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Bayan Muna: Probe ‘chaotic’ overseas voting in Hong Kong

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Bayan Muna: Probe ‘chaotic’ overseas voting in Hong Kong

By: Zacarian Sarao – INQUIRER.net /April 10, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna Representative Ferdinand Gaite on Sunday called for an immediate investigation of the “chaotic and disorganized” election system in Hong Kong during the first day of the overseas voting for the 2022 elections.

This came after the voting precinct in Hong Kong was unable to accommodate the thousands of voters on Sunday. Voters also questioned why there were only five vote counting machines (VCMs) when there should have been 10 — similar to the previous elections — provided by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to the consular office.

Gaite in a statement said he will ask the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms of the House of Representatives to summon the Comelec, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Hong Kong Consular office to investigate the matter.

“We cannot allow the potential massive disenfranchisement of our overseas voters due to the ineptitude and lack of proper organizing by these officials. The slashing of funds by the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) for the overseas voting must also be looked into,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong on the same day released a statement explaining that “one of the conditions set forth by the Hong Kong Government is strict compliance with anti-pandemic measures given that Hong Kong is in the midst of the Fifth Wave of the pandemic.”

“Thus, to ensure effective crowd control and compliance with anti-pandemic measures, the Consulate General upon the recommendation of the Hong Kong Police wishes to announce that today’s capacity to accept voters has reached its limit,” said the consulate general.

It then advised Filipino voters to consider voting on Monday or any day until May 9, 2022 as overseas voting will continue for 30 days even during holidays.

However, Gaite questioned why the precinct did not plan for the surge of voters if there was a capacity limit.

“If they were aware of the ‘capacity limit’ of the venue beforehand, should they not have planned for that?” said Gaite.

“Did they not think of requesting for at least 10 VCMs (vote counting machines) similar to 2019 so as to quicken the voting process and lessen long queues, scheduling voters, extended hours during weekdays, among others?” he added.

Health workers want Badoy’s physician license revoked

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Health workers want Badoy’s physician license revoked

Apr 11, 2022, Bonz Magsambol

The Alliance of Health Workers says Lorraine Badoy’s conduct and statements maligning her fellow health workers ‘constitute unprofessional and unethical conduct, for which she must be penalized’

MANILA, Philippines – The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) on Monday, April 11, trooped to the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) to file complaints against government anti-communist task force (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy, even as they sought the immediate revocation of her physician license.

“We are upset by this red-tagging issue. We are in the midst of a pandemic wherein we risked our lives and health in fighting the deadly virus. Many of our fellow health workers died in combating COVID-19 and yet we are being maliciously attacked and accused of being terrorists by Ms. Badoy and the entire NTF-ELCAC,” said Cristy Donguines, a nurse and president of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union-Alliance of Health Workers.

The group said that earlier this month, serial red-tagger Badoy maliciously implicated AHW as a creation of the CPP-NPA-NDF with the aim of infiltrating the government. She released the said statement on the Facebook page of the NTF-ELCAC. She also accused AHW president Robert Mendoza and secretary-general Benjamin Santos as being “operatives and cadres of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”

“The false, baseless and dangerous allegations of Badoy have caused intense anxiety and sleepless nights to AHW’s national leaders and members and have also caused the same level of distress to people who are close to us,” said Donguines.

The group said that Badoy’s conduct and statements maligning her fellow health workers and the AHW as an organization “constitute unprofessional and unethical conduct, for which she must be penalized.”

“She owes a degree of responsibility to fellow health workers to act with professionalism and fairness, and not unfairness and vitriol,” they added.

Karen Mae Faurillo, a registered social worker and president of All UP-Workers Union-Manila, said it was unfair and demoralizing that the “one understands the demands and rigors of our profession as health workers is the one who denigrated and vilified us.”

“Where is the compassion here?” she asked.

On April 7, various members of the AHW filed administrative and criminal complaints against Badoy over defamation and red-tagging of their leaders. The complaints filed on Monday followed a string of cases against Badoy. In March alone, complaints from two separate groups were filed against her.

After red-tagging Vice President Leni Robredo and members of the progressive Makabayan bloc, some 26 activists and concerned citizens filed three separate cases accusing Badoy of multiple violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The AHW is an accredited organization under the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Labor and Employment. The group, over the years, has been pushing for the rights of workers in the health sector. – Rappler.com

Rehabilitating ‘The Butcher’

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Rehabilitating ‘The Butcher’

Editorial, Philippine Daily Inquirer /April 08, 2022

He was described by activists as “The Butcher” during the Arroyo administration for the trail of blood that followed his every anti-insurgency assignment. In 2018, after three years in hiding, retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan was finally tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2006 abduction and serious illegal detention of University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, both of whom remain missing.

