFP peace consultant Adelberto Silva for his part said another hurdle to the success of the ongoing dialogues is the insistence of other officials in the Marcos Jr. cabinet to do away with previously signed agreements such as The Hague Joint Declaration and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

Silva said that The Hague Joint Declaration should remain as the framework of the negotiations as it had already been signed and reaffirmed by both parties numerous times.

“The GRP must also guarantee the safety of the consultants the NDFP wishes to join in the revived peace talks under the JASIG,” Silva said.

Both consultants added the Marcos Jr. GRP must remember that the negotiations are not just about ending the armed conflict but addressing its root causes.

“Otherwise, that’s just surrender talks,” they said.

In an interview with Kodao, NDFP Negotiating Panel chairperson Julie de Lima said there have been at least five dialogues with GRP emissaries since early 2022 when NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison was still alive. (Sison died of illness in December 2022.)

The first four dialogues happened in The Netherlands and the fifth was in Oslo where the November 26, 2023 Joint Communique was signed between GRP officials and the NDFP Negotiating Panel.

De Lima said it was former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Emmanuel Bautista who initiated the dialogues who was later joined by Presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. and Special Assistant to the President Antonio Lagdameo  Jr. at the fifth round of dialogues in Oslo, Norway. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Netherlands asked to probe Dutch corporate abuse in Bulacan airport project

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Environmental groups held a rally in front of the The Netherlands Embassy in Makati last Friday, March 22, to demand accountability for two Dutch company’s involvement in the San Miguel Corporation’s P735-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA) project on Manila Bay.

Environmental organizations and science advocates joined representatives of the group Defend Manila Bay from Cavite, Bulacan and Metro Manila coastal and fishing communities to protest what they call as an environmentally destructive reclamation project.

The protesters said that the NMIA project gained approval through intimidation of communities.

“Dutch company Boskalis Westminster NV stands to profit from the Philippines mega-airport, even as it is devastating the lives of our local fishing and coastal communities and our marine and coastal environment as well,” Jonila Castro, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment’s Advocacy Officer for Reclamation and Water, said.

Castro, also a member of Defend Manila Bay, is one of two young environmentalists who revealed their abduction by the Philippine Army and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed conflict in September last year.

READ: Environmentalists reveal abduction by military

Defend Manila Bay said the Dutch dredging giant Boskalios signed a €1.5 billion contract to construct the first phase of the NMIA in 2018, a project that is about the size of Makati City itself.

Boskalis is also extracting materials from the coastlines of Cavite province for back-fill material for the land reclamation process required to build the mega airport located in the territory of Bulacan province across the bay.

“Boskalis is profiting from a project that bypassed environmental and social scrutiny, ignored warnings from impact assessments, and, worst, used military intimidation to coerce ‘consent’ from affected communities. If this is not grave corporate abuse, then what is?” Bulacan community organizer Jhed Tamano asked.

Tamano is Castro’s co-survivor in the military’s abduction and fake-surrender fiasco.

“Soldiers had arrived every day, intimidating the community in Taliptip, Bulacan, threatening the residents that something bad might happen to them if they continued to refuse to leave. They did this until most of the 700 families in the coastal communities there were forced to leave their homes and agree to unjust compensation offers,” Tamano revealed.  

READ: Saving Taliptip

‘Chilling norm’

Environmental Defenders Congress leader and Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders convenor Lia Torres said Castro and Tamano’s abduction is one of the many attacks suffered by environment defenders under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government.

“Jhed and Jonila’s abduction by soldiers is a becoming chilling norm under Marcos Jr.’s reign, emblematic of the militarization targeting communities opposing environmental devastation,” Torres said.

“Under the Marcos Jr. administration, 21 abduction incidents involving state forces targeting 38 individuals occurred, with 14 cases involving defenders. Twenty-one remain missing,” Torres added.  

In February 2023, an investigative report by London-based Global Witness revealed that residents of Taliptip, Bulacan, disclosed that SMC sought approval for an unspecified “land development” rather than the massive airport project.

“This blatant lack of transparency robbed communities of their right to assess the project’s impacts and challenge any resulting harms,” Castro said.

