Karapatan demands the immediate release of members of the National Humanitarian Mission and the Lumad students and teachers who were fleeing from military operations in Talaingod, Davao del Norte from custody at the Talaingod Police Station.
On the conviction of three police officers in the killing of Kian delos Santos
Karapatan welcomes the conviction of three police officers in the killing of Kian delos Santos in August 2017. We lament, though, that Police Station Commander Amor Cerillo and Caloocan City Police Chief Senior Supt. Chito Bersaluna have not been charged for condoning and orchestrating murders done in similar police operations which resulted in the killing of Delos Santos and many others. They, too, should unequivocally be held accountable. We are enraged that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, then Philippine National Police Chief Ronaldo “Bato” dela Rosa and several other high officials who ordered, encouraged, endorsed and even mandated the police to commit such dastardly crimes have remained unpunished.
Another humanitarian crisis breaks out in Davao del Norte
A humanitarian crisis again broke out in Talaingod, Davao del Norte as dozens of Lumad students, teachers and civilians fled from their community and trekked under the rain last night in fear of government soldiers and paramilitary who forcilby closed down their school. At least 79 individuals, including 29 students and 12 teachers fled Sitio […]
Duterte’s death squad signals open season for killing Filipinos
“As if this sham drug war and Duterte’s counterinsurgency program is not enough, this government is continuously coming up with more sinister schemes to kill more Filipinos. The process of identifying targets will inevitably be arbitrary and will result in the deaths of activists and critics already red-tagged by this government and of the poor in its anti-drug campaign. This is an insidious ploy that will add to the number of murders that this regime has already ruthlessly committed – all denied of their right to due process,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay on President Duterte’s statement creating a death squad to target the New People’s Army (NPA) and “idlers” in a recent speech at Camp Rajah Sikatuna in Carmen, Bohol.
No need for nationwide Martial Law declaration, there is already de facto martial law
On November 22, Rodrigo Duterte said there is no need to declare Martial Law nationwide. This is the nth time he said this. But his Memorandum Order 32, which is patterned in Martial Law in Mindanao, is not short of a martial rule. Ordered in the memo were redeployment of Armed Forces in the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) in Bicol, Negros and Samar to quell “lawless violence.”
In 2001, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a “state of lawless violence” covering the island of Basilan. It resulted to the arrest of 121 people suspected of being members of Abu Sayyaf. Seventy-three of them were brought in Bicutan, Tugig City. Some were already dead and some are still in jail ”despite of overwhelming evidence of innocence.”
His government officials talked of proposing another martial law extension in Mindanao (now 17 months old) and pushed for shutting down of social media accounts which they deem ‘inimical to national interest. Vilification of nationalist and progressive organizations, party lists and churches and church organizations have been part of his breathing.
In addition to all these is the commissioning of the Duterte’s Death Squad (DDS) nationwide to kill suspected New People’s Army (NPA), an order that could endanger the lives of progressive individuals and activists who can be subject for harassment, intimidation and threats. It could be another open season for extrajudicial killings, just like Duterte’s war on drugs.
What he said on that same day was revealing.
“Iyang martial law-martial law. Hindi ako mag-declare ng martial law. Bakit ako mag-declare ng martial law? Puwede man kitang hulihin. Puwede nga kitang patayin eh,” Duterte said in a speech at the 35th founding anniversary of the Philippine Army Reserve Command at the Camp General Mariano Riego de Dios in Tanza, Cavite.
[That martial law, I won’t declare that. Why would I need to declare martial law? I can arrest you. I can even kill you.]
He does not need to declare martial law nationwide. There is de facto martial law nationwide, anyway.
Human rights violations in Mindanao martial law
The recently concluded National Clergy Convocation of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in Davao City on November 19-23, 2018, clergy listened to the testimonies of our Indigenous People (Lumad) and Moro brothers and sisters, peasant and labor leaders who are the direct victims of human rights violations and abuses of the state forces because of Martial Law in Mindanao.
