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Scrapping VAT on basic goods

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Scrapping VAT on basic goods

Philippine Daily Inquirer /October 24, 2022

Lawmakers need to take a closer look at the bill filed in the House of Representatives two weeks ago seeking to exempt basic commodities from the 12-percent value-added tax (VAT). Sponsored by the progressive Makabayan bloc of party list lawmakers Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Women’s Party, Rep. Raoul Manuel of Kabataan, and Rep. France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, the measure notes that removing the VAT on these products will greatly help consumers, especially during this time of rising inflation.

Inflation heated up to a four-year high of 6.9 percent in September, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, and this was driven mainly by high prices of food items. This is the same level last seen in October 2018. The sad news is that inflation is not easing anytime soon. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Felipe Medalla says that inflation is expected to peak this month or in November as it is likely to be exacerbated by a renewed weakening of the peso against the dollar, which contributes to the further erosion of Filipino consumers’ buying power. The greenback is trading near P60 to $1. Private economists are less optimistic, predicting inflation to remain elevated through the first quarter of 2023.

The House bill wants to exempt the following essential items from VAT: bread; sugar; cooking oil; canned pork, beef, fish, and other marine products; instant noodles; biscuit; laundry soap; detergents; firewood; charcoal; candles, and drugs classified as essential by the Department of Health. “Removing the 12-percent VAT on basic goods consumed by poor families on a regular basis will dramatically ease their economic suffering amid skyrocketing prices, massive joblessness, and depressed wages,” according to Brosas. The VAT was first imposed under Executive Order No. 273 in July 1987, which was issued by then President Corazon Aquino.

The country’s biggest business group is backing the proposed legislation, noting that it will help not only consumers, but the private sector as well. George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), tells the Inquirer that lifting the 12-percent VAT on essential goods will help ease Filipinos’ suffering from the unabated increase in the prices of basic commodities. The lifting of the VAT, Barcelon adds, will also help local businesses sell more of their products, as high prices make most people spend less, hence pulling down their revenues.

The PCCI official predicts that local businesses will be able to lower their prices with the tax removal since the VAT is factored into the final price of a product and passed on to the consumer. Sugar, for example, sells now for P100 a kilo, and removing the VAT will lower this by P12. Aside from consumers, Barcelon says small and medium food-related businesses, in particular, will benefit from such a move.

One potential beneficiary is the bakery sector. Last week, local bakers pressed the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to heed their request for a P4 increase in the price of bread due to the rising cost of raw materials. Philippine Baking Industry Group president Jerry Lao says that due to rising production costs, there is no more incentive for them to keep on making the two bread products commonly bought by consumers—Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal. “From P650 per bag of flour, [the price has] increased to P1,050 per bag, [or an additional] P400. When we apply our formula, [the price of] Pinoy Tasty should [go up by] P10 per loaf,” he says. Pinoy Tasty and Pinoy Pandesal are brands manufactured through a joint initiative between the DTI and a bakers group to produce affordable bread for the public. Lucito Chavez, president of the Association of Filipino Bakers also tells the Inquirer that small, community bakeries are suffering due to the high prices of raw materials used in making bread. “The community bakery industry is nearly dying [due to] the high cost of sugar and other raw materials, and the low sales,” Chavez notes. Based on his estimates, there are about 50,000 small community bakeries nationwide.

With wages hardly catching up with the rate of increase in consumer prices, the proposed House measure exempting essential items will be a big help especially to the lower income classes. However, the government must ensure that big companies will pass on the savings to be generated from the tax exemption to consumers via a lowering of their prices. Otherwise, the poor will remain burdened by high prices. As Brosas also points out, “instead of asking consumers to control their purchases, it is the government’s responsibility to provide concrete solutions to address high prices. This should be the priority instead of pushing proposals that have nothing to do with the hunger pangs of the poor.” And timing is of the essence. Consumers have been suffering from high prices for too long. Lawmakers need to act on the proposed bill with dispatch. It will be a fitting Christmas gift, especially to those who badly need a respite from surging consumer prices.

A new law now requires SIM card registration. What happens next?

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A new law now requires SIM card registration. What happens next?

Philstar.com, October 10, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has signed into law the SIM Card Registration Act, the first legislative measure enacted in his presidency.

Republic Act 11934 entails all subscribers to give their names and addresses to their service providers, raising concerns on security and data privacy.

Agencies will still have to come up with Implementing Rules and Regulations for the measure, but Marcos noted in his speech on Monday that SIM card registration will give law enforcement agencies “tools needed to resolve crimes perpetrated with the use of these SIM cards as well as providing a strong deterrence against the commission of wrong doing.”

Lawmakers pushing for passage of the measure noted the recent proliferation of spam text messages that lead to scams and the hacking of some subscribers’ personal accounts. 

“We worked hard to pass the legislation anew as a crucial first step to fend off text scammers, while guaranteeing utmost respect to fundamental human rights,” Sen. Grace Poe said in a statement.Under the law, all SIM card users must register with their telecommunications provider before their SIM gets activated. Existing prepaid subscribers are given a limited time to register before their SIM Card is deactivated or the SIM number is retired.

How do you register a SIM Card with your service provider?

According to a copy of the Senate bill on third reading:

  • A SIM card registration form must ask subscribers to disclose their full name, date of birth, and address on top of providing a copy of a valid government-issued ID or other similar documents.
     
  • Juridical entities like companies and businesses must provide a copy of their certificate of registration and either a resolution adopting an authorized representatives or a special power of attorney.
     
  • A minor’s SIM card registration will be named under the consenting parent or guardian.
     
  • Tourists staying for less than a month must register with their passport and address while in the Philippines and their SIM registration form must contain their full name, passport number, and address.
     
  • Foreign nationals in the country either to work or study should register their full name, passport number, and address in the provided form and present their passport, their address in the Philippines, Alien Certificate of Registration Identification Card or ACRI-Card from the Bureau of Immigration and an Alien Employment Permit from the Department of Labor and Employment, if applicable. 

