The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has called on President Rodrigo Duterte not to sign the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act 2020, citing its “chilling effects” on human rights and humanitarian work that has been under siege under his administration.
Groups demand release of political prisoner who gave birth
By AARON MACARAEG
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — A human rights group is calling anew for the release of political prisoners who are vulnerable to the deadly COVID-19 virus as a 23-year-old detained activist gave birth today, July 1.
Reina Mae Asis Nasino gave birth to her first child today at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila. She was among those arrested in November last year, along with two other activists in a raid. They were charged for allegedly possessing firearms.
Nasino is among the petitioners in an urgent plea filed before the Supreme Court, calling for release of vulnerable prisoners in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filed on April 8, the high court has yet to resolve the said petition.
Read: Kin of political prisoners call on SC justices to ‘vote for life’
Kapatid Spokesperson Fides Lim expressed concerns over the seemingly lack of urgency from the Supreme Court, adding that “if only they were able to decide earlier and did not let almost three months pass, Reina Mae could have given birth without fearing for her life and her child.”
Cruel to separate mother and baby
Kapatid, a support group for families and friends of political prisoners, also urged the government to grant Nasino even a temporary release through bail or to at least allow her to stay longer at the hospital to give the new mother necessary time to breastfeed her baby.
Separating her to her baby daughter, the group added, would be cruel at the time of a health crisis.
They said that her case reminded them of Andrea Rosal, whose newborn died due to complications.
Release on humanitarian grounds
Human rights lawyer Maria Sol Taule also expressed her concern over the fate of the new mother and child, adding that a separate plea will be filed to call for Nasino’s release on humanitarian ground.
Nasino has earlier filed a motion to quash search warrants and suppress evidence.
If granted, this can serve as basis to the eventual dismissal of case if no other evidence to prove the crime and the accused’s culpability.
The lawyers believe that the arrest was illegal and search warrants used by police has irregularities.
The post Groups demand release of political prisoner who gave birth appeared first on Bulatlat.
UN official slams rights violations in the Philippines, urges ‘options for int’l accountability’
The high commissioner said Philippine laws and policies to counter national security threats and illegal drugs have been crafted and implemented in ways that severely impact human rights. “They have resulted in thousands of killings, arbitrary detentions and the vilification of those who challenge these severe human rights violations,” Bachelet said.
The post UN official slams rights violations in the Philippines, urges ‘options for int’l accountability’ appeared first on Kodao Productions.
Advocates debunk PH government’s claim of ‘respecting human rights’
“The Philippine government cannot just simply throw all consistent and persistent accounts of violations and frustrations with domestic remedies through the token of another washing machine to discombobulate the mind and deodorize the foul stink.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A network of human rights advocates said it cannot help but be cynical on the statements presented by the Philippine government on the 44th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, June 30, in Geneva, Switzerland.
In his speech at the UNHRC, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that the government’s campaign against illegal drugs are “always within the law and in respect of human rights.”
He added that President Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs, which is his campaign promise to eliminate, is supported by the people.
The Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice) retorted, “The pledges and comments though now delivered in more sober and studied tones appear to be damage control to save its international reputation, preempt any further concrete and decisive international opportunities or mechanisms for accountability, and to provide the environment to wreak more damage on the Filipino people in its draconian solutions to the drug menace, rampant criminality, pandemic catastrophe and the supposed threat of terrorism.”
Guevarra claimed that as proof of its commitment to human rights, the Philippine government created an inter-agency panel that will look into the 5,655 deaths in police operation in line with the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs. Guevarra said the Department of Justice will head the panel and will engage the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) as an independent monitoring body.
In reaction, EcuVoice said, “Saccharine statements at appeasing widespread condemnation and creating yet another government body to address unabated impunity and support self-serving claims that domestic remedies are adequate, prompt and credible become soporific in the face of previous experience and present realities.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in its report, said that while they cannot verify the number of extrajudicial killings without further investigations, information gathered on the matter showed that “drug campaign-related killings appear to have a widespread and systematic character.”
The OHCHR cited government data showing that at least 8,663 people have been killed in “drug-related” operations.
The OHCHR noted the impunity with regard to drug-related killings, adding that the government has cited only one case – that of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos – where three police officers were convicted of a drug campaign-related killing.
“Although the Government noted that 9,172 police personnel faced administrative cases, it remains unclear how many of these cases are related to extrajudicial killings. OHCHR also notes that administrative sanctions are insufficient where there are serious allegations of violations of the right to life,” the report read.
The OHCHR further pointed out that under international human rights law, the Philippines is obliged to establish rules and procedures for mandatory reporting, review, and investigation of lethal and other life threatening incidents by law enforcement personnel. “Where there are allegations that it knows or should have known of potentially unlawful deprivations of life, it has the duty to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute the perpetrators,” it said.
EcuVoice reiterated that an independent investigation mechanism of the UNHRC should look into the human rights situation in the Philippines as recommended by UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in her report.
“The Philippine government cannot just simply throw all consistent and persistent accounts of violations and frustrations with domestic remedies through the token of another washing machine to discombobulate the mind and deodorize the foul stink. It needs to seriously and sincerely read very well the writings on the wall,” the group said.
The post Advocates debunk PH government’s claim of ‘respecting human rights’ appeared first on Bulatlat.
Listening to a ‘tired’ President is tiresome
Late night of June 30, the meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) with President Rodrigo Duterte was aired. In general, the meeting is just a repetition of the Duterte’s concerns in previous meetings. He allowed two cabinet members to report but in the middle of their reports, he intervened to […]
The post Listening to a ‘tired’ President is tiresome appeared first on Manila Today.
BYE BYE DIGONG! YOU WILL NOT BE MISSED!
