“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
Political prisoners in Negros are set to hold another 24-hour fast on Friday, April 19, to demand thorough and impartial investigations by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on reported human rights violations since July 2022.
The families and friends of political prisoners under the Negros Occidental chapter of Kapatid (Kapisanan para sa Pagpapalaya ng mga Detinidong Pulitikal sa Pilipinas) said the fast follows CHR’s revelation last March 9 its efforts to investigate the growing number of human rights and international humanitarian law violations in the island is being stymied by the lack of cooperation by various units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Negros.
“It has been 40 days since the said constitutional body made that damning admission yet, until now, the families of victims of these heinous crimes have not been given even the barest minimum attention they deserve from the government,” Kapatid said.
Kapatid added that the investigation should include a follow through on the disappearance of political prisoner Mary Joy Enyong’s daughter Lyngrace Marturillas reported abducted with three others somewhere in Negros’ Hinigaran Highway April 19 of last year.
“It should at least be able to explain why her companion Rogelio Posadas, a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant, was surfaced dead by the 62nd IB as a casualty in a highly-suspect encounter they claimed to have had with the NPA (New People’s Army) the following day, while the fate of Marturillas and their two habal-habal (motorcycle for-hire) drivers Renald de los Santos and Denald Malen remain in limbo,” Kapatid said.
The political prisoners previously held similar fasts in March 2022, March 2023 and last December on various human rights issues in the island.
They said the rights violations are integral to the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government’s counter-insurgency drive in the island, adding that the island has seen a sharp rise in incidents that include last year’s June 14 massacre of the Fausto peasant family in Himamaylan City.
The political detainees also cited the September 21 massacre of five New People’s Army (NPA) hors d’ combat and their tricycle driver in Kabankalan City as well as the military’s February 21 aerial bombing operation in Escalante City allegedly in pursuit of armed guerillas.
Political prisoners in Negros island number no less than 128 as of April 1, or about 16% of the country’s current total, Kapatid said.
For peace
Kapatid-Negros Occidental also said the fasting of political prisoners is meant to support the growing call for the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government to effect the long-awaited resumption of the GRP-NDF formal peace negotiations.
The Marcos Jr. government, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Royal Norwegian Government, Third Party Facilitator to the peace process, made simultaneous announcements last year on their intention to resume negotiations.
“The resumption of the GRP-NDF peace talks is necessary to once again bring to the national attention the necessary pro-people solutions to the fundamental problems plaguing our country, which continue to fuel the 55-year old armed rebellion of the CPP-NPA-NDFP,” Kapatid-Negros Occidental said.
The political prisoners are also calling on the Marcos Jr. government to immediately release from the National Penitentiary 75-year old NDFP peace consultant and former Negrense priest Frank Fernandez they said is suffering from various ailments and need immediate medical attention outside prison
“Fernandez, as well as other sick or elderly political prisoners like 84-year old Gerardo de la Peña (at the National Bilibid Prison), 70-year old Cleofe Lagtapon (at the National Correctional for Women), and 61-year old Corazon Javier (at the Canlaon City Jail), deserve to be released immediately on humanitarian grounds, if only to compensate – albeit partially – for their many years of unjust incarceration,” Kapatid added.
The group also revealed that two sick and elderly political prisoners have died in jail since Marcos Jr. became president.
Marcos Villareal died last December 3 at the Camarines Sur Provincial Jail while 66-year year old Generoso Granado died at the National Bilibid Prison last March 8.
Out of the more than 800 political detainees, at least 95 political detainees are sick while 75 are elderly, human rights groups said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
United States President Joe Biden revealed plans for a more aggressive military presence in the Indo-Pacific region at the start of the US-Japan-Philippine trilateral summit in Washington DC, seen as a warning to Beijing that it will not surrender its dominance in the area.
Launching the summit at the White House on Thursday, April 11, Biden said the Cold War-era Mutual Defense Treaty between Washington and Manila requires the US to respond to an armed attack on the Philippines in the South China Sea.
“United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are iron clad,” he said.
The agreement “extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft—to include those of its Coast Guard— in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea,” a White House readout reads.