“Any information in the SIM card registration shall be treated as absolutely confidential unless accessed to this information as been granted with the written consent of the subscriber,” Marcos said in a speech on Monday.

Information provided to providers may also be disclosed in case of a court order, if a subpoena is issued, or upon the request of a law enforcement agency. It is unclear if subscriber consent will be required in those cases.

Under the law, telecommunications companies will be required to submit a verified list of their dealers across the country. The National Telecommunications Commission will also require firms to submit an updated list quarterly.

Security risks

However, the Computer Professionals’ Union, an organization of ICT professionals and advocates, warned that mandatory SIM card registration has been “proven ineffective in addressing crime and further endangers people’s information.”

The CPU on Monday stressed that “mandatory SIM Registration puts at risk our right to privacy and data protection,” adding that mandatory registration in other countries has been shown to be ineffective and that “has its ill effects as seen in other countries that have implemented it.”

The group further noted that the SIM card registration law does not directly solve the problems that lead to crime.

“Crime is rampant because of poverty, joblessness, inequality, and exploitation,” CPU said.

“Addressing these social ills should be the priority of the government, while ensuring immediate action to resolve immediate concerns do not further exacerbate the people’s suffering or endanger them.”

In statements earlier this year against the vetoed SIM card registration bill, the Foundation for Media Alternatives noted that aside from doubts over whether registration will deter crime, “in some regions, this type of system has even caused the emergence of black markets where stolen or counterfeit SIM cards are sold, as well as an increase in handset theft incidents, as demand for untraceable phones spiked.”

It also noted the potential for abuse by government as well as the risk registration would pose on privacy since SIM card resellers may be “ill-equipped to handle such amount of data, making them more prone to data loss or misuse.” 

EngageMedia, which signed the FMA statement, also said that similar measures in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam “have had serious implications on human rights.” — Kaycee Valmonte with reports from Xave Gregorio and Ramon Royandoyan

A GLIMPSE OF THE MARCOS-DUTERTE HOUSE OF HORROR IN THE PHILIPPINES

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A GLIMPSE OF THE MARCOS-DUTERTE HOUSE OF HORROR IN THE PHILIPPINES

by E. San Juan, Jr.

Philippines Studies Center, Washington DC

IN his classic “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” Karl Marx amends Hegel’s quip on history repeating itself, first as tragedy and then as farce (1986 97). With the former Philippine dictator Marcos’s son in office, will farcical acts be the spectacle for the next six years?. Imagine the sons of Somoza, Trujillo or Batista returning to their banana republics—that would indeed be “the tradition of all the dead generations” acting as toxic “nightmare on the brain of the living.”

The oldest U.S. neocolony, the Philippines, was plundered and ruined by Ferdinand Marcos from 1966 to 1986. Biding their time in Hawaii, a refuge offered by the colonizers, the Marcos dynasty staged a comeback with their wealth and retinue of factotums intact. They consolidated power in their localities (Ilocos, Leyte) and began a program of selective retrieval. Aided by consumerist amnesia and a new generation bereft of historical knowledge, they inched their way to governorship and congressional seats. Amid widespread vote-buying and fixing of the Smartmatic computerized machines in the May 2022 elections, Marcos Jr., known as “Bongbong,” was installed as president (CENPEG 2022). They struck a bargain with strongman Duterte by allowing the daughter Sara to run as vice-president to safeguard the father from any criminal investigation after his tenure.

Despite some citizen-groups’ protests and media demands to review the election results by the Duterte-controlled Commission on Elections, nothing was done to block Bongbong’s proclamation. The corrupted State ideological apparatuses to pacify class conflicts (legislature, courts, police, military bureaucracy) had already been eviscerated. The farce seems to be the consensus of the oligarchic clans—Arroyo, Estrada, Duterte, Marcos, billionaire Chinoy networks—with huge funding by corporate interests, religious, and military blocs that have so far benefited from their rule.

Estranging Affinities

The Marcos dynasty has so far successfully defied all court verdicts since their return from Hawaii in 1992. Bongbong himself refused to pay back-taxes while his mother, Imelda Marcos, sentenced to jail a while ago, remains free to flaunt her wealth—not her fabled thousand shoes, but the dynasty’s “past glory” reconfirmed by Marcos’ burial in the cemetery of heroes by Duterte. The elaborate State funeral was the ritual designed to repair the frayed social cohesion that is somehow ascribed to the Aquino clan represented by the “pink party” of the Liberal Party (Roxas clan) and the defeated candidate Leni Robredo. A compromise was reached with the Duterte bloc, compensating for Bongbong’s frustrated vice-presidential ambition in 2016.

Meanwile, Bongbong’s sister Senator Imee Marcos devised another farcical strategy. To reinforce the Cambridge Analytica/Google handling of the Marcos “brand” in social media, She financed a film entitled “Maid in Malacanang” to revise the spectacle of the family’s 1968 panicked escape from the palace as the infuriated masses smashed the gates and soon occupied the dictator’s sanctuary. It was a desperate attempt to alter the media discourse on the impact of the people’s anger and repudiation of the patriarch’s martial law (1972-1986) and its horrors. Somehow, the tragic show needs comedic retouching.

For many reviewers, Imee’s propaganda ploy was an abject failure. Rappler, the news outfit headed by Maria Ressa, recent Nobel Prize winner, fact-checked the film’s truthfulness by comparing it with the book by Arturo Aruiza, Marcos’s military aide. Rappler testified to the film’s disingenuous erasure of Marcos’ failure to squelch the Ramos-Enrile mutiny which sparked the EDSA “People Power” insurrection (Tequero 2022). Instead of showing the mayhem overtaking the household, the film depicts Imee fully in charge of what was going on. She was jefe con cojones.

The film depicted Imee displacing the regular staff and projecting herself as her father’s trusted manager—the real heir to his prestige, authority, intelligence. Affinities eclipsed alienating divisions. Deconstruction of conventional gender-role and class-subordination, however, produced the opposite: glamorizing the new androgynous Imee as unifying official/managerial elite, marginalizing Bongbong and vindicating the patron-client reciprocity—the supreme Filipino value, as mainstream academics assure us.

