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Eight years after, justice remains elusive for Doc Gerry Ortega

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Jan. 24, 2019

On this day eight years ago, environmentalist, good governance advocate and broadcaster Gerardo “Doc Gerry” Ortega was shot dead in an ukay-ukay shop in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

Eight years after, justice remains elusive for Doc Gerry and his family.

Doc Gerry’s case is illustrative of nearly all the media killings in this country or, more accurately, the ones authorities, with no trace of irony, consider “solved.”

For, while the hired guns and accomplices who planned and carried out the hit on Doc Gerry have been tried and convicted, the masterminds remain scot free.

Studies by media groups indicate that most murders of journalists are ordered by local politicians or government officials seeking to silence criticism and prevent scrutiny of their corruption and other misdeeds.

That they remain unpunished proves that injustice in the country – not only for slain journalists but for practically each and every Filipino whose rights have been violated – is rooted in a system of governance in which the corrupt and abusive thrive.

As we remember Doc Gerry, we also honor his family, whose courage and determination to pursue justice have been and will continue to be an inspiration for other families of slain journalists and all those seeking the same ends.

Even as we continue to demand justice for Doc Gerry and for each and every one of the 185 colleagues we have lost since 1996, let us remain steadfast in fulfilling our mandate as journalists – to be the people’s watchdogs against misgovernance and serve their right to know.

National Directorate

NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES

Joma to Digong: Killing 30k drug suspects is what is insane

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National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said there is nothing rotten or insane about fighting for independence and democracy.

Replying to yet another tirade from President Rodrigo Duterte, Sison said what is insane is killing 30,000 drug suspects as well as mass murdering workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, social activists and human rights advocates to preserve the ruling system.

“What is totally rotten is for Duterte to be serving the interests of both US and Chinese imperialists, the big compradors, landlords and his fellow corrupt bureaucrat capitalists who oppress and exploit the people,” Sison said.

Sison was replying to Duterte’s speech during the annual assembly of the Provincial Union of Leaders Against Illegality (PULI) at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City, Quezon Province Monday where he again admitted ordering the killing of drug addicts.

“You know why I ordered you killed? To end your problems,” Duterte said.

Another tirade

Duterte also launched into another tirade against local Communists, calling revolutionary forces purveyors of an “insane” and “rotten” ideology.

“I have not seen a group of people [as] affected by mass insanity,” Duterte said, adding communism is a “rotten ideology.”

Duterte said he is not averse to socialism but could not understand why the revolutionary groups must carry arms.

“I listen to Sison. The problem is, I cannot go into an armed struggle, carry arms to win and fight for a lost cause. The communist ideology is over and done with,” Duterte said.

Duterte also claimed that the Communists do not even have a single community under its control.

“Do you think you can take over the government? Not in a million years. You cannot even hold a single barangay,” Duterte said.

In a quick reply, Sison also said Duterte is in denial that revolutionary forces are widespread all over the country.

“The people’s democratic government is now operating in more than 15,000 barangays and it is advancing in waves until it can overthrow the counterrevolutionary state of the big compradors, landlords and corrupt bureaucrats like him,” Sison said.

China and Russia

Sison added it is Duterte who is rotten for serving the interests of the United States and China, as well the local ruling elite and corrupt government officials who oppress and exploit the people.   

Duterte’s repeated challenge to local Communists to visit China as well as Russia to observe how capitalism has taken over is insanity, Sison said.

“Filipino revolutionaries have contempt for the restoration of capitalism in China and Russia but are pleased at the same time that the rise of Chinese and Russian monopoly capitalism is now intensifying the contradictions among the imperialist powers,” he explained.

“Only an incorrigible traitor and tyrant and someone insane can glorify imperialist China and Russia, seek to keep the Philippines a prey to both old and new imperialist,” Sison said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Putragis Amang!

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Putragis amang! Kami’y namamalimos lamang ng kapirasong lupa
Bakit pinaputok ang kanilang sandata?
Hayup nga ba kaming hayup sa turing 
Bakit kaming gutom, bala ang pinakain!

Putragis amang! Ang palasyo pala ay hindi dulugan ng awa 
Ang kongreso pala’y kongreso ng panginoong may lupa
Saan namin hahanapin 
Ang pangakong pag-laya?

Putragis amang! Huwag nila kaming itulak sa dingding 
Mabangis sumalakay ang mga ginutom
Sa tagisan ng bagang kapag wala nang madurog na kanin
Huhulagpos ang malaong galit na kimkim!

Sumpain ang US!
Si Cory, si Starke, at mga katulad nila
Silang nagbibigay ng laya na busabusin ang paggawa 
Silang nagpapahintulot sa mga panginoong may lupa!