Biden is hosting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a first-of-its-kind summit between Manila and two of its former invaders.
Beijing on the other hand said the meeting is an interventionist attempt by the US to escalate tensions in the region as it maintains its claims over an inordinate expanse of the South China Sea.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, even those that fall on the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS). China ratified the convention a month later on December 1982.
China however refuses to honor the 2016 international arbitral ruling rejecting its claims and have since attacked Southeast Asian fishing boats and coast guards in the region.
Marcos selling out PH sovereignty
The international office of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP International) meanwhile called Marcos Jr.’s participation in the summit “an utter and complete sell-out of Philippine sovereignty to US war designs in Asia.”
“Marcos Jr. is willingly offering the Philippine archipelago to serve as a ‘theater of war’ by allowing the US to position its military arsenal on land, sea, and air. The Philippines is a crucial piece in the ‘US Island Chain strategy’ to contain China,” NDFP International said.
Also scornful of China’s aggression against Filipino fisherfolk and ships as well as occupation of land features within the Philippine EEZ, NDFP International added that Marcos Jr. is allowing US to constrict regional waterways and position readily deployable military air power in close proximity to China.
“In order to achieve its objectives, the US is escalating war preparations in the region by encouraging Japan and other imperialist allies to join the geopolitical chess game,” the group said.
NDFP International also said that the forthcoming Balikatan Exercises later this month shall be the biggest in history with at least 16,000 troops.
“The Balikatan war games this year aims to test the so-called ‘Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CDAC)’ patterned after US imperialist war plans in the region. These actions form part of the US strategy to provoke China into ‘firing the first shot’ demonstrating the US government’s bloodthirst,” it said.
Marcos Jr.’s actions prove his outright subservience to US imperialist war preparations and his readiness to drag the Filipino people in the middle of a brewing inter-imperialist conflict. Marcos Jr. must be held accountable for his reprehensible sell-out of Philippine sovereignty and his blatant disregard for the lives of the Filipino masses, the group said.
NDFP International also said it denounces Biden for his government’s continued exportation of wars of aggression from Ukraine to Palestine and now using the Philippines as a pawn against China. # (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)
GENEVA, Switzerland—The Philippine UPR Watch again called for the abolition of the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the junking of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 in its ongoing participation at the 55th Regular Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) in this city.
A delegation of the group informed various permanent missions of member states and international civil society organizations based in Geneva last Monday and Tuesday of the results of two recent visits of UN special rapporteurs who denounced government’s red-tagging practices.
The group said they it is attending the session to testify on continuing human rights violations under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government.
“We are here to inform the international community that the findings by both special rapporteur on climate change and human rights Ian Fry last November and special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan last February that human rights violations continue are true,” Center for Environmental Concerns executive director Lia Mai Torres said.
Philippine UPR Watch said the rest of UN member states must be informed that both experts recommended the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and called for the review of the anti-terror law that are being used against human rights defenders and other civilians.
A network of human rights defenders in the Philippines, the Philippine UPR Watch said it is scheduled to deliver oral interventions at the UNHRC session and its other events to give updates on the government’s lack of compliance to its commitments to the international body 20 months after the last review on the Philippines.
“The Marcos Jr. government wants to paint a rosy picture of so-called improved rhetoric and improved conditions but we are here both as victims and witnesses that anti-people policies have not changed as evidenced by the exit statements by Mr. Fry and Ms. Khan,” Torres added.
Clergywoman as victim of weaponized law
Among the main topics in the 55th UN HRC session are discussions on countering religious hatred and social security and public services.
With the Philippine UPR Watch delegation is Rev. Glofie Baluntong of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines who was among the first charged by the government under the controversial Anti-Terror Law of 2020.
Based on an earlier murder charge in August 2021, Baluntong was slapped with an alleged violation of the Anti-Terror Act in August 2022 which was recently dismissed by the public prosecutor for lack of merit.
“But the dismissal came with the warning that the case may be re-filed anytime that the military or the police decides to do so,” the clergyperson said.
The United Methodist Church pastor was charged by the military of assisting the New People’s Army.