Imee’s cinematic role (“pinakamahusay na katulong”) with Marcos’ blessing—:”my darling genius of a girl”—seeks to salvage the eroded dignity/power of the dictator. Marcos was emasculated with physical disabilities that constrained patriarchal hubris. In its absence, Imee shed off whatever feminine mystique she had and took over the refurbishment of the damaged Marcos “brand” by role-switching and re-identifying her lot with the loyal subaltern-proletarian cohort. It’s difficult, however, to insinuate the EDSA crowd into the film, given its association with the Aquinos as persecutors.

We can not yet fully assess the impact of this farcical episode.The latest news is that embassies abroad have been ordered to propagate the film. While Imee’s concoction opened to much fanfare, another film entitled KATIPS about anti-Marcos activists and rebellious youth who fought the dictatorship attracted more attention and sympathy. We predict more farcical offerings to cement the widening fissures of the neocolonial structure established by more than a century of U.S. military, economic and cultural domination since the Filipino-American War (1899-1913; see San Juan 2021)..

The Gossip-Master Intervenes

Historian Ambeth Ocampo noted the film’s “twisted retelling of history,” but was more vexed by the director’s “artistic license,” as illustrated by the attempt to smear Cory Aquino by depicting her as “playing mahjong with Carmelite nuns when the fate of the nation hung in a balance. ” Ocampo adds that “the suppressed Marcos narrative provided by Imee Marcos is that the Marcoses were driven from Malacanang by fair weather friends who looked down on them for their provincial and nonelitist origins” (2022).

In short, “Maid in Malcanang” is a gambit to cast the Marcos dynasty as victims deserving empathy, and in fact becoming the uncanny exemplars of the nationalist movement. Contrary to the view that Imee’s vanity film hopes to exude a humanist appeal, its drawing-power are the female stars who supposedly can seduce thousands of fans and devotees on behalf of the oligarchs. Again, the irony traps Imee/dynasty’s effort to recapture the aura of the pre-Marcos image: Malacanang cannot be recast into a slumdweller or peasant-farmer’s residence. Nor can the fashionably-attired Imee mimick the harried servant-maid obsequiously following orders. Just about the same time the film grabbed headlines, the capture of a much-abused political activist, Adora Faye de Vera, was announced by the metropolitan police.

Spoiling the Polemical Opera

De Vera, 68 years old, was arrested last August 26 for alleged involvement in “multiple murder, with the use of explosives and antipersonnel mine.” She was first arrested for pasting anti-government posters in October 1976 and sexually abused and tortured by the military until June 1977. Parts of her body were burned, toenails and fingers crushed, remaining naked for some time; and she was repeatedly raped. The responsible culprits—eleven soldiers and three civilians—were members of the Military Intelligence Group, 2nd Constabulary Security Unit, 231 PC Company of Quezon Province (Martial Law Files 2012). Specifically, the torturers responsible belong to the Philippine Constabulary under General Fidel Ramos, together with the Ground Team 205 of 2nd Military Intelligence Group, AFP, which counts Col. Alejandro Gallido, Corporal Alberto Trapal, Corporal Charlie Tolopia, Capt. Eduardo Sebastian, Capt Jesus Calaunan, Lt. Joseph Malilay, and assorted civilian accessories (Ilagan 2019, 24-26).

After repeated sexual assaults, De Vera got pregnant and had to induce an abortion. Her husband Manuel disappeared 22 years ago and has remained a desaparecido to this day.Together with De Vera were Rolando Federis and Flora Coronacion who were raped by 14 men numerous times; after their torture, they performed the official roles of “desaparecidos” in the State’s theater of predatory entertainment.

It is publicly known that Filipino military officers since then—from Marcos to Duterte’s regime—have been notorious for relentless rapacity and barbarism. This seems to be their claim for manly distinction ever since the U.S. established the Philippine Scouts to assist their bloody suppression of Filipinos refusing McKinley’s “Benevolent Assimilation.” The PC (now the PNP/Philippine National Police) was then headed by the late General Fidel Ramos. Just like Duterte’s death-squad, none of the torturers had been charged (Melencio 1998). All in all, twenty security men were involved in this documented outrage against De Vera, Morales, and Coronacion.

De Vera’s second arrest occurred in October 23, 1983 during a military encirclement in Bicol province. She was then 30 years old, married with two children. She was shot in the leg. Since her imprisonment in 1976 up to now, De Vera has been suffering from her traumatic encounter with the police and officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Varona 2022). Arrested in Metro Manila, she has been flown to a jail in Iloilo City, where more farcical events are sure to be witnessed.

Cry of the Multitude

De Vera is only one of the thousands of political prisoners who suffered the vicious depravity of the Marcos martial-law regime. Amnesty International and other human-rights observers have documented 3,275 killed, 35,000 tortured, and 70,000 incarcerated persons during the Marcos dictatorship….Some 2,520 Filipinos were ‘salvaged’—that is, tortured, mutilated and dumped on a roadside for public display” (McCoy 2001) KARAPATAN and the Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines have preserved records of the human-rights abuses of the Marcos years.

For lack of space, I can only cite here the case of Maria Cristina Rodriguez, one of the thousands of victims of the Marcos “conjugal dictatorship.” Rodriguez is now the executive director of Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument to Heroes), a museum for martial-law victims. In a public testimony dated September 8, 2016, as requested by the Supreme Court concerning the Duterte regime’s plan to bury Marcos in the nations cemetery for heroes, Rodriguez recounted her ordeal. Here is an excerpt:

Yes, Marcos soldiers tortured and abused me. I saw others as well, a boy screaming from zaps of electric torture, a friend with polio beaten black and blue, a man with both feet bandaged because a military officer had pressed them with red-hot iron during interrogation…My godmother was killed by intelligence agents inside a hospital room. I’ve talked with mothers whose son or daughter was shot pointblank by men in uniform. I’ve myself documented hundreds of cases of Filipinos who underwent varying levels of inhuman treatment from the Marcos dictatorship—farmers executed, pregnant women raped, children massacred” (quoted in Beltran 2022).

