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PCIJ REPORT| The Dutertes: Wealth Reveal & Riddles
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Children rights groups urge electoral candidates to address Filipino children’s needs
Approximately 4 million Filipino children are out of school while a staggering 2.1 million children are employed in informal or manual work to contribute to their family’s low income.
By ALYSSA MAE CLARIN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — A children rights group called on those running for public office to take on various issues affecting Filipino children as part of their electoral agenda.
“It is a concern for the children– because in the end, who would suffer the consequences of the actions of the current generation? Eventually, it would be our children today,” said child rights advocate Eule Rico Bongonay during the ‘Bata, Boto, Balota: The 2019 Filipino Children’s Agenda.”
During the forum, Bongonay, who is the secretary general of Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, pointed out that despite his promises, the majority of Filipino children are still living on or below the poverty line under the Duterte administration – bearing the brunt of the economic decline.
Citing a study conducted by the IBON Foundation, at least 31 percent of Filipino children live below the poverty line. Studies have also revealed that about 29,000 children under five years old die due to under-nutrition annually.
Salinlahi urged the government and those aspiring for public office to focus on these concerns, rather than conducting projects like the government’s tax reform law and its infrastructure spending, which critics consider as two of the biggest contributors to the declining economic status of many Filipino families.
On schooling, tokhang
The worsening economic conditions have resulted to Filipino children being forced out of schools and into child labor.
Approximately 4 million Filipino children are out of school while a staggering 2.1 million children are employed in informal or manual work to contribute to their family’s low income.
Children are also victims of the President’s War on Drugs, including the 54 children reported killed under this war against drugs, one of the most known cases was the murder of 17-year old Kian Lloyd delos Santos.
Related story: #JusticeForKian | Summary killing of Grade 11 student breaks internet
What do the children want
Jhon Matthew Ocquia from Salinlahi Youth Caloocan chapter listed down some of the basic demands of the Filipino youth that candidates should answer and provide.
In his presentation, Ocquia noted the importance of providing decent housing and job security for their parents.
He said that the minimum wage is not enough for Filipino families to sustain their needs especially with the increasing prices of goods and services.
“Hindi na nga mataas ang sahod, mataas pa ang mga bilihin.” (Wages are low and prices are high.)
“What do the children want in a candidate?” was the primary question Salinlahi proposed and the question that the event revolved around.
The answer, Filipino children want a candidate who can genuinely secure their bright future by actually working toward it, and not just by promising it.
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Cop killed, 8 wounded in clash with NPA in Mountain Province
At about 3:45 PM yesterday, LPC fighters blasted a command-detonated explosive against pursuing Regional Mobile Force Battalion-Philippine National Police (RMFB-PNP) Cordillera troopers.
Crackdown on friends, family of peace consultants means more fabricated charges
Acquaintances, old friends, and family of peace consultants are now clear targets of police and military, who have come together in a crackdown against peace consultants and advocates.
After the unlawful arrest of Renante Gamara on March 20, 2019 in Cavite, the police claim to have tracked down an “underground safehouse” in Marikina and proceeded to throw additional charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against our client.
How utterly preposterous. Gamara was found staying above a coffee shop in the sentro of Imus City, with the police station a stone’s throw away. The house in Marikina, which the police claimed was another hideout, is a family home. Planting firearms and explosives is the police grasping at straws, because there is no legitimate reason to arrest or investigate the persons found therein, nor the peace consultants themselves.
Both army and police officials must temper their braggadocio, not until their competence and intelligence catch up. Remember that the police arrogantly vilified and arrested Fr. Arturo Balagat, a retired priest who graciously gave shelter and food to Gamara in Imus, and also threatened to cancel his cooperatives’ registration and licenses. Eventually, the prosecutor general found him with no criminal intent or ties, and absolved him of charges.
The national task force that arose from Executive Order No. 70 has been very busy picking up those who are not in hiding, those who are sick, defenseless, and unarmed. When Francisco Fernandez and Cleofe Lagtapon, likewise peace consultants, were arrested in Laguna a week ago, the army claimed to have also found them with pistols and grenades – and then, paradoxically, crowed over how weak and vulnerable they were.
