“Hindi pwedeng ang Pilipinas ay lumuhod sa US ngayon sa ilalim ni Marcos, matapos lumuhod si Duterte sa Tsina. Dapat ang ating gobyerno ay hindi maka-Amerikano, hindi maka-Tsino, kundi maka-Pilipino.”–ATTY. NERI COLMENARES, Bayan Muna Chairperson
A Filipina deaconess has won the 2024 Peace Award given by the World Methodist Council (WMC) for her courageous work on human rights and justice in the Philippines.
United Methodist Church (UMC) deaconess Norma Dollaga, Kapatirang Simbahan Para sa Bayan (Church Brother/Sisterhood for the People) secretary general, has been honored for her decades of heroic peace work in her conflict-ridden homeland, also becoming an outspoken advocate for the victims of drug-related killings.
“She and other courageous faith leaders refused to be intimidated by then President Rodrigo Duterte and other government officials who villainized church leaders and others who spoke for the poor,” the WMC said in its announcement.
The global church council added that Dollaga organized prayer vigils and memorial services for those killed by assassins regarded as working in accordance with Duterte’s order to summarily kill suspected drug dependents and personalities.
“As can be seen in her founding of Rise Up for Life and Rights, Dollaga has developed a knack for empowering others to join the struggle for justice and peace,” the WMC added.
Founded in 1976, the WMC Peace Award honors courage, creativity and consistency and given to recipients who live and work in areas where the concern for peace is of great consequence.
Dollaga is the second Filipina to earn the award, after Joy Balazo who was honored in 2012.
Former recipients of the WMC Peace Award include Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela, US President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan and other global as well as community leaders.
WHO IS DEACONESS NORMA DOLLAGA? READ: War against the poor in the Philippines
In a message to well-wishers, Dollaga said she is nervous about the award as it means deeper responsibilities for her.
“On behalf of the people’s struggle and hope, and the name of many martyrs who offered their lives in loving God and neighbor, activists who risked their lives in carrying on the struggle for justice and peace, I accept the recognition,” she nonetheless said.
Dollaga also said she accepts the award in honor of those “who unlearned the ways of giving up and carry on with the Mission so that the world will become a home for everyone.”
Dollaga added she also shares the award with her officemates, fellow deaconess and Rise Up coordinator Rubilyn Litao, Leah Valencia, and missionary Becca Lawson.
“Whenever we sent out feet in communities of farmers and indigenous peoples, in prisons where human rights defenders are incarcerated, in urban poor communities, picket lines, homes of the orphans and widows whose loved ones were killed by the war on drugs and others martyred as they fight for justice, we experience the Great Communion,” the awardee added.
A deaconess since her graduation from Harris Memorial College in 1985, Dollaga was appointed by the Philippines Central Conference of the UMC in 2000 to head Kasimbayan, also known as the Ecumenical Center for Development.
As the organization’s general secretary, she has helped shepherd ecumenical groups and networks focusing on human rights and peace such as Rise Up, humanitarian assistanace program Dambana, and alliance of Catholic and Protestant church leaders advocating for human rights and good governance called One Voice.
Dollaga is also a member of the UMC Commission On Deaconess Service.
“In her decades of church service, Dollaga has become an inspiring model for younger deaconesses interested in deepening their Wesleyan witness to personal and social holiness within the Philippines. She frequently teaches classes and leads seminars as a member of the faculty at Harris Memorial College,” the WMC citation reads. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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)
Sa ika-apat at huling episode ng panayam na ito, sinagot ni National Democratic Front of the Philippines Negotiating Panel Chairperson Julie de Lima Sison kung ano ang kabuluhan ng ikatlong kilusang pagwawasto ng Communist Party of the Philippines sa usapang pangkapayapaan. Mangyayari ba ang pagpapasuko ng administrasyong Marcos Jr. sa rebolusyonaryong kilusan? Ano ang epekto sa pagkawala nina Prof. Joma Sison, Fidel Agcaoili, Benito Tiamzon, Wilma Austria at iba pa sa negosasyon? Ano ang panawagan niya sa mga kasapi ng NDFP at mamamayan kaugnay sa usapang pangkapayapaan?
PANOORIN:
PANAYAM KAY JULIE DE LIMA SISON (Ikatlong Bahagi)
PANAYAM KAY JULIE DE LIMA SISON (Ikalawang Bahagi)
PANAYAM KAY JULIE DE LIMA SISON (Unang Bahagi)
The New People’s Army (NPA) wholeheartedly accepts the Communist Party of the Philippines’ (CPP) call to carry out a rectification movement among all revolutionary forces in the country, CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena announced.
