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Jeepney strike paralyzes major Metro routes

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PISTON says Marcos misleads public with 70% consolidation claim

Striking jeepney drivers and small operators declared a 90% paralysis of major routes in the National Capital Region on the first day of their to-day protest action against the abolition of their livelihood.

Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) also said 85% of several regions outside of the capital have also been paralyzed, forcing Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairperson Teofilo Guadiz III to hold a dialogue with their leaders.

“We found out [from Guadiz] it is Bongbong Marcos who is pushing for consolidation of jeepney franchises on December 31. Now we know who to blame,” PISTON said in a statement.

The group also said President Marcos blatantly misled the public when he said that 70% of all jeepney franchises have already been consolidated under the government’s Public Utility Vehicles Modernization Program (PUVMP).

“Let their data speak for itself. There are 64,639 unconsolidated units nationwide, 30,862 of which are PUJs (public utility jeepneys) and 4,852 UV (utility vehicle) Express units in NCR,” PISTON said.

“This amounts to an estimated 60,000 PUJ drivers and 9,000 UV Express drivers; 25,000 PUJ operators; and 4,000 UV Express operators in NCR alone,” the group added.

Commuters along Commonwealth Avenue waiting for rides. (PISTON photo)

PISTON said Marcos’ decision to ban jeepneys and other forms of public transportation such as UV Express vans would result in a transport crisis starting January 1, 2024.

Major areas of Metro Manila saw a marked decrease in the number of plying public utility vehicles on the road on Thursday.

PISTON said their strike affected routes from Commonwealth in Quezon City in the north, Pasig in the east, Manila in the west, to Alabang in Muntinlupa in the south of the metropolis.

Longer commuter queue at the Pasig Central Market area. (PISTON photo)

Local government units and the Metro Manila Development Authority fielded hundred of buses throughout the metropolis, even as they sought to downplay the effect of the strike.

READ: WHY JEEPNEY DRIVERS ARE STRIKING

Meanwhile, various groups expressed solidarity with the strikers such as the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Concerned Seafarers of the Philippines, Rural Women’s Advocates, and even the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).

“ICHRP supports the call of drivers and operators to junk the PUVMP, and instead push for a genuinely pro-people modernization program, by supporting the development of the local jeepney manufacturing industry,” ICHRP chairperson Peter Murphy in a statement said.

Various groups also joined PISTON members in their overnight vigil in front of the LTFRB headquarters in Quezon City Thursday night. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

PISTON to stage another strike vs jeepney phase out

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The country’s largest federation of drivers and operators announced another transport strike against the planned phase out of traditional jeepneys.

The Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) said it will stage another transport strike on December 14 and 15 against the December 31 Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) deadline for franchise consolidation.

The new strike follows the three-day strike the group staged starting November 20 that paralyzed major routes in Metro Manila and key regions throughout the country.

PISTON president Mody Florande said the LTFRB and the Department of Transportation (DoTr) have yet to deliver on their earlier promise to “carefully study” their demand for the scrapping of the forced consolidation of jeepney franchises.

A key component of the 10-point Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Plan (PUVMP), franchise consolidation mandates all operators to surrender their individual franchises to a cooperative or corporation serving a specific route.

PISTON said the government’s mandatory consolidation scheme only leads to the “corporate capture” of public transport in the Philippines as only corporations and rich cooperatives can afford the imposed standards.

The scheme the LTFRB dubbed “One route, one franchise, one operator” is expected to affect 80% of all operators nationwide while tens of thousands of drivers may be driven out of their livelihood on the very last day of the year, the transport group said.

“Is this DoTr and LTFRB’s Christmast gift to us, the loss of livelihood of thousands of driver and operators” Floranda asked in a press conference last Monday, December 3, announcing their strike.

“They should be ashamed. They will be forcing many families into hunger once the new year starts,” he said.

PISTON infographic

PISTON said that only about 26% of PUV operators in the National Capital Region have agreed to surrender their franchise for consolidation since the PUVMP was implemented in 2018, indicating its unpopularity.