On this day, June 30, 2016 Rodrigo Roa Duterte swore to serve the Filipino people at all costs. But four years into his presidency, the Filipino people have not seen a more bloody administration than his.
The Legend of Duterte
Chapter 1: State-Fascism
With over 30,000 killings under the War on Drugs; the Philippines being the second most dangerous country in the world to be environmental activists over 300 extrajudicial killings and 3,531 illegal arrests, the latest being the arrest of the Pride 20 on the day of the Pride Celebration itself.
From 2018-2020, Pantaron Mountain Range alone has seen 84 bombings and 395 cannon shellings. About 57 Lumad schools have been closed and around 16,000 Lumad have been displaced.
The Filipino people have not seen a more adrenaline junkie, trigger-happy Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police. In fact, the armed forces are leading the fight against the COVID-19— mass arrests, sexual assaults and cold bloody killings are the unsurprising but alarming results.
In the thick of the pandemic, he railroaded the Anti-Terror Bill but aims to further gag the critics and dissent!
Duterte’s legacy is die-hard fascism!
Chapter 2: Neoliberal Subversion
Under his regime, the international debt of the Philippines ballooned up to $7-8 Trillion. He used the COVID-19 pandemic to continuously borrow money from the World Bank and other international loan sharks to further sustain his war play against his own people—whom he fondly calls terrorists. With all the listed foreign debt, many of the poor and the marginalized have yet to receive their one-time financial support.
Duterte is anti-poor. He attacks the livelihood of the Filipino people by prohibiting them from making a living then shamelessly pronounces that Filipinos are lazy. He berates the poor by saying they should endure poverty as if the long years of living under semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism are not enduring poverty and hunger.
He is keen to modernize the public transportation system in the country through the (traditional) jeepney phaseout and allowing the use of hand-me-down modernized vehicles from capitalist countries. Each jeepney will cost at least PHP2.2M. A regular jeepney driver earns at least 500 pesos a day! Now that Duterte prohibits them from making a living, the kings of the street are now paupers begging for alms.
Duterte is a Marcos copy-cat who is implementing his own Build, Build, Build projects sponsored by the Chinese government. Often he announces that the Philippines needs China—for what? Lest we forget that he openly asked China to make us their province!
On April 30, 2020, while the world was in chaos and sheer confusion brought about by COVID-19, the US provided a one-time $2 billion arms deal. He acquired 12 attack helicopters, over 200 hellfire missiles, 200+ Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, machine guns, and rocket launchers. In May, he bought an aircraft launcher from Korea and another one will be delivered this December.
On either side of the Islands, warships from the US and China are taunting each other into engaging in a very dangerous war that could severely damage the entire region. We have no one to blame but the lapdog that is Duterte.
Duterte’s legacy is warmongering.
The Filipino People Do Not Need Another Marcos
The fear has subsided and anger has taken over the country. It is only a matter of time before the Filipino people will oust a dictator in the form of Duterte. He idolizes Marcos so much that it is not a surprise that he will suffer the same fate as his sham-icon—flushed down the drain of history as a dictator that has been overthrown by the Filipino people, a dictator whose attacks recruited many in the ranks of activists and revolutionaries.
Duterte may have killed more than Marcos but Duterte is weaker and dumber than Marcos. He has not learned from the long history of the Filipino people who fought against the Spanish colonizers, Japanese and US imperialists, and who fought against a dictator. Revolution runs in the very veins of every Filipino. No pandemic or war machines will ever stop the fury that he himself has built.
It is time that we take back the streets and drag this dictator out of Malacañang. Bye! Bye! Digong! This will be your last year!
Tama na! Sobra na! Patalsikin na!
Kabataan at migrante, paglingkuran ang sambayanan! Itayo ang lipunang malaya sa anumang uri ng pangaalipin!
#OustDuterte #DuterteYear4 #IPBKIbagsak
The post BYE BYE DIGONG! YOU WILL NOT BE MISSED! appeared first on Migrante Europe.
‘Pride20’ walk free after 4-day detention
By AARON MACARAEG
Bulatlat.com
MANILA– The 20 LGBTQI+ protesters were released today June 30 from police custody, upon the recommendation of the city prosecutor’s office.
In the release order, Assistant City Prosecutor Laudamer Daza recommended the charges against arrested LGBTQI+ protesters, dubbed as the Pride20, to undergo preliminary investigation and consequently ordered for their release.
At around 8:00 pm, the Pride20 have been released from Manila Police District (MPD) after being detained for four days.
However, while the 20 were released, the charges against them – resistance and disobedience to authority, illegal assembly and violation of Republic Act No. 11332 or the Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases – remain until dismissed at the preliminary investigation by the fiscal, according to the group’s lawyer Minerva Lopez.
Under the Philippine criminal system, preliminary investigation is held to determine probable cause to determine whether a crime is committed and if respondents are probably guilty thereof.
Dubbed as #Pride20, they were earlier violently dispersed when they held a protest action in Mendiola on June 26, despite adhering to COVID-19 health standards, particularly on physical distancing and wearing of face masks. Three of the minors who were arrested with them were released later that afternoon.
The 17 released from Pride20 tonight are Andy Lamac-Lamac, Nicky Lamac-Lamac, Kim Vinzar Samiana, Nehemiah Hidos, Joan Salvador, Marya Liwliwa Estavillo, Regelio Feguro, Ronel Artisuela, Joan Bernadette Paz-Bonganay, Ma. Chriztina Madlangbayan, John Marc Cho Santos, Aljohn Estrella, Andrew Zarate, Rey Salinas, Gwyneth Pacyaya, Carla Remedios, and Mark Bolima.
The post ‘Pride20’ walk free after 4-day detention appeared first on Bulatlat.