As grave as the implications the conviction of Ressa and Santos hold not only for the media but for every Filipino who uses the Internet and social media, we fear this complaint, if the State further perverts the law, could spell doom for freedom of expression online.
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Days after the Far Eastern University (FEU) prompted its students to strengthen security on all public accounts due to the online attack on government dissenters through proliferation of impostor Facebook profiles, the community was shaken by yet another digital strike by a group of hackers which leaked students’ personal information. At 11:27PM of June 16, […]
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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — A women’s group has assailed presidential communications official Lorraine Badoy for red-tagging Benedictine nun Sr. Mary John Mananzan, a staunch human rights defender and women’s rights advocate.
In a Facebook post, Badoy, undersecretary of Presidential Communications Operations Office, described Mananzan as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” and claimed that the nun is a long-time ally of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
“With the Anti-Terror Bill shamelessly railroaded by the regime’s rubber-stamp Congress and now awaiting Duterte’s signature, (Lorraine) Badoy is loading up the regime’s guns for either arresting or harming Sister Mary John and other critics of the Duterte regime,” Gabriela said in a statement.
Gabriela pointed out that Badoy must have been looking at herself in the mirror when she described the Benedictine nun as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Badoy’s malicious statement has no other intent but to set up Sr. Mary John – and other women human rights defenders – for the kill,” the group said.
Mananzan earlier called out Manila Judge Rainelda Montesa, a fellow Scholastican, for handing a guilty verdict against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former writer-researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. Mananzan said Montesa apparently “did not learn the values of a Scholastican education.”
“Whatever successes you may have attained I am afraid you are a failure as a Scholastican,” Mananzan, former president and now vice president for external affairs of St. Scholastica’s College – Manila, said.
Her fellow Benedictine nuns, too, have joined the religious community in voicing out their opposition on the looming passage of a new anti-terrorism law.
Champion of democracy
Gabriela described Mananzan as a “true and well-loved daughter of society.”
The 1975 La Tondeña strike served as her baptism of fire in her human rights advocacy and has never turned her back since then.
“There was a strike ban but the conditions at La Tondeña were so bad. We knew that the military would attack the workers and so we came to support them,” Mananzan said during the tribute to the late priest Fr. Joe Dizon, her “batchmate” in the human rights advocacy.
Gabriela said Mananzan used her privileged social position to uphold both the political rights and material welfare of poverty-stricken Filipinos.
The group added, “When it becomes a law, the anti-terror bill, in the hands of inept but power-hungry and corrupt officials, can only spell doom for the people, and for the nation. Badoy, an undersecretary, has used her office to malign people, spew lies and incite harm on citizens. Is this is the kind of government we will give power to in the implementation of an Anti-Terror Law?”
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The COVID-19 pandemic is every tyrant’s dream, to finally have a justification to implement the most repressive measures against its people, purportedly to contain the new and still incurable virus.
Thousands of small public
utility jeepney (PUJ) drivers have lost as much as Php78,000 each from three
months of mass transport suspensions since the lockdown. The government has
been insensitive and stingy assistance has pushed jeepney drivers and their
families into poverty, said the group. Their troubles risk becoming permanent
with the government exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic to keep small drivers and
operators off the road to fast-track its jeepney phaseout program.
The Duterte administration
suspended mass transport, including jeepneys, when it declared enhanced
community quarantines (ECQ) in Luzon then in other parts of the country in
mid-March. Quarantine measures have since eased to general community quarantine
(GCQ) in many areas and public transport has resumed in phases. The first phase
started in June 1 and the second is due to begin on June 22. Jeepneys, however,
will still remain prohibited.
PUJ drivers have suffered lost
incomes for over three months already, IBON said. Among them are the estimated 55,000-70,000
jeepney drivers in Metro Manila. For instance, before the ECQ, drivers plying
the MCU-Rotonda via Taft route earned an average of Php1,000 per day after a
12-hour shift, net of boundary and fuel expenses.
Jeepney drivers on this route
usually worked six days a week. This means that, to date, they have lost some
78 working days over the past 3 months or 13 weeks of suspended mass transport.
This translates to a total net income loss of Php78,000 or Php26,000 per month
of lockdown, said IBON. Out of work jeepney drivers lose Income with each
passing day of transport suspension.
The group stressed that
government assistance has been far from enough to make up for these lost
incomes. The social welfare department reports only 36,200 jeepney drivers
getting cash aid in the past three months. Even then, some jeepney drivers only
received one tranche of the Php5,000-8,000 of social amelioration and it remains
unclear if they will even get the second tranche.
Many small jeepney drivers
and operators could become permanently out of work, particularly in Metro
Manila, IBON said. Transport officials are
using the mass transport suspension to force the phaseout of traditional jeepneys
by only allowing modernized jeepneys to run.
Under the Land Transportation
Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)’s Memo Circular 2020-017 on public
transport guidelines in GCQ areas, only modernized jeepneys and traditional
jeepneys under a corporation or cooperative are allowed to operate. This leaves
out small jeepney operators and drivers who, unlike big or corporate fleet
operators, can ill-afford the costly Php1.6–2.2 million modernized units, or
steep fees and requirements to form a cooperative. They are even less able after
three months of lost incomes and depleted savings, if any.
IBON said that the livelihoods of thousands of small jeepney drivers and operators are at stake. Instead of putting corporate interests first and pushing its phaseout program, the government should give immediate cash assistance to drivers and their families who have suffered three months of lost incomes. It should also support drivers and operators in upgrading or replacing their units to meet safety, health and environmental standards.
Elena, 58, is the program coordinator for sustainable agriculture FARDEC, non-profit, non-government organization that offers paralegal and educational services to farmers facing land issues. She is also the Community Radio Coordinator of FARDEC in Bantayan Island, Cebu. It has a radio program, Radyo Sugbuanon in partnership with the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) Philippines.
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Red-tagging is not new. Administrations even before President Rodrigo Duterte red-tagged legal organizations, progressive party-lists, churches, church people organizations, journalists, human rights defenders and activists. The only difference at present time is the intensification and massive scale the government engages in red-tagging. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that Duterte […]
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Can videoconferencing ensure a speedy and public trial that must be guaranteed under the constitution? How about the right to confront a witness against the accused and the process of authenticating evidence, which is required by due process?
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