Executive Order No. 70 wants to put an end to the roots of the insurgency and reclaim the peace, but why do its implementors spawn more injustice along the way? Long-drawn vendetta, disbalance of power and inequities, as demonstrated in the illegal arrests and detention of peace consultants, only pose more reasons to resist.
We are confident that charges against Gamara, Fernandez, Lagtapon, as well as the others’, replete with planted evidence and perjured testimonies, will be eventually dismissed and disposed of. Veritas vincit – truth always prevails.
*PILC is the retained counsel of peace consultants Renante Gamara, Francisco Fernandez, and Cleofe Lagtapon, who were arrested in March 2019.
For reference: Atty. Rachel F. Pastores
Managing Counsel, PILC
(+63)9279219539
40 Years of Research for the People
For over forty years, IBON has sought to explain socioeconomic and political issues to the public as our contribution to Philippine democracy and the cause of genuine progress and development. We have always been transparent about our bias for the majority of Filipinos who are persistently marginalized and about our opposition to unjust and inequitable economic structures. We have likewise always been open about our belief in the capacity of people to change society and in the importance of organized movements to bring about a better future for all.
We see the attacks on IBON as part of a larger campaign by government and military officials to project a false image of the country. It seems that ‘truth’ for the Duterte administration is not what is true but only what makes it look good. The Duterte administration cannot handle the truth and goes to great lengths to insist on its narrative.
Why Filipino activists are opposed to NATO and US militarism
Greetings of solidarity from the Philippines, a former
colony of the United States. But more importantly, a nation which resisted
colonizers and ousted dictators through revolution and people power uprisings.
Today, [14] farmers were killed in a joint police-military
operation in Negros, an island province in the Philippines
Martial law is still enforced in the whole southern
island of Mindanao.
The bloody drug war has claimed the lives of more than
20,000 people.
Rodrigo Duterte, yes, is responsible for this carnage.
He should be made to account. And we are thankful for many groups today,
especially U.S. and Filipino-American citizens, who have condemned the
deterioration of the human rights situation in the Philippines.
But there’s another monster we have to name, which is
enabling mad butchers like Duterte. This is the US-led war machine deployed in
the Asia-Pacific region. The pivot to Asia meant more funds are used to support
governments, even repressive governments, that allow the basing of US troops,
US arms, military drones, and other war materiel.
We ask the following:
Why, despite the drug war bloodbath, did the US
continue its military exercises with the Duterte government?
Why are American taxes being used to support the
Philippine military’s all-out war against farmers demanding land reform,
indigenous peoples resisting the entry of mining and logging, and suspected
sympathizers of communist groups?
The rise of an aggressive China is being used to
justify the intensified presence of US military in the Philippines
Our response is this:
We oppose China’s illegal expansion in the South China
Sea. We condemn its encroachment on our maritime territories.
But at the same time, learning from our colonial
experience, we reject the continued US military basing in the Philippines.
We endured a century of humiliating wanton plunder of
our resources, the rape of our women, the violation of our sovereignty. The US
military-led behemoth has brought nothing but poverty, misery, endless
violence, and abuse of our rights.
So we say enough. Stop funding wars in the
Philippines. Stop sending troops and weapons of destruction. Stop the
desecration of our lands. Stop this government from using American taxes to
support Duterte’s drug war, martial law, and its all-out war against the
Filipino people.
I travelled more than 8,500 miles from Manila to
Washington DC to deliver this message. A message of anger and frustration over
decades of military intervention in our land. But I will bring home inspiring
testimonies and messages of hope based from what I witnessed today. I will
share with our people your powerful solidarity to the Filipino people’s
struggle for real freedom, democracy and just peace. That even here in the US,
there is a strong and vibrant movement challenging the US war empire. That despite our distance, we are united in
our common stand to oppose NATO, the US-led war machine, and the use of
imperialist wars to subjugate the resistance of the people.
From Washington DC to Manila, from Bayan to Resist, the
anti-war campaign of the International League of People’s Struggle, we proudly
proclaim: No to NATO, no to the deployment of war regimes, no to racism and no
to the meddling of domestic affairs of sovereign nations.
Long live international solidarity!
Mabuhay ang pakikibaka ng lumalabang mamamayan!
Speech of Mong Palatino,
Bayan Metro Manila chairperson, during the 30 March 2019 ‘Oppose NATO, War
& Racism!’ mobilization at Washington DC
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