PinoyAbrod.net

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Human rights activists held a protest action in front of Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City to call for an end to the continuing attacks against women human rights defenders as they commemorate the International Women Human Rights Defenders Day today, Nov. 29.

“The Philippines is a dangerous place for women and women human rights defenders. The situation has aggravated because the Duterte government is hell-bent on protecting the foremost violators of women’s rights – the military and the police,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

The human rights group, in a statement, said there are 33 women activists killed under the more than two years of the Duterte administration.

More women rights advocates are also being subjected to attacks such as cases of harassment and filing of trumped-up criminal charges, resulting to at least 45 presently behind bars.

Apart from these attacks, Palabay pointed out that no less than President Duterte “spouts demeaning statements against women and actively orders his mercenaries to act with the same disrespect and lack of regard for women’s rights.”

Tanggol Bayi coordinator Gerifel Cerillo clarified that these attacks are “far from isolated” as these are “fueled by a patriarchal and militarist society.”

Tanggol Bayi is an organization of women rights defenders.

Among the gender-bases violence documented is how the Philippine police, the main implementor of the government’s war against illegal drugs, carry out schemes such as sex-for-freedom or “palit-puri.”

Cerillo added, “the ugly situation on the ground cannot be concealed, and the putrid stench of machismo and sexism has permeated the air. This situation is urging us to unite and further strengthen our voices against misogyny and rising tyranny and dictatorship.” (Bulatlat.com)

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Members of the 56th IBPA blocked the entry of school and food supplies for the said boarding school despite coordination with the local government unit.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – A Lumad school was forcibly closed by alleged members of the paramilitary group known to be under the command of the 56th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army.

At around 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28, Save Our Schools Network (SOS Network) reported that paramilitary group Alamara padlocked the Dulyan Campus of Salugpongan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center Inc. (STTICLC) in sitio Dulyan, Palma Gil village, Talaingod Davao Del Norte. This is the main school of the STTICLC and was also awarded a status of recognition by the Department of Education.

According to the report of the Mindanao-based The Breakaway Media, around 100 students and teachers from the STTICLC were forced to evacuate from the school.

Meggie Nolasco, STTICLC executive director condemned the most recent in a series of attacks against the indigenous schools in Mindanao. She called the paramilitary group and the 56th IBPA as criminals who blatantly violate the people’s right to education.
“This criminal act perpetrated by State forces is unconscionable. These schools were built through the initiative and solidarity of indigenous communities to provide education for their children; their efforts deemed necessary on account of years of government neglect,” she said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, Nov. 27, members of the 56th IBPA blocked the entry of school and food supplies for the said boarding school despite coordination with the local government unit. According to SOS Network-Southern Mindanao Region the school personnel presented a courtesy letter duly received by the local government regarding the delivery of goods as soldiers arbitrarily demanded for a mayor’s permit.

The 56th IBPA and the paramilitary group have been harassing the school in the said area and had attempted to forcibly close the school prior to the incident.

On Nov. 28, a National Solidarity Mission to Talaingod was set to deliver school supplies and goods. Members of the mission include former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro and Pia Malayao of KATRIBU. However, at around 11:00 p.m. on the same day, the delegates reported that they were also blocked by soldiers of the 56th IBPA in sitio Upaw, Palma Gil village.

“At least two shots were fired, a stone was thrown at one of their vehicles and wired-nails hit the tire of at least two vehicles,” the statement read.

Also according to the SOS, “the convoy of 5 vans that rescued children and teachers were also held up at Sto. Niño. They were interrogated by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office.” The license of the driver of the van was also confiscated.

As of 5:00 a.m. today, 75 people including 29 students and 12 teachers of Lumad schools are still being detained by the state forces.
The Makabayan bloc in Congress has already filed House Resolution No. 2331 “condemning the efforts of the elements of the 56th IB and the paramilitary group Alamara to forcibly close the “Lumad school Salugpongan Learning Center in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte through threats, harassment, and intimidation of teachers, students, and community members.”

