Last night, August 10, President Rodrigo Duterte’s public address to the Filipino people was aired. It was still a story of hoping for a vaccine as a solution to the mounting problems the government has brought on themselves. His story at this time is the “letter” he received from Russian President Vladimir Putin on Russia’s […]
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By: Gabriel Pabico Lalu – Reporter
INQUIRER.net , August 11, 2020
MANILA, Philippines — The police should hand the investigation of a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant’s slay to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), a group of local lawyers said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) said that the death of NDFP peace consultant and Anakpawis chair Randy Echanis and another person in Novaliches, Quezon City, can be characterized as an “extra-judicial killing” as they were not doing anything illegal that would necessitate the use of force.
Aside from that, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) decision to seize Echanis’ corpse from his wife even after she was positively identified the body was a “cruel, inhuman, and degrading” act on the part of the police — which FLAG says stresses the need for NBI to handle the probe.
“The role of the police is to enforce the law, not to break it. Their job is to investigate killings, not whitewash them. Mr. Echanis and Mr. Tagapia deserve justice,” FLAG national chairperson and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno said.
“The first step towards that is uncovering the truth. The brazen misconduct of the Quezon City Police obstructs that truth,” he added.
Diokno called on the Department of Justice to order NBI to investigate the deaths.
On Monday, after reports reached QCPD about the two dead bodies in an apartment in Novaliches, former Anakpawis rep Ariel Casilao said that it was Echanis who was killed during a raid.
However, confusion ensued when QCPD identified the bodies as a Manuel Santiago and a Louie Tagapia — basing on the identification cards bearing Echanis’ name and the name he used in transacting with the landlord.
QCPD also disputed notions that the killing was perpetrated by police officers, noting that cops were only dispatched to the scene after the apartment owner reported the incident.
But several groups like the Makabayan bloc of the House of Representatives and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) have insisted that the killing was state-sponsored, done under the administration’s anti-insurgency campaign.
Echanis’ wife also disputed QCPD’s speculation that the motive of the crime was robbery or personal grudge, as the cadaver supposedly bore torture marks.
FLAG also demanded that the police return Echanis’ body to his relatives, despite QCPD’s chief detective Maj. Elmer Monsalve saying earlier that the police officers took the cadaver because there was no permit to release it as of now.
According to Monsalve, Anakpawis obtained the body without notifying the QCPD Crime Investigation and Detection Unit, and despite the funeral parlor telling them that authorities must first be informed of any decision.
“FLAG calls on the Philippine National Police to immediately return the body of Mr. Echanis to the family, administratively discipline its members and officers responsible for the seizure, and release from custody the paralegal whom they arrested without a warrant when the PNP seized Mr. Echanis’ remains,” Diokno said.
“FLAG calls on the government authorities to allow an independent forensic pathologist chosen by the families of Mr. Echanis and Mr. Tagapia to immediately conduct autopsies of their remains,” he added.[ac]
Members of progressive organizations hold an indignation protest August 11 at the Commission on Human Rights following the killing of Randall Echanis, Anakpawis chairperson and consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
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“Workers’ groups and advocates have not been remiss in making concrete and constructive proposals to the government, but it has been deaf and blind to such proposals.”
By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
SANTA ROSA, Laguna – Despite Laguna’s position as a center of industrial activity in the country, risk of COVID-19 infection runs high in its economic zones, according to workplace safety NGO Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development (IOSHAD).
“Some companies in economic zones were forced to shut down because infection has spread among their workers,” the group added. Laguna is home to 21 economic zones, mostly concentrated in the cities of Santa Rosa, Biñan, and Calamba.
The Department of Health reports that as of August 10, there are 4,133 active cases in Laguna alone, accounting for 55 percent of all total cases. The Laguna Provincial Health Office, meanwhile, cites 2,057 active cases as of August 9, and 4,126 total cases.
Data from volunteer relief organization Serve the People Corps (STPC) Laguna also indicated that the cities of Santa Rosa, Calamba, and Biñan have the top three highest number of active cases in
the province.
Government’s ‘lax policies’ to blame
According to IOHSAD Executive Director Nadia de Leon, the government’s “lax policies on COVID-19 mass testing, prevention and control, made even worse by the suspension of labor inspections, were the perfect ingredients for a full-blown workplace health disaster.”
She added that three factors contributed to the spike in COVID-19 cases among workers: the small number of workers being tested daily, ineffective contact-tracing, and the practice of only testing symptomatic workers while ordering workers exposed to suspect cases to undergo home quarantine without rt-PCR (swab) testing.
