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Fr. Joe Dizon, ‘chaplain of rallies’, remembered on 10th death anniv

By Nuel M. Bacarra

Progressive groups, church and lay people remembered Fr. Jose Pacturayan Dizon, known to his comrade and friends as Fr. Joe D, on his 10th death anniversary last Saturday, November 4. A Mass was offered, officiated by Msgr. Manuel Gabriel, followed by tributes at the Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City.

Speakers from different churches and leaders of organizations shared anecdotes about the late Roman Catholic priest, known in his lifetime as the “Chaplain of the Parliament of the Streets.” They said they remember Fr. JoeD for his cheerfulness.

Fr. Joe Dizon in an anti-pork barrel rally he organized. (Photo by Pher Passion/Pinoy Weekly)

They called him a priest with deep passion for justice and love for the poor, especially the workers. Dizon founded a mission for workers at the Cavite Export Processing Zone where he focused his ministry until his last breath. Dizon died at the age of 65 on November 4, 2013 due to illness.

He was also one of the staunchest critics of government corruption, leading such campaigns as the Abolish Pork Movement and Kontra Daya, among many others.

National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) acting general secretary Minnie Anne Calub said: “Hindi ko malilimutan ang pagse-setup ng unang Kontra Daya Monitoring Center sa NCCP Ecumenical Center. Bagama’t nakakapagod ang ilang araw na pagbabantay, pero dahil sa kanyang sigasig, sa kanyang paninindigan sa adhikain ng Kontra Daya, mahihiya kang magpahinga. (What I cannot forget was the setting up of the first Kontra Daya Monitoring Center at the NCCP Ecumenical Center…While days of monitoring were exhausting, because of his passion, in his stand to the cause of Kontra Daya, one would be ashamed to take a rest.)

“There are many stories I can share about NCCP’s works with Fr. Joe. Suffice it to say that the best way to honor Fr. Foe is to continue his legacy, to continue his work and ministry for social justice. Pagpupugay! (salute) to Fr. Joe!” Calub added.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) chairperson emerita Dr. Carol P. Araullo, read the tribute of the late Prof. Jose Ma. Sison written a day after Dizon’s death, a portion of which reads: “He was a consistent critic of the anti-people, anti-national and anti-democratic character of the semicolonial and semifeudal ruling system and the chain of corrupt and brutal regimes. In every way possible, he fought for the people’s rights and interests. He was active in the poll watchdog Kontra Daya and opposed the automated programmed cheating in the elections of 2010 and 2013.”

Professor Sison said that Fr. Joe D was a purveyor of advancing the social justice agenda of the Catholic Church and stood for the preferential option of the church for the poor. He was also a prime mover in the people’s campaign against the continuing corruption and repression under the Aquino regime.

Professor Sison added: “Fr. Jose P. Dizon served the people without any reservation and to his last breath. He sought to align the Church with the demands of the Filipino people for national and social liberation. He shall always be remembered as a patriot and revolutionary. And the people shall always honor him.”

Church-based cultural group Haranang Bayan offered songs for the late priest.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairman Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos paid tribute by reciting his poem “Dakilang Lingkod Bayan” for Dizon that he wrote on the spot. Ramos’ poem in part reads:

“Kilos protesta sa lansangan upang madinig ating karapatan/Lupa… Sahod…Trabaho… Karapatan

at Kalayaan ng Inang Bayan./Di mo alintana ang hirap at sakripisyo/Ginugol ang talino, kakayahan at buong buhay/Para sa masang inaapi at pinagsasamantalahan,/Para sa amin… Martir ka ngmagbubukid

At bayani ng sambayanan!”

(Street protests to echo our rights/Land…wage…jobs… rights/and Freedom to the Motherland./You never thought of hardships and sacrifices/You dedicated your wisdom, strength and your whole life/For the oppressed and exploited,/For us peasants… You’re a martyr/And hero of the people! #

Terminally ill political detainee dies waiting for ‘compassionate release’

Antonio Molina, the terminally ill political prisoner who asked for “compassionate release” from a local court,  has died Thursday night, November 18 in a Puerto Princesa City hospital. He was 67.

Political prisoners support group Kapatid announced Molina was brought to the Ospital ng Palawan yesterday after suffering from cardiac arrest.  He died a few minutes after 10 pm, the group said.

Kapatid added Molina was the sixth political prisoner to die during the pandemic. There is no report if he was tested for COVID-19 despite the extreme congestion of the city jail, it said.

Human rights group Karapatan said Molina is the 11th political detainee to die under the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

Faith-based group Promotion of Church Peoples’ Response (PCPR) also announced Molina’s death in a separate statement.