So imagine the outrage in some sectors when this convicted felon was featured in a two-hour interview aired on March 30 on SMNI, the Sonshine Media Network International, owned by Apollo Quiboloy, who is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. The interview by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) was slammed by the missing students’ kin as “a travesty of justice” and a “cheap shot” meant to rehabilitate Palparan’s reputation.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has disavowed any knowledge of the controversial interview and said it would probe the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), which is in charge of national inmates. The BuCor is scheduled to submit its report on the incident on Monday, DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.

But shouldn’t the DOJ also hold to account Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, spokesperson of the NTF-Elcac, one of those who interviewed Palparan and who described him as a “victim of trumped-up charges” during the interview? Was this Palace official, already facing a slew of complaints before the Ombudsman and the Commission on Elections for red-tagging critics, impugning the integrity of the courts and the DOJ who were, after all, behind the charges the general was tried and convicted of?

Then again, how could Palparan have wrangled a public platform justifying his crimes while detained Sen. Leila de Lima can’t even have access to a cell phone, even when her trial is ongoing and judgment has yet to be rendered on her case? Have the courts and the DOJ been lax in enforcing the principle of equality before the law?

The NTF-Elcac justified the interview by reasoning out that Palparan was inside the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City all throughout the event, hence no prior leave or permission was necessary. Everything was “in accordance with prevailing rules, legal precepts, and jurisprudence,” its statement added.

While the interview may have been allowed by the BuCor, it still showed gross insensitivity to the families of the real victims who, 16 years after the crime, have yet to have closure over their loss.

“They gave the convicted Palparan all the freedom to speak to the public. How about our daughters, did he give them a chance to speak and defend themselves? No! They remain missing to this day … while Palparan is alive and well,” Concepcion Empeño, mother of Karen, lamented.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) similarly decried the interview: How could this criminal serving life for depriving people of their basic human rights be allowed to give media interviews at the behest of government officials? asked NUPL president Edre Olalia. “This is not only thumbing one’s nose at our justice and penal systems but [also mocking] equal protection of the law and may be laying the predicate to make [Palparan] walk soon,” he added.

In a letter to BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag, the NUPL questioned the alleged special treatment accorded the convict. Shouldn’t he be transferred to the maximum security compound, instead of him staying at the minimum security facility, which is the holding area for prisoners with light sentences or those who are about to be released? the lawyers’ group asked. It also noted that the request to interview Palparan should have been denied since he still has a pending criminal case before a Bulacan court for the kidnapping of brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo.

The unauthorized interview has implications as well on the seemingly unfettered powers of the NTF-Elcac whose red-tagging spree has resulted in warrantless arrests and suspicious deaths, including those of nine activists in that March 7, 2021 Bloody Sunday raid. Most of the cases filed from those arrests have been dismissed by the courts due to procedural lapses, the latest being that of Dr. Natividad Castro. Despite the conduct of officers of the law in Castro’s case, which the court described as “repugnant,” and the police’s determination to still pursue her arrest, the justice department has yet to denounce what appears to be a habitual disrespect for court proceedings.

The DOJ should be reminded that the International Criminal Court has only paused—on the request of the Philippine government—its investigation into President Duterte’s “crimes against humanity” in connection with his war on drugs. To counter that charge, the agency must exert utmost efforts to demonstrate that the country’s criminal justice system is functioning well in accordance with the spirit of the law. That improper Palparan interview should be a good place to start.

Media expert flags lack of accountability for ‘political elites’ behind troll farms

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Media expert flags lack of accountability for ‘political elites’ behind troll farms

By: Cathrine Gonzales – Reporter /INQUIRER.net /April 09, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — A media expert on Saturday flagged the lack of accountability for political elites and main strategists who are behind troll farms disrupting discussions in online spaces.

“Who are we targeting really when we talk about trolls?” Jonathan Ong, Associate Professor of Global Digital Media at the University of Massachusetts and research fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, asked during the Safeguarding Digital Rights Amid the Philippine Elections forum organized by EngageMedia.

Ong noted that most people think of low-level workers when talking about trolls.

“We associate them with being Duterte supporters. We think that they might have been brainwashed by Duterte in some form or brainwashed by Facebook in some way,” he said.

“But what we try to argue in our report ‘Architects of Networked [Disinformation]’ is info based on interviews of the people who run campaigns that there’s a whole hierarchy of people when assembling these online armies, where advertising and PR strategists are at the top, calling the shots, assembling influencers, and having fake account operators,” Ong added.

Ong lamented that a lot of efforts have been focused only on unmasking the operators of fake social media accounts.

