Militant youth group League of Filipino Students (LFS) slammed the Duterte government for being “incapable of defending our country’s own territorial integrity” with the claim that it could only do so much about China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
Philippine Army holding Frank Fernandez incommunicado
The NDFP said details of where Fernandez and companions are incarcerated are still unclear. “This poses grave danger to their health and lives. It is incumbent upon their custodial units to forthwith present Frank Fernandez and his companions to their relatives and lawyers in order for him to receive his medicines and assure that their rights and well-being are respected,” Agcaoili said.
Impunity charge vs China filed at ICC
Former ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario filed a complaint against Chinese President Xi Jinping before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “check impunity” in the disputed South China Sea. Morales said they want to send a clear message to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte administration and to all Filipinos. “We demand accountability from those who destroy marine areas, and we want to check impunity as a deterrent to progress,” she said.
Strikes of workers met with red-tagging, criminal cases, arrests
“Unionism is not terrorism.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Eugene Garcia, union president at one of the oldest and most profitable industrial glass manufacturers in Manila, just attended a hearing at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) on March 20 when he came home to news that the police searched his house early that morning and allegedly found a gun.
Denying that he owned the gun, Garcia said the Pasig police “planted as false evidence” the .45-calibre firearm they “found” in his house. Despite this, the police arrested him. He is currently in jail in Pasig with a case of alleged illegal possession of firearms. Garcia linked his case to their labor dispute.
The union led by Garcia had been holding collective bargaining negotiations with the management but it got stalled in a deadlock.
Instead of bargaining with them around the workers’ demands, the company “offered” to fire the workers in exchange for a pay-out. Expectedly Garcia and the other unionists rejected it and they filed a case with the NCMB against the Pioneer Float Glass Manufacturing Inc. or PFGMI (formerly Asahi Flat Glass Corporation). He just came from one of the hearings into this case when he was arrested.
Upon hearing the news, the unionists allied with the progressive labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) cried foul and denounced the arrest of Garcia.
Garcia was the first Manila-based unionist arrested on trumped up charges following the Duterte administration’s press briefing last March 13 and the series of orientation delivered by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) to various government agencies that tagged the KMU as a “communist terrorist organization.”
The union Garcia leads is one of the longest surviving unions affiliated with the NAFLU (National Federation of Labor Unions), a founding member of the progressive labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
“Unionism is not terrorism,” said KMU vice chairperson Lito Ustarez in a statement. They held a picket in front of the Pasig Police station and demanded Garcia’s immediate release. They demanded the immediate release and junking of trumped-up charges of all illegally detained unionists and labor rights advocates.
Aside from Garcia, more unionists from other regions of the Philippines have been “abducted” and jailed by the police or the military for being leaders or members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
Last February 27 in Compostela Valley in Mindanao, union leaders affiliated with KMU were also seized by the military. Eleazar Diayon, vice chairperson for external and political affairs of the KMU, said Musahamat Farm 2 Workers Union-NAFLU-KMU union president Esperedion Cabaltera, vice president Richard Genabe and secretary Ronaldo Rosales were “abducted and illegally detained.” The military told the union leaders that they were arrested for being members of a union identified as “a terrorist organization” by President Duterte.
Cabaltera, Genabe and Rosales were released the next day after they signed a waiver that they will leave the KMU union and that they are “surrenderees” from the New People’s Army (NPA). Diayon said more union members have also been forced to sign a similar form by the Army.
Late last year, a peaceful, unarmed workers strike in Japanese-owned Sumitomo Fruit Company was demolished outside the gates of the packing plants by the military. Hundreds of strikers were later forced to encamp in Manila to follow up on their labor and court cases. Their homes are regularly “visited” by the military and they complained of being vilified in their home community as “terrorists.”
In Manila, reacting to the latest case slapped against a union leader from their federation, Ustarez said Garcia is “a victim of their company’s persistent union-busting schemes and of the Duterte regime’s intensified crackdown against unionists and labor rights advocates critical of his failed promises and anti-worker policies.”
Where Garcia works, the workers have confronted union-busting and contractualization for years. In 2016 the KMU said the then Asahi Flat Glass Corp. (AGC) illegally dismissed 44 workers, including union officials and members in the midst of the workers’ collective bargaining negotiations with Asahi.
The glass company claims it is the leading flat glass manufacturer in the Philippines. It manufactures up to 500 metric tons of different kinds of flat glass for industrial, commercial and residential uses.
