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Activists slam lack of Philippine independence on HINDIpendence event

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Activists braved strong rains to gather at Liwasang Bonifacio to slam the Rodrigo Duterte government’s failure to assert Philippine independence and sovereignty against foreign powers.

Saying the Duterte government is all too willing to offer parts of Philippine territory, the protesters added it is up to the Filipino people to continue the fight for genuine independence.

Speakers from various groups and organizations also presented a litany of Duterte’s crimes against the Filipino people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJsBM2E6WE

Groups denounce ‘Duterte’s crimes’ at ‘HINDIpendence Day’ rally

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By April Burcer

Despite pouring rain, political, human rights, faith-based, labor and other groups gathered at Liwasang Bonifacio Tuesday afternoon, June 12, to commemorate ‘HINDIpendence Day’, their own version of Philippine Independence Day.

“We are not genuinely free,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary-General Renato Reyes said about their message with holding the rally.

“Even if we commemorate Independence Day today, we feel it is HINDIpendence Day. We need to continue with our ancestors’ struggle for freedom,” Reyes said.

“Hindi” is the Filipino word for “not”.

The rally included speeches by leaders about issues including President Rodrigo Duterte’s tax reform law, extra-judicial killings and other human rights violations, violence against minority groups, China’s encroachment on the West Philippine Sea, attacks against freedom of expression, the president’s misogynic statements, labor issues and poverty.

Earlier, the same groups held Independence Day rallies in front of the Chinese Embassy in Makati and the United States Embassy in Manila while Bayan-Southern Tagalog protested as Duterte delivered his Independence Day speech at the Emilio Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit Cavite.

“In our celebration of Independence Day, it is right that we ask ourselves: Are we enjoying genuine freedom? Is there freedom when our fisherfolk are like foreigners in our own seas, they who are already poor whose catch at sequestered on the high seas?,” a message from detained Senator Leila de Lima asked the Liwasang Bonifacio crowd.

“Is it freedom that we have a cowardly government in regard to our right to freedom of expression? Is it freedom that women’s dignity is being trampled and the people’s right is crudely violated?” the Senator added.

Anakpawis Partylist Representative Fernando Hicap echoed de Lima’s condemnation, saying the harassments against fisherfolk started when China conducted construction activities and occupied islands in the West Philippine Sea.

Protesters filled Liwasang Bonifacio despite pouring rain at their “HINDIpendence Day rally” (Photo by April Burcer)

Gabriela secretary general Joms Salvador for her part denounced the Duterte governments Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, saying women the unpopular measure continue to impose greater burden on the Filipino family through higher prices of basic goods and services.

Labor leaders Lito Ustarez from Kilusang Mayo Uno and Joshua Mata of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa criticized the failure of the Duterte government to end contractualization and its rejection of the P750 national minimum wage proposal.

Other participating groups included #BabaeAko, Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students, Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Alitaptap, Dampi, Girls for Peace, Youth Act Now Against Tyranny, and Suara Bangsamoro.

When asked why he joined the rally, Bicolano artist Edwin dela Torre said, “First, is there still hope? I wanted to hear other people’s motivation. As an artist, I believe in the power of songs, visual arts, dances for the achievement of change—even if we just start with ourselves.”

The program featured performances by Danny Fabella of Musikang Bayan, Maya Santos of Girls for Peace, Tubaw Music Collective and CRC Children’s Collective.

Tension cropped up when the participants tried to take down a Duterte poster hung by President Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters at the Bonifacio munoment, but police intervened.#

Duterte sells Chico River to China

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By RENDILYN CUYOP


BAGUIO CITY — The Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) called P3.135-billion (US $62.09 million) loan agreement for the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project (PIP) that President Rodrigo Duterte secured from the Chinese government last April 10 during his recent visit to China “the latest sell out” of the country’s resources and ancestral lands to foreign investors.

In a press statement, CPA Spokesperson Bestang Dekdeken said the Chico River PIP is part of the Duterte administration’s “build build build” program.

It can be recalled that last March the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) have secured a P4.3B contract with China CAMC Engineering Co., Ltd for the Chico River PIP. According to the Department of Finance, the interest rate on the US Dollar denominated loan is 2% per annum with a maturity period of 20 years including a seven-year grace period.