“With deep sadness, we bid farewell to Antonio Molina who died this evening November 18, 2021 after suffering months of excruciating pain from terminal cancer while in prison,” the PCPR said.

Molina was arrested on Oct. 4, 2019 in Palawan together with six staffers of the human rights group Karapatan. They were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives the Philippine National Police usually files against activists and alleged communists.

Molina was diagnosed with malignant stomach cancer (abdominal sarcoma) last March 24.

This led his family, lawyers and human rights groups to petition the government to grant him a “compassionate release” to allow him continued hospitalization and medical care.

But the motions filed by human rights lawyers were first denied by the Regional Trial Court Branch 51 of Puerto Princesa in Palawan last October 15.

READ: Rights group raps court refusal to release terminally ill political prisoner

“We had been asking the government for his compassionate release since the day that doctors gave him six months to live because of poor prognosis due to extreme disease,” Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said.

“We also appealed to the court and prison officials to transfer Molina to a hospital where he could receive intensive care. This was blocked by the prison warden who even denied that he was bedridden. It was too late when the Jail Inspector reversed their position on November 15 and asked the court to act on Molina’s motion for release on recognizance on humanitarian grounds,” Lim added.

Atty Ma. Sol Taule, one of Molina’s lawyers said she received a call Thursday night from his doctors asking permission to intubate the political detainee.

“I informed them of his family’s wish for his life to be extended to allow them to travel to Puerto Princesa to say their final goodbyes,” the lawyer said in Filipino.

“Our sadness and regret are profound for the delayed Release on Recognizance motion we filed before the court that would have allowed his family to take care of him in his final days,” Taule said, adding Molina was yet another victim of the government’s trumped up charges against activists.

Kapatid for its part asked the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an independent investigation into the responsibility and liability of prison officials as well as the accountability of a “callous” court in Molina’s death.

“[W]e ask the (CHR) to lead an independent investigation into his death, particularly the negligence of prison officials, even as we ask the court to reexamine itself and be held accountable for its callous decision-making that effectively served as his death warrant,” Lim said.

Last October, Kapatid asked why “a bedridden old man, completely disabled and incapable of any self-care, cannot benefit from the equity of the law that was used in principle to grant bail for jailed and convicted politicians accused of nonbailable high crimes.”

“The justice system failed Antonio Molina because of double standard and selective application. The penal system further punished him without mercy, deaf to his cries for help. We express our sincerest condolences to his bereaved family,” Lim said.

Taule said Molina was a gentle elderly person who always smiled and looked after his fellow prisoners even as he suffered excruciating pain because of illness.  

“His indigenous people colleagues and fellow political detainees Awing and Bener were proud that they learned to read and write because of Molina’s tutelage.

The PCPR also said Molina endured great injustice at the hands of his accusers.

“[B]ut he is victorious. He has finished the race. He has fought the good fight,” the group said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

River of Tears and Rage Documentary Film

Alternative media outfit Kodao Productions has extensively reported on many cases of activists arrested on trumped up charges of possessing illegal guns and explosives. Reina Mae Nasino was one such case. She was pregnant when arrested and was forced to continue her pregnancy inside the country’s notoriously overcrowded prisons. She gave birth while in detention and was forcibly separated from her infant child very early. Due to lack of maternal care, the baby got sick and died at only three months old.

Kodao produced the most comprehensive multi-media reports on the drama that transpired during the baby’s wake and chaotic burial. Its live report generated the most number of views and reactions from a shocked nation as fully-armed police and jail guards went against deeply-held Filipino values of respect for the dead and burial traditions.

This film puts together the most dramatic events during a three-month old baby’s wake and burial, using smart phones, consumer cameras and Facebook Live footages. It also includes real time comments from viewers, a great majority of whom expressed outrage at the government’s merciless show of might against its people. This film also aims to showcase how social media continue to redefine as content-sharing platforms but as generator of many things besides and beyond, including cinema and justice.

View production notes at bit.ly/KodaoRiverProductionNotes.

PNP’s Oplan Sauron and SEMPO killed the Tumandok 9—Bishop

A Roman Catholic Bishop said the massacre of nine Tumandok tribesfolk in Panay Island is a continuation of the mass killings and arrests in Negros Island since 2018 under operations devised by now Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Debold Sinas and one of his predecessors  and now Senator Rogelio “Bato” Dela Rosa.

San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said that the Rizal Day massacre of the Tumandok is similar to the massacre of six and the mass arrest of 26 in the towns Guihulngan, Mabinay, and Sta. Catalina in Negros Oriental in December 2018 as well as the killing of 14 farmers in the island in March 2019.