A plethora of birds roosting over makeshift structures put up by fisherfolk. (Photo by Leon Dulce/Kalikasan PNE)

Kalikasan further revealed that in addition to the displacement of communities from Bulacan, communities across the Manila Bay in Cavite province have also reported loss of livelihood and destruction of the environment.

The group said dredging operations by Boskalis cause dwindling fish catch and increasing cases of hunger by fishing families.

Dutch credit company also accountable

READ: Groups press call to save Manila Bay from reclamation projects


The protest rally also demanded accountability from the Dutch export credit agency Atradius Dutch State Business that provided at least 1.5 billion euros in export credit insurance to Boskalis for the NMIA project.

Boskalis obtained insurance for the project from the Dutch state through Atradius DSB in May 2022, it said.

“Despite opposition from local communities and civil society groups in both the Netherlands and the Philippines, the application was approved in 2022 by Atradius DSB and Dutch state secretary for finance Marnix van Rij,” Castro said.

The move contradicts the Netherlands’ government’s own environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals, she added.  

Manila Bay wetlands in trouble

The NMIA project has also sparked significant controversy for its destruction of vital wetlands hosting diverse wildlife, including endangered migratory birds, the protesters said.

“Manila Bay is an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot, and the airport development is set to destroy protected ecosystems in the area,” Jerwin Baure, a marine scientist of Advocates of Science and Technology for the People said.

The construction also encroaches upon a recommended ‘strict protection zone’ identified by a joint study of the Philippine and Dutch states, the scientist said.

“The construction will cause irreversible harm to the natural habitats in the area. As Manila Bay is a productive fishing ground, many fishers will lose their livelihoods. With mangroves being cut down, we also lose their ecosystem function of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change,” Baure said.

“It’s puzzling that Dutch companies are involved in this harmful reclamation project, given their collaboration with Philippine authorities on the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan (MBSDMP) from 2018 to 2020, which received hundreds of millions of pesos worth of funding from the Dutch government, he added.

The protesters said they urge The Netherlands government to investigate corporate abuses by the Dutch companies and to ask the Philippine government to halt the airport project.

Human rights lawyer and Karapatan legal counsel Atty. Maria Sol Taule speaks at a rally in The Netherlands against rights abuses committed against environmentalists opposing Manila Bay reclamation projects. (Supplied photo)

Dutch and Filipino environmentalists also held a parallel protest rally in Papendrecht, The Netherlands, Boskalis WMV’s headquarters.

They said the two rallies are the first of a series of globally coordinated actions against reclamation projects on Manila Bay.

READ: Groups demand scrapping of all Manila Bay reclamation projects

Last year, President Marcos ordered the suspension of all but one of the projects but environmental groups decried that reclamation have nonetheless continued. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Political prisoners, other PDLs oppose transfer to new ‘Guantanamo-style’ jail inside Bagong Diwa

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Political prisoners and other detainees at the Metro Manila District Jail Annex 4 (MMDJ-4) in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City are appealing against their transfer to a newly constructed prison facility, which a support group of political prisoners dubs the “Philippine Guantanamo.”

In a written petition presented at a meeting convened by the Makabayan bloc in Congress with the head of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) last Wednesday, March 20, the detainees said they request reconsideration of the decision to transfer them to the newly constructed jail facility at the MMDJ-Main.

“We, the detainees of MMDJ Annex 4, Camp Bagong Diwa, have come together to request to remain in MMDJ Annex 4 because we only number 305 PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) here, and overcrowding is not an issue,” they said in a handwritten letter addressed to BJMP chief Gen. Ruel Rivera.

Written in Filipino, the letter was signed by eight “mayores” representing various groups that include the political prisoners, Moro organizations and prison gangs in the MMDJ-4 facility.

The letter written by the PDLs to BJMP. (Supplied by Kapatid)

Political prisoners support group Kapatid described the new facility as a “Guantanamo-style prison” that features cramped two by three meter cells.

Kapatid  spokesperson Fides Lim told BJMP chief Gen. Ruel Rivera that families of political prisoners support the PDLs’ appeal as congestion does not seem to be the primary issue for transfer amid “disturbing” reports that the political prisoners and Muslim PDLs will be incarcerated in the “bartolina-type” cells on the seventh floor of one of the new buildings in the MMDJ Main.