If the December 31 deadline pushes through, PISTON said more than 33 thousand jeepneys would already be disallowed to ply their routes starting January 1, 2024.

The group added that 64 thousand drivers and 25 thousand operators would be jobless.

PISTON infographic

“If the deadline is imposed, it clearly would bring about a transport crisis in the country,” PISTON warned.

“What is stopping (LTFRB chairperson Teofilo) Guadiz (from heeding calls to scrap the program}? He only has to issue one memorandum circular and the deadline would be scrapped,” Florande asked.

At the press conference, the transport leader asked for understanding from commuters as their strike only aims to ensure they would have still jeepneys to ride in on January 1. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

How children’s shoes at COP28 UAE are sending a strong message

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Each pair of shoes, as per the climate activists, has a story to tell

By Angel L. Tesorero / Khaleej Times

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (UAE)–Several pairs of children’s shoes are being prominently displayed on the ground at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai. Civil society organizations have put them out as a form of silent protest with a clear message that says ‘No climate justice without human rights.’

One of the issues climate activists want to highlight at the UN Climate Summit is the fact that around 6,000 of the more than 15,000 people who died in Gaza, due to continuous Israeli bombings, were children.

“We wanted Palestinian children to be wearing those shoes, and yet they were killed,” Shirine Jurdi, from Lebanon’s Women’s Environment and Development Organisation, told Khaleej Times.

“The shoes displayed are not the actual ones worn by the Palestinian children”, she added, noting: “The actual ones would have been burned or mutilated, along with the bodies of the young victims.”

Photo: Neeraj Murali/Khaleej Times

Photo: Neeraj Murali/Khaleej Times

Each pair of shoes, in the point of view of the climate activists, has a story to tell. For Palestinian teenager Mohammed, they remind him of his cousin Hamza who died a couple of days after his parents were killed in an air strike on one of the highly-populated areas in southern Gaza.

“My cousin died of blood poisoning due to poor facilities. This happened after doctors were forced to operate on him without anaesthesia,” Mohammed said.

Salma from Kenya said she is also not only raising climate concerns at COP28. “We simply cannot talk about climate justice when people in Palestine, especially the children, are constantly in danger,” she underscored.

‘No to war’

Jennifer del Rosario-Malonzo, executive director at Ibon International, a service institution working with social movements and civil society organizations, noted “militarism, wars and occupation contribute immensely to global carbon emissions.”

“That is why climate justice is linked with the struggle for just peace and upholding of human rights. Developed countries are miserly in committing to climate action, but pour billions of dollars into wars and military aggression,” she continued.

Photo: Neeraj Murali/Khaleej Times

Photo: Neeraj Murali/Khaleej Times

Malonzo underscored: “As we confront big polluting governments and corporations here at COP28, we also raise critical issues that are deeply connected to our struggle for climate justice – such as the sharp contrast between the billions of dollars being poured by wealthy countries to fund Israel attacks on Gaza, against the pennies earmarked for reparations to front line communities and climate-related loss and damage. It shows how human rights and lives are sacrificed for profit and plunder.”

Another message the display of shoes wants to deliver is that children are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change such as extreme weather, unabated pollution, and emergence of novel deadly diseases.

Protect children

According to UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), “the climate crisis is not just changing the planet – it is changing children – and the world is not doing nearly enough to protect them.”

“Children have been either ignored or largely disregarded in the response to climate change. Only 2.4% of climate finance from key multilateral climate funds support projects incorporating child-responsive activities,” the UN body added.

Last year, 739 million children were exposed to high or extremely high water scarcity, while 436 million children lived in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.

More than 40 million children are having their education disrupted every year because of disasters exacerbated by climate change. Child malnutrition is also worsening due to worsening agricultural production, exacerbated by rising temperatures.