The return of the Marcos dynasty to power—surely not as maid-servants glamorized by Imee Marcos—signals a revanchist move to revamp the narrative of the February 1986 debacle. For the Marcos loyalists, history may just be “tsimis” or gossip. But they take it seriously. One sign is the attempt to abolish the Presidential Committee on Good Government (PCGG) tasked to recover Marcos’ stolen wealth amounting to billions of dollars. Another is the move to sustain Duterte’s withdrawal of the country from the sway of the International Criminal Court which has been pursuing cases filed by many victims of Duterte’s drug-war since he assumed office as mayor of Davao City (1988-98). Duterte admitted complicity with deathsquads in 2015. He boasted wanting to kill 100,000 people before the end of his presidency. Over 30,000 victims of extrajudicial killlings under Duterte’s watch have been recorded, though only about 1,400 have been reported by the national police. Exhumations of the hundreds of slain “drug suspects” and autopsies are being processed to determine the authenticity of police records.

Political Prisoners Galore

The rampant practice of stigmatizing anyone critical of government policies as “terrorists” began with Cory Aquino and worsened with Duterte’s red-tagging policy.

Any dissenter is tagged as a “terrorist” supporter of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. This originated with Sec. Colin Powell’s declaration in 2001 of the two groups as “terrorist” organizations. Under Duterte’s rule, the number of political prisoners ballooned to 592. Compare the number of detainees under President Arroyo (343) and under Benigno Aquino Jr. (306). This was before “Bloody Sunday, March 7, 2021, when Duterte’s police killed nine union workers and arrested six—all justified by his “shoot-to-kill” style of eradicating those he had already judged guilty (Bolledo 2022; ABS-CBN 2015).

With continued imposition of arbitrary arrests, rabid witch-hunting of branded “reds,” and subservience of the courts and legislature to the diktat of Marcos-Duterte, the already congested prisons—ghettoes of poor farmers, workers, and unemployed—promise more misery and deaths of hundreds of innocent citizens who thought they had the Bill of Rights and other constitutionally-mandated liberties.

As of June 22, 2022, the total number of political prisoners—critics of the regime arrested with guns and grenades planted on them—was 803. Among the most deprived and penalized are women, dating back to the time of De Vera and Rodriguez. In 2010, I discussed the plight of fifteen political prisoners who count among the most dehumanized (San Juan 2010) and campaigned for their release.

According to KARAPATAN, the most trusted human-rights monitor in the Philippines, there were 126 woman prisoners in March 2021, the majority of whom are charged for being associated with dissidents labeled “terrorists.” Many are human rights defenders, activists involved in helping workers, urban squatters, indigenous communities. Because they work for the deprived sectors, they are accused of being supporters of the terrorist insurgents to justify their illegal arrest and continuing detention in horrible quarters. They are presumed innocent until proven guilty—a principle rejected by the “justice” system in the Philippines. They are punished for trumped-up charges; some have been released after a long expensive appeal.

We appeal to the global community to demand the immediate release of the following political detainees who have already borne the brunt of State terrorism and cruelty:

1. Amanda Socorro Lacaba Echanis, a peasant organizer of Amihan National Federation of Woman. She just gave birth to her baby Randall Emmanuel when she was arrested on Decenmber 2, 2020. At 5AM, soldiers broke into the farmer’s house she was staying in, pointed guns at her and her 2-month old infant; the soldiers could not produce any search warrant, harassed and tormented her and later claimed they found firearms and explosives.

2. Raina Mae Nasino, organizer for KADAMAY, Manila. Nasino was arrested with two other activists on November 5, 2019. She gave birth to Baby River on July 1, 2020. After two months, jail authorities separated mother and child. Her baby died on October 9, 2020, only three months old. The distraught Nasino was granted furlough for only 6 hours to attend her baby’s wake and internment, while suffering from COVID-19 symptoms for which no medical help was provided by prison authorities.

3. Karina Mae dela Cerna,NNARA-Youth’s Nationall Deputy Secretary-General. Dela Cerna was arrested with 51 other persons in Bacolod City in the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Office. Trumped-up charges were filed due to the discovery of firearms and explosives in the surrounding area.

4. Myles Cantal Albasin, fomer chair of Anakbayan, Cebu. Albasin was arrested wth five other youth from Negros Oriental where she was participating in community immersion with the farmers. Soldiers alleged that she engaged with them in a firefight, a claim disputed by residents of the area.

5. Renalyn Gomez Tejero, paralegal aid for KARAPATAN, Caraga. She was arrested on trumped-up charges of murder in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, on March 21, 2021.

KARAPATAN has been in the government list of “communist fronts.”

6. Alma Moran, member of the secretariat of Manila Workers Union. Moran was arrested together with Reina Mae Nasino and Ram Carlo Bautista in a BAYAN office in Tondo, Manila. in November 5, 2019. After a second search of the office, the police claimed to have found firearms and explosives—the usual modus operandi.

7. Frenchie Mae Cumpio, journalist for Eastern Vista. Cumpio was arrested in Tacloban City on February 8, 2020. Police claimed to have found a pistol and grenade inside the room where she and a companion were staying. With the money confiscated upon their arrest, Cumpio and lay worker Mariel Domequil also face trumped-up charges of terrorist financing—still unproven to this day.

8. Rowena Rosales, former member of Confederation for Unity, Recognition and

Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE). Rosales was arrested wih her husband Oliver after a day at their thrift store in Bulacan on August 11, 2018. Police claimed to have confiscated a bag of firearms and explosives in their premises without any testimony from other than the police department.

9. Gloria Campos Tumalon, member of MAPASU, Surigao del Sur. Tumalon is accused of being a member of the NPA and arrested in March 29, 2020, based on a warrant related to an incident when the NPA took soldiers as prisoners on war in December 2018/ She is one of 468 persons accused on the same warrant.