O hari ng gatilyo, hukbo ng mga hukbo
Bayani ng mga bukirin
Idulot mong sa mga kamay namin
Madurog ang mga salarin!

  • This poem had been repeatedly performed at rallies commemorating the Mendiola Massacre of 22 January 1987 when 12 peasants were killed and at least 51 others were injured. According to Mendiola Massacre survivor Mirriam Aledia, who recalled the poem from memory, the poem was performed by an old man during an indignation rally at Mendiola a few days after the massacre took place. The name of the author remains unknown.
  • The featured image is a cartoon by Mark Suva on the occasion of the massacre’s 32nd anniversary today. The background photo he used was taken from kahimyang.com. All rights to the original photographer.

Para sa kalayaan ng mga bilanggong politikal

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Before attendees of the Free Rey Casambre Campaign at the University of the Philippines last Saturday, Public Interest Law Center managing counsel Rachel Pastores said the judges and prosecutors who handle the cases of incarcerated National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants must be encouraged to do what is right. (Image by Carlo Francisco/Kodao)

Freed NDFP consultant Raffy Baylosis thanks supporters

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A day after his release from nearly a year of imprisonment, National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Rafael Baylosis attended an event for his fellow peace advocate Rey Claro Casambre at the University of the Philippines in Diliman last January 18.

Baylosis thanked his lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center, human rights groups, progressive people’s organizations, his family and friends, as well as his Sigma Rho Fraternity brothers for his freedom.

He denounced those who arrested him and the trumped up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives filed against him and companion Guillermo Roque.

Court clears NDFP peace consultant Rafael Baylosis and companion

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By Joseph Cuevas

The Regional Trial Court Branch 100 in Quezon City dismissed the cases of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Rafael Baylosis and companion Guillermo Roque.

In a 27-page decision last January 15, Judge Editha Miña-Aguba pointed out the illegality of the police surveillance and arrest.

The judge said evidence must be believable and must come from a credible witness, something the charges against Baylosis and Roque failed to show.

According to Public Interest Law Center (PILC) lawyers, the arrest against Baylosis and Roque January last year was illegal because the police insisted that the accused were roaming through Manila and Quezon City with guns tucked in their waists and toted around a bag of red rice with a grenade inside.

Baylosis’s defense poked holes into their story, pointing out not only lapses but grievous procedural mistakes, and thus exposed concerted, malicious efforts to fabricate the charges, the defense lawyers said.

PILC added that the dismissal of Baylosis case proved not only his innocence but exposes the police illegal actions, undue surveillance, illegal arrest, planting of evidences and filling of trumped up charges against peace consultants and political activists.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said he is glad about the development.

“Mabuting nadismiss ang charges of illegal gun possesion sa kaso ni Raffy dahil napatunayan na planted ang evidence,” Sison told Kodao.

“Dapat ganoon din ang mangyari sa kaso nina Vic Ladlad, Rey Casambre at iba pang plinantahan ng mga baril at explosive,” Sison added.

Lengua De Guzman, daughter of Baylosis and convenor of Free Raffy Baylosis Committee, said they are looking to file counter charges against the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as well as all other participants in the fabrication of criminal charges.

The dismissal followed Judge Aguba’s decision granting the demurer to evidence last June 2018 in favor of another peace consultant Ruben Saluta and his companions who were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, citing the broken chain of custody and inconsistency of witnesses’ testimonies against Saluta and company.

In November 2015, Judge Aguba also acquitted NDF consultant Eduardo Serrano in a multiple murder case for the failure of prosecution to identify him as “Rogelio Villanueva”.

Serrano, who was imprisoned for 11 years, died in detention last January 2016 due to cardiac arrest.

Baylosis was the first peace consultant arrested last January 2018 after President Duterte unilaterally terminated the peace negotiations and made a crackdown against peace consultants.

Adelberto Silva, Vicente Ladlad and Rey Claro Casambrewere arrested in October, November and December 2018, respectively. #

Petition amendment proves terrorist proscription vs CPP-NPA arbitrary–lawyer

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The Rodrigo Duterte government’s amendment to its petition to proscribe revolutionary groups as terrorists is proof that it has a weak case against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), a human rights lawyer said.

In a statement, National Union of People’s Lawyer president Edre Olalia said the government’s original petition filed in February 2018 is weak and is merely a move to railroad the legal process.

“[The] amended petition by the government to proscribe the CPP-NPA is proof that the original one was sloppy, shotgun and arbitrary against hundreds of individuals and was designed to harass and threaten them,” Olalia said.

Last January 3, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the amended petition before Branch 19 of the Regional Trial Court in Manila.