Valbuena said NPA fighters and commanders had been enlightened by the CPP’s 55th founding anniversary statement that analyzed past internal weaknesses and errors that affected their advance in 2019 to 2022.
Last December 26, the CPP criticized “widespread complacency” in its forces’ study and application of revolutionary theory along with “timidity in drawing theory from practice.”
The underground party said such errors resulted in battlefield losses by the NPA as well as a slowdown in the recruitment of new members and retardation of the revolutionary mass movement nationwide.
Valbuena however added the NPA are starting to once again grow strong as their morale had been heightened by the launch of the CPP’s rectification movement.
“Majority of the units of the NPA have adjusted to the AFP’s (Armed Forces of the Philippines) tactics of large-scale military mobilization and are expanding their areas of operation and strengthening their mass base,” he said.
Valbuena added that the NPA have adapted guerrilla tactics of concentration, shifting and dispersal in its military and mass work.
“The peasant masses, even those who were subjected to military suppression and forced to ‘surrender,’ are elated by the return and presence of NPA units in their areas,” he announced.
“All in all, we anticipate steady growth during the rest of the year and succeeding period,” he added.
AFP demoralization and infighting
It is the turn of the AFP soldiers to suffer creeping demoralization as they realize the government’s failure to defeat the NPA, Valbuena said.
The CPP officer said AFP’s rank-and-file is well too aware of the deep and wide support the NPA receives from the peasant masses and people.
“They are further dispirited by the corruption of their higher officers who mulct and pocket millions of pesos of public funds, and by the infighting among the generals who are deeply loyal to rival politicians and bureaucrat capitalists,” he added.
Earlier this week, 22 retired generals and flag officers met with House of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to vow support for the Marcos administration.
The military officers belonged to the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association; Association of Generals and Flag Officers; Philippine Military Academy Retirees Association; and National ROTC Alumni Association, Inc. (NARAAI) who also denied the existence of a plot against the president.
A week previous, Senator Imee Marcos reported hearing about destabilization plots against her brother’s government
“I think these destab plans are all coming from the inside,” she said, referring to parties allied to the Marcos camp of the government.
The senator is perceived to be allied with Vice President Sara Duterte and former president Rodrigo Duterte in their reported rift with her brother and cousin Romualdez.
Earlier, in November, former president Duterte denied he rallied retired generals to topple Marcos in a coup d’etat.
Duterte says he had met some retired generals but plotting a coup was not discussed.
Valbuena said the infighting and corruption in the military has brought demoralization among the AFP’s foot soldiers.
“They are utterly dejected by the fact that they are used as cannon fodder to defend a rotten system while their commander-in-chief enjoy a high-style living using public money to have helicopters ferry him from concerts and late-night parties,” he said.
Masbate NPA accepts rectification challenge
The Jose Rapsing Command of the NPA in Masbate Province meanwhile said it vows to implement the CPP’s rectification movement to further advance their armed struggle for justice.
“As part of the rectification movement, NPA Masbate humbly vows to do all it can to defend the people of Masbate and claim justice for all victims of oppression and exploitation by the rotten government,” its spokesperson Luz del Mar said.
Del Mar said that martial law is practically in effect in the province that extends to the provincial prosecutor recently filing frustrated murder charges against five innocent farmers.
Instead of charging the military for indiscriminately firing at the victims that led to the death of their companion Rey Belan last June 16, the government accuses farmers Jamara Tumangan, Rowel Hagnaya, Alden Tumangan, Rico Cuyos at Senen Dollete of being NPA fighters, the spokesperson said.
“For every farmer killed, deprived of land, deprived of rights and a bright future, the NPA in Masbate is determined to aid them in their fight for justice,” del Mar said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) declared a two-day ceasefire effective Christmas Day and its 55th Anniversary, December 25 and 26, respectively.
In an announcement on its website, the CPP Central Committee as well as the New People’s Army (NPA) National Operational Command ordered all NPA units across the Philippines to suspend offensive military operations starting 00:01 of December 25 to 23:59 of December 26.
“The two-day ceasefire aims to allow the peasant masses and NPA units in their area to conduct assemblies, meetings or gatherings to celebrate the Party’s anniversary, look back at past achievements, and pay tribute to all heroes and martyrs of the Philippine revolution,” the announcement reads.
“This ceasefire declaration is also in solidarity with people’s traditional holiday celebrations,” it adds.
The CPP and NPA last declared a suspension of military operations in March 2020 in response to the global appeal by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres for an end to hostilities because of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier that month, then Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) President Rodrigo Duterte also announced his administration’s own ceasefire order in order to focus on its anti-Covid19 response.