Perspective of youth

The call by UNICEF is to put children at the center of the global environmental response. This is echoed by 16-year old Mariam Hassan Al-Ghafri, who is a member of the UAE Parliament for Children and chairperson of the Standing Committee for Environment and Sustainability in Parliament, and UNICEF Ambassador for COP28 for Adolescents.

When asked about the shoes on display at COP28, she told Khaleej Times: “It is sad and depressing. But now, at the UN Climate Summit, there is a golden opportunity for our decision makers to take action and change the course of our history.”

“But they must work hard together and take it seriously that when they negotiate for climate action, they must include the perspective of the youth. And only then we will be able to stop this climate disaster,” she underscored. #

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This report is original to the Khaleej Times where the author is deputy senior editor.

Philippine labor federations receive prestigious US human rights award

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Victims of red-tagging, extra-judicial killings and other forms human and labor rights violations, Philippine labor federations are this year’s recipients of the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Awards in Washington D.C., United States of America (USA).

The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), BPO Industry Employee Network (BIEN), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Public Services Labor Independent Confederation, and Federation of Free Workers received the prestigious award in a ceremony in the US capital last December 7.

Given annually by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the award is in recognition of the recipients’ trade union and human rights work in the Philippines, ranked among the world’s deadliest countries for worker organizers.

The AFL-CIO said the federations are honored “For their courage and persistence in the face of escalating threats to their own lives.”

“This award is in recognition of the Philippines labor movement’s resilience, persistence and courage in the face of extreme violence and repression,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said at the ceremony.

The national American national trade union center noted that more than 70 union members have been killed since 2016, and many more are victims of red-tagging, illegal firing of union activists and anti-terrorism laws directed at stifling freedom to form unions and bargain.

Earlier this year, a 3rd high-level mission of the International Labor Organization (ILO) visited the Philippines that reported on grave labor violations in the Philippines.

In his acceptance message, ACT secretary general Raymond Basilio said their award is dedicated to all Filipino educators to serve as an additional inspiration to further their for the entire education sector and Philippine society.

“The struggles for just wages and benefits as well as humane conditions of work continue,” he added.

Representatives of the Philippine Labor Movement and George Meany Human Rights Award Winners Meet with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the White House. (Supplied photo.)

Before the awarding ceremony, the delegates met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the White House who reiterated“the Biden administration’s commitment to support the efforts of workers abroad to form unions.”

The US official also condemned “all forms of harassment, intimidation, and violence against workers and advocates for exercising their fundamental rights.”

‘Walk the talk’

Meanwhile, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-United States (ICHRP-USA ) celebrated the conferment of the award to Filipino labor federations.

“The receipt of the award is an outcome of the unity and political will of the Philippine labor movement around the most pressing issues of workers and a product of the growing international solidarity between Philippine labor and US labor and community advocates,” ICHRP-USA officer Jessie Braverman said.

ICHRP-USA however said that while it welcomed Sullivan’s remarks to the delegates at the White House, “…the Biden administration needs to concretely walk the talk by withdrawing its support of the tools of repression being used by the Marcos administration to repress and attack Filipino labor, starting with the National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC,”

Activists Hold Vigil on December 7 in front of US State Department, Calling for Abolition of NTF-ECLAC. (ICHRP-USA photo)

As a government agency established under the Rodrigo Duterte administration and continued under the Marcos administration, the NTF-ELCAC plays a central role in harassing and intimidating workers as part of the government’s counter-insurgency campaign, the group added.

ICHRP-USA noted that Schuler herself highlighted at the awarding ceremony two of the most recent killings, Alex Dolorosa of BIEN and Jude Fernandez of KMU, who were relentlessly harassed and red-tagged by the NTF-ELCAC prior to their murders.