10. Nenita Calamba de Castro, member of GABRIELA, Butuan. De Castro was arrested in May 32, 2018, with charges unknown. GABRIELA has been targeted as a terrorist front, an example of libelous defamation.

11. Romana Raselle Shamina Astudillo, deputy secretary general of KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno, Metro Manila. Astudillo was arrested in December 10, 2020, Human Rights Day. and accused of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The militant KMU has been targeted by the police/military for being a communist front.

12. Ge-ann Perez, arrested in March 24, 2019, by virtue of association with Francisco Fernanex, a peace consulted for the National Democratic Front, and his wife Cleofre Lagtapon. All face charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives—the recurrent alibi of government security henchmen.

13. Virginia Bohol Villamor was arrested past midnight on November 8, 2018. She was accompanied by her husband, Alberto, and Vicente Ladlad, peace consultant of the National Democratic Front, Philippines. Although Villamor suffered agonizing pain from a pelvic fracture, she was forced to drop to the floor, while soldiers pointed their rifles at her and companions. They were later charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

A Warning to Military-Police Agencies

With the September 17, 2022 passage of the Philippine Human Rights Act (H.R. 8313) in the U.S. Congress, some constraint on the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines in inflicting warrantless arrests, harassment, torture and other human-rights violations might spare future victims. If those practices continue, the Bill seeks to suspend assistance to the police and military amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in logistics, weapons, training, etc. During his rule, Marcos Sr. received billions of U.S. military aid much of which he stole and transferred to secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Panama, and elsewhere, now utilized by his son and minions.

Bill 8313 is based on the U.S. State Department’s annual reports of “arbitrary or unlawful killings” committed during Duterte’s drug wars. It mentions the case of Senator Leila de Lima who has been detained for two years as “a staunch critic of the drug war killings,” as well as labor leaders and legislators killed or held as political prisoners (exemplified by the prisoners tallied above), Not to be neglected is mention of the government’s infamous “vilification of dissent…being institutionalized and normalized” based on the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. This Act enables the billion-pesos-funded NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict) to stifle dissent from civil society. It functions to void the Philippine Constitution’s Bill of Rights and resuscitate the authoritarian, fascist method of social harmony imposed by Bongbong’s father nearly forty years ago—a tragedy now being revived as excruciating farce.

REFERENCES

ABS-CBN. 2015. :”Duterte admits links to Davao Death Squads.” News. (May 25)

Beltran, Michael. 2022. “Haunted by our continuing pain: Martial law survivors react to Marcos restoration.” The News Lens (June 8).

<international.thenewslens.com>

Bolledo, Jairo. 2022. “In Numbers: Political Prisoners in the Philippines Since 2001. Rappler (August 21).

CENPEG. 2022. “The May 2022 Elections and the Marcos Restoration: Looking Back and Beyond.” Monthly Political Analysis No. 15. Quezon City: Center for People Empowerment in Governance.

Ilagan, Bonifacio. 2009. “Alingawngaw ng ST10.” Pagtatagpo sa Kabilang Dulo. Quezon City: Amado V. Hernandez Center & Pamilya ng Desaparecidos.

Martial Law Files. 2012. “Adora Faye de Vera.” Martial Law Files. (Dec. 4, 2012). <www.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/adora-faye-de-vera-2/floc>

Marx, Karl & Frederick Engels. 1968. “”The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.” In Selected Works. New York: International Publishers.

McCoy, Alfred. 2001. “Dark Legacy: Human Rights Under the Marcos Regime.” In Memory, Truth Telling and the Pursuit of Justice: A Conference on the Legacy of the Marcos Dictatorship. Quezon City: Office of Research and Publications, Ateneo de Manila University.

Melencio, Gloria Esquerra. 1998. Report for Martial Law Files Website, Sponsored by the Commission on Human Rights, UN Devepment Program for Claimants 1081.

Ocampo, Ambeth. 2022. “Maid n Malacanang: A biased review.” Philippine Daily Inquirer (August 5). <https://www.inquirer.dotnet/>

San Juan, E. 2013. “U.S. Imperial Humanitarian BlessingL Torture of Women Political Prisoners in the Philippines.” International Marxist Humanist Organization. (27 August).

<https://imhojournal.org/articles/iperial-humanitarianism-u.s.- neocolony-torture-war-women-prisoners-philippines-e-san-juan>

——. 2021. Maelstrom over the Killing Fields: Interventions in the Project of National-Democratic Liberation. Quezon City: Pantax Press.

Toquero, Loreben. 2002. “A made-up Marcos name: False misleading claims abound in ‘Maid in Malacanang.” Rappler (August 11, 2022).

United States Congress. 2022. “H.R. 3884. Philippine Human Rights Act. “

Congressional Records. Washington DC: United States Congress.

<https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-Congress/house-bill/3884>

Varona, Inday Espino. 2022. “Arrested rebel a symbol of Marcos atrocities against women dissidents.” Rappler (August 26).

___________

E. SAN JUAN, Jr., emeritus professor of Ethnic Studies and Comparative Literature, was recently visiting professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines; and a former fellow of the W.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. He has lectures at Leuven University, Belgium; Tamkang University, Taiwan; and Trento University, Italy. His recent books are U.S. Imperialism and Revolution in the Philippines (Palgrave Macmillan) and Peirce’s Pragmaticism: A Radical Perspective (Lexington Books).

Int’l rights group backs ICC rejection of bid to halt drug war probe

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Int’l rights group backs ICC rejection of bid to halt drug war probe

INQUIRER.net /October 01, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) supported the International Criminal Court’s  (ICC) rejection of the government’s appeal to end the investigation on the supposed drug war abuses under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

This was after ICC prosecutor Karim Khan released a 21-page response on September 22 rejecting the appeal of the Philippine government to discontinue the probe on the said issue.