Six hundred individuals listed as “terrorists” in the original petition have been taken off  but retained CPP founding chairperson Jose Maria Sison; NPA national operations command spokesperson Jorge Madlos; NPA’s Melito Glor Command spokesperson Jaime Padilla, National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Negros spokesperson Francisco Fernandez; alleged CPP-Visayas deputy secretary Cleofe Lagtapon; alleged CPP Mindanao Commission secretary Antonio Cabanatan; alleged NPA-Mindanao leader; and alleged NPA-Mindanao operations chief Myrna Sularte.

The amended petition no longer includes United Nations Environment Programme 2018 Champion of the Earth awardee Joan Carling and five Baguio activists like Jeanette Ribaya-Cawiding.

Cawiding, former chair of the Tongtongan ti Umili and coordinator of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), said the new petition removes them from immediate danger posed by being labelled as terrorists, but said government spying on non-government organizations remains as a threat to free speech and human rights.

“This is a partial victory, but we cannot let our guard down,” Cawiding said.

She points to the latest red-tagging of ACT and harassment of teachers who are ACT members as proof that the threat against activists and government critics will continue.

“Harassment has been continuous against progressive organizations, like ACT, the delisting of the individuals named in the DOJ proscription does not guarantee the protection of our rights and our safety because the Philippine National Police and Malacañang are justifying their witch hunt in the context of [Duterte’s] Executive Order 70,” Cawiding said.

EO 70, signed last December, directs the creation of a national task force headed by the President and vice-chaired by the National Security Adviser to end local communist armed conflict and pushed for localized peace talks.

The court earlier directed the DOJ to remove the names of Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples Concerns and former Baguio councilor Jose Molintas.

Molintas was also a former member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP).

Corpuz, Carling, Longid and Molintas are former leaders of the militant Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), which Cariño helped establish as an indigenous peoples’ rights group that opposed the Marcos regime.

Current CPA chair Windell Bolinget said strong protests pushed the DOJ to amend its proscription petition.

But he said the threat does not end.

“They wanted the proscription of the CPP and NPA as terrorists by focusing on few names. Once they are proscribed as terrorists, people they suspect, vilify and attack as fronts and supporters will be linked and later considered terrorists. This is the danger,” Bolinget said.

Still dangerous

Olalia said that even with the amendment, the petition remains dangerous to those earlier named.

“[The] present petition remains to be without legal and factual basis and repackaged the old one in order to railroad the legal process. This will in turn violate a slew of individual and collective rights not only for those who remain in the list but many others who are maliciously identified, associated, suspected or labelled,” Olalia said.

IFI Bishop Vermilon Tagalog, chair of the regional coordinating committee of the Ilocos Network for the Environment welcomed the amended DOJ petition but said “the removal of names does not guarantee their safety”.

“The mere existence of the DOJ petition remains a clear threat especially with the insistent communist-tagging of Duterte’s administration of activists and progressive organizations,” Tagalog added.

Tagalog said that the Human Security Act of 2007, the DOJ’s basis for the filing of the proscription petition is not just directed against “terrorists” but also to critics of the government.

“We call on all environmental defenders to remain vigilant and steadfast in the fight against efforts of the administration to impose its tyrannical rule and clamped-down on our democratic rights.” #(Raymund B. Villanueva/ Kodao and Kimberlie Olmaya Ngabit-Quitasol/Northern Dispatch)

‘Futile canard’: Media group denounces red-tagging

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The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) is thinking of taking legal actions against continued efforts to link the media group with the communist revolutionary movement it sees as part of an orchestrated effort to intimidate it into silence.

NUJP officers found themselves answering requests for interviews today from community news outfits around the country soliciting reactions to charges by someone identified only as “Ka Ernesto,” who claimed to be a former member and supposedly “admitted” that the organization had links to Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison.

The group said that when asked where the story originated from, they invariably pointed to banner stories carried by a number of little-known Manila-based tabloids – Police Files Tonite, Bagong Bomba and Saksi Mata ng Katotohanan – all of which carried the exact same headline: “NUJP pinamumunuan ng CPP-NPA-NDF” (NUJP headed by CPP-NPA-NDF), the latter initials referring to the New People’s Army and the National Democratic Front.

Today’s front page of the tabloid Bagong Bomba.

This is the second time in just a few weeks the NUJP has been linked to the revolutionary movement since a certain Mario Ludades, claiming to be one of the founders of the CPP, accused the media group of being a “legal front” of the underground movement in stories run by several outfits on December 26, incidentally the 50th anniversary of the CPP.

“It is hilarious that they keep repeating these charges since the NUJP’s membership represents a broad spectrum of creeds and political beliefs bound by a common dedication to defending and expanding the bounds of freedom of the press and of expression,” the group’s national directorate said in a statement today.

NUJP officers said they were initially tempted to ignore the “fantastic” and “hilarious” account of “Ka Ernesto” but for the fact that it exposes their members and other colleagues to potential danger from those who might readily believe the “canard”.