ICHRP-USA, KMU and ACT leaders also met with US Congresswoman Susan Wild, who introduced the Philippines Human Rights Act (PHRA) into US Congress in 2021, the same year as the Bloody Sunday Massacre that saw the murders by Philippine police of several labor leaders and activists branded by the NTF-ELCAC as “communist-terrorists” in the Southern Tagalog region. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Members of ICHRP-US, KMU and ACT meet with US Rep. Susan Wild. (ICHRP-USA photo)

Marcos government no better than Duterte’s, rights defenders say

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Like previous governments, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration is failing to comply with its obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a human rights group said.

On the 75th anniversary of the signing of the international treaty last Sunday, December 10, human rights alliance Karapatan said the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government, much like the preceding Rodrigo Duterte regime, is committing various violations of human rights and the international humanitarian law amid widespread and intensifying poverty of Filipinos.

“Among the most violated is the right to life. As of November 2023, (we have) documented 87 extrajudicial killings in the course of the Marcos Jr. regime’s brutal counter- insurgency war since he began his term in July 2022,” the group said.

Among those killed by government personnel was a nine-year old girl to a mentally ill farmer,” Karapatan revealed.

The group also said there have been 12 victims of enforced disappearance; 316 victims of illegal and arbitrary arrest; 22,391 victims of bombing; 39,769 victims of indiscriminate firing; 24,670 victims of forced evacuation; 552 victims of forced surrender; and 1,609,49 6 victims of threats, harassment and intimidation, including red-tagging.

Karapatan added hundreds are facing “trumped up charges,” including 795 political detainees in the country’s notoriously overcrowded prisons.

At least seventeen of political prisoners are peace consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in its peace process with the Manila government.

Rights defenders pelt effigies of Marcos Jr., Duterte-Carpio and US imperialism with red paint and eggs in Manila on International Human Rights Day 2023. (Karlo Manalansan/Bulatlat)

Violations in the name of counter-insurgency

The country’s most active human rights alliance said the Marcos government has continued to implement repressive laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to suppress dissent as well as derail development and humanitarian work.

“The wrongful designation of peace consultants and negotiators, as well as community and indigenous people’s leaders, and the baseless charges against human rights defenders have exposed the weaponization of these laws to violate the people’s constitutional rights,” Karapatan said.

The group also condemned the government’s counter-insurgency program and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as a “militarist whole-of-nation approach” that go after human rights defenders, instead of addressing the roots of the civil wars in the country.

Karapatan, which co-organized the 2023 International Human Rights Day protests in Manila with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan last Sunday, said killings under the government’s anti-drug programs continue.

It revealed that the Dahas Project of the Third World Studies Program of the University of the Philippines has documented at least 474 drug-war related killings under Marcos.

This belies Marcos government’s claims that its version of the drug war is “bloodless”, the group said.

“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. Duterte himself is accountable for up to 30,000 deaths in his bloody war on drugs and the killings of 422 activists, on top of other grave violations of human rights,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Rights defenders elsewhere in the Philippines also held protest rallies in Baguio, Southern Tagalog, Naga, Legazpi, Bacolod, Iloilo, Roxas, Kalibo and Davao while Filipino activists at the Climate Change Summit in Dubai also attended international human rights day in the emirate. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

No talk of surrender in the peace negotiations, NDFP says

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The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) said it will never consider any talk about its surrender and those of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) should peace negotiations with the Ferdinand Marcos government push through.

In a statement, NDFP Executive Council member and senior adviser to the NDFP Negotiating Panel Luis Jalandoni said, “[T]here is and should absolutely be no talk or insinuation, much less demand, about the surrender of the NDFP or of the revolutionary struggle of the CPP, NPA and NDFP.”

Jalandoni explained that their group has always negotiated with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) under various administrations to genuinely resolve the real reasons for the armed conflict.

“The peace negotiations are not negotiations for capitulation but rather a unique opportunity to find mutually acceptable and principled ways of addressing the root causes of the civil war,” he said.

This means, among others, the land problem that impacts on more than 70% of the entire Philippine population, namely the farmers, he explained.

“Their struggle for land must be addressed,” the former NDFP chief negotiator said.