Guantanamo is the notorious prison operated by the United States of America in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for those it considers as its enemies and so-called terrorists. It has become notorious for torture, harsh interrogation techniques, indefinite detention without trial and other human rights abuses and violations of international law as well as lack of transparency and accountability.

Kapatid said the solitary isolation cells smack of the notorious US prison camp.

“Is Guantanamo now being transplanted into the Philippine jail system? But ‘confinement in solitary cells’ is considered among the ‘acts of torture’ explicitly prohibited under Republic Act 9745 or Anti-Torture Act of 2009 and similarly proscribed under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Mandela Rules,” Lim said.

The meeting between the BJMP and the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives. (Supplied by Kapatid)

ACT Teachers Party Rep. France Castro also questioned the reported involvement of an agency under the US Department of Justice, the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), in the funding, construction and operation of the new huge jail compound located beside the MMDJ Annex 4 building.

BJMP chief Gen. Director Ruel Rivera said the “ICITAP is only involved in training” of local jail personnel and that he “opposes the practice of solitary confinement because this is prohibited under the Mandela Rules.”

Rivera pledged to conduct an “ocular inspection” of the new facility and provide the Makabayan representatives with “complete background information” about it, including funding source and the BJMP’s logistics development plan around 2016.

Castro and the other Makabayan partylist members, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, said they will also push for an ocular inspection of the new facility together with the House committee on human rights.

They said this is part of the oversight functions of the legislature to review and monitor public sector agencies to ensure their compliance with constitutional and legal prescriptions, especially on the protection of basic rights. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Int’l coalition slams Blinken visit, US military expansion in the PH

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International human rights defenders praised the rallies held in Manila against State Secretary Antony Blinken’s visit, opposing the Philippines’ involvement in the United States’ preparations for war against China.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) said it salutes the protests organized by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) last Tuesday, March 19, against the extension of US military installations in the Philippines.

“The Filipino people don’t want to be a battlefield for a great power war, and ICHRP urges all nations in the region – South East Asia and North East Asia – to deescalate the frightening military buildup towards war,” ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy said.

In his meeting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at Malacanan Palace last Tuesday, Blinken said he reiterated the US’ “ironclad commitment” to defend the Philippines as tensions with China over South China Sea disputes continue to rise.

In a joint press conference with his Philippine counterpart Foreign Affairs secretary Enrique Manalo, Blinken said that under the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty Washington is bound to defend Manila from “armed attacks on the Filipino armed forces, public vessels, aircraft – including those of its coast guard – anywhere in the South China Sea.”

Shifting from the pro-China stance of the previous Rodrigo Duterte government, the Marcos Jr. administration in February 2023 agreed to provide four more military installations to the US under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Arrangement (EDCA).

These are the Naval Base Camilo Osias in Santa Ana, Cagayan; Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; Balabac Island in Palawan; and Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan.

Three of the four are oriented towards Taiwan, the flashpoint for a potential war by the US against China, ICHRP said.

Filipino anti-imperialist activists protest against US State Secretary Antony Blinken’s visit.
(Photo by Nuel Bacarra/Kodao)

On its own, the US maintains a strong presence in the South China Sea, with military aircraft overflights, so-called freedom of navigation operations, and naval patrols.

It also conducts regular military exercises with the Philippines and other allies, the biggest of which was held in April last year that China sees as an escalation of US aggression in the region.

ICHRP said it opposes US military expansion in the Philippines, also accusing Australia, Canada and Japan remaining silent on gross human rights violations under the Marcos Jr. government in favor of deepening military cooperation and arms sales to the Philippines.

This is part of the countries’ broader China containment strategy, the coalition added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

CHR tells world of red-tagging, misuse of counter-terror measures

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Rights defenders ask UN to conduct investigations in PH

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the Philippines called on the Philippine government to end the practice of red-tagging and ensure that counter-terrorism measures are not “weaponized” against activists and political opponents.

In an intervention in the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CHR chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc said the Commission is seriously concerned about the Philippine government’s misuse of counter-terrorism measures to curtail the right to freedom of expression and peaceably assemble in the country.

“[It] creates a chilling effect in human rights activism in the country,” Palpal-latoc said in a video-taped message as part of the interactive dialogue on UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights Ben Saul’s report last March 12 .