But the pastor said she was performing necrological services to a member of her church at the time she committed the alleged murder she was initially charged with.
“The government is saying that my work with the indigenous people’s communities make me an enemy of the state,” Baluntong said.
Baluntong said that red-tagging attacks and trumped-up charges prevent her from performing her ministry with the indigenous peoples and poor communities in her home province of Mindoro.
With Baluntong and Torres is IBON Foundation executive director Sonny Africa who said that his participation in the 55th session is in preparation for the anticipated official visit of the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty.
Africa is also expected to participate in the panel discussion on challenges and good practices to realize the right to social security and to provide quality public services.
Delegation co-leader and Karapatan legal counsel Ma. Sol Taule said, “This delegation supports suggestions made by the UN experts who recently visited the Philippines to continue our engagements leading to the submission of their respective final reports to the UN HRC.”
The Philippine UPR Watch delegation is also scheduled to speak at forums in various cities in Switzerland and throughout Europe during the duration of the UN HRC session. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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[DISCLOSURE] The reporter is a member of the PH UPR Watch delegation as chairperson of the People’s Alternative Media Network that also spoke with UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion Irene Khan in her visit to the Philippines earlier this year.
Today marks the 38th anniversary of the EDSA People Power revolt that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who was replaced by Corazon Aquino of the landlord class. The Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government did not bother to declare today as an official holiday.
This performance by Chickoy Pura of The Jerks and Renato Reyes Jr. of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan was performed in a Benigno Aquino ouster rally in March 20, 2015. The song warns against blindly placing one’s hopes for social change in members of the ruling elite.
There have been two Marcoses and two Aquinos as presidents.
Ni Nuel M. Bacarra
Sa dinaranas na mataas na presyo ng mga bilihin na tinutuwangan pa ng kawalan ng dagdag na kita o sahod, hibahib na si Juan dela Cruz sa kakakayod sa lansangan para lamang makaraos. Pinapasan niya ang krisis sa ekonomya na pinalalala ng mga garapal na patakarang pabor sa dayuhan at mga kapitalista at ng mga palsong hakbang ng pamunuan para sa pansariling interes.
Nakapako ang sahod ng manggagawa. Ang mga nagsitaasang presyo ng mga batayang bilihin tulad ng bigas, gulay, isda at marami pang iba ay natural na tendensya ng patakarang iasa sa importasyon para matugunan ang batayang mga pangangailangan ng bansa. Ang mga lokal na prodyuser ng mga produktong agrikultural ay ibayong pinahihirapan pa ng laganap na ismagling na siyang namamayagpag sa pagpapabaha ng mga angkat na produkto sa merkado. Kaya kung may anunsyo ng ayuda, asahang pipilahan ito ni Juan.
Sa isang taon at siyam na buwang panunungkulan ng pangkating Marcos Jr., kalabisan nang singilin ang rehimen kung nasaan na ang ipinangako nitong ₱20 na kilo ng bigas. Hindi ito plataporma kundi buladas ng isang tipikal na politiko. Ngayon, may bagong pambubuladas na muling inilalako sa mamamayan na gagastusan ng bilyun-bilyon na hindi maglulutas ng krisis sa ekonomya bagkus ay ibayo pang magsasapanganib sa lupa, kabuhayan, kalayaan at kasarinlan ng bansa—ang planong pagbago ng konstitusyon o Charter Change (ChaCha).
Kahit ang karaniwang masa sa kalsada ay nagsasabing hindi ang konstitusyon ang problema kundi ang mga pulitiko na may hawak ng kapangyarihan. Panis na ang linyang “para ito sa kaunlaran ng bansa.” Kung nais sana ng kaunlaran, dapat mamuhunan ang pamahalaan sa mamamayan na siyang tunay na tagapaglikha ng yaman ng bansa.
Dapat paunlarin, suportahan at pakilusin ang pinaka-produktibong pwersa ng lipunan na walang iba kundi ang mga magsasaka at manggagawa.