The Lumad has been uprooted from their communities which violated their rights to live in their ancestral lands and exercise their rights to self-determination as provided by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
Since the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao last year, the indigenous people have suffered forced evacuation, affecting 2,500 students, teachers, and parents of the Lumad schools. More than 700 leaders and activists are facing trumped up cases in the whole of Mindanao—most of these are non-bailable cases to impede their advocacy work or silences dissenting voices.
Extrajudicial killings in Mindanao have claimed more than 150 victims, most of them activists and community leaders who are against large scale mining, agribusiness plantations, mega dams and energy-generation projects, among others. The military has tricked and forced thousands of civilians to be paraded as rebel surrenderees. But, in truth, they were merely victims of deceit, intimidation, and threats.
A Moro resource person testified that a year after President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of Marawi City liberation from the siege mounted by Maute and other ISIS-inspired groups, more than 27,000 displaced Marawi City residents continue to suffer homelessness and landlessness.
The residents of Marawi City are barred by the government from returning to their communities citing various reasons including clearing operations and delays in groundbreaking ceremonies. They are prevented to construct their own houses and deprived them from reclaiming their properties in the ground zero, as the government will not provide resources, to be part of the rehabilitation plan.
The displaced Meranaw residents from its rehabilitation plan of the 27 barangays identified as ground zero or the most affected areas (MAA), leaving most of them living in temporary shelters lacking basic services due to dwindling relief services after President Duterte declared the liberation of Marawi City.
The peasant sector and its organizations in different provinces in Mindanao are crying for justice and genuine and lasting peace. The testimony of the leader of a peasant organization revealed that under Duterte’s Martial Law, political killings in Mindanao have intensified.
The leader of the peasant organization in Southern Mindanao said that Martial Law in Mindanao only brought killings, human rights abuses and unending misery for Mindanaoans. Almost 75 percent of the AFP troops are deployed in Mindanao and are wreaking havoc in urban and rural communities. Mindanaoans are not safe and secured at all from state-sponsored terror and attacks.
The workers were not spared from the attacks of the state forces because of martial Law. A labor leader testified that in Compostela Valley, the banana plantation workers have organized and brought labor issues like contractualization even up to the Supreme Court. They staged a workers strike, but the Department of Labor issued an Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) against the striking workers. An AJ is a tool employed against the workers’ right to strike, issued on the basis of an assessment that the industry is vital to the economy of the society so the workers cannot go on strike.
Through the AJ, the local government units and the military forces were deployed to destroy the picket lines of the striking workers. The military also said to the workers that the labor code cannot be invoked because there is Martial Law in Mindanao.
===
Granting that there is no Martial Law nationwide, the instruments of fascist rules and tyranny are being applied. The people must not forget the gross human rights violations during the Martial Law of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. Peace-loving church people and Filipino people must oppose these instruments of death. All people must act now before it is too late.
The post No need for nationwide Martial Law declaration, there is already de facto martial law appeared first on Manila Today.
Lumad death squads facilitate economic plunder – Pasaka
Lumad group Pasaka said that Duterte’s cancelation of the peace talks and the all-out militarist solution and warmongering with the establishment of death squads is expected after he sought the help of paramilitary tribal leader Joel Unad.
Military wants to take over OPAPP, Joma says
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the issue of corruption that led to the resignation of Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza is a mere pretext in order for President Rodrigo Duterte to close all doors to the peace negotiations. Asked to comment on Dureza’s resignation, Sison said […]
Philippines in a Happy and Healthy Relationship with China?
by Sonny Africa
IBON Features – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recently concluded state visit was hyped as historic and relationship-altering in a good way towards “comprehensive, strategic cooperation”. The joint statement released at the end spoke of a couple with a healthy relationship: reminiscing the past, establishing trust, open communication, arguing in a healthy way and reaching compromises, supporting one another, appreciating each other’s interests, and sharing things in common. Of course something could have been said about establishing boundaries but maybe later.
The costs of state visits are usually shouldered by the host country so maybe China was just being polite because its date was picking up the tab. In any case, the aftermath of the visit is a chance to put the Philippines’ debt and other ties to China in perspective.