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Tanggol Wika and the Manila Science High School filed motions for reconsideration on the SC decision to lift the TRO on the removal of Filipino as part of core subjects.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Nationalists will not give up the fight to retain Filipino and literature as core subjects in college. Last Monday, Nov. 26, students, professors and patriots showed their support for these subjects to stay in college as the Alyansa ng Mga Tagapagtanggol ng Wikang Filipino (Tanggol Wika) filed a motion for reconsideration against the Supreme Court (SC) decision to lift the temporary restraining order against Commission on Higher Education’s (Ched) Memorandum Order 20 series of 2013.

The SC has recently dismissed the consolidated petitions filed by the academe, students, teachers and other groups against the K to 12 program or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 of the administration of Benigno Aquino III. In the same decision, the high court also lifted the temporary restraining order on CMO 20 which excludes Filipino and literature subjects in college, upheld the Kindergarten Education Act as well as other related issuances of the Department of Education (DepEd), Ched, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) implementing the K to 12 program.

For one, the SC decision stated that “Section 6, Article XIV on the use of the Filipino language as a medium of instruction is also not self-executory.”

In its motion, Tanggol Wika asserted that it is self-executing as the “entirety of the Constitution is still presumed to be self-executory.”

“Exceptions to that rule must be declared only with extreme caution and as a last resort in order to prevent the wrong impression that there are, as Justice Leonen puts it in his dissent, ‘second-order rights.’ Exceptions, where declared, must also be limited and strictly construed against government and more favorably interpreted in favor of the rights denigrated,” the motion read.

Tanggol Wika also said claims that Filipino subjects in college will only duplicate as it is being taken by students in elementary and high school has no factual basis. It stated that Filipino subjects have been previously required by Ched in CMO No. 54 series of 2007 which are: Filipino I (Komunikasyon sa Akademikong Filipino), Filipino II (Pagbasa at Pagsulat Tungo sa Pananaliksik) and Filipino III (Masining na Pagpapahayag).

“Petitioners showed in their Petition that when Filipino in the core curriculum of basic education (senior and junior high school, in particular) is put side-by-side with Filipino in the general education curriculum at the tertiary level, it can be seen that there are matters covered in the latter which are not covered in the former,” the motion read.

The petitioners also argued that mathematics and the natural and social sciences subjects which are also already part of the basic education curriculum also remained in the general education (GE) curriculum in the tertiary level. But not Filipino which was totally eliminated in college.

Manila Science High School also filed a motion for reconsideration

Meanwhile parents, students and teachers of Manila Science High School (MSHS) who also questioned the constitutionality of the K to 12 program filed their motion for reconsideration on Nov. 27.

The SC decision said that “There is no conflict between the K to 12 Law and the right of due process of the students.” According to the decision, the law’s declaration of policy reveals that “objectives of the law serve the interest of the public and not only of a particular class.” The decision also said that the objective of the law is to be at par with international standards as there are only three countries, including the Philippines, in the world with a 10-year basic education system.

The petitioner’s counsel, Severo Brillantes countered that not all Filipinos “need a globally competitive education or one at par with international standards.”

He pointed out that this is why they argued that the law only served the interest of the few and not the public. He said not all Filipinos will apply for graduate school admission to a foreign university or for professional work in a foreign corporation. He added that only those who will seek those will supposedly need the additional years of basic education.

“But why burden each and every Filipino student with additional two years of senior high school, when it is not the dream of everyone either to study or work abroad and thus the need to meet international standards? It should be asked in the very first place, what is our dream for our people? To be ‘perennial OFWs’?

He also said the country needs mathematicians, scientists or engineers for its development. Students of the MSHS should have been given a chance to pursue college education as they are not “trained for immediate employment after high school” but to pursue tertiary education.

Petitioners also argued that MSHS students, given their higher mental capabilities, do not need additional two years of senior high school. They argued, “to require them to take the additional two years of senior high school, more so with a more inferior curriculum, is clearly most arbitrary, unfair, oppressive, discriminatory and unreasonable and thus violative of their right to substantive due process.”