Hindi pa rin nagbabago ang komposisyon ng lipunan sa loob ng ilang dekada. Ang magsasaka pa rin ang dominanteng uri sa usapin ng bilang na aabot pa rin sa 70%. Kung lulutasin ang problema nila ng kawalan o kakulangan sa lupa, mas magiging produktibo sila at tiyak na uunlad dahil ang malaking bahagdan na dating inaangkin ng mga panginoong maylupa sa pamamagitan ng mataas na upa sa lupa, ng mga kumprador at usurero, sa pamamagitan ng mataas na interes sa pautang ay mapupunta na sa kanila.
Dahil pinakamalaking bilang sila ng bansa, sisigla ang mga industriya dahil magiging pangunahing konsyumer sila ng mga produkto nito ng mga pagawaan. Sila ang magtutulak sa bansa para mag-industriyalisa. Ang tunay na reporma sa lupa ang magpipihit ng direksyon para sa tunay na industriyalisadong pagsulong.
Kailangan ding ilapit sa tunay na pangangailangan ng mga manggagawa ang sahod nila. Kung pananatilihin ang sahod na nakasayad sa antas lamang ng “kape at pandesal,” na kundisyon ng pagpapatuloy lamang ng sikdo ng dibdib para huminga at makapagtrabahong muli, patuloy ang pagkabansot ang industriya.
Ang silbi ng mga manggagawa at magsasaka sa kasalukuyan ay tagalikha ng yaman ng mga kapitalistang dayuhan at lokal at pagtugon sa kapritso ng naghaharing uri.
Kailangang iwaksi ng pamahalaan ang pagsunod sa dikta ng dayuhan upang maiangat ang sarili tungo sa pag-unlad. Sa paglikha ng mga produkto para sariling pangangailangan ang susi. Bilang isang agrikultural na bansa, nakapanlulumo na inaangkat natin sa ibang bansa ang bigas, asukal, asin, maging isda (sa kabila ng pagiging pulu-pulo ng bansa natin) at gulay mula sa mga kanugnog na bansa. Hindi wasto na tinutugunan natin ang pangangailangan ng ibang bansa sa kapinsalaan ng lokal na produksyon para sa sariling pangangailangan na siyang susi para sariling industriyalisasyon.
Ano pa nga bang dapat asahan sa naghaharing uri? Interesado lamang sila kung ano ang pabuya sa kanila ng mga among imperyalista para sa pananatili sa poder at gamitin ito para makapagpayaman. Hindi kailangang baguhin ang konstitusyon ng Pilipinas dahil lamang sa ambisyon sa pulitika ng mga nagsusulong nito. Bagamat hindi sapat ang mga probisyong nagbibigay ng proteksyon sa mamamayan, agrikultura at industriya sa kasalukuyang konstitusyon, ang mga panukalang pagbabago rito ay lantarang ibayong magsasadlak sa bansa sa kahirapan sa pamamagitan ng todo-largang pagbubukas ng ekonomya sa dayuhang pagmamay-ari at pamumuhunan at pagtanggal sa mga probisyong nagpoprotekta sa lokal na industriya, agrikultura at sa mamamayan. Dagdag na papasanin na naman ito ng mga Juan at Juana bukod pa sa dati nang nariyan.
Nang isabatas ang Rice Tariffication Law o R.A. 11203, inilarga nito ang todo-todong importasyon ng bigas ng mga sindikato sa loob at labas ng gubyerno at lumumpo sa lokal na produksyon ng bigas. Nagdiwang ang malalaking korporasyon sa yutilidad sa pagsasabatas ng R.A. 9136 na mas kilala bilang Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA). Kanya-kanya ang kooperatiba sa kuryente sa pagtataas ng bayarin sa nakokonsumo ng publikong tagatangkilik. Tuliro ang sambayanang Pilipino nang isabatas ang Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act ng 1998 o R.A. 8479 dahil hindi na bumaba ang presyo ng mga produktong petrolyo sa nakaraang 25 taon taliwas sa propaganda ng gobyerno ng episyenteng regulasyon para mapababa ang presyo nito. Habang tila naman nanunuhol pa ang pamahalaan sa malalaking lokal at dayuhang negosyante noong panahon ng pandemya nang isabtabatas ang Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act o R.A. 11534 para diumano bigyan ng kaluwagan ang mga korporasyon sa mga bayaring buwis at makaakit pa ng pamumuhunan. Ang dating 30% buwis sa kita na ipinapataw sa mga korporasyon ay ibinababa sa 25% na lamang.
