Pebrero 10, 2020 Nagbigay pahayag si Rhea Padilla, national coordinator ng Altermidya- People’s Alternative Media Network kaugnay sa pag-aresto kay Frenchie Mae Cumpio, mamamahayag ng Eastern Vista at sa tinaguriang Tacloban 5 noong Pebrero 7 sa Tacloban City.
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Enero 29, 2020 Ipinalabas sa Cine Adarna, Unibersidad ng Pilipinas ang The Kingmaker, isang dokyumentaryo ni Laura Greenfield. Ang pelikula ay tungkol kay Imelda Marcos, sa rehimeng Marcos at ang kanilang muling pagbabalik sa kapangyarihan. Tinanong ng Kodao ang mga nanood kung ano ang masasabi nila sa pelikula at ito ang kanilang mga sinabi. Bidyo […]
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Her arrest “demonstrates the tendency of the Duterte government to weaponize the law in aid of its self-declared war waged against terrorism at the detriment of the lives and well-being of innocent people working in legal organizations in order to help the basic sectors of our society fight for and defend their basic, fundamental rights to uphold their human dignity.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Organizations who worked closely with arrested and detained human rights defender Jennefer Aguhob belied military’s claims, saying Aguhob is a “tireless paralegal worker.”
Aguhob, an engineer by profession, was arrested on Feb. 5 in Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental by state agents. She is a also a recent law graduate and national council member of Karapatan from Region 13.
Igelesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Obispo Maximo Rhee M. Timbang also expressed alarmed over the arrest of Aguhob. Timbang said as paralegal worker, Aguhob helped in the case of Bishop Carlo Morales in 2017. Aguhob also worked in IFI’s Abundant Life Program as a volunteer.
“She provides assistance to the IFI in giving updates on the case, in facilitating the appearance of legal counsels in court hearings and in ascertaining that documents appertaining to the case are attended to,” Timbang said in a statement.
Timbang said her arrest “demonstrates the tendency of the Duterte government to weaponize the law in aid of its self-declared war waged against terrorism at the detriment of the lives and well-being of innocent people working in legal organizations in order to help the basic sectors of our society fight for and defend their basic, fundamental rights to uphold their human dignity.”
Meanwhile, Ephraim Cortez, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), described Aguhob as “a tireless and dedicated paralegal who regularly attends court hearings of political prisoners as part of her work.”
Cortez added that Aguhob was an official delegate of the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) to the 5th NUPL National Congress in Manila last October 2019.
Trumped-up charges
According to Karapatan, Aguhob’s arrest was based on a warrant for charges of murder issued on July 26, 2019 by Judge Victoriao Lacaya, Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte. She is now detained at the Oroquieta City Police Station.
Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, said Aguhob had no knowledge that there was such a complaint filed against her and others.
“She was deprived of her right to due process, when she was arrested based on the said complaint,” Palabay said in a statement.
In a report, the military accused Aghuhob as the finance, liaison officer of Sub-Regional Military Area II of the New People’s Army.
Karapatan debunked this, saying that last October 2019, Aguhob participated in the organization’s council meeting. She was also preparing to take the bar exams this year.
Karapatan added that Aguhob experienced threats and harassment in the past two years. She was terminated from the Oroquieta City engineer’s office after military officials talked with her superiors, Karapatan said.
Cortez pointed out, “The question is simple and straightforward, if not rhetorical: How can high profile and visible people working in open legal organizations doing perfectly legal and constitutionally-protected advocacy commit or be committing patently criminal acts and yet not be in hiding?”
“This is illegalizing otherwise legal acts, behavior, and individuals,” he added.
Karapatan said the filing of trumped up charges against activists is a policy and practice by administrations in an attempt to stifle dissent.
“The Duterte administration is more viciously implementing this with Executive Order No. 70 and martial law, declared or otherwise, in Mindanao,” Palabay said.
The groups demand that Aguhob and those arrested with trumped charges be released. They also pressed for the withdrawal of Executive Order No. 70 and the enactment of measures for the protection of human rights defenders.
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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A group of human rights lawyers said the attempt to shutdown media giant ABS-CBN is remniscient of martial law years of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., where media institutions were put under government control and information flow has been restricted.
“Stripped of its legalese costume, it frontally circumvents Article III, Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution, which proscribes abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press,” said human rights lawyers Ephraim Cortez and Josalee Deinla of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in a joint statement.