In a separate statement the labor NGO Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) also cited the company’s contractualization drive that has been happening over the last two decades. In 2017, TQMP Glass Manufacturing Inc. acquired AGC and changed its name to PFGMI. Pioneer Float Glass Manufacturing Inc. (PFGMI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WDG Group of Companies, owned and managed by Paul Vincent Go.
As these developed, the Philippine government is putting together its report on how it views the progress it has made toward achieving the United Nations-designated Social Development Goals (SDGs). About to be reviewed in the High-Level Political Forum in September this year, the Duterte administration is set to report how it has pursued the goals under review, and that included the goals for decent employment.
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Tuloy ang laban, Anna
Una naming nakilala si Anna sa isang piket sa harap ng DENR noong July 15, 2015. Kakatambak lang noon ng di kukulang 26 na container van ng basura mula Canada sa landfill sa Tarlac, at nagpasya ang Kalikasan, kasama ang BAN Toxics, AGHAM, at Bayan Muna na markahan ng protesta ito.
Naaalala naming kwento ni Anna samin na hindi daw pinaalam sa kanya ng mga kasamahan niya sa BAN Toxics na rally daw ang pupuntahan niya sa araw na iyon. Baka daw kasi allergic siya sa mga protesta sa lansangan.
Kahit kami ay nagulat noong dumating siya sa piket namin—sino itong mukhang mayumi at kagalang-galang na nilalang na biglang kasama na namin sa piket at matalas na tinatalakay na ang pananagutan ng Canada at ng Pamahalaan sa pagtatambak ng dayuhang basura sa ating sariling lupain?
Hindi ito ang huling makulay na surpresang ibibigay sa amin ni Anna. Malalaman nalang namin sa mga susunod na pagkakataon na antas-millenial ang pagka-kwela pala niya. Minsan, bigla nalang siyang makikipagkwentuhan (na may halong talakayan ng isyu at kampanya, syempre) sa aming opisina na may dala-dalang healthy na snacks—siguro dahil alam niyang luxury ito sa aming mga all-volunteer lang na aktibista, pero marahil dahil sadyang mapagkalinga lang talaga siya.
Nag sponsor din siya ng org shirts para sa Kalikasan dahil, sabi nga niya, nakailang press conference, rally, at lobbying sa Kongreso na kami kasama siya at nakikita niyang wala kaming ganito, kung ano lang ang masuot ng mga kasama. Maliit na detalye ng buhay sa pagkilos pero hindi kami nagsawang ipaalam sa kanya—at nais naming malaman ng lahat ng nakadaupang palad ni Anna—na nakapagpataas talaga ito ng morale at diwa sa amin sa Kalikasan.
Mayroon talagang paraan siya ng pakikibagay at pakikisalamuha sa mga tao—mula sa mga maralitang mangangalakal ng basura hanggang sa mga senador at bise presidente—na malamang nagmumula sa kanyang tunay na malasakit at mataas na diwa ng hustisyang panlipunan. Tiyak na mararamdaman mo iyan sa bawat kwentuhan, talakayan, at pagkilos na makakasama mo siya.
Mula noong piket na iyon sa DENR ay nagkaroon ang Kalikasan ng mahusay at hindi matatawarang katuwang sa pagharap sa samu’t saring krisis sa kapaligiran na dinadanas ng sambayanang Pilipino. Mula sa pagtambak na basura ng Canada at South Korea, hanggang sa pagtulong sa mga kapwa environmental defender na kumakaharap ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao, laging handa si Anna na maging kabahagi sa mga inisyatiba para dito.
Out-of-the-box magsuri si Anna sa mga isyung pangkalikasan dahil hindi niya nakikita ito bilang hiwalay sa mga magkakasalabat na problemang panlipunan at pampulitika na kinakaharap ng bansa. Nakikita niya na natatahi ang usapin ng polusyon at pagkasira ng kapaligiran sa mga galaw at galamay ng mga tiwali at mga mandarambong.
Hindi pangkaraniwan ang sigasig, pagkamalikhain, at pagmamalasakit ni Anna para sa kalikasan at sa sambayanan. Makikita mo ito kahit maging sa kung paano niya pinalaki ang mga anak niyang sila Daenna, Cheska, at Vito. Tiyak kami na ipagpapatuloy nila ang kanyang mga adhikain. Gayundin, tiyak kami na lahat ng mga naging kasama ni Anna sa mga laban para sa kalusugan, kalikasan, at karapatan ay huhugot ng inspirasyon mula sa kanyang alaala at legasiya.