Jalandoni added that their agreement to enter anew into the peace process with the GRP is based on the premises and context of their November 23 Joint Statement.

“Morover, we in the NDFP have firmly asserted from the start that we must build on the basic bilateral agreements, namely, The Hague Joint Declaration of September 1, 1992, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) which remain binding between the Parties,” he explained.

Earlier, presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. said the prospective peace talks between the NDFP and the Marcos GRP would not be a resumption but a “new beginning.” 

The former general added that the absence of “preconditions” will give the parties “greater flexibility to engage in meaningful, honest discussions, and by doing so, allow the peace process to move forward at a more definite and faster pace.”

Jalandoni however said various issues and concerns from both sides remain outstanding and are yet to be negotiated across the table.

“We in the NDFP are ever committed to enter into peace negotiations with the GRP in a determined quest for a just and lasting peace that will be of lasting benefit to the Filipino people,” he said.

All but Sara

Meanwhile, top leaders of both houses of Congress said they support President Marcos’ decision to negotiate with the NDFP.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri told reporters last Wednesday he approves of the resumption of the peace talks.

“Any political move that will end any conflict within the Philippines, I’m in favor of, because those are long lasting solutions,” he said.

Earlier, House of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said the peace negotiations are not mere political maneuvers but a responsibility of both parties in pursuit of peace.

Unlike Zubiri and Romualdez however, Vice President Sara Duterte has openly rebuked Marcos Jr.’s decision to negotiate with the NDFP, the first such instance since the country’s top four leaders ran and won under the UniTeam slogan in the 2022 national elections. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Filipinos who lost homes, lands call for protection of indigenous rights at climate summit

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by Angel L. Tesorero / Khaleej Times

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates–Helen Magata and Josefa Isabel Tauli traveled from one of the mountain ranges of the Philippines to the golden sands of Dubai. Their mission extends beyond raising awareness at the ongoing COP28; they carry a vital message calling for climate justice “by protecting indigenous peoples’ rights.”

As the two-week UN Climate Summit has reached its midway point, environmental activists like Magata and Tauli are intensifying their pleas for active participation in climate negotiations and, more specifically, equitable representation in the recently established loss and damage fund.

This fund, conceived to aid vulnerable communities in mitigating the costs of escalating climate-related disasters, marked a historic moment on November 30 with an initial commitment of more than $420 million led by the UAE. However, Magata and Tauli assert that the true challenge lies in ensuring that these financial resources are channelled directly to the communities most affected by climate change, particularly the indigenous groups, bypassing intermediary entities such as government units or large corporations.

“The realization of the fund is an achievement after years of assertion by climate-vulnerable communities,” Magata and Tauli said.

Helen Magata (L) and Josefa Isabel Tauli. Photo: Angel Tesorero

Helen Magata (L) and Josefa Isabel Tauli. Photo: Angel Tesorero

“Now, the bigger challenge is to ensure the financial resources for climate action are actually directed to support the communities that bear the brunt of climate change. We want to see the funds go directly to the indigenous communities and not through state or local government units or big corporations,” they added.

Magata is the coordinator for the climate and biodiversity program at Tebtebba Foundation based in the northern Philippines, while Tauli is a member of the youth advisory group on climate change to the UN Secretary-General.

‘We are made invisible and voiceless’

The women activists fear funding for climate adaptation and biodiversity conservation will go to other parties instead of them. “They (government and state authorities) decide on our behalf when in fact it has historically been our territory, and yet we are made invisible and voiceless,” they said.

Magata and Tauli added: “It must be noted that around 80 per cent of the remaining biodiversity in the world – from the rainforest in South America to the mountains, valleys and rivers in Asia – are protected by the indigenous people.

Indigenous peoples are the original settlers in a given territory and their history dates back to pre-colonial times. They have distinct social and cultural traditions that are tied to their ancestral lands. Their source of living is also connected to the natural resources and the land where they live.

