STATEMENT The National Telecommunications Commission’s order to shutdown broadcast network ABS-CBN is unconstitutional and an assault to the people’s right to information. The order is contrary to the recommendation of Congress to issue a provisional license for the network, while the deliberation for its franchise renewal is suspended. In this time of grave pandemic —…
OVER THREE YEARS AGO, the nation has been promised: change is coming. And change did come, but things took a turn for the worse. As the nation marks President Rodrigo Duterte’s third year in power this June 30, we look back in sheer dismay over the unprecendented attacks perpetrated primarily by the state, with the…
Altermidya Network, the broad alliance of alternative media and community journalists groups in the Philippines, denounces the patently unreasonable manner in which the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Executive Committee (EC) ordered the suspension of the editorial board of the “Rebel Kule.” The EC on June 21 overturned the earlier decision of the UP Diliman…
When the sun rose on March 30, policemen who had barged into their house with high-powered firearms at the dead of night told Roy (not his real name) that his father was “okay” in the hospital. These policemen, who wore masks to hide their faces, had dragged him, his sister, and his mother to a…
The Filipino people just celebrated Independence Day, and one is reminded of the popular saying “The truth shall set us free!” These words are frequently uttered by oppressed peoples fighting for liberation; as well as by those whose freedom has been curtailed by acts of injustice or tyranny. They are usually meant not merely to…
We in the alternative media denounce the unlawful arrest of Margarita Valle, veteran Mindanao-based journalist and a columnist of Davao Today. Valle was arrested at the Laguindingan airport on June 9 by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) reportedly based on two arrest warrants dated 2006 and 2011. She was forced to come with…
Angeline dela Karsada was crafting a pouch out of abaca when we arrived exhausted at her hut. Apologizing for the disturbance, we asked if we could use her bench to eat our very late lunch. The light was already slant and golden. On the doorpost, a small, rather faded “Ayaw Namin sa Kaliwa Dam” (No…
Restless nights have plagued the Burol community in Kabayanan Village, San Juan City, fearing that someone might burn their homes to the ground—small shacks made of wood, tin sheets, and a little bit of low-quality concrete. “Hindi ako makatulog. Alam mo naman ‘yang mga ‘yan, sunog e. ‘Yun ang kinatatakutan ko. Lalo na ito, puro…