“The response of Prosecutor Khan points out the weakness of the November 2021 request of the Duterte government, which argued for suspension of the ICC investigation on the basis of jurisdiction of the tribunal, gravity of the crimes committed, and supposed domestic mechanisms which can investigate and prosecute those involved in the killings,” ICHRP chairperson Peter Murphy said in a statement.

The national government, through the Office of the Solicitor General, sent its request to the ICC on September 8, citing three main reasons — lack of jurisdiction, admissibility, and complementarity.

The ICHRP noted that “Khan’s response demonstrates that no such domestic mechanisms exist on a wide scale, and that no valid argument exists to dispute the jurisdiction of the ICC in regard to these alleged crimes against humanity.”

In addition, the coalition cited a report from Investigate PH, an independent group monitoring the situation of human rights in the Philippines.

Investigate PH said that they presented and analyzed the testimonials of witnesses and forensic evidence to refute the government’s argument that the thousands of victims were killed by police officers in the act of self-defense.

On top of this, Murphy stressed that the coalition strengthens the call of the drug war victims and the civil society for the cooperation of the national government in the investigation of ICC.

Murphy further said that the ICHRP amplifies the call of Investigate PH to other intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, to conduct their independent investigation and look into the human rights situation in the country.

“The international community must stay vigilant and hold the current and past administrations accountable until justice is achieved for all victims of these crimes against humanity,” Murphy added. Christian Paul Dela Cruz, INQUIRER.net trainee

ICC prosecutor insists probe into ‘killings’ under Duterte should resume

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ICC prosecutor insists probe into ‘killings’ under Duterte should resume

Sep 27, 2022, Jairo Bolledo

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan asserts that crimes under the drug war campaign appear to have been ‘at the very least encouraged and condoned by high-level government officials, up to and including the former President’

MANILA, Philippines – After pausing the probe and hearing the Philippine government’s side, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan insisted that the investigation into drug war killings under former president Rodrigo Duterte should resume.

In his September 22-dated response to the Philippine government’s comment sent to the ICC, Khan said “…the Prosecution respectfully reiterates its request that the Chamber order the resumption of the investigation into the Situation in the Republic of the Philippines,” also declaring that deferral “is not warranted.”

Earlier this month, on September 8, the Philippine government, represented by the Office of the Solicitor General, asked the ICC pre-trial chamber to deny the prosecution’s request to resume the probe into the drug war. 

The Philippine government earlier argued that 1) The ICC has no jurisdiction; 2) a probe is already ongoing; and 3) a precedent is needed. But, in his comment, Khan said “none of those arguments have merit.” 

Khan’s arguments

The ICC prosecutor raised various points refuting the arguments of the Philippine government.

No probe or prosecution. Khan said the Philippine government, even with its additional submissions to the ICC, has “not demonstrated” that it has conducted or is conducting national investigations or prosecutions that mirror the probe authorized by the pre-trial chamber.

“However, nothing in the observations nor in the hundreds of pages of associated annexes substantiates that criminal proceedings actually have been or are being conducted in anything more than a small number of cases,” Khan noted.

The ICC prosecutor observed that there were neither criminal probes into “war on drugs” (WoD)-related killings in Davao, nor into “vigilante” killings or war on drugs-related torture, and “only a handful of criminal investigations of other WoD-related crimes within this Court’s jurisdiction.”

Khan mentioned the DOJ Inter-Agency Review Panel, Administrative Order No. 35, and Philippine National Police-Internal Affairs Service cases and writ of amparo proceedings which have not produced anything substantial such as determine criminal responsibility. The Philippine government, Khan said, has “failed to substantiate any relevant criminal proceedings in relation to events in Davao” from 2011 to 2016 – years when Duterte was either vice mayor or mayor.

On the case updates provided to the ICC, Khan said the cases submitted were “very few” compared to total number of recorded “killings” that, according to available information, has ranged from 12,000 to 30,000 civilians, including children. The ICC prosecutor said the cases only focused on low-ranking cops and physical perpetrators without investigating high-level assailants.

These cases also pertained only to killings during official police operations and ignored those perpetrated by “vigilantes.”

He added the cases were framed as “isolated instances” without looking at “larger patterns of conduct or underlying policy.”

On ICC’s jurisdiction. Khan said there’s nothing in the Rome Statute states that the Philippines can “challenge the resumption of an investigation on jurisdictional or gravity grounds at this stage of proceedings.”

Khan also refuted the Philippine government’s claim that the alleged crimes do not constitute “crimes against humanity” or that these were not perpetrated as part of state policy or as part of a systemic attack against a civilian population. The prosecutor said the government has “failed to establish that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over the alleged crimes against humanity committed…between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019.”

On gravity. Prosecutor Khan said the Philippine government’s challenge on the gravity of the probe is neither supported by facts nor law.

He said that the amount of information they had gathered from civil society organizations, official documents, eyewitnesses, insider accounts, and other open sources was the basis of their request to resume investigations. Assertions about political motivations or subjective social alarm “are beside the point.”

Nothing in the crimes committed in the name of the WoD campaign reportedly carried out “in large part by law enforcement personnel” suggests that they are of “marginal gravity. To the contrary, they are extremely serious crimes, which appear to have been at the very least encouraged and condoned by high-level government officials, up to and including the former President,” Khan said, alluding to Duterte.

ICC has jurisdiction

In his position, Khan reiterated that the ICC has jurisdiction over the Philippines and stated at least three reasons the country falls under the ICC.

First, Khan said the “existence of a contextual element of a crime against humanity cannot divest this Court of subject matter jurisdiction.”

Second, the ICC prosecutor said the Philippine government misstates the requisites in establishing state policy.

Third and last, Khan said the Philippine government did not submit any evidence undermining the ICC’s conclusion that the killings are a systemic attack against a civilian population.

Current president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has no plans of rejoining the ICC after the Duterte administration unilaterally withdrew membership. However, Article 127 of the Rome Statute also states that all proceedings prior to the withdrawal remain valid – the same position taken by the Philippine Supreme Court.

