The Duterte administration
wants an anti-terrorism law giving it unchecked power to surveil, harass,
arrest and detain government critics under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
It has been on a trajectory of violating human rights, due process, rule of law,
and accountability since the start of its term. With the new law, the
government will achieve authoritarianism unmatched since Martial Law in the
1970s.
Such power threatens to be
abused for self-serving political ends especially as the 2022 elections near.
The crackdown on perceived critics and political opposition will set back
democracy further and herald even more and worse human rights violations. It
will further divide the country and destabilize the economy.
Our nation can ill afford
this – it is already suffering from COVID-19 and reeling from the worst
economic collapse in its history.
Yet while the immediate
situation is dire, the long-term impacts are arguably even more far-reaching.
The proposed anti-terror law creates conditions for the State’s vast powers to
be used to favor big business cronies and to entrench economic policies
profiting a few at the expense of Filipinos and national development.
This is because the Duterte
administration seeks to cripple the most determined forces struggling for
democratic socioeconomic reforms – social activists, organizations of the basic
sectors, and progressives in and out of government. If passed, the anti-terror
law will be used against the fiercest critics of neoliberal economic policies,
corruption and cronyism that disadvantage the many to profit a few.
The cause of development will
falter without critical voices challenging the status quo of elitist and
foreign-biased economic policies. The government will be unhindered in its
efforts to preserve monopolies on land and rural resources, cheapen wages and
make work insecure, raise taxes on the poor while lowering those on the rich,
privatize social services and public utilities, liberalize agriculture and
worsen food insecurity, pander to foreign investors and stifle Filipino
industry.
This will entrench poverty
and structural inequality. Domestic agriculture and domestic industry will
remain backward, and overdependence on foreign capital and economies will
persist. The environment will continue to be despoiled and degrade.
Even the urgent response to
the COVID-19 crisis will be affected. As it is, the government is giving
inadequate emergency relief and denying social protection amid economic
distress. It is also stumbling in its efforts to contain the coronavirus, treat
everyone falling sick, and help those who have lost their loved ones.
The perceived critics who
will be silenced are among the most tenacious in pressing for a bigger and
better response. They also strive to provide as much relief as possible with
whatever resources are at hand. The fight against COVID-19 and economic
catastrophe is better-served by having as many individuals, groups and
organizations as possible join the battle.
IBON was founded during the dark years of Martial Law as part of a surging movement against dictatorship and for social justice. For over 40 years now, we have persisted in our advocacies for social and economic reforms to build an economy that serves the interest of the people most of all.
Today, we wholeheartedly join all the Filipinos opposing the proposed anti-terror law, asserting the people’s civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights, and bravely resisting tyranny and terror.
MANILA – Contractual workers of broadcasting giant ABS-CBN gain one more reason to look forward to if or when the broadcasting giant reopens with a new franchise.
The employees have been winning labor cases affirming their regularization and rejecting schemes that made them ‘permanent contractuals.’ One of the latest labor cases to finally be closed with an order for regularization and return-to-work is that of Rowena “Wheng” Hidalgo Otida, Jerome “Jay” Manahan and John E. Cuba.
Their case was filed originally in 2003. It went through more than a decade-long series of hearings, decisions and appeals up to the Supreme Court between the complainants and respondent ABS-CBN. There was supposed to be a decision favoring the workers as early as 2014, but the labor arbiter cited various technicalities and did not issue an order until another labor arbiter took over the case.
On March 9 this year, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines cheered this piece of good news for ABS-CBN employees. A month before, on February 6, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) issued a return-to-work order to the said ABS-CBN employees.
On Feb 6, 2020, the NLRC also wrote the lawyers of ABS-CBN stating Labor Arbiter Braza-Oro’s order. It notified ABS-CBN that the order shall be “immediately executory, even pending appeal.” It directed ABS-CBN to submit a report of compliance within ten calendar days from receipt of the order.
However, the NUJP noted that due to the COVID-related lockdown followed by the NTC order to ABS-CBN to shut down operations pending renewal of their franchise, which expired on May 4, the employees’ regularization, and return-to-work, have yet to be executed.