“State agents and institutions, particularly the law enforcement, using State resources, systematically engage in red-tagging, which is the act of branding or accusing individuals or organizations, many of whom are human rights defenders and community workers,” Palpal-latoc revealed.

He added that victims of red-tagging are labeled as subversives or communists that facilitate and carry out terrorist acts.

“Red tagging legitimizes intrusion into civilians’ private lives and has dangerous consequences – online and physical attacks, prolonged incarceration, and even death to some,” the CHR chairperson said.

Palpal-latoc said the Philippine national human rights institution joins the international Treaty Bodies, Special Rapporteurs, UN Member States, and global civil society organizations in calling the Philippine Government to end the practice of red-tagging and ensure that counter-terrorism measures are not weaponized against activists and political opponents.

“We also strongly encourage the Government to work with the Special Rapporteur Mr. Ben Saul, in reviewing the human rights impacts of the country’s counter-terrorism policies and practices through an official country visit,” he added.

The Philippine UPR Watch delegation to the 55th UNHRC regular session in Geneva, Switzerland.
(Photo by the World Council of Churches)

Just as bad under Marcos

Meanwhile, delegates of the Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch in Geneva said the human rights situation is not better under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government, contrary to what government officials are telling UN member states.

In a side event UN HRC session last March 14, the delegation echoed CHR’s revelation of red-tagging and weaponization of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 in the Philippines, adding the Marcos administration has continued with repressive and oppressive policies implemented under the previous Rodrigo Duterte regime.

“High level envoys have been here at the start of this UNHRC session telling other member states and the UN in general of the so-called successes of the UN Joint Program (UNJP) that has been implemented in the Philippines in the last three years. What success is the Marcos government talking about when rights violations continue unabated?” IBON executive director Sonny Africa asked.

Department of Justice undersecretary Raul Vasquez claimed in an oral statement to the UNHRC last February 27 that the Philippine government “strengthen[ed] existing domestic human rights mechanisms (through the UNJP) in support of [the government’s) rights-based development agenda.”

Vasquez also announced that the Marcos government shall establish “a human rights coordinating council (HRCC) to take over and broaden the programs identified under the UNJP, and ensure greater participation of other government agencies and civil society organizations.”

Africa said that both IBON and Karapatan are members of a technical working group within the UNJP and they have a front row seat of how capacity-building exercises are ineffective when laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Act are still actively used to oppress human rights defenders.

“The Marcos government cannot claim success of the UNJP when the drug killings continue, such as in the case of Jemboy Baltazar killed by the police 13 months into the Marcos presidency. Worse, the police officer who shot him was given a very light sentence and his cohorts were set free in what the court described was a simple case of mistaken identity,” Africa said.

Africa added that the planned HRCC is likely to become another failure like the UNJP.

“As long as the Marcos government continues to ignore the recommendations made by UN special rapporteurs who recently visited the country, such as the abolition of the red-tagging National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and the review of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 2020, there will be more rights violations,” Africa warned.

Clergy, environmentalists as ATA victims

United Methodist Church clergy and National Council of Churches in the Philippines member Rev. Glofie Baluntong narrated how the ATA was used to drive her away from Southern Tagalog where she was a Distrist Superintendent for Mindoro and Romblon.

Baluntong was charged with alleged violation of the ATA in 2021 for her defense of the indigenous Mangyan in Mindoro who resist mining and logging operations in the island.

Center for Environmental Concerns executive director Lia Mai Torres narrated how two state abduction survivors and fellow environment defenders Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro were supposed to be part of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation but for additional charges filed against them by the DOJ.

“The ongoing UH HRC session, being the first one after their abduction and dramatic walk to freedom, would have been the most opportune time for the two brave environmental activists to share to the world their ordeal in the hands of the Marcos government,” Torres said.

The DOJ filed a grave oral defamation charge against Tamano and Castro last February before the Dona Remedios Trinidad Municipal Trial Court for allegedly maligning the Philippine Army.

“The irony of the kidnappers charging their abductions victims is simply incredible,” Torres quipped.

800 political prisoners

Karapatan legal counsel Ma. Sol Taule told attending Geneva graduate students and Geneva-based international civil society organizations of the 800 political prisoners languishing in various jails throughout the Philippines.

“The fact that the Marcos government keeps in jail hundreds of political prisoners is testament that the human rights situation in the Philippines under Marcos Jr. is not better,” Taule said.