“With at least 12 colleagues slain under the watch of a president who has actually justified the murder of journalists… and openly and constantly curses and threatens media, we are taking this matter very, very seriously,” the group said.

Today’s front page of the tabloid Saksi.

Duterte’s attacks

Early in his term, President Rodrigo Duterte said in a speech before reporters in his hometown Davao City that media killings are justified.

“Just because you’re a journalist you are not exempted from assassination, if you’re a son of a bitch?” Duterte said.

Duterte never let up against media outfits he perceives to be overly critical of his presidency, even threatening to block media group ABS-CBN’s petition to have its broadcast franchise renewed with the House of Representatives.

In December 2017, Duterte said he would only be willing to compromise with ABS-CBN if the network helps promote his campaign to shift to a federal form of government.

“Kung magtulong kayo diyan sa federal system campaign at gawain ninyong slogan also for the unity and to preserve this republic, makipag-areglo ako,” he said.

He repeatedly threatened the Philippine Daily Inquirer and its owners’ business interests.

Following a tirade against Rappler, the Securities and Exchange Commission cancelled the outfit’s license while prosecutors filed tax evasion charges against its chief executive officer Maria Ressa.

Individual journalists accused of being overly critical against Duterte’s bloody drug war were also threatened and harassed by social media groups and online trolls supportive of Duterte.

Recently, websites of alternative media groups were also digitally attacked they said may be part of the crackdown against so-called communist fronts.

“It does not take genius to figure out who is behind this determined, if futile, effort to cow us. But we tell you now and will tell you again, do your worst, you will fail,” the NUJP vowed.

‘Enemies of press freedom’

The NUJP also condemned the three tabloids who published the “canard”.

“It is unfortunate that there exist within the profession unscrupulous scum who allow themselves to be used by these cowardly enemies of press freedom even if it endangers colleagues,” the NUJP said, obviously referring to the three tabloids.

“But we will let them be. Their venality shames them enough,” the NUJP said.

The group warned, however, that it will hound those who are behind the red-tagging campaign and make them pay should its members are harmed. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

HR defenders denounce police crackdown in Negros Oriental

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As a fact-finding mission on the killings in Negros Occidental was being restricted in Guihulngan City, human rights defenders in the National Capital Region held a protest activity in front of Camp Crame to denounce the police crackdown.

Six civilians were killed in quick succession in the said province in recent days.

The Philippine National Police said the victims were drug users and peddlers but the activists said they were land reform advocates who were summarily executed by state forces.

Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered intensified military and police operations in the province through Executive Order 32. (Video by Joseph Cuevas)

Catholic shrine, activist organizations report police, military ‘harassment’

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A revered Catholic Church shrine in Parañaque and a building housing activist organizations in Quezon City complained of harassments Thursday, reporting that police officers and suspected military agents are out to further intimidate institutions and organizations critical of the Rodrigo Duterte regime.

In an alert, human rights group Karapatan said its national officers and staff members observed increased presence of suspected military and police agents within the vicinity of Erythrina Building in Barangay Central in Quezon City since morning.

The building houses Karapatan, National Union of People’s Lawyers, Kodao Productions and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, among other organizations.

Aside from armed men in civilian clothing surrounding the building, a small Philippine Army truck was seen parked nearby.

Meanwhile, Philippine National Police officers had been swarming the Baclaran Church compound in Parañaque since Wednesday, forcing a bazaar meant to raise funds for indigenous peoples to suspend operations.

Instead of staying at the church gate, the police reportedly insisted on visiting the clergy’s living quarters because of an alleged bomb threat.

Baclaran Church, formally known as The National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, is known to regularly host indigenous peoples who suffer forced evacuation by the military.

The Redemptorist priests administering the shrine has yet to issue a formal statement but has reportedly asked the police to stay outside the church gate.

A police car in front of Erythrina Building. (Photo by Jinky Mendoza-Aguilar/Kodao)

Karapatan blamed the activities on President Duterte’s latest tirade against human rights defenders.

“We are warning government forces – stop harassing rights defenders, lawyers and alternative media practitioners; and do not plant evidence in our offices. We shall make you accountable in different fora in time,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

Karapatan later reported that suspected military and police agents circling the area have already left as of seven o’clock in the evening.

“We attribute this temporary respite to the vigilance of NUPL lawyers, human rights workers and staff members of Karapatan, Bayan and Kodao Productions, and allied lawyers and members of the media who responded to the call to monitor the increased presence and activity of suspected military agents and police in our offices,” Palabay said.

Karapatan said it will remain vigilant and defiant against any attempt to intimidate and harass their ranks as well as all human rights defenders and communities who bear witness to the Duterte regime’s repressive policies. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)