For Wheng Hidalgo, it has been 16 years of repeatedly renewing a fixed-term contract rather than being regularized as stated in the Labor Code when she filed the case with Manahan and Cuba. She is currently a broadcaster working for ‘Radyo Pilipinas,’ with a program for President Rodrigo Duterte’s Presidential Hotline 8888. Asked for comment, she opted to be in “silent mode while waiting for the execution to be facilitated.”
A Bulatlat article containing interviews of Hidalgo Otida and other ABS-CBN contractuals, published in 2010, was inadvertently used recently in some circles as if to justify the franchise renewal problem of the broadcast company. “I don’t understand why a 10 YEAR OLD ARTICLE would be used by some to create a different narrative and relate it to a divisive issue hounding us today. The title was TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT,” Hidalgo Otida told Philippine Entertainment Portal.
The NLRC order also said the ABS-CBN must pay the complainants an award of moral damages in the amount of P50,000 each plus an equivalent of 10 ten percent of it for attorney’s fees.
ABS-CBN has over 11,000 employees, many under employment classifications such as “talents” or employees under “internal job market” (IJM) of ABS-CBN. They work with renewable fixed-term contracts.
Aside from the complainants, the NLRC decision bolstered the rest of the contractual ABS-CBN workers’ demands for regularization. The NLRC decision confirmed that the ABS-CBN’s implementation of the IJM and the issuance of term contracts to Hidalgo Otida, Manahan and Cuba, “is a badge of bad faith as it was obviously a ruse to defeat complainants’ security of tenure.” Even the employees’ entitlement to attorney’s fees was necessary, the NLRC said, for the workers’ having filed the case to be recognized by ABS-CBN as its regular employees.
Editors’ note: Bulatlat is not connected to those who want to use any of its published articles in any move to curtail press freedom or deprive thousands of employees of their right for meaningful, gainful employment, as may happen with forcible ABS-CBN. In fact, Bulatlat and Altermidya are in the forefront of media struggle against censorship and the political leveraging of franchise renewal.
1. Why did the Duterte regime railroad the passage of this new anti-terror bill? What urgency does it see in the passage of this bill?
JMS: Following the Duterte regime‘s certification of the so-called anti-terrorism bill as urgent, the Lower House has approved it like the Senate has already done. The regime is railroading the passage of the draconian bill in order to reinforce and aggravate state terrorism. Duterte intends to use the projected law to suppress the broadest range of social activists, critics and opponents of the regime. It is a key element in his scheme to impose a full-scale fascist dictatorship on the people.
2. What does this so-called anti-terrorism bill mean to the ordinary people? How will this affect their lives?
JMS: Any ordinary person who makes any legitimate demand or criticism of those in power is liable to be red-tagged, put on surveillance and framed up, accused by the police and military of engaging in acts of terrorism, arrested without any judicial warrant and detained without any charge for as long as 24 days. Under these conditions, abductions, torture, confiscation of property and murders will be done by those in power and their armed minions. The broad masses of the people will be deprived of the basic democratic rights of free speech and assembly. They need to exercise their rights, especially because of the worsening economic and political crisis and the escalating conditions of oppression and exploitation.
3. Who are the real targets of this bill?
JMS: The rising legal opposition forces, the critics, the human rights defenders, opponents of treason and corruption and other social activists are the most accessible and easiest targets of the draconian law. Duterte is merely using the anti-communist and anti-terrorist rhetoric in order to give him the license to use state terrorism against any organization or person deemed as opposed to his scheme to perpetuate himself and his dynasty in power. In effect, the broad masses of the people are the target of Duterte for mass intimidation. He is practically saying that anyone who complains about his acts of treason, brutality and plunder will be immediately arrested and killed.
4. Many are saying that this is a move similar to the emergency powers of Marcos prior to the declaration of martial law. Do you see it that way, entrenching himself and his followers in the Senate and Congress in power?
JMS: Duterte has always arrogantly presented himself as a Marcos wannabe. He is using the Marcos play book in grabbing more emergency powers, like suspending the writ of habeas corpus in 1971, in order to prepare for the formal declaration of martial in 1972. Like Marcos, Duterte has gained full control over the Comelec and the TIM counterpart of Smartmatic in order to fake the count in any voting exercise, as he did in the mid-term election of 2019 in order to have full control of both the Senate and the Lower House.