On August 7, Laguna Governor Ramil Hernandez announced through Facebook some measures being done by the provincial government to “continue the fight against COVID-19,” such as ensuring the compliance of industrial companies and technoparks to health protocols, the creation of an isolation facility inside Laguna Technopark Association, Inc. (LTI) in Biñan/Santa Rosa, and closer coordination with industrial parks and areas under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
But IOHSAD call these measures “too little and too late,” pointing out that so far, the local government has only inspected 73 factories or three percent of the province’s 2,428.
Research and workers’ rights group Southern Tagalog Education for Workers’ Advocacy, Research, and Development’s (STEWARD) COVID-19 Labor Watch also noted that “workers are being forced to endure risks due to the lack of adequate government assistance to cater to their needs during the pandemic.”
Last July 30, they reported that 290 employees of Nidec Philippines tested positive in rt-PCR tests. They also noted that Nidec management had no plans for them apart from a 24-hour temporary shutdown to make way for a general disinfection.
STEWARD also noted that there were positive cases of COVID-19 in Gardenia Bakeries Philippines, Inc., F. Tech Philippines Manufacturing, Inc., Alaska Milk Corporation, Coca-Cola FEMSA Santa Rosa, Imasen Philippine Manufacturing Corporation, Technol Eight Philippines Corporation, Optodev Inc., Interphil Laboratories, Edward Keller Philippines, Toshiba Philippines, and Nexperia Philippines.
Concrete solutions for workers
IOHSAD reiterated their call for free mass testing, subsidies to “companies, especially small and medium enterprises,” to ensure health standards are met, immediate assessment of all workers to determine who should undergo rt-PCR testing, creation of isolation centers, resumption of workplace inspections from the Labor Department, putting medical professionals in charge of the COVID-19 response, and classifying COVID-19 as an occupational disease.
“We have been calling for these measures since May. Workers’ groups and advocates have not been remiss in making concrete and constructive proposals to the government, but it has been deaf and blind to such proposals,” said De Leon.
STEWARD also stressed the need for “regular disinfection in the workplace, health and safety needs for workers such as PPE and vitamins, sanitation booths at factory entrances and exits, and door-to-door transport service” to drastically reduce the risk of COVID-19.
The research firm also stressed the need for financial assistance from Department of Labor and Employment. Last August 3, the group, along with union leaders from the Southern Tagalog region, filed a petition with DOLE asking for a P 10,000 cash assistance for workers disenfranchised during the pandemic.
IOHSAD also noted that income subsidies “will drastically lessen workers’ burden and anxiety during these challenging times.”
“Many workers report to work and risk their health and safety, despite the high risk of getting infected and sick, because of the ‘no work, no pay’ schemes,” said De Leon.
STPC Laguna questioned the Duterte administration’s assertions that there “is no money.” “How can there be no money when the administration has borrowed over 2 trillion pesos over the past five months?” Jaspher Aquino, STPC Laguna spokesperson, asked.
“The P140 million allotted by the Bayanihan 2 [Bayanihan Recover as One] Law is scarcely enough for one province, let alone for an entire nation,” he added.
The volunteer organization stressed that “the first step in solving the crisis is placing competent leaders who will place the needs of the many above the needs of corporate business.” (Bulatlat.com)
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One of the petitioners to the Supreme Court to declare the Anti-Terrorism Act is a lumad leader in Bukidnon who is detained and facing trumped-up charges and was previously charged with committing “acts of terrorism” under the Human Security Act.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The legal counsel for the family of the slain peace consultant said the Philippine National Police has no power to seize the body of Randall Echanis.
Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of the Echanis family said “there is no law that gives the power to the police to seize the body of a deceased even assuming that that they will do it for purposes of criminal investigation.”
The La Loma Police forcibly took the remains of Echanis from his family last night. The police asserted that there is no order yet to release the body. They also want to conduct a DNA test to prove the identity of Echanis because the identification card allegedly found in the crime scene bears a different name.
Erlinda Lacaba-Echani demands the release of her husband’s remains as has positively identified her husband’s body yesterday morning.
According to Pahilga, under Article 306 of the Civil Code, “the duty and the right to make arrangements for the funeral of a relative shall be in accordance with the order established for support. Under the Family Code, the order shall first come from the spouse.”
He added that Article 309 also provides that “any person who shows disrespect to the dead, or wrongfully interferes with a funeral shall be liable to the family of the deceased for damages, material and moral.”
“This adds insult to our injury. It is both inhuman and unjust for the remains of my husband to be held under police custody and deprive us of having a proper and private mourning,” Erlinda said in a statement.
Pahilga said there is something sinister in the sudden “snatching” of Echanis’ remains from the family. He said an autopsy was supposed to be conducted as the family has already communicated with known forensic expert, Dr. Raquel Fortun.