Sa ganitong tunguhin ng mga mga sinasabing batas para sa kaunlaran, hindi ito para sa mamamayan. Patuloy itong nilalabanan at hinahamon ng mga tunay na nagmamalasakit sa bansa. Ngayon, muling nahaharap ang bansa sa isang hamon ng katinuan kung talagang kailangang- kailangang baguhin ang konstitusyon.
Ang pagiging pursigido ng mga kongresista sa ilalim ni House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez at ng mga senador na isulong ang ChaCha, bagamat magkaiba ang nais na pamamaraan, ay udyok ng dayuhang kapangyarihan na pumaypay sa apoy na pansariling interes na makapanatili sa poder at para sa pagpapayaman. Kahit pabor lamang diumano si Presidente Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. sa mga pang-ekonomyang probisyon, hindi maipagkakaila ang ganap na basbas niya sa pagbago ng konstitusyon dahil nasa interes niya ang manatili sa poder para buhayin pa rin ang imahe ng pamilya nila na hindi niya kakayaning gawin sa saklaw ng kanyang kasalukuyang termino. Buhay pa rin sa diwa ng mamamayan ang popular na pag-aalsa sa EDSA na siyang pangunahing dahilan sa pagkakaroon ng konstitusyon ng 1987. Gayunpaman, hindi ito inisyatibang bunga ng malasakit ng rehimeng Marcos Jr. sa bansa kundi lantad na maniobra para sa sariling kapakanan at tagapagpaganap ng programa ng dayuhan sa mas malaking saklaw.
Ang agresibo at butangerong postura ng China sa West Philippines Sea (WPS) ay reaskyon nito sa ginagawang pang-uupat ng gera ng US sa pamnamagitan ng mga ehersisyong militar sa Pilipinas, pagtatayo ng mga basa militar at pagmobilisa sa iba pang bansa kontra China. Paghahanda ito ng US sakaling okupahin ng China ang Taiwan.
Mula sa dating limang base militar sa ilalim ng kasunduang Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) noong 2014, sa maagang bahagi ng panunungkulan ni Presidente Marcos Jr, noong Abril 2023, idinagdag ang apat pang lugar para sa pagtatayo ng mga base militar ng US sa bansa na nakapwesto sa mga estratehikong lugar na malapit sa Taiwan. At nakatanggap ang rehimeng Marcos Jr. nang $100 milyong “pabuya” mula sa US.
Kaya kapag tumindi ang alitan sa pagitan ng US at China kaugnay sa Taiwan na maaaring lumundo sa aktwal na gera, hindi na kailangang pumunta pa ang mga aircraft carrier at jet fighters ng USsa mga base militar nito sa Japan at Guam para sa refueling dahil seserbisyuhan na sila sa mga base militar na nasa Lallo at Sta. Ana sa Cagayan at Gamu, Isabela o ng dalawa pang base militar ng US sa Palawan na nakaharap sa China. Agresibo itong ginagawa ng US dahil nasa balangkas pa ito ng programang “Asia Pivot” ng dating rehimeng Barrack Obama. Kaya asahan nang iigting pa rin ang pagiging butangero at agresibo ng China sa WPS.
Samantala, kapag ibinukas ang syento porsyentong pag-aari ng lupa at negosyo ng dayuhan dito sa bansa sa pamamagitan ng pagbago sa konstitusyon, ang mga komunidad ng mga pambansang minorya at mga lupain ng mga magsasaka ay maaaring maging pag-aari ng mga dayuhan para maging instrumento sa gera bilang mga base militar o ng mga dayuhang negosyo para sa ibayong pagsasamantala.