The Ferdinand Marcos GRP has yet to respond to the new CPP-NPA ceasefire declaration.
Last month, the CPP-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the GRP simultaneously announced the signing of the November 23 Oslo Joint Statement revealing both parties have been engaged in a series of dialogue to look at the possibility of the resumption of formal peace negotiations between both parties.
In its ceasefire announcement today, the CPP and the NPA however cautioned all their units to remain alert “in the face of the relentless offensives, state terrorism and fascist crimes of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).”
“[A]ll units of the NPA are placed in high alert and must be vigilant and ready to act in self-defense to counter and frustrate hostile movement or actions of enemy units within the scope of the NPA’s guerrilla fronts and areas of operations. The NPA and the masses are advised to maintain a high level of secrecy in the conduct of their activities,” the announcement reads.
The NPA can resume its military offensive actions at 00:00 of December 27, it added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Former president Rodrigo Duterte admitted he threatened to kill the late National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison that contributed to the 2017 termination of the peace process between his government and the revolutionary Left.
In a radio interview with his former chief legal adviser Salvador Panelo over DZRJ 810 AM last Wednesday, December 20, Duterte said he cursed at Sison in a phone conversation who returned the favor.
“[W]e ended up…nagmurahan kami. Pinu-t****** ko siya, sumagot din siya ng put****** mo…Sabi ko, huwag ka umuwi sa Pilipinas, papatayin kita!” Duterte narrated. (We exchanged expletives. I told him he was a son-of-a_b****. He responded in kind. I then told him, ‘Do not go home to the Philippines, I will kill you.)
Duterte did not give details on when his conversation with the Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairperson–his one time political science professor–happened.
Duterte said his call with Sison started politely, both greeting each other and their respective families with pleasantries. But their exchange turned for the worse when they started arguing about the definition of terms in the peace proposals submitted by the NDFP.
He said the particular phone call was probably listened in to by the military.
“That was the saga of the peace talks during my time. So it was terminated. Sabi ko, no peace talks anymore. Ever,” Duterte said.
The former president terminated formal negotiations with the NDFP in June 2017 when both parties were set to sign a prospective Interim Peace Agreement that included social and economic reforms and a long-term ceasefire.
In May 2017, Duterte ordered his negotiators, led by then labor secretary Silvestre Bello III, to cancel the fifth round of formal talks when both parties were already in The Netherlands for the continuation of what could have been the most successful episode in the nearly three decade history of the GRP-NDFP negotiations.
Wednesday’s rant was the longest that Duterte has addressed the peace talks issue since the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government has announced an ongoing dialogue for the possible resumption of the negotiations.
Duterte admitted that his termination of the peace negotiations with the NDFP “was only good for my (his) term.”
“[But] A new president has initiated another,” he said, adding he wishes there would no longer be negotiations with the NDFP.
Father joins daughter in opposing talks
Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio also expressed her opposition to the resumption of the negotiations, calling the November 23 Joint Statement between the GRP and the NDFP a “deal with the devil” in her first-ever public rebuke of Marcos Jr.
Leaders of both the House of Representatives and the Senate have however expressed support for the initiative, lending support to speculations of a widening rift between the Dutertes and the Marcoses.
Aside from the peace talks with the NDFP, both political dynasties are seen to differ on the use of confidential-intelligence funds and the government’s stance on the West Philippine/South China Sea issue.
The Dutertes are known to be close to China while Marcos is seen to be close to the United States of America that are inching towards a possible military confrontation in the region.
The Marcos government is also seen as open to the Philippines rejoining the Rome Statute creating the International Criminal court where the Dutertes are facing investigations for alleged crimes against humanity in relation to the former president’s bloody drug war that has reportedly killed thousands in a span of just over two years. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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)
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) welcomed the signing of the Oslo Joint Statement last November 23 in Oslo, Norway by representatives of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) declaring intent to hold formal peace negotiations.
In a statement issued after the simultaneous announcement by both parties and the Royal Norwegian Government as Third Party Facilitator, the CPP said it supports the NDFP Negotiating Panel led by interim chairperson Julieta de Lima, Coni Ledesma and Asterio Palima as well as NDFP National Executive Council member Luis Jalandoni “in their representation of broad democratic interests of the Filipino people” in the prospective resumption of negotiations.
“The Oslo Joint Statement is a first half-step in the long march leading to the resumption of formal peace negotiations, and in the even longer road of achieving the people’s aspiration for a just and lasting peace,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said.
The CPP blamed former GRP president Rodrigo Duterte for wasting gains made by the NDFP and GRP negotiating panels that seemed close to signing major agreements under the social and economic reform agenda of the talks.