“We are being made victims twice over – first, when climate change dissipates our natural resources; and second, when false development projects evict us from our lands,” they said, explaining: “We call them as false development projects because they don’t actually benefit us. For example, if a certain territory is declared a protected area for so-called carbon sequestration, the indigenous people living there will be disallowed to till the soil for food and agriculture.

“Some renewable power projects – like the building of dams – displace us from our ancestral lands. Homes and farmlands are flooded. We are dispossessed and cut from our traditional food sources,” they added.

Magata and Tauli also raised the issue of environmental activists being criminalised and, worse, killed for their actions. “In the Philippines, for instance, more than 100 climate activists have been killed in the past ten years for speaking up,” they added.

Free, prior and informed consent

The activists are demanding climate solutions based on free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), noted Mrinal Kanti Tripura from the Maleya Foundation, an indigenous peoples’ organisation working on environment, climate change, human rights and development in Bangladesh.

The FPIC is a framework mandated by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It aligns with their universal right to self-determination “to provide or withhold/ withdraw consent, at any point, regarding projects impacting their territories.”

Tripura said climate change adaptation should strike a balance between curbing emissions, protecting nature and indigenous communities, and boosting food security. He added climate finance should not drive more debt for developing countries in the name of funding development projects.

“All processes must have free, prior and informed consent before dealing with projects in the communities,” Tripura underscored, adding: “Fund must go directly to indigenous peoples, and we should have actual representation in the climate fund.” #

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This report is original to the Khaleej Times where the author is a senior deputy editor.

Danah Marie Marcellana’s walk to freedom and justice  

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By Nuel M. Bacarra

A daughter of a human rights martyr is now a human rights defender herself two months after being released from jail. She is Danah Marie Marcellana, daughter of the martyred Eden and veteran peasant leader Orly.

Like many political prisoners who have regained freedom, Dana is now a member of the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainess Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA). She was released on bail last October 6 this year after more than two years in jail on trumped up charges. At 1 AM on June 25, 2021, elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the military swooped down on Marcellana’s home in Barangay San Gabriel, San Pablo, Laguna and arrested her and her husband Christian Relao without presenting any warrant. The two were accused of the standard kidnapping, murder, rebellion and illegal possession of firearms charges against activists. Realo is still in jail however.

Danah’s story is not a simple one. She was only in her day care years when her mother, then secretary general KARAPATAN-Southern Tagalog was killed with peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy, then chairperson of peasant group Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK). Eden and Eddie led an 11-person fact finding mission to look into a report of a human rights violation case in Gloria town in Mindoro, Occidental. After the mission, they were waylaid by soldiers along the road and took Gumanoy and Marcellana and three others separately on April 21. The next day, the bodies of Gumanoy and Marcellana were found in a ditch in Bansud, Mindoro Oriental. General Jovito Palparan was then the commanding officer of the 204th Brigade of the Philippine Army in Mindoro.

Danah’s family is from Quezon that boasts of an active peasant movement that, in turn, is fueled by landlessness and the cruelty of the landlords. Her father Orly is a fierce farmer leader of Tanggol Magsasaka-Timog Katagalugan. Because of her mother’s assassination and the incessant harassments to their family, Danah grew up militant, herself becoming a peasant organizer of KASAMA-TK when arrested.

A young wife and mother at the time of their arrest, Danah experienced depression and other mental anguish in jail. These were compounded by the deplorable situation in prison facilities and the violent and unjust manner of their arrest. When a warrant was finally shown her in prison, she found out that she was charged with alleged crimes that happened in 2008 when she was only 12 years old.

Danah speaking at a rally. (Supplied photo)

At a protest rally at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Padre Faura last December 5, Danah narrated how angry she was at the time. “After twenty years of seeking justice for the death of my mother here at DOJ, the government now focused its attacks on me,” she said.

Like fellow political prisoners Amanda Echanis and Reina Mae Nasino who both had their child in prison, Danah was still nursing her one year old baby when she was arrested. She also narrated that that National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) personnel can barge into PNP lock up cells to intimidate, threat with death of arbitrarily or include anybody in its list of fake surrenderees.

