Beleaguered Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno slammed “bullying tactics” against her and the judiciary in a speech before civil libertarians last April 9 on the occasion of the Araw ng Kagitingan.
In this video, Sereno asked her audience to join her in the defense of judicial independence.
A prominent Mindanao activist is being held by US immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, various human rights organizations and individuals said.
Sandugo – Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination co-chairperson Jerome Aladdin Succor Aba has been denied entry to the US and is being held at the airport, the alerts said.
Aba is scheduled for deportation back to the Philippines Wednesday night, April 18, US time, the alerts added.
US immigration authorities have not released the basis for the denial of entry against the Filipino activist.
Fellow Moro advocate Amirah Ali Lidasan said Aba’s travel papers are in order, including a 10-year multiple entry visa to the US.
Lidasan added that no lawyer has been allowed to see Aba even after 15 hours of detention and they do not know if he has been treated well and fed.
A well-known critic of the Rodrigo Duterte government’s war in Marawi and elsewhere the Philippines, Aba was invited to the US by several church institutions, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Sisters of Mercy, and the General Board of Global Ministries-United Methodist Church to serve as a resource speaker at their respective events.
Aba was to speak on the human rights situation in the Philippines under the Duterte government during the Sixteenth National Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) for Global Peace with Justice in Washington D.C. on April 20 to 23.
The EAD is an annual national gathering of churches on peace and social justice issues that includes lobbying visits to Capitol Hill.
He was also scheduled to go on a speaking tour elsewhere in the US to campaign for a stop to the killings in the Philippines sponsored by the US Chapter of International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines.
Filipino-Americans and other supporters including Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-USA have picketed the airport to demand Aba’s release and for him to be allowed entry to the US.
Advocates from outside the San Francisco/Bay Area have also launched a phone barrage to the US Customs and Border Protection Agency, the alert said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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
The Coalition for Justice and Movement Against Tyranny, among other groups, led a March for Justice in Baguio City last April 10 at the start of the Supreme Court’s deliberations on the quo warranto petition against its Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.
Sa pagbabalik ng ‘Itanong mo kay Prof’ pinag-usapan nina Prof. Jose Maria Sison at Prof. Sarah Raymundo ang tangkang pagtatanggal kay Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno ng administrasyong Rodrigo Duterte.
Ano ang ibig sabihin ng tangkang impeachment kay Sereno? Ano ang implikayon nito sa independensiya ng hudikatura sa panahong inaakusahan ang gubyernong Duterte ng malawak na paglabag sa karapatang pantao? Mapapatalsik kaya ang Punong Mahistrado?
Pakinggan ang analisis ng nangungunang social scientist ng Pilipinas sa isyung ito.
JAKARTA, Indonesia—Mindanao peace advocates lauded the possible resumption of peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) following an exchange of positive statements from their respective leaders.
Independent peace talks observer and Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Mindanao main convenor Bishop Felixberto Calang said their group joins the “many jubilant voices” in welcoming the promised resumption of the negotiations.
Calang said they are hoping for the eventual signing of agreements on social and economic reforms, the release of political prisoners, and the upholding the agreement on human rights and international humanitarian law.
“The (possible) resumption of the talks shows that President (Rodrigo) Duterte himself is the decisive protagonist who can provide the ‘enabling environment’ for the sustainability of the (peace process), Calang said in a statement.
Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza announced Wednesday that Duterte has ordered his negotiators to work for the possible resumption of the talks, a move welcomed by the NDFP.
The NDFP through its chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for its part said it remains open and ready to resume the talks.
Calang, however, cautioned against peace spoilers out to permanently scuttle the talks.
This is a second life for the peace talks (with the Duterte government). The Filipino people must not allow hawkish vultures to lead it astray again to a tragic end,” Calang said, noting “dark clouds…hover(ing) above the process such as the terrorist-witchunt list, Martial Law in Mindanao, and the widespread militarization of Lumad communities.
“All of these need to be addressed or considered if we wish for the talks to proceed with a good start,” Calang said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) have stepped closer to resuming formal peace negotiations.
In a tweet Wednesday night, Presidential peace process adviser Jesus Dureza announced that GRP President Rodrigo Duterte has directed his peace negotiators to work on resuming formal talks with the NDFP.
“President Duterte directed during the Cabinet meeting today (Wednesday) to work on the resumption of peace talks with the CPP/NPA/NDF [Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army] with clear instructions on the importance of forging a ceasefire agreement to stop mutual attacks and fighting while talks are underway,” Dureza said.
Dureza added that Duterte has said to give the peace process “…another last chance”.
He said the Duterte has also committed “to provide support” to the revolutionary movement as long as it stops imposing and collecting taxes.
NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison for his part said that formal peace negotiations are the right venues to deal with GRP’s issues and complaints such as ceasefire proposals and the NPA’s revolutionary taxation activities.
“The resumption of peace talks between the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels is needed precisely to deal with substantive issues and complaints,” Sison said.
Sison said that in the same round of formal talks, the parties can present conflicting positions and subsequently seek to solve problems “on mutually acceptable grounds.”
He said that both negotiating panels already have a draft of the agreement on coordinated unilateral ceasefires, “which is under the watch of a joint national ceasefire committee.”
“This draft agreement is in effect the start of a bilateral ceasefire agreement. It is a significant step towards the Comprehensive Agreement on the End of Hostilities and Disposition of Forces,” he added.
Sison also said that the GRP and NDFP has already achieved substantial consensus on the general principles of agrarian reform and rural development and national industrialization and economic development, which both parties acknowledge are the most important parts of the prospective social and economic reforms agreements.
He added that there is also a draft amnesty proclamation to release all the political prisoners listed by the NDFP in compliance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
“When the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels meet, they can be confident of achieving substantial success. Without a formal meeting of the panels, there can only be an acrimonious public exchange of complaints and demands, which appear or sound like the preconditions prohibited by The Hague Joint Declaration,” Sison said.
The Hague Joint Declaration requires that no side shall impose on the other side preconditions that negate the character and purpose of peace negotiations.
“The conflicting parties become negotiating parties precisely to thresh out serious differences and complaints and seek the solutions to achieve a just and lasting peace,” Sison explained.
“As a matter of course, the two panels shall reaffirm all the existing agreements by way of ending the previous termination of the peace negotiations. It logically follows that the two panels shall cooperate in doing away with the obstacles and hindrances to the agreements and to the entire peace process,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent speech expressing “openness and readiness” to resume formal peace negotiations.
NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said they are likewise open and ready to resume the peace negotiations and expect the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and NDFP negotiating panels to meet as soon as possible.
Duterte last Tuesday again changed his mind and said he is ready to resume formal peace negotiations with the Left.
“I’d like to address myself first to the NPAs. Alam mo, hindi tayo magkalaban. Gusto ko mang lumaban, eh ang puso ko, sinasabi niya ‘ang kapwa mo Pilipino pinapatay mo,’” Duterte said in a speech in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro.
“Gusto kong magkaroon tayo ng usapan. But along the way, papunta doon maraming obstructions and everything. But you must understand, hindi madali magpunta sa paratingan natin,” he said.
“And so if we can have a middle ground,” Duterte added.
In a statement issued a few hours after Duterte’s speech, Sison said the NDFP is “sincere in striving to negotiate and forge with the GRP comprehensive agreements on social, economic and political reforms to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis of a just and lasting peace.”
Sison said making a significant advance on the basis of the drafts prepared on October 4, 2017 will also forward corollary agreements to amnesty and release all political prisoners as well as coordinated unilateral ceasefires between the parties’ armed forces.
“We hope that from here on we can make steady and significant advances on the road of realizing peace in accordance with the people´s demand for full national independence, democracy, social justice, economic development and cultural progress,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
“Duterte is morally-corrupt and barbaric. He has no right to stay in power!”
The underground group Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan or Kaguma commemorated its 47th founding anniversary Wednesday by calling on its members to resist the Rodrigo Duterte government’s “fascism and terrorism.”
In a statement sent to Kodao, Kaguma said it offers a red salute to all freedom-loving Filipinos, “especially to teachers who transcend their role within the confines of the classrooms” as they struggle to thwart what its calls Duterte’s rampage of violence and murder.
Founded in 1971, Kaguma went underground when dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law less than six months later in September that year.
It later became a founding allied organization of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) when it was established in April 1973.
Kaguma logo.
In its statement, Kaguma condemned the government’s K + 12 curriculum it said objectifies schoolchildren as subservient labor to capital.
It cited the deaths of more than 13,000 victims of the government’s so-called war against drugs as well as 150 activists under Duterte.
The group encouraged relatives of victims to seek justice through the International Criminal Court’s should the case against Duterte push through and become a full blown trial.
“We must encourage the international community to look into the case and help by means of amplifying their condemnation as well against the fascism of the US-Duterte regime,” the revolutionary group said.
The group said teachers and the academe has a big role to fill-in in educating the broad masses of people on the true state of our nation under a tyrannical ruler.
“Duterte is morally-corrupt and barbaric. He has no right to stay in power!” the group said as it called on its members to rise up to end to Duterte’s rule.
“Prepare for the people’s uprising and drag this tyrant out of Malacañan!” Kaguma said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