“Since the compromise project of UNJP did not produce the intended result of respect for human rights in the Philippines, we urge the United Nations to revisit the approved 2019 Iceland resolution for the conduct of an independent investigation,” she said.

Taule added that the DOJ has no right to head the proposed HRCC given its lack of credibility in delivering justice to human rights violations victims, as in the case of the notorious Bloody Sunday killings in Southern Tagalog three years ago that killed five activists and killed several others in a single day.

The lawyer also cited the DOJ’s role in Administrative Order 35 creating the Inter-Agency Committee on Extra-Legal Killings, Enforced Disappearances, Torture and other grave violations to the Rights to Life, Liberty and Security of Persons in 2012.

“The world knows the Philippine government’s bloody record in killing thousands upon thousands of suspected drug dependents as well as human rights defenders and simple civilians. What moral right does DOJ have to head a human rights coordinating council?” Taule asked.

“The Philippine government is lying about the real situation on the ground and it is miserable failing to abide by its commitments to the international community. It is high time for the UNHRC to find the truth out for itself by conducting its own investigation,” the human rights lawyer added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

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(DISCLOSURE) The reporter is a member of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation as chairperson of the People’s Alternative Media Network who met with UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan last January.

Methodist pastor tells UN of PH government harassment using anti-terror law

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GENEVA, Switzerland—A Filipina clergy spoke before the ongoing 55th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in this city complaining of trumped up charges against her by the Philippine government using the Philippine Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA, Republic Act No. 11479) of 2020.

United Methodist Church (UMC) Pastor Glofie Baluntong said both the Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos governments use the ATA and other repressive laws in the Philippines to harass human rights defenders

At the UNHRC’s discussion of the report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism Ben Saul last Tuesday, March 12, Baluntong narrated that on June 17, 2019, Philippine National Police forces barged into her church compound in Roxas, Oriental Mindoro without a court-issued warrant, demanding she surrender of Karapatan Southern Tagalog members she was hosting. She was then accused of aiding alleged rebels, she added.

“Since then, I have endured harassment, intrusive visits, and questioning by the Armed Forces (of the Philippines),” she revealed.

Rev. Baluntong, also a member of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines, also told the international body that she was subsequently charged by the Philippine government of attempted murder on August 18, 2021.

“[They cited] an armed encounter that allegedly occurred on March 25 of that year—a day on which I was conducting funeral rites for a departed church member,” Baluntong told the UN.

“I was also wrongfully charged with [violation of] the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, and grave threats from state forces have forced me to flee my town,” she added.

Baluntong’s testimony at the UNHRC discussion followed former senator Leila de Lima’s own intervention via video, narrating her seven-year ordeal as a political prisoner for her opposition to Duterte’s bloody drug war.

Baluntong called upon UN member states, including the Philippines, to heed Saul’s recommendations to ensure that counter-terrorism laws and practices, including efforts to combat terrorism financing, respect human rights.

Baluntong said that governments must make sure they do not curtail the legitimate activities of civil society organizations, impede civic space, or hinder humanitarian endeavours.

“Saul’s report testifies to my own lived experience,” Baluntong said.

United Methodist Church Rev. Glofie Baluntong delivering her oral intervention at the 55th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. (Screengrab from UN TV)

Increasing number of cases

Meanwhile, rights group Karapatan, a member of the Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) delegation attending the ongoing UNHRC session here said at least 27 individuals have been charged by the Philippine government of violating the ATA.

These are in addition to several Islamic groups charged as terrorists groups under the ATA and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10168).

“Charges under ATA against three political prisoners had been dismissed, but they remain in jail due to other trumped up criminal charges.  Eight political prisoners who were detained and faced charges under Republic Act No. 11479 had been released,” Karapatan legal counsel Atty. Ma. Sol Taule said.

The constitutionality of the Philippine Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 had been contested by 47 petitions before the Supreme Court that in turn struck down some of its most questionable provisions.

The high court however deferred judgement on other contested points citing lack of actual injury pending it’s the law’s full implementation.

“There has been no reported conviction under both laws strongly indicating the infirmities of the trumped up charges and of the law itself,” Taule said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

[DISCLOSURE] The reporter is a member of the PH UPR Watch delegation as chairperson of the People’s Alternative Media Network that also spoke with UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan during her visit to the Philippines earlier this year.