“We recall with sadness that the ‘one-time, big-time’ SEMPO (Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operations) under Oplan Sauron by then-PNP Provincial Regional Office-7 Director Debold Sinas and PNP Chief Rogelio ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa led to violent killings and arrests,” Alminaza said in a statement.

“These operations were carried out mostly during wee hours, and the farmers were shot under unproven claims that they fought it out,” he added.

The Prelate also noted that the killings were part of the police’s service of search and arrest warrants while those arrested were later charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Police and military operatives raided Tumandok tribal communities in Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog in Iloilo last December 30 that resulted in the death of nine who have been previously accused by government agents as New People’s Army members.

Killed were Eliseo Gayas, Jr., Mauro Diaz, Arcelito Katipunan, Mario Aguirre, Roy Giganto, Jomer Vidal, Dalson Catamin, Reynaldo Katipunan and Rolando Diaz, Sr. who campaigned for the return of their ancestral land by the military and opposed the construction of the Jalaur Mega-Dam project.

Some of the victims were elderly while four of them were elected local government officials.

Sixteen were also arrested, including minors.

However, both Oplan Sauron and SEMPO “failed to bring lasting peace and instead bred a culture of even more violence and disrespect for our people,” Alminaza said.

“Under the (Rodrigo) Duterte administration and Oplan Sauron alone, there are now over 106 cases of unsolved extrajudicial killings recorded in Negros island,” he added.

Alminaza said he is alarmed the killings in Capiz demonstrate how Oplan Sauron and SEMPO will be implemented throughout the country.

“To President Duterte and PNP Chief Sinas: Serve the God of Peace; Stop Sauron, the Lord of Evil!” the Bishop said.

Earlier, the Capiz Archdiocese Social Action Center (CASAC) expressed sadness that some of the victims were farmers and members of the indigenous people’s tribe while some are still missing and their families grieving.

“[T]his incident raises our concern and thus, vehemently condemn this act of violence. In this time of calmness, there should be no room for the cultivation of fear and impunity,” CASAC said.

The Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) in Panay and Guimaras islands likewise condemned the Capiz massacre and blamed Sinas and President Duterte for the carnage.

“The brazen extra-judicial killings and illegal arrests of leaders of the Tumandok…is part of the nationwide implementation of PNP Chief Sinas’ version of ‘political tokhang,’ his brainchild SEMPO,” PCPR said.

The faith-based group also blamed the SEMPO for the assassinations of Bayan Muna Iloilo City Coordinator Jose Reynaldo “Jory” Porquia and Federation of Ilonggo Farmers leader John Farochilin in April 2020. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Another farmer killed in Bohol as 9 Tumandok are massacred in Panay

Another peasant activist in Bohol Province was killed just as nine Tumandok  civilians in Panay Island were being massacred last Wednesday in one of the bloodiest day for farmers under the four-year old Rodrigo Duterte government.

Lorenzo “Dodoy” Paña of Barangay Bantolinao, Antequera town was gunned down by unidentified motorcycle riding men around 9:00 AM last December 30 at Barangay Dorol, Balilihan town in Bohol, peasant organization Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (HUMABOL-KMP) said.

Paña was on his way to bring lunch for his son working at a nearby construction site when fired upon by unidentified perpetrators.

Paña was a former officer of Hugpong sa Mag-uuma Dapit sa Kasadpan (HUMANDA KA), a formation of Humabol chapters in the first district of Bohol.

In 2018, the victim, along with his wife and children, worked as volunteers for the construction of a coconut processing plant managed by farmers organizations in Barangay Tinibgan, Maribojoc which now produces virgin coconut oil.

In June 26, 2018, the victim’s house was subjected to a warrantless search by around 30 members of SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the said province.

His family complained of maltreatment during the said incident, HUMABOL-KMP said.

In previous years, the Paña family also reported of being harassed by state forces.

Paña’s killing happened while the 12th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (12IBPA) troopers and the PNP in Western Visayas killed nine Tumandok indigenous peoples in Capiz and Iloilo provinces, also in the Visayas.

Bohol peasant activist Lorenzo “Dodoy” Paña, killed in Balilihan, Bohol last December 30. (Humabol-KMP photo)

Immediate condemnation of the Tumandok massacre

The massacre in Panay Island earned swift condemnation from church leaders and organizations.

San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, whose Diocese suffered similar police and military Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operations (SEMPO) that also resulted in massacres, cried out, “Do we have to kill our perceived ‘enemies’ – especially if they are unarmed?”

“Is this the way we celebrate Christmas as a Christian country about to welcome the New Year and 500 Years of Christianity [in the Philippines?” the prelate asked.