In her two years in jail, she learned that elderly and sickly women political prisoners are subjected to harsh treatment, as in the case of Virginia Villamor, 67, who was forced to lay prostrate by the police resulting to a crack in her knees and pelvic bones. There were others, like Cleofe Lagtapon who at 68 is now in the Correctional Institute for Women for alleged illegal possession of firearms; Evangeline Rapanot, 71, from Cagayan from who suffers multiple health problems; and Fe Serrano, 65, from Southern Tagalog who is facing more than 35 different criminal cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Dana said that elderly women political prisoners are particularly vulnerable to the inhumane treatment in inmates, the over-congestion of jails, the inadequate prison food, woeful state of medical services and the slow-paced trial of trumped-up charges against them.

As it had been when she decided to become a peasant organizer like her father, it was as easy for Danah to agree to join SELDA and become a human rights defender like her late mother. “These injustices that I, my family and other political prisoners  have suffered are enough reasons to continue fighting,” she said.

“There are no high enough walls, no cyclone wires, no isolation that women political prisoners cannot handle in our quest for freedom,” she added. #

Bai Bibyaon, warrior chieftain of the Lumad, dies

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Celebrated woman Lumad chieftain Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay has died, grassroots indigenous women’s organization Sabokahan IP Women announced Wednesday, December 6.

Bigkay died surrounded by loved ones last November 20, the group said. The cause of her death was not given. She is believed to be about 90 years old at the time of her death.

In accordance with the leader’s wishes, she was buried in an undisclosed location soon after her death, Sabokahan IP Women said.

Born in Natulinan, Talaingod, Davao del Norte, Bigkay first gained prominence in the 1980s when she led a pangayaw, a traditional war, against the company Alcantara & Sons they accused of excessive logging operations in the ancestral domain of the Matigsalug-Manobo tribe.

As the first ever woman chieftain of the tribe, Bigkay was credited for uniting, empowering, and rallying the Lumad across villages to stand up to the loggers.

“This victory against large-scale logging protected old-growth forest, which is the home of Lumad and whose biodiversity is vital in mitigating climate change [impacted] not only the Philippines but across Asia,” Sabokahan IP Women said in its announcement and tribute.

After the fall of the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. dictatorship in 1986, Bigkay became part of the Mindanao Peoples Federation (LMPF) Assembly to resist threats of ethnocide against indigenous peoples.

It was the assembly that resolved to use the collective term “Lumad” to claim political power and unifying identity to the 18 ethno-linguistic tribes of Mindanao.

It was not only in the defense of the Lumad and their ancestral domain however that Bigkay gained prominence throughout the years.

Education and child rights advocate

Bigkay was instrumental in the establishment of the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon council that built more that 50 Salugpungan Lumad schools and learning centers in Pantaron and other indigenous communities  throughout the island, Sabokahan IP Women said.

A personal advocacy to the Bibyaon (chieftain) was the elimination of the traditional “buya,” child marriage and arranged marriage, and urged her fellow Lumad to send their children to school instead.

Bigkay understood that Lumad families often marry off their daughters in response to conditions of extreme poverty and hunger and the schools she helped establish was aimed at transforming the role of girls in society.

“Rather than being confined to domestic roles and marriage, they could now become community health workers, teach scientific sustainable farming methods to improve the community’s food security, and school teachers,” the group said.

Bigkay Bai was later involved in the creation of national indigenous peoples’ organizations KATRIBU Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and SANDUGO Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination.

In 2003, she was the founding chairperson of Sabokahan To Mo Lumad Kamalitanan or “Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women.”

Fighting ‘til the end

Even in her advancing years, Bigkay resisted further exploitation and militarization of their ancestral demands, leading the Lumad in their evacuation to Davao City and Luzon and in their national and international campaigns for justice.