In June 2022, Khan filed a request before the ICC’s pre-trial chamber to resume his probe into killings under Duterte. – Rappler.com

Si Marcos at ang fairy godfather na Estados Unidos

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Si Marcos at ang fairy godfather na Estados Unidos

Sep 26, 2022

Editorial, Rappler.com

Sa pagtapak ni Marcos sa US at pakikipaghuntahan kay Biden, malinaw ang mensahe ng long-time ally: bata namin ito tulad ng tatay niya.

Lahat ng mata, nakatitig kay Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos Jr nang siya’y muling tumapak sa Amerika nitong Setyembre 19 para dumalo sa United Nations General Assembly. Maraming dahilan, pero hindi nahuhuli diyan ang pagbabalik niya sa bansang nagsilbing pangalawang tahanan niya.

Dito siya madalas mag-shopping kasama ang pamilya – at hindi lang ng damit, sapatos, at bag. Hindi lang basta filthy rich na anak mayaman si Marcos Jr. Hindi siya Jeane Napoles level lang. Alam na nating lahat na ‘pag si Imelda ang nag-shopping spree – building, painting, alahas, atbp. ang sina-shopping. 

Dito sa America siya tumira sa isang mansion at nag-aral sa unibersidad. Dito rin nahuli si Marcos Jr. ng overspeeding at natuklasang marami siyang baril sa kotse – pati ang babaeng katabi niya sa sports car ay may baril sa hita. Pero walang nagawa ang mga otoridad dahil may diplomatic immunity siya noon.

Si Marcos Jr. at ang mga kapatid niya ang katumbas noon ng royalty ng Pilipinas. Nagtataka pa ba tayo bakit damay sila sa narrative na may maharlikang pamilyang naghari sa bansa?

Sa madaling salita, ang Estados Unidos ang bansa ng kanyang pagbibinata. Dito naganap ang mga “wild days” niya bilang isang “virtual prince.” 

Pero hindi na “carefree and lazy” ang Marcos Jr. na nagbalik-Tate, kundi isang presidente – maraming responsibilidad at maraming multo ng nakaraan na pilit tinatalikdan.

Halimbawa, naganap ang biyahe niya sa Amerika sa ika-50 anibersaryo ng deklarasyon ng Martial Law sa Pilipinas. Sa mismong panayam niya sa Associated Press sa New York, tinuligsa niya ang pagbabalik-tanaw sa Martial Law. Sabi niya, “It doesn’t change anything…so what’s the point?”

Naganap ito sa panahong marami pang mga biktima ng Martial Law na walang kompensasiyon at walang closure. Ang mga desaparecidos ay hindi pa rin natatagpuan.

Naganap ito sa buwang tinanggihan niyang makipag-cooperate sa International Criminal Court tungkol sa libo-libong kaso ni Rodrigo Duterte ng extrajudicial killings sa Davao at sa buong bansa.

Truth can be stranger than fiction. Maraming reversal of fortune na naganap sa taong ito na halos hindi natin paniniwalaan noon: Ang dating darling of democracy na si Aung San Suu Kyi ay pinabayaan nang mabulok sa kulungan; Queen Consort na si Camilla Parker Bowles, ang dati’y kinasusuklamang mistress ni Prince Charles (na ngayo’y hari na), at oo, presidente na ang anak ng diktador sa Pilipinas, si Marcos Jr.

At siyempre pa, madalas inihahain sa publiko ang putaheng gawa sa politics fairyland.

Sabi ng fairy godfather na si President Joe Biden ng America kay Junior: “We’ve had “rocky times.” Translation: Nagpalipad nga kami ng jet sa Maynila noong 1986 bilang banta sa iyong ama na pakinggan ang panawagan ni Senador Paul Laxalt na “cut cleanly.” Pero kinupkop naman namin kayo sa Hawaii. At huwag na nating pag-usapan si Duterte na sukdulan ang galit sa mga Kano.”

Dagdag pa ni Biden, “It’s a critical, critical relationship from our perspective.” Translation: Kailangan ‘nyo ng madaldal na bully na kakampi sa South China Sea dahil wala kayong kalaban-laban sa bully doon na may armada ng militia ships. Kami naman, kailangan namin ng tatambayan sa Asya. ‘Yun nga lang, ‘pag binubugbog kayo, hindi naman kami makasasaklolo. Hanggang kuda lang kami.”

At ang icing on the cake – napag-usapan din daw ang “respect for human rights.” Translation: Alam mo naman, Bro, requirement ngayon ‘yan. Sana naman hindi ka tumulad sa sinundan mo. Pero kung may “hindi kaiga-igayang“ pangyayari, tiyakin mo naman na may plausible deniability ka.

Kung titingnan, napakaraming bagay ang nagbago ngayong 50 taong nakalipas. Pero sa buod ng maraming bagay, maraming halos walang nagbago, tulad ng relasyon sa pagitan ng US at Pilipinas.

Gamitan, palitan ng ampaw at konkretong mga pangako, pabilugan ng ulo – ‘yan ang relasyong Pilipinas at Estados Unidos sa ilalim ng dalawang Marcos. 

At sa pagtapak ni Marcos sa US at pakikipaghuntahan kay Biden, malinaw ang mensahe ng long-time ally: bata namin ito tulad ng tatay niya. 

Si Marcos naman, ngumisi at tumingin sa kalangitan ng New York: “I’VE ARRIVED,” malamang ang nasambit niya. – Rappler.com

‘Attack on rule of law, judiciary’: Judges’ group backs red-tagged colleague

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‘Attack on rule of law, judiciary’: Judges’ group backs red-tagged colleague

Philstar.com, September 25, 2022

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 8 p.m.) — Threats against a judge made by a former Palace official who disagrees with a Manila court’s dismissal of a government petition to declare communist rebels as terrorists could cause “lasting damage” to the institution, an organization of judges said Saturday night.