“But we have really done very little to hold accountable people at the top,” he said. “The people at the top, it’s an open secret, who these people are. These political strategists operate from corporate boardrooms and hold both corporate accounts and political clients.”

Ong also noted that political strategists who organize trolls still enjoy a very strong level of protection from political elites.

His recommendation? To keep our eye on the big fish.

“Keep your eye on the big fish. Punch up and not down. Don’t waste energy fighting the troll on your timeline. So again, we need to hold accountable the people at the top of the hierarchy, the political elites, the main strategists, rather than go after the fake account operator, the anonymous page operator,” he said.

Facebook takes down 400-account network amplifying content on PH DDoS attacks

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Facebook takes down 400-account network amplifying content on PH DDoS attacks

Apr 7, 2022, Gelo Gonzales, Rappler.com

‘The people behind this activity claim to be hacktivists that relied primarily on authentic and duplicate accounts to host and amplify content about distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks,’ Meta says

MANILA, Philippines – Facebook owner Meta on Thursday, April 7, announced it had taken down a network of 400 accounts, pages and groups that have “claimed credit for bringing down websites and defacing them, including news entities’ websites.” 

The “coordinated violative network” had worked together “to systematically violate multiple policies on our platforms against coordinated harm, bullying or harassment, hate speech, misinformation, and incitement to violence.” 

David Agranovich, director of threat disruption at Meta, explained, “The people behind this activity claim to be hacktivists that relied primarily on authentic and duplicate accounts to host and amplify content about distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks, account recovery, and defacement or compromising websites in the Philippines. Notably, they also offered cybersecurity services to protect websites from the very types of attacks they claim to perpetrate.” 

The takedown is the result of a new policy launched last year by Facebook that aimed to crack down on harmful real networks made up of coordinated accounts by real person. It is an extension of their older policy on coordinated inauthentic behavior which primarily makes use of networks of fake accounts. The policy takes aim at “tightly organized groups trying to amplify the harmful behavior of its members, and repeatedly violate our content policies,” said Agranovich. 

As with Facebook’s policy on coordinated inauthentic behavior, Agravonich emphasized that when they do these investigations on potentially harmful coordinated networks, they focus on the behaviors of the accounts in the network, and not the content.

“It’s not because of what they’re saying, who they’re supporting or who they’re not supporting; it’s the way they are engaging on the platform,” Agranovich said.  

“What we realized was these types of networks – even if they don’t use fake accounts – can still do more harm because they are working together than any of them can do individually. And so the idea behind this enforcement was we saw a handful of groups and pages, as well as a large number of user accounts that were working together to do a few things, and one was to coordinate or claim credit for these DDoS attacks.” 

The accounts in the network were found to have been engaging in other violations of Facebook policies, including coordinating harassment, bullying, and misinformation and disinformation that could lead to harm off the platform, and violations of the platform’s cybersecurity policies against DDoS attacks.

“When we looked across this network of people working together, they were very frequently, consistently, violating many of those policies in working together to amplify their violating activities,” Agranovich said. 

Agranovich also noted the difficulty in pinpointing the motivations of such a network, but its promotion of cybersecurity services that would protect sites from the attacks they claim to perpetrate may point to, at the very least, a financial one.

Meta, in its online briefing announcing the takedown, did not specify any of the pages or accounts taken down.

Earlier on March 2, Rappler was able to receive confirmation from Meta that the page “Pinoy Vendetta,” which had been among the most active pages posting about DDoS attacks, had been taken down for “repeatedly violating our policies.” – Rappler.com

These Are the Top Companies in the Philippines in 2022, According to LinkedIn

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These Are the Top Companies in the Philippines in 2022, According to LinkedIn

By Bryle B. Suralta, Esquiremag.ph

As the definition of career growth evolves, workplaces are seeing a shift in what employees are looking for in their professional lives.

LinkedIn recently published its second annual ranking of the 15 best workplaces for stability. Based on unique LinkedIn data, the list was put together by assessing seven critical pillars for progression. These include the ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, and spread of educational backgrounds.

“As we continue to navigate the challenging realities of today’s world, employee engagement and support are now more important than ever,” LinkedIn News Senior Managing Editor Satoshi Ebitani explains. “Our Top Companies list celebrates companies invested in the growth and well-being of the most important resource in the workplace–people.” 

According to LinkedIn, these are the Philippines’ top companies for 2022:

  1. Smart Communications
  2. Accenture
  3. Shell
  4. Metrobank
  5. Emerson
  6. BDO Unibank
  7. Manila Water
  8. Nestle
  9. WPP
  10. Philippine General Hospital
  11. Insular Life Assurance Company Ltd.
  12. Robinsons Bank Corporation
  13. San Miguel Corporation
  14. DXC Technology
  15. Cognizant

A key trend observed from Linkedin’s research is that flexible work is no longer just a “nice thing to have.” In Metrobank’s case, the corporation developed employee wellness programs, like new and improved work-from-home policies and support for employees’ emotional and mental well-being.