PH debt to China
A Forbes.com article last year usefully drew attention to how the Philippines is falling into a debt trap with China. The article overstated its case by quite a bit but the internet is always friendly to anything with dramatic effect so it made, and continues to make, the rounds. All is fair in love and propaganda war so weaponizing statistics against China is fine.
Blunt weapons will always have their uses but sometimes it helps to be more surgical. It is probably useful to see just exactly where the Philippines is vis-à-vis China’s global trap-laying.
The Philippines is really facing an explosive China debt bomb but not yet in the way it is often made out to be. The country is still a ways from overdependence on massive amounts of expensive Chinese loans – which is not to say that current loans are not problematic, but more on that later.
Official development assistance (ODA) from China is increasing extremely rapidly under the Duterte administration – from US$1.5 million in 2016 to US$63.5 million in 2017 to US$124 million so far in the first semester of 2018. The over eighty-fold increase in such a short period of time is a huge and unprecedented increase. It also rightly prompts one to wonder what the administration did to deserve such largesse, wink wink.
But it is still not that large as ODA to the Philippines goes – US$124 million is less than one percent (0.82%) of the US$15.2 billion in total ODA commitments as of June 2018. Aid from China is still just a fragment of total aid and much less than Japan’s US$6.1 billion (40% of total), World Bank’s US$3.1 billion (21%), Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) US$2.7 billion (18%) ,and the United States’ (US) US$807 million (5.3%). Financing has to have an element of concessionality or below-market rates to be counted as aid or ODA.
Another measure of financing from China is how much this is of the US$47.5 billion in outstanding national government foreign debt as of September 2018. China, and specifically China Exim Bank, accounted for just US$159 million of this compared to US$6 billion debt to ADB, US$5.4 billion to the World Bank, and US$4.7 billion to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Japan Exim Bank. There was US$29.7 billion in debt securities to unspecified creditors.
As it is, China still does not register among the biggest creditors of the country. The Philippines’ total external debt covering both public and private foreign debt was US$72.2 billion as of June 2018. China does not yet register among the top five creditor countries: Japan (US$13.2 billion), US (US$3 billion), Germany (US$1.5 billion), United Kingdom (US$1.8 billion), and France (US$837 million).
‘Debt-trap diplomacy’
These numbers are of course already changing as financing from China becomes increasingly, many would say alarmingly, prominent. The over eighty-fold increase in ODA from China is only the beginning.
The Duterte administration’s flagship Build, Build, Build (BBB) infrastructure offensive is going to be a major center of gravity for Chinese inroads. The BBB is an Php8.4 trillion infrastructure program including 75 flagship projects costing some Php1.8 trillion.
The government is looking to China to finance a large part of these projects which, if they materialize, will dramatically change the country’s debt profile vis-à-vis China. For now, IBON estimates that the government is seeking as much as US$14.4 billion (approximately Php780 billion) in loans from China for 23 projects cumulatively worth US$16.9 billion (Php917 billion).
The 23 projects include: 10 bridge projects costing US$7.1 billion (Php387 billion); three rail projects costing US$5.6 billion (Php304 billion); four water projects costing US$1.5 billion (Php78 billion); four expressways costing US$1.4 billion (Php77 billion); one power project costing US$922 million (Php50 billion); and one communications project costing US$374 million (Php20 billion). The biggest projects are the Philippine National Railway (PNR) South Long Haul (US$3.2 billion), Panay-Guimaras-Negros Inter-Island Bridge (US$1.8 billion), and Bohol-Leyte Link Bridge (US$1.3 billion).
To date, however, China appears to have committed just around US$376 million (Php20.4 billion) in loans to three projects – Chico River Pump Irrigation and two Metro Manila Bridge Projects – with another US$4.8 billion worth of loans for five other projects still tentative or just having memorandums of understanding (MOU). The status of the balance of 15 projects is not clear.
These Chinese debt-funded projects are on top of increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from China (including Hong Kong) which have also grown rapidly under the Duterte administration. There was US$825 million during the nine years of the Arroyo administration (2001-2010) and US$1.2 billion during the six years of the Aquino administration (2010-2016) – and already US$1 billion just two years into the Duterte administration or as of June 2018.