In a statement, trial court judges’ group Hukom called out vocal anti-communist Lorraine Badoy-Partosa for a post red-tagging Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar for ruling that incidents that the government cited in its petition did not fit the definition of rebellion in the Human Security Act, a law already repealed by passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

In a separate statement on Sunday, Movement Against Disinformation — a broad coalition with members from the academe,the legal profession and civil society — called the rants a “call for violence” that put judges and others in the legal profession in danger.

Badoy-Partosa, who now denies putting the post up, accused the judge of “lawyering” for the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army and called for lenience “if I kill this judge”, saying she believes that the communists and their alleged allies should all be killed.

“We are painfully aware that prior to this incident, judges had been vilified with labels such as hoodlums in robes, protectors of drug pushers and drug lords, and some have even been killed,” Hukom said in a statement sent to media.

The group said that while judges usually prefer to let their decisions speak for them, even online attacks like Badoy-Partosa’s are “attacks on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary” that should not be accepted as normal.

Hukom said these have to be called out because of their “chilling effect on the exercise of our judicial functions and the lasting damage they cause to our institution.”

MAD: Badoy-Partosa posts malicious and dangerous

Movement Against Disinformation, which includes the Philippine Bar Association and the Alternative Law Groups as members, pointed out that Badoy-Partosa’s posts about killing a judge and bombing judicial offices “cannot be countenanced as mere speculations and conjectures” but ate meant to “impel violence and action against an identified member of the Bench.”

“These, in no uncertain terms, call for violence that endanger the safety and welfare of judges, court presonnel, and lawyers in general; degrade the public’s trust and confidence in the judicial system; and undermine democratic institutions and the rule of law.”

MAD also called on legal groups, judges, the courts and the Supreme Court “to condemn the lawless act of red-tagging and to defend and uphold the sanctity of the judiciary by calling the author to account for her reckless and dangerous statements” and to make sure that others who do the same are also held to account.

Badoy-Partosa is a former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, a multi-agency body that has repeatedly claimed that activist groups are fronts of the communist rebels. During the Duterte administration, official social media accounts of police and military units regularly shared posts equating activism with terrorism. 

Badoy-Partosa has herself labelled sitting lawmakers, members of the National Union of People’s lawyers, organizers of community pantries distributing food during the pandemic lockdowns, and a Catholic nun as being affiliated with the CPP-NPA.

Part of Magdoza-Malagar’s decision stressed that members of activist groups and national democratic mass organizations “espouse valid societal change, without necessarily giving through to ‘armed struggle’ or ‘violence’ aimed at overthrowing the government, as a means to achieve the same.” — Jonathan de Santos

Manila court: Not all activists are part of underground movement

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Manila court: Not all activists are part of underground movement

Kaycee Valmonte – Philstar.com

September 22, 2022

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:02 p.m.) — In dismissing the Department of Justice’s proscription petition against the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, the Manila court warned against the dangers of red-tagging groups or activists that are simply airing concerns on their specific advocacies or to how the government is running the nation. 

The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 in a decision dated September 21, signed by Presiding Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar, said membership in national democratic mass organizations (NDMOs) does not automatically mean that the individual is also part of underground illegal movements or even the CPP-NPA.

“Members of NDMOs espouse valid societal change, without necessarily giving through to ‘armed struggle’ or ‘violence’ aimed at overthrowing the government, as a means to achieve the same,” its decision read.

The court junked the DOJ’s request to declare members of the CPP and its armed wing, the NPA, as terrorist groups under Section 17 of the Human Security Act of 2007. The HSA has since been repealed by the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, under which CPP-NPA as designated as terrorists. 

In the same petition the DOJ initially asked to name 600 individuals, which included activists and members of non-government organizations, as members of the CPP-NPA, but the individuals have denied allegations made against them. The list of respondents have since been trimmed down to less than 20 names.

“To automatically lump activists, mostly members of the above ground organizations as members of the CPP-NPA invariably constitute red-tagging,” the court added, further explaining that activists red-tagged may be exposed to security threats.

Judge Magdoza-Malagar also highlighted the importance of joining NDMOs or other activist in the democratic process “where individuals and communities exercise their right to shape government policy and ultimately, society.” 

“Activism is a political act, by which an informed and active citizenry expresses and works for change in an array of political issues that affect them,” the court said.

In its decision, the court also noted that while the CPP-NPA has organized members, it does not exist “for the purpose of engaging in terrorism.” 

It also raised that even if an individual is part of the CPP-NPA, it is possible that they are part of a faction that “does not necessarily espouse, much less commit, acts pursuant to, ‘armed struggle.’”

As the government continues on with efforts to counter insurgency, Judge Magdoza-Malagar wrote that it should make efforts in respecting people’s right to “right to dissent, to due process and to the rule of law.”

“The government can, while uncompromising in its fight against the Communism, regard the CPP’s act of taking the cudgels of the marginalized — as an impetus to better address these sectors’ concerns,” the court said.

‘Reasonable and fair’

Meanwhile, CCP Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena said the court’s decision was “reasonable and fair,” noting that Magdoza-Malagar took into account a historical point-of-view and considered the perspective of the Filipino people’s struggles in her discussion.

The CCP also took note of the court’s emphasis that the CCP and the NPA are not terrorists, but are waging armed resistance directed to the “agents of the reactionary state” of the Philippine government.

“It is gratifying that the judge took effort to read the constitution and program of the CCP, the provisions of which she declared to be ‘reasonable aspirations of any civilized society,’” Valbuena said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Valbuena also noted that the court’s decision would have legal and political implications since the military and the police have been using both the HSA and the ATA proscription against the CPP and the NPA as a means to harass leaders and members of legal democratic organizations whenever they are red-tagged.

“With the decision of the Manila RTC, I think the NTF-ELCAC is now legally obliged to zip its big mount and stop its terrorist-branding against the CPP and NPA, and its campaign of suppression against workers unions, peasant associations and the wide range of patriotic and democratic organizations,” Valbuena said, adding that the task force may face legal problems otherwise. — with reports from Kristine Joy Patag

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