“There is dubious legal basis for this absurd and outrageous move. It is inhuman and abhorrent to morals and our culture. It is getting curiouser and curiouser,” said Edre Olalia, National Democratic Front of the Philippines legal consultant and National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers president.
Based on initial reports, Echanis died from gunshot wounds and multiple stab wounds. His body also bore torture marks.
The Public Interest Law Center (PILC) also lambasted the police, saying that they should be putting their efforts in going after the perpetrators of the crime.
“The family of Randall are being subjected to ‘mental and emotional torture,” the group said in a statement.
The PILC also calls for an urgent, impartial, and independent investigation into the extra-judicial killings of Echanis and Louie Tagapia, the neighbor who was also found dead in the area of the incident.
“His murder yesterday, with suspicious badges of cover-up and impunity, cannot go by the way of Randy Malayao’s, a fellow peace consultant who was shot in the head while sleeping on a bus in 2019,” the group said.
Meanwhile, progressive groups are also calling for the release of Paolo Colabres, the paralegal who was arrested by the police last night as he persistently kept track of Echanis’s remains. (Bulatlat.com)
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First of a two-part series
Maybe all it takes for something to become government policy is to say it thrice? Like Build, Build, Build or Plant, Plant, Plant, just Go, Go, Go! The pandemic-driven crisis demands that the government spend, spend, spend – by IBON’s estimates at least Php1.6 trillion.
But unfortunately, no. When it comes to stimulus spending, the Duterte administration’s key words are “affordable,” fiscally responsible,” and “creditworthiness”.
Which means that the government won’t spend what it needs to, which causes more unnecessary suffering, and makes the health and economic problems tomorrow even bigger and more unmanageable.
Big problems
The stimulus needed has to be put into perspective. The country is in the middle of the worst economic crisis in its recorded statistical history. Not just since the 1980s – which is as far back as quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) data is available – but actually since right after the end of the Second World War. (See Chart 1)
The GDP growth of -16.5% in the second quarter in 2020 is the biggest economic contraction the country has ever seen. It is also the largest collapse in economic activity in over 70 years, with a 21.9 percentage drop from 5.4% growth in the same period last year.
Combined with the -0.7% contraction in the first quarter, the economy shrunk 9% in the first semester and is almost back to its level in 2017. GDP fell to Php8.6 trillion in the first semester of 2020 which is only a little higher than the Php8.4 trillion in the same period in 2017, measured in constant prices.
The jobs crisis is even worse than reported. The latest official estimates of 7.3 million unemployed and 17.7% unemployment in April 2020 are the worst on record – but still not the complete picture. Adding discouraged jobless workers that official estimates drop from the official figure, the real number of employed rises to 14 million with 29% unemployment. (See Table 1) Job losses are unprecedented.
Which still isn’t the complete picture. We also have to count those considered employed but with low or disrupted incomes especially upon the lockdown. This is at least an additional 6.4 million (i.e. the underemployed) to as much as 13 million (i.e. those classified as with job but not at work). The lockdown-induced recession then displaced anywhere from 43% (20.4 million) to as much as 57% (27 million) of the labor force, according to IBON’s estimates.
Barring any more disruptive lockdowns, some kind of rebound may start to happen in the last half of the year. This will only be in the narrow sense that GDP contractions will be smaller than in the second quarter which isn’t really a recovery though. Even by the limited metric of GDP per capita, with current population projections it’s likely that the economy won’t be back to pre-COVID levels until at least 2022.
The employment situation may take even longer to recover. Deep structural problems in the economy have meant increasingly jobless growth – GDP growth has been clocking its fastest annual average in decades, yet employment growth has fallen to its slowest over that same period. (See Table 2)
So it’s frightening to see how much worse job-generation will get with the pandemic-driven slowdown and especially with continued official inattention to real agricultural and industrial development.
As it is, the unprecedented jobs crisis is reversing hyped gains in poverty reduction. IBON estimates around 2.5-3 million families hovering just above the official poverty line. A 10-20% reduction in income from the recession would be enough to push many of them below the official poverty threshold. This could increase the number of poor Filipinos by anywhere from 5-10 million to reach 23-28 million this year – and that’s only according to a ridiculously low official poverty threshold of Php71 per person per day.
Little solutions
The extraordinary health, human and economic crisis demands an extraordinary response. We can only speculate why the Duterte administration and its economic managers don’t seem to appreciate the gravity of the situation and are proposing such trivial solutions.
It could be blindness from neoliberal dogma, a sincere delusion that the Chinese or Russian vaccine just around the corner will fix everything, a malicious craving for crises to justify authoritarianism, or maybe even just sheer indifference. But who’s to say?