FDI inflows are volatile on a monthly, quarterly and even annual basis. Still, it is perhaps appropriate that Pres. Xi Jinping’s visit comes on the heels of Chinese FDI inflows of US$175 million being greater than from the US (US$84 million) and Japan (US$154 million) in the first semester of 2018.
Neocolonial mendicancy
The country’s debt to China is rapidly increasing with prospects of even faster growth in the coming months and years but it is not yet the dramatic debt bomb in the way reported to be with other countries.
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives, Mongolia, Lao, Djibouti, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and many other countries were widely reported to be distressed from unpayable Chinese debt – because of overpriced white elephants or because it became a disproportionately large share of national debt. China is said to have parlayed unpayable debts into concessions that the debtor countries would otherwise not give. This includes control over potentially strategic infrastructure, an expanded commercial presence, agricultural and mineral resources, and even the building of Chinese military and security facilities.
There not yet being such a China debt bomb in the Philippines only brings the problem with the Duterte administration into much sharper focus – it is already giving territorial and other concessions to China even without debt-related pressure being exerted. The country’s debts to China are still quite few and payable so the problem now is not so much China’s debt-trap diplomacy as the Philippines’ neocolonial mendicancy in the face of China’s imperialist aggression.
China certainly looms ever larger over the Philippines. This is the playing out in this little corner of the world of China’s extremely expansive global hegemonic ambitions. And as with other monopoly capitalist powers there is good reason to be wary of China.
Where is China coming from in its increasingly far-ranging involvement in the Philippines and elsewhere? Its rise as a global power has most of all been built on its powerhouse economy that, if it is to successfully challenge the US for regional and global hegemony, needs to continuously strengthen and expand. The voraciousness of capitalism for raw materials, cheap labor, markets and outlets for surplus capitalism is well-established.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular captures China’s ambitions to control and influence the Eurasian landmass and Indo-Pacific region up to the African continent. It uses debt and infrastructure as intertwined levers to advance China’s economic agenda overseas.
Massive Chinese-built transport, telecommunications and other infrastructure will ease domestic overcapacity in infrastructure services – and connect the Chinese economy to some 70 countries, three-fifths of the world’s population and a third of global gross domestic product (GDP). Up to a trillion US dollars (US$1 trillion) or more in Chinese loans to other countries will recycle surplus capital – and be the spearhead for greater financial penetration and integration.
The Philippines is dutifully playing its neocolonial role in all of this – the only thing China is doing is rationally exploiting the Duterte administration’s over-eagerness for China-funded and Chinese-built infrastructure and capital. There is of course the administration’s refusal to push back against Chinese encroachment to claim Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea and on the contrary the enthusiasm for so-called joint development of Filipino oil and gas resources.
But there is also the bizarre cooperativeness in setting up China’s debt trap in the country. The scramble for Chinese aid and debt is clear. However it will probably pay to be more circumspect about the long-term effects of the Php8.4 trillion BBB program. If domestic agriculture and Filipino industry do not develop then the infrastructure stimulus will be the main driver of growth. This is dangerously fleeting though which means that the only thing that will be growing afterwards is an infrastructure glut and unpayable debt.
The legal structure of the debt trap is also being willingly created. The Chico River Pump Irrigation loan agreement for instance has provisions of serious concern. These include a provision that appears to collateralize state assets, another that gives undue primacy to Chinese over Philippine law, and another that settles disputes outside of Philippine courts and beyond public transparency and scrutiny.
Relationship goals
The Chinese president’s visit produced 29 signed deals spanning the range of measures China uses to expand its influence and advance its predatory geopolitical and economic agenda overseas. The BRI approach is very much reflected with the biggest number of deals being the twelve (12) on infrastructure followed by six (6) on financing for development.
The joint statement of the visit concluded by affirming that Pres. Xi Jinping and Pres. Rodrigo Duterte very much enjoyed each other’s company and, while not clingy with each other and able to spend time apart, there was a commitment to see each other again in April 2019 at the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, China. The Philippines will probably be spending for itself to attend this as well – so maybe not so healthy a relationship after all. ###