This morning Feb. 10, the Office of the Solicitor General filed a quo warranto petition before the Supreme Court against ABS-CBN.
Read: Groups slam SolGen’s plea to revoke ABS-CBN franchise
There are currently 11 bills before the House of Representatives in support of the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN.
Solicitor General Jose Calida’s “showcase of power exposes this government’s utter disrespect of the people’s right to a free and independent press, and its unqualified intolerance to dissent, disapproval of any diversion from the official line, and aversion to critical yet constructive views, opinions and ideas,” the NUPL said.
Government machinery vs. ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN’s Photo Editor Jun Sepe, in a protest action in Boy’s Scout Circle in Quezon City, said all three government branches are being utilized against the franchise renewal.
Sepe, who is also the chairperson of the Photojournalists Center of the Philippines, said he is one of the 11,000 workers who would be affected by the attempts to shutdown the TV station.
Cortez and Deinla said it also “adversely affects the people’s right to information on matters of public concern enshrined in Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, not to mention parallel provisions in international law.”
The NUPL said, “It fits right into the mold of presidential tantrums in tandem with legislative collusion. We pray that the judiciary does not become a party to this outrageous lawfare.”
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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Journalists and lawyers group called out Solicitor General Jose Calida for harassing ABS-CBN reporter and lawyer Mike Navallo, who was covering the filing of the quo warranto plea against his mother station.
While refusing interview requests from reporters, Calida singled out Navallo for “always criticizing” him, and challenged him to practice law.
Navallo, for his part, responded that he is merely doing his job.
In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the solicitor general “clearly overstepped the bounds of his office and of propriety when he turned personal” and resorted to harassing Navallo.
“Calida’s boorishness is the classic example of a government factotum who mistakes his position of authority as a license to throw his weight around. It is behavior that, of course, echoes his principal,” the journalist group said.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said Calida’s condescending challenge to Navallo, “without doubt condoned if not encouraged and goaded by President Duterte’s persistent threats against the media outfit – reveal an attempt at censorship and prior restraint, masked as a perfectly legal action to “put an end… to highly abusive practices.”
“His feudal treatment of a fellow lawyer based on his self-professed superiority does not speak well neither of the office he represents nor of the profession,” the lawyers group said.
Calida filed a quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN today, Feb. 10, as yet another attempt to shutdown one of the countries biggest media outfit. This has been described as reminiscent of the Marcos era, where ABS-CBN, too, was shut down.
The NUPL said, “history will judge all these disingenuous legal assaults against freedoms and liberties the way they deserve. In time, every one will be given his due.”
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After the Camiguin provincial government required local and foreign tourists to disclose their travel history before they are allowed to enter the island-province, it has now temporarily restricted the entry of visitors who have been to China and other countries hit by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A group of human rights lawyers said the attempt to shutdown media giant ABS-CBN is remniscient of martial law years of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., where media institutions were put under government control and information flow has been restricted.
“Stripped of its legalese costume, it frontally circumvents Article III, Section 4 of the Philippine Constitution, which proscribes abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press,” said human rights lawyers Ephraim Cortez and Josalee Deinla of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in a joint statement.
This morning Feb. 10, the Office of the Solicitor General filed a quo warranto petition before the Supreme Court against ABS-CBN.
Read: Groups slam SolGen’s plea to revoke ABS-CBN franchise
There are currently 11 bills before the House of Representatives in support of the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN.
Solicitor General Jose Calida’s “showcase of power exposes this government’s utter disrespect of the people’s right to a free and independent press, and its unqualified intolerance to dissent, disapproval of any diversion from the official line, and aversion to critical yet constructive views, opinions and ideas,” the NUPL said.
Government machinery vs. ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN’s Photo Editor Jun Sepe, in a protest action in Boy’s Scout Circle in Quezon City, said all three government branches are being utilized against the franchise renewal.
Sepe, who is also the chairperson of the Photojournalists Center of the Philippines, said he is one of the 11,000 workers who would be affected by the attempts to shutdown the TV station.
Cortez and Deinla said it also “adversely affects the people’s right to information on matters of public concern enshrined in Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, not to mention parallel provisions in international law.”
The NUPL said, “It fits right into the mold of presidential tantrums in tandem with legislative collusion. We pray that the judiciary does not become a party to this outrageous lawfare.”
The post Rights lawyers say shutdown plea vs. ABS-CBN reminscient of Marcos era appeared first on Bulatlat.