It is the common view of all defenders of human rights that the so-called anti-terrorism bill is the key to the complete realization of his scheme of state terrorism and fascist dictatorship even without having to declare martial law formally. In that sense, he is worse than Marcos, more greedy and more brutal although less intelligent and very short-sighted,
5. By its very definition, for instance of causing death and destruction, of a terrorist act, it can apply to anyone including state forces. The bill does not make a clear definition on which side the supposed terrorist acts are coming from. What do you make of this?
JMS: The vague and arbitrary provisions of Duterte’s terrorist law will certainly apply to anyone opposed to him or critical of his regime. But the police and military officers loyal to him will be the ones abducting, torturing, robbing and murdering the victims who are misrepresented as terrorists. There will be no need to use Duterte’s terrorist law against him and his bloody agents, except as evidence of their gross criminality and butchery, when the time comes to prosecute, try and punish them for their heinous crimes.
6. Possession and use of weapons of mass destruction, for instance, as spelled out in the bill, is a terrorist act, but it is the Duterte regime, and those governments that supply, manufacture, possess and use these WMDs. Can you comment?
JMS: It is absurd and perverse for Duterte and his gangmates to presume that weapons of mass destruction are in the hands of the legal opposition, social activists and even those engaged in armed revolution who get their weapons from the field units of the AFP and PNP. The stockpiles of WMDs are in major camps under the control and supervision of US military forces under the terms of the Visiting Forces Agreement and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement in violation of the provisions of the 1987 Constitution against foreign military bases and troops and WMDs. The US monopoly capitalists are the manufacturers and users of WMDs.
7. Some observers have said and believe that without a formal declaration of martial rule, the country is now being ruled by a junta. Would you concur, and who might be in this junta, with Duterte at the helm?
JMS: Duterte has fully created his military junta in the form of the National Task Force to Eliminate the Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under Executive Order No. 70, with him as the chairman and the national security adviser as vice chairman. The task force is dominated by retired and active military and police officers. It has 21 members belonging to the Duterte cabinet, with the exception of representatives of the private sector. It has gained more power and resources as a result of the Covid-19 crisis through the Inter-Agency Task Force which is practically a replication of the NTF-ELCAC.
8. A fascist dictator can only rule effectively for a certain period if that rule is also supported by a firm economic and financial infrastructure. Marcos initially had the economic and financial resources to prop up his regime, but when those resources dried up, the Marcos regime began to deteriorate. Considering that the Duterte regime is far more indebted and the economy is facing a serious crisis unprecedented since the Marcos regime, would the Duterte junta be able to sustain its terrorist rule?
JMS: It is true that even if there is a relatively stable economic and financial structure, a fascist dictator can rule effectively only for a certain period because the people wish to enjoy their democratic rights, allow martial rule only for a certain period and thereafter have better economic and social conditions. But as proven in the past, the Marcos regime wasted tax revenues and foreign loans through unbridled corruption.
As of now, the Duterte tyrannical regime has already wasted resources through plunder and soaring costs of military expenditures. The regime is bankrupt and has brought about a serious economic and political crisis of the ruling system. The people are already fed up with the escalating conditions of oppression and exploitation. They are outraged and wish to oust the Duterte regime. The perfect storm is rapidly gathering in the Philippines.
9. Do you know about the sentiment of patriotic soldiers in the AFP, in the midst of the pandemic and Duterte’s move for open fascist rule?
JMS: I have relatives, fellow Ilocanos and friends among officers and enlisted men in the AFP. I have learned from them that an increasing number of AFP officers and men are disgusted with the favoritism of Duterte for the so-called Davao clique of AFP and PNP officers and their own gangmates, with the criminality and corruption conceded to them by Duterte in order to keep their loyalty and with the veritable conversion of the AFP and PNP into his private army. They are outraged by Duterte’s drive for fascist dictatorship amidst the Covid-19 crisis.
10. What about the sentiment of the international community? After the fall of many US-supported fascist dictators, it doesn’t seem to be the norm to support or extend support to a wannabe fascist dictator like Duterte. Can you comment?
JMS: The peoples of the world are strongly against authoritarian figures like Trump, Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Modi and Duterte who turn out to be scums floated by the rule of unbridled greed under liberalism and by the currents of state terrorism and fascism. The huge mass protests that emerged last year on a world scale are certain to resurge this year because of the much worsened economic and political crisis of the world capitalist system as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the plunge of economic activity and the exposure of the anti-social, corrupt and brutal character of the authoritarian regimes.