What’s clear though is how small their proposals are for the magnitude of the crisis at hand. The Bayanihan 2 bills proposed in the Senate and House of Representatives (HOR) were both drawn up under the watchful eye of the powerful finance department and consequently stingy at Php140 billion and Php162 billion, respectively. (See Table 3)
The logic of a stimulus package is to provide an adrenaline boost to a faltering economy. And the economy is certainly faltering – measured at current prices, the economy lost Php680 billion in the first semester and stands to lose about Php 1.1 trillion for the whole of 2020 compared to last year.
The pandemic-driven loss is even bigger if we compare with last year not just the likely GDP in 2020 but the originally optimistically projected GDP in 2020 – Php1.9 trillion.
Measured against these, the two ‘stimulus’ packages proposed by the economic managers will tickle the economy, at best, and certainly won’t be enough to bring about any meaningful recovery. They are just 0.7% and 0.8% of 2019 GDP. They are also just a fraction of the Php1.1-1.9 trillion in economic output lost from lockdowns and the pandemic in 2020.
The Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE) originally proposed by economists in the HOR is much closer to the magnitude needed to compensate for the drastic fall in economic activity. ARISE is worth Php1.3 trillion or 6.8% of 2019 GDP. It also proposes larger health interventions as well as more cash support and wage subsidies than the Bayanihan 2 bills.
The last part of this series discusses the proposed response to the COVID-19 health, human and economic crises, and funding sources for this.
Hindi isinasawalang-bahala ang karapatang pantao kapalit ng pagpuksa ng sakit at paglaban sa pandemya. Ito ang kabuuang mensahe sa libu-libong protestang nailunsad sa buong mundo sa kabila ng banta ng coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Hunyo 4 nagtipon ang daan-daang Taiwanese para alalahanin ang masaker sa Tiananmen Square, 31 taon na ang nakalipas. Ang kaiba ng taong ito sa mga nakaraang taon, nakasuot ng face mask ang mga nakilahok. Isa ang Taiwan sa kinikilala ng buong mundo bilang bansang matagumpay sa tugon kontra-pandemya.
Sa kabilang panig naman ng mundo, sa Estados Unidos, Mayo 26 nang magsimula ang malawakang panawagan para mabigyang hustisya si George Floyd, biktima ng brutal na pamamalakad ng pulisya. Tinatayang nasa higit 4,000 ang nagrali para sa #BlackLivesMatter simula noon hanggang ngayon.
“Ang paalala lagi ay ‘manatil sa bahay hangga’t maaari, pwera na lang kung lubhang kailangan ang gawain (essential activity),” giit ni Eleanor Murray, Boston University epidemiologist sa kanyang panayam sa Vox ukol sa mga protesta sa US. Ang epidemiology ay sangay ng pag-aaral na nakatutok sa pagkalat ng sakit at pagkontrol nito.
“Pero ang konsepto ng essential activity ay hindi siyentipiko, ito ay karunungang panlipunan,” paliwanag niya, “At para sa marami, lubhang kinakailangan ang pagprotesta laban sa karahasan ng pulisya.”
Ganito rin ang eksena sa Pilipinas. Nariyan ang protesta para sa Pride March, laban sa pinasang Anti-Terrorism Act, para sa kalayaan sa pamamahayag, para sa suporta sa mga healthcare worker, at pangkalahatang panawagan para kilalanin ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan, hindi “sa kabila ng pandemya” pero “higit lalo ngayong may pandemya”.
#SONAgkaisa protesta sa UP Diliman noong Hulyo 27. Kodao Productions
Sabi ni Pangulong Duterte sa kanyang ikalimang State of the Nation Address (SONA), “buhay muna bago lahat.”
Kasama kaya rito ang buhay ng mga residente ng Sitio San Roque, na noong Abril ay nagprotesta para makatanggap ng ayuda? Dahil sa naging lockdown at pagkawala ng trabaho, kinailangan ng suporta ng maraming komunidad. Daan-daang litrato ng mga Pilipinong namamalimos ang naglipana sa social media.
Ang nakuhang agarang tugon ng mga residente ay pagkakakulong ng 21 sa kanila. Noong Hunyo naman, nagprotesta ang anim na tsuper sa Caloocan City. Idiniretso sila ng pulisya sa presinto. Matapos ang naging pag-aresto sa binansagang Piston 6, nagpositibo sa Covid-19 ang dalawa sa kanila.