“As a prominent figure in the fight for women, indigenous and environmental rights, Bai posed a haunting threat to the multinational companies and complicit politicians who actively attempt to plunder Mindanao’s estimated $1 trillion worth of natural resources. This made her a prime target for red-tagging, threat, and surveillance especially under following the Duterte administration’s declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao, passage of the Anti Terror Law, and creation of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC),” Sabokahan IP Women said.

Bigkay has never returned to Mindanao since 2018 due to threats of arrest and detention as the military did with her relatives who were forced to sign affidavits calling for her “immediate rescue.”

For her lifelong struggle for her people, Bigkay was celebrated as the Most Distinguished Awardee of the Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan or “Environmental Heroes Award” in 1984 and again in 2018.

Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay (4th from left) receving the Gawad Tandang Sora from the University of the Philippines. (R. Villanueva/Kodao)

In 2017, she received the Gawad Tandang Sora Award from the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development.

READ: Woman warrior of Talaingod is 2017 Gawad Tandang Sora awardee

In 2019, she received the Ulirang Nakatatanda Award by the Coalition of Services of the Elderly as well as the Ginetta Sagan Award by Amnesty International USA in 2022.

“When I leave here, I will become a guiding light for you all. Don’t give up, but continue the struggle,” Bigkay uttered in her final days, Sabokahan IP Women said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

VP Sara rebukes BBM’s peace plan, fuels speculation of rift with Marcos

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Vice President Sara Duterte publicly disagreed with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the possible resumption of formal negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), in turn earning criticisms and disagreements from members of both houses of Congress.

In probably her first public rebuke of her political ally, Duterte told Marcos to review plans to revive negotiations with Communist revolutionaries, calling the November 23 Joint Statement between Manila government emissaries and the NDFP “an agreement with the devil.”

“Mr. President, we can negotiate for peace and reconciliation and pursue meaningful development efforts in the Philippines without capitulating to the enemies,” Duterte said.

“They will use these peace negotiations to betray government and deceive the public,” she added.

Duterte earned swift condemnation from House of Representatives (HOR) Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers’ Party Representative France Castro who said the vice president’s statement is anti-peace and advocating for war as well as intolerant of different beliefs.

“The remarks made by Vice President Sara Duterte are detrimental to the pursuit of genuine peace negotiations. By posturing as if she is the president of the country and questioning the first steps to a peace negotiation between the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the (NDFP), she is undermining the efforts to address the roots of the armed conflict in the Philippines,” Castro said.

Castro said it is alarming that the vice president’s statements reflect a lack of understanding of the complexities of the peace process and a disregard for the aspirations for just and lasting peace.

“Instead of promoting war, we call on the Vice President and those she represents to support efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict in the country,” Castro added.

Breaking up?

Allies of Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez at the HOR likewise commended “initiatives for peace and national unity,” by the Marcos government, contradicting the vice president’s statements.

In a statement, the so-called Political Party Leaders in the HOR described the development as an “historic move” in the country’s journey towards lasting peace and sustainable development.

At the Senate, Sen. JV Ejercito urged Duterte to talk directly to the President regarding her opinion about the planned resumption of peace negotiations to prevent further speculations of a rift between the allies.

“Better if [Duterte] talked to [Marcos] directly to quash speculations that, politically, they are headed to go in their separate ways,” Ejercito told ABS-CBN Monday night.

Duterte earlier criticized erstwhile allies in Congress who voted to reject her request of at least P125 million pesos in confidential and intelligence funds for her office and the Department of Education that she also heads.

She also downplayed the exodus of members of her political party Hugpong ng Pagbabago to Romualdez’s  Laban-CMD.

Duterte and Romualdez are seen to be rivals in the 2028 presidential race.

Romualdez is a cousin of Marcos.

Sought for comment, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III also welcomed Marcos’ intention to talk peace again with the NDFP.

“Between Filipinos, we should always be open to dialogue,” Pimentel added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)