Brillantes reiterated that poverty, insufficient books, teachers and schools are factors why quality of education is becoming poor. Such factors should be addressed and not the additional two years of education that is a burden to the Filipino students and their parents.

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MANILA — Hundreds of women from different organizations gathered on Sunday morning, Nov. 25 to formally launch One Billion Rising (OBR) 2019 at Luneta Park in Manila.

The event’s theme: Babae ako, Lumalaban sa Abuso.

Present at the launch was former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares who expressed continuing solidarity in eliminating violence against women.

“Men, as part of the problem (of violence against women) should also be part of the solution in this issue. The Makabayan coalition is with you in this fight. Rise! Resist! Unite!” said Colmenares.

Joms Salvador, Gabriela secretary general said there are women and children who are beaten, raped, harassed every day but are ashamed to speak due to victim blaming. Poor women have also deprived of equal labor rights and women peasants are landless.

“And the fact that we have a president whose mouth spills of misogynistic remarks perpetuates impunity.”

Salvador said presence of women from different sectors – – human rights defenders, students, workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples is a political statement that Filipino women and people are rising to end VAW, resist misogyny and fascism.

Also on that day is the commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. They also remember the killing and political persecution of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic who bravely fought the Trujillo dictatorship.

OBR was first held in the Philippines in 2013. Since then, OBR was yearly held every Feb. 14th. The OBR is part of an annual global campaign to raise awareness and to demand a stop to violence against women and children. Hundreds of women from different organizations gathered on Sunday morning, Nov. 25 to formally launch One Billion Rising (OBR) 2019 at Luneta Park in Manila.

The event’s theme: Babae ako, Lumalaban sa Abuso.

Present at the launch was former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares who expressed continuing solidarity in eliminating violence against women.

“Men, as part of the problem (of violence against women) should also be part of the solution in this issue. The Makabayan coalition is with you in this fight. Rise! Resist! Unite!” said Colmenares.

Joms Salvador, Gabriela secretary general said there are women and children who are beaten, raped, harassed every day but are ashamed to speak due to victim blaming. Poor women have also deprived of equal labor rights and women peasants are landless.

“And the fact that we have a president whose mouth spills of misogynistic remarks perpetuates impunity.”

Salvador said presence of women from different sectors – – human rights defenders, students, workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples is a political statement that Filipino women and people are rising to end VAW, resist misogyny and fascism.

Also on that day is the commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. They also remember the killing and political persecution of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic who bravely fought the Trujillo dictatorship.

OBR was first held in the Philippines in 2013. Since then, OBR was yearly held every Feb. 14th. The OBR is part of an annual global campaign to raise awareness and to demand a stop to violence against women and children.Hundreds of women from different organizations gathered on Sunday morning, Nov. 25 to formally launch One Billion Rising (OBR) 2019 at Luneta Park in Manila.

The event’s theme: Babae ako, Lumalaban sa Abuso.

Present at the launch was former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares who expressed continuing solidarity in eliminating violence against women.

“Men, as part of the problem (of violence against women) should also be part of the solution in this issue. The Makabayan coalition is with you in this fight. Rise! Resist! Unite!” said Colmenares.

Joms Salvador, Gabriela secretary general said there are women and children who are beaten, raped, harassed every day but are ashamed to speak due to victim blaming. Poor women have also deprived of equal labor rights and women peasants are landless.

“And the fact that we have a president whose mouth spills of misogynistic remarks perpetuates impunity.”

Salvador said presence of women from different sectors – – human rights defenders, students, workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples is a political statement that Filipino women and people are rising to end VAW, resist misogyny and fascism.

Also on that day is the commemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. They also remember the killing and political persecution of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic who bravely fought the Trujillo dictatorship.

OBR was first held in the Philippines in 2013. Since then, OBR was yearly held every Feb. 14th. The OBR is part of an annual global campaign to raise awareness and to demand a stop to violence against women and children.

Photos from Gabriela and Gabriela Women’s Party

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