Sa hearing sa Kamara upang pag-usapan ang mga Pilipinong istranded at hindi pa makabalik sa probinsiya, sinabi ni National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Major Gen. Debold Sinas na “kung puwede ’wag na talaga sanang magrali. Kasi ’pag nagrarali sa kalsada, mahaharangan ’yung naglalakad at tsaka dagdag trabaho.”
Ang mga nagdaang protesta sa Metro Manila at pati na rin sa ibang bahagi ng Pilipinas, kadalasa’y inilunsad sa mga freedom park tulad ng Commission on Human Rights, mga unibersidad, at tarangkahan ng mahahalagang opisina.
Ganumpaman, may ilang protesta pa rin ang hinadlangan ng pulisya, o di kaya’y inuwi sa pagkakulong, tulad ng lang ng nangyari sa University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu.
Isa sa mga batas na ginagamit laban sa mga nagprotesta ang Batas Pambansa (BP) 880. Kung titignan ang deklarasyon ng polisiya nito, nakalagay dito na mahalaga para sa ikatitibay ng Estado ang konstitusyonal na karapatan ng mga tao na mapayapang magtipon at humingi sa gobyerno ng tugon sa mga isyu at problema.
Ayon sa National Union of People’s Lawyers, walang batas ang nagbabawal ng protesta sa panahon ng pandemya. “Walang probisyon na nagsasabing pwede mang-aresto sa simpleng pagparatang na may nilabag na ‘mass gathering o quarantine rules’,” anila.
Kasama sa mga naglunsad ng protesta sa bansa ang mismong healthcare frontliners, sila na inaasahang manguna sa pagtugon sa pandemya.
Halimbawa na nito ang naging protesta ng National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) Employees Association na kabilang sa Alliance of Health Workers (AHW).
Protesta ang isa sa mga paraan para maipaabot ng healthcare workers na dumarami na ang nagpopositibong frontliner at marami pang iba ang sumusuko ang katawan dahil sa hindi makataong oras ng pagtatrabaho para matugunan ang kakulangan sa tao.
Protestang Black Lives Matter sa Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Jake Vanaman/Wikimedia Commons
Itong pagprotesta, na tinitignan ng pulisya bilang dagdag-trabaho sa kanila, o kaya’y bahagi raw ng problema, ay isa sa mga mahalaga at libreng daluyan ng daing ng publiko. Maging ang World Health Organization ay kinikilala ito.
Ayon sa kanila at sa ibang eksperto, dahil “open-air” ang protesta, mas mababa ang tiyansa malanghap ang hindi madaling makitang mga patak na naglalaman ng virus. Nakatutulong raw ang sariwang hangin at sikat ng araw kung sasabayan rin ng pagdistanya at pagsuot ng mask.
Sa pagtatasa ni Dr. Monique Tello ng Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School, mababa ang infection rate sa mga protesta doon. Aniya, ito’y dahil sa labas ginanap ang mga protesta at kadalasan naman, sumusunod sa physical distancing at pagsuot ng mask ang mga nakikilahok.
May ilang pag-aaral rin siyang nabanggit, tulad ng contact-tracing assessment sa Taiwan noong Mayo 1. Sa pananaliksik na ito, lumabas na karaniwang nangyayari ang hawaan sa mga taong nagkakaroon ng ugyanan ng higit 15 minuto sa loob ng mga gusali.
Wala pang nailalabas na ganitong contact tracing assessment ang DOH para sa Pilipinas para suportahan ang kuro-kuro ng ilang opisyal na protesta ang nagpaparami ng kaso ng Covid-19 sa bansa.
Pero paalala ni Dr. Tello, pati na rin ng iba pang eksperto, mababa man ang tyansa sa panghahawa, kinakailangan pa rin mag-ingat ng mga lalahok sa protesta. Ilan sa mga nilista niyang paraan ay ang pananatili ng distansya sa isa’t isa, paggamit ng alcohol-based sanitizer habang nasa labas, at agarang paghugas ng kamay gamit sabon at tubig pagkauwi.
“Panatilihin ang distansya mga kasama!” ay pangkaraniwang linya na nitong mga nakaraang buwan.
Tuwing maglulunsad ng malawakang protesta ang mga progresibong grupo, bahagi na ng anunsyo ang mga paalala para manatiling ligtas sa protesta. Inaagahan rin ng mga organisador sa lokasyon para makapaglagay ng mga marka sa sahig o kaya naman ay mga tali bilang gabay.
“Kailangan nating tutulan ang taliwas na mga ‘community quarantine’ na hindi nakaangkla sa siyensiya at ginagamit lang para patahimikin ang mga tao,” sama-samang panawagan ni Dr. Gene Nispersos, Dr. Geneve Rivera-Reyes, at iba pang healthcare worker.