Jhed, Jonila fail to attend UN rights council session

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GENEVA, Switzerland—Environment activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, alleged military abduction survivors, failed to attend the ongoing 55th regular session of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in this city due to the filing of grave defamation charges against them by the Department of Justice, the Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch revealed.

Wanting to personally narrate their ordeal before the international body, Tamano and Castro were forced to forego their trip to attend to court hearings after the 70th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division filed the new charges against them later this month.

The Philippine UPR Watch condemned the Department of Justice’s recommendation to file the grave defamation charge and elevating it to the courts as “a deliberate attempt at preventing them from telling the world of their ordeal.”

“Jhed and Jonila wanted to deliver oral interventions at the UNHRC general debates as survivors of abduction by the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government that also tried to falsely present them to the public as so-called rebel surrenderees,” Karapatan legal counsel and Philippine UPR Watch delegate Atty. Ma. Sol Taule said.

Castro and Tamano were also scheduled to speak at various regular session side events at the UN as well as in various other countries throughout Europe in the coming weeks.

“Both survivors had already secured travel visas but were forced to cancel when the DOJ and 70th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division filed new trumped up charges against them,” Taule added.

Castro and Tamano each posted bail last February 21 at the Dona Remedios Trinidad Municipal Trial Court in Bulacan on charges the anti-Manila Bay reclamation activists deliberately defamed the military and the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government in a press conference organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict last September 19 in Plaridel, Bulacan.

“That is not prosecution but political persecution,” Taule said.

In an earlier statement, Castro and Tamano said the DOJ is in collusion with the NTF-ELCAC and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in telling the courts a “patchwork” of stories to save face and cover up its practice of abduction and presentation of fake surrenderees.

“This decision proved that our questioning of the DOJ’s capability to conduct fair investigations was correct, adding the department conveniently ignored the fact that they were kidnapped and coerced into surrendering and admitting that they were members of Communist groups,” the young environmentalists said after posting bail last month.

Despite their physical absence however, Castro and Tamano’s ordeal shall be told in side events and dialogues with permanent missions of UN member states as well as officials of international civil society organizations in the UN nonetheless, the Philippine UPR Watch said.

“If the government thinks that it could cover up its abductions and other human rights violations by preventing Jhed and Jonila from personally telling their ordeal to the world, it is mistaken,” Center for Environmental Concerns executive director Lia Mai Torres said.

Torres added that foreign governments are very interested in knowing more about the case of the two young environmental defenders who bravely revealed their abduction and 17-day imprisonment in a Philippine Army camp in front of their abductors.

“The case of Jhed and Jonila helps reveal that human rights situation is no better under Marcos Jr. and environmental defenders are among the victims,” Torres said.

A network of human rights groups, churches, and people’s organizations, the Philippine UPR Watch is an active participant in UNHRC sessions through oral interventions, forums, dialogues and reports on the state of human rights in the Philippines. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

[DISCLOSURE] The reporter is a member of the PH UPR Watch delegation as chairperson of the People’s Alternative Media Network that also spoke with UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan in her visit to the Philippines earlier this year.

Rights defenders at UN press calls for NTF-ELCAC abolition, junking of anti-terror act

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GENEVA, Switzerland—The Philippine UPR Watch again called for the abolition of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the junking of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 in its ongoing participation at the 55th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) in this city.

A delegation of the group informed various permanent missions of member states and international civil society organizations based in Geneva last Monday and Tuesday of the results of two recent visits of UN special rapporteurs who denounced government’s red-tagging practices.

The group said they it is attending the session to testify on continuing human rights violations under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government.

“We are here to inform the international community that the findings by both special rapporteur on climate change and human rights Ian Fry last November and special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan last February that human rights violations continue are true,” Center for Environmental Concerns executive director Lia Mai Torres said.

Philippine UPR Watch said the rest of UN member states must be informed that both experts recommended the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and called for the review of the anti-terror law that are being used against human rights defenders and other civilians.

A network of human rights defenders in the Philippines, the Philippine UPR Watch said it is scheduled to deliver oral interventions at the UNHRC session and its other events to give updates on the government’s lack of compliance to its commitments to the international body 20 months after the last review on the Philippines.