The project seeks to create canals diverting the water from the Chico River into different areas in Tuao and Piat Cagayan and Pinukpuk in Kalinga.

Dekdeken said allowing foreign investors in the implementation of projects like the Chico River PIP will result to the privatization of agricultural services. “This is one of the regime’s means to fast-track the entry of foreign corporations to make profit from our deprivation while exploiting our natural resources,” she said.

Dekdeken pointed out that the Bontoc and Kalinga peoples foiled the Chico River dams project with irrigation component of the late Dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She added that the PIP and the hydropower projects along the Chico River and its tributaries will be met with opposition because corporate and destructive projects go againsts the interest of the people.

She said that what the people of Kalinga and other farmers whose fields are being irrigated by the Chico River has been free and appropriate irrigation systems that do not take over ancestral lands and directly benefit the people.

“Duterte is deaf to these calls and is instead focused in amassing all political power in the government to make it possible for him to carry-out plans based on his selfish interests and those he kowtows to,” she said.

Dekdeken urged the people to intensify their fight for the respect and recognition of their rights to their ancestral land and to self-determination.

“We shall let the nation witness once again a successful defense of the Chico River to let the river flow free, and as the fire of our dissent engulfs a tyrant’s aspiration for absolute power. Never will we let it be recorded in history that a fascist ruler has crushed the peoples movement with tyranny,” she said.

The annual Cordillera Day celebration every April 24 to commemorate the death of Macliing Dulag who was killed by government forces in 1980 traces its roots to the Cordillera peoples’ defense of the Chico River. Dulag was a Kalinga elder who led his people against the Chico dams project.

This year’s Cordillera Day will be held at the Pacday Quino Elementary School in Barangay Asin Road on April 22-25, will tackle the different issues currently affecting Cordillera indigenous peoples, including the tyranny of the Duterte regime and the continued development aggression in our ancestral lands. # nordis.net

‘Monarchy Restored’? China Set to Remove Two-Term Presidential Limit from Constitution

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The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee proposed on February 25 to remove term limits on the presidency and vice presidency of the People’s Republic of China, which would pave the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.

Specifically, the committee suggested deleting a line from the country’s constitution that states the president and vice president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms.”

The two-term presidential limit was put in place by former CPC leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to restrain internal power struggles within the party by establishing the collective leadership of the CPC. The decision signified the end of Mao Zedong’s era of individual dictatorship.

But the proposed constitutional amendment would end collective leadership and open the door for power to once again officially rest with an individual, and in this case with President Xi, who is also the CPC’s general secretary and military chief. Xi will finish his second term in 2023.

CPC mouthpiece Global Times described the proposal as a consolidation of the party’s “Power Trinities” and urged people to follow the party. But oppositional voices see the move as an imposition of an absolute monarchy system on top of China’s single-party political system.

Public discussion on the constitutional change is censored on mainland Chinese social media. Outside China, a statement co-signed by more than 40 public figures against the amendment was circulated widely online. The statement (via Chinese exiled activist Wang Dan’s Facebook) said:

We believe that the amendment is the foundation for the establishment of a tenure system of top leaders. In the future, China may [develop into a political system that has] an emperor without calling it an emperor and a monarchy without calling it a monarchy. The abolition of the two-term limit is another version of [early 20th-century Chinese emperor] Yuan Shikai’s [short-lived] restoration of monarchy and a de facto manifesto of a new monarchy system against the very idea of a republic. This is a historical regression and a denial of 40 years of China’s reform effort. This is about China’s future and we, and all Chinese people, should stand up to express our outright objection to such historical regression since the 1911 Xinhai revolution [which led to the downfall of the Qing dynasty and the end of monarchy in China].