Sa bawat hakbang namin pasulong, alam naming kasama ka pa rin naming tinatahak itong landas na bihirang tahakin. Tuloy ang laban, Anna.
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Gov’t designed Kaliwa loan to favor China—IBON
The Kaliwa Dam loan agreement is designed to unduly favor Chinese interests over that of the Philippines. IBON Foundation raised this concern in the wake of the release, upon public pressure, of this and other loan agreements.
Metro Manila private water concessionaire Manila Water Company, Inc. and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems (MWSS) have long insisted on building the Kaliwa Dam and on a Chinese loan for this. The Department of Finance (DOF) seized on the recent disruption of water services, which IBON estimates to have affected at least 6.1 of 7.1 million Filipinos or 80% of the total population covered by the Manila Water service area, to further justify the project and the loan.
IBON executive director Sonny Africa however warned that the Kaliwa loan agreement signed last year during the visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping is unduly biased for China and against the Philippines. “Countries give official development aid (ODA) not out of charity but always to advance their foreign policy and self-interest,” Africa said. “The Chinese loans negotiated by the Duterte administration are suspiciously disadvantageous for the Philippines.”
IBON said that the practice of tied aid where loans are spent on the creditor country’s goods and services is unfortunately the norm in bilateral ODA. In the Kaliwa loan deal, for instance, the proceeds will pay for Chinese contractors and controversially even Chinese workers. China has a record of charging relatively high interest rates and for instance charges the highest nominal interest rates among all of the Philippines’ bilateral donors.
The group however pointed out that the Kaliwa loan deal goes far beyond these and creates conditions for a debt trap. This starts with the agreement’s Article 7 which makes it too easy for China to declare that the loan is in default and to subsequently declare “all the principal of and accrued interest … immediately due and payable”.
The loan for instance can apparently consider the Philippines in default if payment is more than thirty (30) days overdue, if the Philippines defaults even on other loans not in any way connected to the Kaliwa loan or project, or if “in the opinion of the Lender [there is] a material deterioration of the financial conditions of the Borrower”. There are no such provisions in the other Japan and Korean loans that the DOF recently released.
Moreover, IBON said, the loan is explicitly governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of China (Article 8.4) and any disputes will be settled in the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (Article 8.5). The arbitration rules of the HKIAC are however biased for China such as in the choice of arbiters and especially if Chinese law is made the agreement’s governing law.
IBON said the country is being set up to potentially give up natural and strategic resources. In the agreement’s Article 8.1, the country “waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereignty or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration proceeding” on assets within the territory of the Philippines unless prohibited by law. IBON stressed that this provision is dangerous especially given the current administration’s predisposition to wield the law haphazardly for narrow ends.
“China rationally seeks to advance its self-interest as much as possible,” Africa said, “but it is suspicious that the Philippine government is giving so much to China and so badly failing to protect the country’s interest.” He also pointed out: “China is not just any lender and is aggressive in asserting its global agenda even at the expense of human rights, environmental protection, and feeding corruption in debtor governments.” The Kaliwa Dam project does not even yet have an updated feasibility study, environmental clearance, or the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the communities.
IBON pointed out that the Duterte administration is seeking as much as US$14.4 billion for 23 infrastructure projects under its Build, Build, Build program. “China has already been implicated in a few controversial debts gone bad where governments were pressured to give up control over strategic assets like ports,” Africa said. “As it is, China’s actions in the mineral- and marine- rich West Philippine Sea islands and destruction of the rich marine biodiversity with reclamation activities shows that it is unconcerned about Philippine sovereignty and our interests.”
Africa said: “The Duterte administration made a big show of supposedly independent foreign policy at the start of its term — it can start now by taking bold measures to modify or terminate these disadvantageous agreements.” ###
Duterte raises hands of PDP-Laban candidates in CDO
There were no words of inspiration to his fellow Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) members when Pres. Rodrigo Duterte spoke before thousands of local officials and supporters but the usual tirade against drug addicts, the Commission on Human Rights, Communist insurgents, opposition senatorial candidates, and the Roman Catholic clergy.
Rappler correspondent evicted from CDO school where Duterte appeared
NUJP ALERTMarch 25, 2019 Rappler’s Cagayan de Oro City correspondent was told to leave the campus of the University of Science and Technology in Southern Philippines (USTP) Sunday, March 24, hours before President Rodrigo Roa Duterte arrived to lead the campaign rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan. Rappler correspondent Bobby Lagsa said he […]