 “The Marcos Jr. government wants to paint a rosy picture of so-called improved rhetoric and improved conditions but we are here both as victims and witnesses that anti-people policies have not changed as evidenced by the exit statements by Mr. Fry and Ms. Khan,” Torres added.

Clergywoman as victim of weaponized law

Among the main topics in the 55th UN HRC session are discussions on countering religious hatred and social security and public services.

With the Philippine UPR Watch delegation is Rev. Glofie Baluntong of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines who was among the first charged by the government under the controversial Anti-Terror Law of 2020.

Based on an earlier murder charge in August 2021, Baluntong was slapped with an alleged violation of the Anti-Terror Act in August 2022 which was recently dismissed by the public prosecutor for lack of merit.

“But the dismissal came with the warning that the case may be re-filed anytime that the military or the police decides to do so,” the clergyperson said.

The United Methodist Church pastor was charged by the military of assisting the New People’s Army.

But the pastor said she was performing necrological services to a member of her church at the time she committed the alleged murder she was initially charged with.

“The government is saying that my work with the indigenous people’s communities make me an enemy of the state,” Baluntong said.

Baluntong said that red-tagging attacks and trumped-up charges prevent her from performing her ministry with the indigenous peoples and poor communities in her home province of Mindoro.

With Baluntong and Torres is IBON Foundation executive director Sonny Africa who said that his participation in the 55th session is in preparation for the anticipated official visit of the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty.

Africa is also expected to participate in the panel discussion on challenges and good practices to realize the right to social security and to provide quality public services.

Delegation co-leader and Karapatan legal counsel Ma. Sol Taule  said, “This delegation supports suggestions made by the UN experts who recently visited the Philippines to continue our engagements leading to the submission of their respective final reports to the UN HRC.”

The Philippine UPR Watch delegation is also scheduled to speak at forums in various cities in Switzerland and throughout Europe during the duration of the UN HRC session. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

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[DISCLOSURE] The reporter is a member of the PH UPR Watch delegation as chairperson of the People’s Alternative Media Network that also spoke with UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan in her visit to the Philippines earlier this year.

Youth group: No future under Marcos cha-cha

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By Maujerie Ann Miranda

An anti charter change (cha-cha) alliance urged fellow youth and students to oppose ongoing moves by the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government to change the country’s constitution, saying proposed amendments to the country’s charter shall result in robbing them of a bright future.

The Movement Against Charter Change Youth Alliance (MATCHA) said among proposed changes that will severely impact the youth are plans to approve total foreign ownership of educational institutions that are feared to hamper quality education and intensify campus repression.

“Gusto natin ng nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented education. Hindi natin ‘yun makakamit under Marcos, lalo na ‘pag naipasa ‘yung cha-cha,” MATCHA convenor and Philippine Collegian journalist Gie Rodelas said in an interview.

“Commercialized na ‘yung education natin at ‘pag pumasok pa ‘yung foreign ownership, lalo lang mapa-privatize ‘yung educational institutions,” Rodelas added.

The convenor explained that 100% foreign ownership of educational institutions will lead to regular tuition increase as well as constriction of academic freedom due to business considerations.

Launched last month, MATCHA is composed of student councils, campus publications and student organizations as founding members.

MATCHA declared it is a multi-sectoral youth alliance against the government’s “deceptive, anti-Filipino and self-serving efforts for charter change.”

After weeks of silence amid bickering members of both houses of Congress, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. finally came out in support of moves to change the country’s charter, ostensibly its economic provisions to allow for greater foreign ownership of business, including education.

MATCHA however said it will not be farfetched to assume that legislators moving to change the constitution would also lift term limits of elected officials, including the president.

“We don’t want Marcos to extend his power. Ngayon pa lang na two years pa lang tayo under Marcos, ramdam na natin yung repression [at] hindi naman umuunlad ang Pilipinas,” Rodelas said.

Rodelas encouraged the Filipino youth and student organizations to join MATCHA, announcing academic freedom and other education campaigns alongside opposition to charter change.

MATCHA noted the Marcoses have a history of changing constitutions to extend their term of office.

In 1972, the late dictator and the current president’s father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law and created a new constitution, extending his term to a total of 21 years before being ousted in a popular uprising in 1986. #