In addition to sharing the statement, Wang Dan also signed it. He commented further on Twitter:

王丹@wangdan1989

中共正式提出修改憲法，國家主席可以連選連任，至此，習近平準備重新恢復最高領導幹部終身制，當永遠的統治者的個人野心，已經昭然若揭。
習近平大開歷史的倒車，硬把中國拉上了倒退回封建皇權時代的專制舊路。這樣的舉動，只能用瘋狂兩字來形容。但是我相信，物極必反，中共必將在他手中，成為歷史。

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The CPC has officially suggested a constitutional amendment. The country’s presidents will be able to hold their office without limit. Now it is clear that Xi Jinping is set to restore the tenure system of top leaders. His ambition to become a lifetime ruler has been revealed. Xi Jinping is riding backward and forcing China to return to the old path of despotic feudal monarchy. Such an act can only be described with the word “crazy”. But I also believe in dialectics, the extreme will bring about change and he will turn CPC into history.

While some believe that such a “crazy” act will eventually end the “people’s democratic dictatorship” under the CPC, others are more pessimistic. Under Wang Dan’s Facebook post, one commenter said:

Unfortunately, the majority of Chinese people would support emperor’s rule. After the shock, people’s attitude would change from “what has gone wrong” to “this is it and we have to accept the reality and carry on”.

Another comment in response to Wang on Twitter said:

Actually, the constitutional amendment is not that surprising. The amendment is just turning “party dictatorship” into “party dictatorship led by an individual for his lifetime”. If it doesn’t work out, they can shift back to “party dictatorship”.

There are also some pro-Xi comments on Twitter. This one attempted to rationalize  Xi’s decision:

If Xi Jinping just wants to become a lifetime dictator, he does not need to continue in the office of president, he just needs to continue acting as the head of the military committee. That’s why the abolition of the two-term limit is not paving the way for lifetime dictatorship, but to prepare for reform — to buy more time for reform. After that, the constitution can be amended again. This is just a temporary tactic. We can foresee that a thorough political reform will begin soon.

Many Chinese netizens were shocked to see the constitutional amendment proposal as it clearly deviated from Deng Xiaoping’s 1982 reform effort. However, search terms related to the online discussion like “Xi Jinping”, “shameless” (不要臉), “long live the emperor” (萬歲萬歲萬萬歲), and “Yuan Shikai” (袁世凱) have been blocked on social media platforms in China.

Under the constitutional amendment proposal, Xi’s thoughts on “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era” would also be incorporated into the country’s constitution. Moreover, the to-be-established anti-graft Supervision Commission, together with the administrative, judicial and procuratorial commissions, would be listed as official organs of the state. The Supervision Commission would merge the party’s Discipline Inspection Committees with the anti-corruption powers of the procuratorates (responsible for investigation and prosecution) and be the only agency focused on graft. The creation of the Supervision Commission has been interpreted as a strengthening of party control over the government. # (Oiwan Lam/Global Voices)

PH should assert sovereignty vs China and US – Ibon

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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.

Read more

ITANONG MO KAY PROF: ITLOS at ang panalo ng Pilipinas laban sa China

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Lubos ang kaligayahan ng sambayanang Pilipino sa pagkakamit ng tagumpay sa kaso ng Pilipinas laban sa panghihimasok ng Tsina sa West Philippine Sea. Bigo ang Tsina sa pang-aagaw sa syento porsyento ng ating extended continental shelf at 80 por syento ng ating exclusive economic zone.

Napatunayan batay sa malakas na ebidensya na boladas lamang ang ipinangangalandakan ng Tsina na istorikong karapatan sa umanoy undisputable sovereignty o lubusang pagmamay-ari sa halos buong South China Sea na isang taguri lamang ng Ingles na tagagawa ng mapa. Mahalagang matalakay natin ang ating panalo at kung ano pa ang magagawa natin para tuluyang manaig ang ating mga karapatan sa harap ng pagbabanta at propaganda ng Tsina. Read more

Consequences of the judgement in favor of the Philippines against China’s false claims of indisputable sovereignty

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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

Protest vs China’s incursions

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Asserting the people’s independent foreign policy, mass organizations from the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) and the Philippines chapter of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS-Phils) marched towards the Chinese embassy and held a picket to protest China’s incursions into the West Philippine Sea and US imperialist transgressions on Philippine sovereignty. Among the speakers were Renato Reyes of BAYAN and Elmer Labog of the ILPS-Phils.