Among those set to be signed upon were free land distribution to poor farmers and a stand down agreement before Duterte terminated the negotiations in June 2017, subsequently declaring the NDFP, CPP and the New People’s Army as so-called terrorist organizations in November of that year.
“In his blood-lust, former GRP President Duterte threw ten thousand thorns and spikes at the road of peace and rendered it impassable. With the mistaken notion that the armed revolution can be crushed through sheer armed might, Duterte unleashed his war of state terrorism marked by abductions, torture, murder and massacres,” Valbuena said.
The CPP said Duterte utterly failed as shown by the Marcos GRP’s discussions with the NDFP to possibly resume peace negotiations.
‘Thorns and spikes’
CPP said it is now the “distinct responsibility” of the Marcos government to remove roadblocks that litter the road to peace negotiations.
The revolutionary party said Marcos must release all the NDFP peace consultants to allow them to take part in the discussions and negotiations and rescind the “terrorist” designation of the NDFP, the CPP, the NPA as well as those individually proscribed such as Jalandoni and other personnel of the NDFP.
The CPP said Marcos must withdraw Duterte-issued Executive Order No 70 and Memorandum Order No 32, dismantle the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and repeal the Anti-Terror Law in order for the discussions on possible talks resumption to move forward.
The group added Marcos should also order the Armed Forces of the Philippines to withdraw armed soldiers conducting so-called localized peace negotiations and community support in civilian communities defending their land and democratic rights that are subjected to aerial bombing and artillery shelling.
The CPP also called for the release of more than 800 political prisoners in the country.
Other groups express support
Other groups also expressed support to the signing of the Oslo Joint Communique, asking the parties to prioritize social justice, economic concerns and human rights in the negotiations if the talks resume.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said it welcomes the development as it hopes the peace talks could be a platform to hear out urgent people’ concerns such as landlessness, lack of decent jobs and livelihood and brutal military attacks on civilian communities.
“We advise them to overcome the malicious actions of peace spoilers. This necessarily entails the reversal of presidential proclamations and orders that make it impossible to restart the peace process,” BAYAN added.
Rights group Karapatan also said it welcomes the signing of the document it said should facilitate the reaffirmation of commitments and adherence to previously signed agreements such as The Hague Joint Declaration, the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, and Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees.
In a statement, Karapatan also said it hopes for the finalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms and the drafting of the Comprehensive Agreement on Political and Constitutional Reforms towards the resolution of the root causes of the armed conflict if the talks resume. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Progressive groups welcomed former senator Leila de Lima temporary release from prison Monday, November 13, saying her nearly seven years imprisonment by the Rodrigo Duterte government was unjust and vindictive.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan president Renato Reyes said said de Lima’s release was long overdue, adding the former senator deserves the dismissal of all remaining cases against her.
“We wish her the best on her temporary release and look forward to having her back at the physical frontlines of the defense of human rights,” Reyes said.
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Judge Gener Gito’s decision to grant de Lima temporary release is welcome, wishing the same fortune is granted to all other political prisoners in the country.
“As in the situation of the nearly 800 political prisoners in the Philippines, the charges against de Lima were driven by officials and State forces acting to persecute the political opposition and critics. Many if not all of these charges against political prisoners are based on perjured testimonies and planted evidence,” Palabay said.
“Former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte along with those who conspired to bring such patently false charges against de Lima should be held accountable,” Palabay added.
In granting de Lima’s Motion for Reconsideration to be granted bail, Gito said the prosecution was unable to discharge its burden of establishing that the guilt of the accused is strong.
De Lima was allowed to post a Php300,000 bail, along with co-accused Franklin Bucayu, Jose Adrian Dera, Ronnie Dayan and Jonnel Sanchez.
The accused have been charged with three cases related to drug-trafficking, two of which have already been dismissed.
In a statement, the Movement Against Disinformation, Inc. (MAD) said it is grateful and relieved at the decision.
“This long-awaited decision not only reaffirms our confidence in the legal system but also underscores the fundamental principles of fairness, equity, and the Rule of Law,” the group said.
“Looking ahead, we eagerly anticipate the complete resolution of the remaining case against Senator De Lima, fervently hoping for her full exoneration. We remain steadfast in our call for the release of Senator Leila De Lima and all political prisoners,” MAD added.
De Lima meanwhile said that while the petition for bail took too long, she never lost faith that her “inevitable freedom” will come.
“…[I]t is one of my greatest achievements in my career and in my life to say that, not only did I survive all these years of persecution and unjust detention, I came out stronger than ever, with an even stronger commitment to Truth, Justice, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law,” de Lima said in a statement Monday. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