Malinaw na ang rehimeng Marcos Jr. ay tuta ng US kontra kay Duterte na maka-China. Ang pagkatig ng dating Pangulong Duterte sa China at ang banta nitong ipawalambisa ang Visiting Forces Agreement sa pagitan ng US at Pilipinas ay larawan ng pulitika sa bansa na nakaangkla sa kumpas at basbas ng dayuhang kapangyarihan. Ang ganitong hanayan ng malalaking pulitiko ay magkakahugis nang lubos sa darating na eleksyon sa 2025 at 2028 at kung anong kahihinatnan ng impestigasyon ng International Criminal Court na tila nagiging armas ng rehimeng Marcos Jr kontra kay dating pangulong Rdorigo Duterte.
Ang isang anim na taong termino ng isang presidente sa pwesto na nakasaad sa saligang batas ay sapat na upang patunayan ang kanyang kakayanang pamunuan at paunlarin ang bansa. Dahil kung kung may ekstensyon, pag-upo pa lamang sa pwesto, ang magiging prayoridad ng nakaupong presidente ay pagplanuhan na kung paano muling mananalo sa susunod na eleksyon.
Ang isang anim na taong termino ng presidente ay mekanismo ng konstitusyon para hindi maabuso ang kapangyarihan para sa pansariling interes.
Sa manera ng kondukta ng ChaCha, katakut-takot na ang anomalya para ihirit ito sa pamamagitan ng People’s Initiative na isang paraan na nasa konstitusyon mismo para baguhin ito. Ginamit ang pondo ng bayan, nangako ng ayuda na inireklamo na ni Juan dela Cruz na matapos makapirma ay nananatiling pangako lamang. Nasa yugto ngayon ang mamamayang nalinlang ng pakanang ito na bawiin ang pirma nila para hindi sila maging bahagi ng 12% na kailangan sa buong bansa para baguhin ang konstitusyon. Huwad ito kung gayon!
Ang Konstitusyon ng 1987 ay bunga ng pakikibaka ng mamamayan na nagpabagsak sa diktadurang US-Marcos noong 1986. Ginulantang ng pakikibakang ito ang kalakhan ng daigdig. Ito ay turo ng kasaysayan at aral na marapat isapuso laban sa mga mapagsamantala at mapang-api at sa mga pagtatangkang lapastanganin ang mga karapatan ng taumbayan.
Batbat ng anomalya ang mga isinasalaksak na pamamaraan para baguhin ang konstitusyon na ibayong naglalantad rito kung para kanino ito. Kailangang tumindig at labanan ito ng mamamayan.
Mayaman ang karanasan ng sambayanang Pilipino sa pakikibaka at sa pagkakataong ito, kumakaway ang pangangailangang isalba ang bansa sa nakaambang banta ng ibayong pagpapalakas ng kontrol ng dayuhan sa bansa at pagsasamantala sa mamamayang Pilipino dahil sa pagbago ng konstitusyon. #
“The practice is not new. State forces have practiced it for decades and was intensified, online and offline, under the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, especially with the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). It has been reported by the National Human Rights Commission and by several reputable international organizations, including OHCHR in 2020 and 2022 and the ILO High Level Mission last year….While the practice was particularly rampant under the previous administration, it remains common also in this administration, though at a lower level.” —UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan (February 2, 2024)
[THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF NOTABLE STATEMENTS MADE BY UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND OPINION IRENE KHAN ON HER INVESTIGATION IN THE PHILIPPINES]
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is only amused at inconsistencies in pronouncements made by government officials about the strength of the New People’s Army (NPA), its chief information officer said.
In a statement Wednesday, CPP officer Marco Valbuena said it was quite amusing to observe how new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla contradicted her commander in chief President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a few days into her new job.
In repeating the annual AFP announcement it will eliminate the NPA by the end of the year, the new spokesperson “already sounded like a broken record,” Valbuena said.
In a press briefing last Monday, Padilla said the AFP vows to defeat the NPA by the end of 2024, a promise made anew in the military’s first command conference of the New Year.
“We were given specific deadlines to do such. So within a span of a year, we are looking at eliminating the threat of the internal insurgency situation,” Padilla said.
Valbuena however pointed out that Marcos himself declared only last January 13 that there are no more NPA fronts, which Brawner in turn rebuffed
“What was interesting, however, is the fact that she issued her statement just days after Marcos, their commander-in-chief, declared that ‘there are no more NPA fronts,’” Valbuena said.