Mental health has been a key point of emphasis for companies, as well. This is why many of this year’s top companies started offering mental health services. In an effort to address this, Smart Communications launched the “Mind Your Health” program, which was designed to educate employees on various mental health issues.

Meanwhile, upskilling opportunities are found to have offered employees a sense of stability. Accenture, for instance, strengthened its Near-Hire Training program to help non-college job applicants.

The various companies on this year’s rankings also looked to ensure equality in the workforce. Accenture did so by rolling out personalized equipment like headsets, glasses, and the like for employees with vision, hearing, speech, or mobility impairment.

Emerson, on the other hand, made building a diverse, inclusive workplace its top priority. The company promises to double the representation of women globally by 2030.

Ebitani concludes: “With dedicated programs and initiatives to support career progression and the growing need for work-life balance, these companies are leading the charge for long-term success in the workforce.”

House hearings sought on convict Palparan’s TV interview despite pending case

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House hearings sought on convict Palparan’s TV interview despite pending case

Xave Gregorio – Philstar.com, April 5, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — House hearings are being sought over an interview with convicted kidnapper Jovito Palparan Jr. aired on Sonshine Media Network International, which lawmakers said may have violated rules on the activities of inmates.

Reps. Eufemia Cullamat, Carlos Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite (Bayan Muna) filed House Resolution No. 2546 on Monday asking the chamber’s human rights panel to investigate the interview with Palparan, who is serving his sentence at the New Bilibid Prison.

Hearings into possible irregularities in the Bureau of Corrections allowing the interview are unlikely at the House, where the administration maintains a supermajority. Even if members were inclined to investigate, most lawmakers are focused on the campaign for the May elections.

“The SMNI interview with Palparan reveals a clear double standard on the treatment of persons deprived of liberty and presents possible violations of the rules regarding the conduct of interview and other activities of inmates, especially with those convicted of gross human rights violations,” the Bayan Muna lawmakers said.

Palparan was interviewed by Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy in a program aired on SMNI and shared by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict on its official Facebook page.

Badoy, who is also a spokesperson for the NTF-ELCAC, said the interview was to “vindicate” Palparan, whose conviction she claimed to be founded on “trumped up charges.”

The Malolos Regional Trial Court found Palparan guilty of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in the disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

The mothers of Cadapan and Empeño condemned the interview, calling it “a cheap, desperate attempt to vindicate criminals and rights violators.”

BuCor: Request was made at the bureau level

As the Department of Justice said it will investigate how the interview happened, Bureau of Corrections spokesperson Gabriel Chaclag claimed that it did not violate any rules.

“The request was sent just to the level of the BuCor. Our legal department studied the request extensively and we found that this does not violate any rules,” Chaclag told The STAR in Filipino.

But the Bayan Muna lawmakers said, citing the March 2000 BuCor operations manual, that a request for interview with an NBP inmate requires the recommendation of the penal institution’s director and approval of the justice secretary.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the DOJ and the court that convicted Palparan did not receive any request or permission for the interview.

Lawmakers also said that the BuCor manual provides that a request for an interview may be denied if the inmate has a pending criminal case. Palparan is still facing a kidnapping case before a Malolos court.

“The highly condemnable red-tagging interview makes a mockery of the country’s justice and penal system and should rightly be subjected to a thorough and impartial probe to prevent further excesses and violations,” they said.

Vivian Velez, celebrities launch Bayad Buwis Movement

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Vivian Velez, celebrities launch Bayad Buwis Movement

Jan Milo Severo – Philstar.com, April 5, 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Celebrities Vivian Velez and Rez Cortez led the launching of the Bayad Buwis Movement on Thursday aiming to get the P203 billion unpaid estate taxes of the Marcos family. 

Vivian said that the event, which gathered around 3,000 people in Quezon City Memorial Circle, had no political color. 

“Walang kulay dito, welcome ang lahat,” she said. 

“Kaming mga artista nagbabayad din ng tamang buwis, tulad din ng ibang prospesyon. Kaya dapat ‘di manalo ‘yung may utang na P203 billion!” she added. 

Movie producer Edith Fider said that the performing artists in the event, such as Quest, Dotty’s World, J Brothers, Good Harvest, and other talents didn’t receive talent fees nor payments.

“Nagpapasalamat kami sa kanilang suporta,” she said. 

“Iba naman talaga ang boses ng nasa entertainment industry. Talagang nakakatawag-pansin so sana marami pa tayong makasama sa mga next rally!” Vivian added.

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