Look at what is happening in the US against the Trump regime and the US ruling system. This is a signal for the resurgence of various forms of resistance at a new and higher level on a world scale.
11. What can the people do to defend themselves from the terrorism bill? JMS: It is fine that the national democratic and the broad united front are growing in strength. The people must become well-informed about the terror bill of Duterte. And they must organize and mobilize themselves to speak out and act to oppose the bill. They must fight ever more resolutely and militantly against the unjust and anti-democratic law that proceeds from it. They must go to the full extent of causing the ouster of the tyrant Duterte from power. Concerning the forces of the armed revolution, I do not have to urge them to fulfil their task of fighting the tyrannical regime.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported nine deaths on June 7, bringing the total to 1,003. These deaths are of those confirmed for COVID-19. There are many more deaths with pneumonia cases or with symptoms same as COVID-19 but were not tested during this period of the pandemic, as the government’s testing capacity struggles below […]
The Department of Agriculture in the region (DA-10) assured the public that the reported fall armyworm (FAW) infestation on corn plantations in some areas in Northern Mindanao has not yet reached an alarming level.
By. REV. MARMA URBANO United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Psalm 8
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
2Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
Last Friday, June 5, 2020, I witnessed how a young girl was handcuffed, forcibly grabbed and carried by a big man holding an M16 as if she were a pig to be brought for slaughter. I heard another girl crying. More than the words she was muttering, I heard so much rage but also so much fear. No matter how she invoked her rights on top of her voice, she appeared helpless in the face of these armed men. These two girls were among the seven students of the University of the Philippines in Cebu who were arrested for violating social distancing during Covid-19. The UP Cebu administration averred that their students held a peaceful protest against the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill. For that, they were given a foretaste of the terror that the Bill could do. The sight was so disturbing, so outrageous. I could not even claim to know how the mothers of these girls felt.
COVID-19 has revealed the deep roots of systemic injustice and reminds us why seeking justice, pursuing peace is essential. We have seen thousands of cases of extra-judicial killings, of arrests, of the intensification of attacks and threats against community leaders, human rights defenders, and political dissenters. Living out our faith in Jesus is more than ever important when laws like the Anti-Terrorism Bill of 2020 are enacted. The current Human Security Act of 2007 which will replace it is problematic enough.
Today’s bible texts have become so clear and relevant. In times like these, nothing can be so reassuring than the Trinity – the power and collective authority in heaven and on earth that has been given to Jesus.
Being attuned and committed to the heart of Jesus’ mission and ministry of transforming persons, systems and patterns of relationships has become very comprehendible to me. The message of Jesus’ Gospel and its imperatives in today’s context have become crystal clear : 1) a radical critique of the reigning political establishment, 2) a radical opposition against any power that seeks to exploit, oppress, dominate and dehumanize people, 3) the liberation of the Filipino people from any power—domestic or foreign; 4) the creation of a society that is just, free, and human where everyone can enjoy all the rights that are inalienable to every human being. Teaching the people to obey everything Jesus has commanded is all the more very crucial.
Being baptized in the name of Jesus means that by Jesus’ authority and power, we will have the heart and the strength of will, the depths of courage to do these things for our people, for our country, for God’s world. Grow your love. Claim the power.
Balik-Tanaw is a group blog of Promotion of Church People’s Response. The Lectionary Gospel reflection is an invitation for meditation, contemplation, and action. As we nurture our faith by committing ourselves to journey with the people, we also wish to nourish the perspective coming from the point of view of hope and struggle of the people. It is our constant longing that even as crisis intensifies, the faithful will continue to strengthen their commitment to love God and our neighbor by being one with the people in their dreams and aspirations. The Title of the Lectionary Reflection would be Balik –Tanaw , isang PAGNINILAY . It is about looking back (balik) or revisiting the narratives and stories from the Biblical text and seeing ,reading, and reflecting on these with the current context (tanaw).
On June 4, 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte met some of his cabinet officials still with the special participation of Senator Bong Go at Davao City. His address aired the following day and did not address the highly controversial railroading of the anti-terrorism bill that he certified urgent on June 1. Instead, in this meeting, Duterte […]