“How long will this spiral of violence continue? Have we run out of peaceful means? Are we that desperate? Do we really, seriously believe this is the effective and lasting way to solve our social ills? I RAISE MY VOICE TO CRY OUT: “NO MORE KILLING!” We want PEACE – JUST and LASTING PEACE!” he added.

The Promotion of Church People’s Response (PNP) in Panay and Guimaras islands directly blamed PNP chief Debold Sinas for the death of nine Tumandok leaders and activists yesterday.

“The brazen extra-judicial killings and illegal arrests of leaders of the Tumandok, an indigenous people of Panay, on the early hours of yesterday in the mountainous villages of Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog, Iloilo is part of the nationwide implementation of PNP Chief Sinas’ version of ‘political tokhang’, his brainchild SEMPO,” PCPR’s Fr. Marco Sulayao said in a statement.

The faith-based group also blamed National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) agent Jeffrey Celis it said petitioned for the search warrants in Metro Manila Regional Trial Courts used for the operations.

“Blood is on the hands of NTF-ELCAC red-taggers, especially Jeffrey Celis, who according to [a] reliable source, petitioned for the said warrants,” PCPR said.

National labor federation Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) included President Rodrigo Duterte in the blame for the massacre.

“The blood of the Tumandok is in the hands of Duterte, Sinas, PNP and NTF-ELCAC. They wantonly kill the indigenous peoples to give way to projects of big capitalists,” KMU said in a statement.

“We condemn this heinous killing perpetrated by the mercenary AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) -PNP. It is most likely that the police and military will present the killed and arrested Tumandok as members of the New People’s Army when in fact, they are just farmers and indigenous people defending their ancestral land and farms against land grabbing,” KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said. 

Indigenous people’s group Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) also denounced “the government’s wanton disregard for human rights and laments the death of our people’s heroes.”

“Our fight against the construction of Jalaur and Pan-ay Dams have not ended yet so we remain resolute in defending what’s left of our rivers and forests. Despite violence and threats, we will relentlessly and fiercely stand against corporate plunder and the destruction of the environment,” Katribu said in a statement.

“The indigenous peoples have nowhere to run to anymore. We will certainly hold the line,” it added.

An IP rights advocate calls for the dissolution of the government agency they blame for red-tagging the victims that led to their massacre. (Katribu photo)

Red-tagged victims

Killed in the synchronized and simultaneous operations in the neighboring towns were former Barangay Captain and  current Tumandok nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sa Duta kag Kabuhi (TUMANDUK) chairperson Roy Giganto, his Barangay Lahug co-councilors Reynaldo Katipunan, and Mario Aguirre; Eliseo Gayas Jr. of Barangay Aglinab, Tapaz; Mario Diaz of Barangay Tacayan, Tapaz; Artilito Katipunan of Barangay Acuna, Tapaz; and Barangay Nawayan chairperson Dalson Catamen of Tapaz.

Former TUMANDUK chairperson and Tapaz local government employee Marevic Aquirre is missing, believed to have been abducted by the police.

Two youth residents of Barangay Aglinab, Tapaz town are also reported missing.

The PNP reported it arrested 17 other Tumandok from its SEMPO.

“These Tumandok leaders were very active in reclaiming their ancestral land now occupied by the 3rd Infantry Division, Philippine Army military reservation. They were also active in resisting the construction of the Jalaur mega-dam,” PCPR said.

The community of Lahug also resisted the coercion of military troopers to sign a resolution declaring the CPP/NPA as “persona non grata” in their barangay, the group added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups, churches laud success of Oslo talks

CHURCHES, peace and human rights groups lauded the resumption of formal peace talks between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the incoming Duterte administration of the Government of the Philippines (GPH) in July.

Hundreds gathered at the Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral in Quezon City yesterday for a series of activities that also celebrated the release of two political detainees last Wednesday. Read more

Groups hold protest at Chinese consulate in Manila

more news at www.bayan.ph

Chinese Embassy, Makati City
June 4, 2015

BAYAN: Paano uunawain si Pnoy kung ayaw magsabi ng katotohanan

Panayam ng Kodao Productions kay Renato Reyes, Jr., Pangkalahatang Kalihim ng Bagong Alyansang Makabayan kaugnay sa talumpati ni Pangulong Noynoy Aquino (hinggil sa insidente sa Mamasapano) sa pagtatapos ng mga kadete ng Philippine National Police Academy sa Silang, Cavite noong Marso 26, 2015.

Aquino Resign: Establish the People’s Council for National Unity, Reform and Peace

Illustrated manifesto of the Noynoy Out Now (NOW) Movement, which was launched March 5, 2015 at the Quezon City Sport Club, laying down the context, basis, and goals of the people’s ultimate drive for the ouster of President Noynoy Aquino.