AFP chief of staff Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner himself rebuffed Marcos two days later by saying the NPA has “eleven weakened fronts,” instead of zero.
“To say the least, these disconnected statements reveal inconsistencies in the Marcos government’s public assessment of the state of the revolutionary armed movement, arising from contradictions in its self-serving objectives,” Valbuena said.
Neither declaration of having strategically defeated the NPA after 55 years or eliminating it can cover up the AFP’s ongoing military offensives and large-scale military operations across the country, Valbuena said.
The CPP officer added that the AFP continues to squander hundreds of billions of public funds in a strategy bound to fail in ending the civil war, he added.
Valbuena explained that the AFP’s annual declaration of crushing the NPA always fails because its strategy results in worsening forms of human rights and international humanitarian law violations.
He added that civilians remain the main targets of AFP’s operation through brutal suppression extrajudicial killings, rounding up people and parading them as “surrenderees,” looting, encampment amid civilian communities, curfews and other arbitrary restrictions on people’s movements and economic activity, food blockades, checkpoints, aerial bombing, artillery shelling and other bloody and dirty tactics.
“The vain objective is to break the people’s spirit and make them cower to submission. The result is the opposite,” he said.
Valbuena cited the recent killings of peasant activists Boy Baloy and Ernesto Torres in Negros Occidental by the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army who claimed the victims were NPA fighters killed in an armed encounter.
Such crimes help make the NPA numbers grow amid the CPP’s new rectification campaign launched last December, Valbuena said.
“All in all, we anticipate steady growth during the rest of the year and succeeding period…the Filipino people have no other recourse but to intensify their revolutionary mass movement and armed resistance,” the CPP said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Survivors of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law dubbed as deceitful and misleading the advertisement alleging the 1987 Philippine Constitution is to blame for the country’s poverty and the government’s corruption.
The group Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) in a statement said the “EDSA-pwera” (left-out) campaign that seeks amendments to the Constitution said personalities behind it are also “grossly anti-people.”
“What they think of as witty wordplay is not only misleading but deceitful,” CARMMA in a statement said, adding that the ad also falsely claims that Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship was an era of economic prosperity in the Philippines.
Released as signature-buying sprees for a so-called people’s initiative for charter change have been reported, the ad said it is time to discuss amendments to the 1987 charter—also called the EDSA Constitution after the 1986 People Power uprising that ousted the Marcos Sr. dictatorship.
The ad, placed by the firm Gana Atienza Avizado Law, claims the Constitution encouraged neglect of social services, corruption and gross profiteering while prohibiting foreign ownership of lands and businesses, thus preventing economic progress.
But CARMMA said that while the 1987 Constitution does not fully represent the interest and demands of the people, the claims made in the video are a misrepresentation of the real problems of the people.
“In fact, this provision in the 1987 constitution was included to remedy the Marcos dictatorship’s unhampered exposure of the Philippine economy to foreign plunder, to the detriment of local production, especially manufacturing. This, coupled with the Marcos clique’s own rapacity, bled our country dry,” the group added.
Former Senate President Vicente Sotto III, a supporter of the People Power uprising, also called the video “untruthful and inaccurate,” adding the charter is not the problem but the people who implement it.
Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman, whose activist brother Atty. Harmon Lagman was disappeared under the Marcos dictatorship, also criticized the video, saying “”The ad is crudely crafted and there is nothing substantial conveyed in the message.”
“The ‘EDSA-pwera’ Charter Change ad campaign is part of the Marcos family’s continuing demonization of the EDSA People’s Power Revolution which ousted the Marcos dictatorship and helped install the ‘Cory Constitution’ or the present 1987 Philippine Constitution,” Lagman said.
Meanwhile, the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said they are considering asking Congress to conduct investigations if public funds have been used in the production and broadcast of the video and signature-buying activities in Albay and Sorsogon provinces.
Gana Atienza Avizado Law said the ad is a private initiative by their “small law firm,” assisted by an advertising agency.
Website abogado.com.ph said the law firm counts among its clients political big-wigs such as the Romualdezes who are cousins with president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)