Progressive lawmakers on Tuesday branded President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war as “death for the poor, and salvation for the rich” following the acquittal of the Department of Justice (DOJ) against suspected drug lords.
Statement of Elisa Tita Lubi, Karapatan National Executive Committee Member, on her inclusion in Duterte’s “terror list”
Back Off, Human Rights Attackers
Hands Off Human Rights Defenders
I have recently learned that my name has been dragged into the Duterte government’s petition to proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), as terrorist organizations.
(Photo: Tita Lubi (2nd from the right, standing next to former DSWD Sec. Judy Taguiwalo) visiting the Kampuhan ng mga Lumad at UP Diliman)
DATU BAGO AWARDEES
This year’s Datu Bago awardees (from left to right) are Nieto L. Vitto; Beethoven N. Sur; Belen C. Laud; Norma T. Javellana; Bro. Carlito M. Gaspar; Ricardo N. Obenza, Jr.; and Dr. Aland David Mizell. The award is the highest honor the local government of Davao City gives to its outstanding constituents. The conferment ceremony was held on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at the Royal Mandaya Hotel. (Mark Joy G. Basallajes/davaotoday.com)
Activists cry foul over Duterte’s “fake terror list”
“I am not a terrorist, have never been nor ever will be a terrorist!”
This is the statement of former Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Satur Ocampo in a press conference held today in Quezon City as he vehemently denounced the Duterte administration for including him as one of the alleged ‘known officers’ of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA). In his statement, Ocampo categorically denied any participation in the alleged terrorist acts cited to support the petition for proscription.
On February 21, 2018, Department of Justice (DOJ) Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong filed a 55-page petition to proscribe the CPP and NPA at the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 19 which seeks to have the said groups as “terrorist organizations”.
Under the Human Security Act (HSA), the process for securing court approval for surveillance and freezing of assets is easier once the said organizations are judicially considered terrorist organizations.
Ocampo has been identified in the proscription petition “terrorist list” as one of the 656 members and officers of the CPP-NPA. Ocampo said that he was the first to receive a summon, order, and copy of the petition from the Manila RTC. As a reaction to this, Ocampo and his lawyers intends to challenge all the allegations that may be raised against him in proceedings that he hopes “shall truly observe due process.”
Ocampo stressed out, “In my life of nearly 79 years, I have been a publicly known journalist, three-term legislator, and a political activist for 46 years. I was a political prisoner under three different regimes – Marcos, Aquino, and Arroyo – for a total of 12 years.”
He continued, “Under those regimes, I faced and fought charges of subversion, rebellion, trumped-up charges for common crime charges. I have not been found guilty of any of these allegations.”
Fake terrorist list
Ocampo also said that the DOJ’s proscription petition and the “terrorist list” is absurd, arbitrary, malicious, and dangerous. He said that persons named in the petition whose work or activities are legal could already be subjected to police-military surveillance, harassment and threats in various ways.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) National Secretary General Renato Reyes said that this recent move of the administration is a clear attack and retaliation of Duterte against critics of his administration’s anti-people policies.
Out of the 656 names on the list, 5 personalities were peace panel members, 30 peace consultants, 16 were in detention, 79 women, 187 aliases, and dozens more with merely “John Does” and “Jane Does” identifications.
Indigenous groups Katribu ng Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) decried the inclusion of more than a dozen of their leaders and members of different indigenous tribes in the said terrorist list.
“Charges against indigenous leaders are not only false and fabricated but are baseless and malicious with intent to vilify, harass and intimidate the people struggling for their democratic rights and the indigenous communities defending their ancestral lands and asserting their rights to self-determination,” said Piya Macliing Malayao, secretary general of Katribu.
She continued, “It is meant to cripple the people’s mass movement in the country and criminalize the legitimate struggles of the people by proscribing them as terrorist acts.”
The IPMSDL identified indigenous leaders in the list including Beverly Longid (Bontok-Kankanaey), Windeo Bolingit (Bontok-Kankanaey), Joanna Cariño (Ibaloi), Joan Carling (Kankanaey), Atty. Jose Molinyas (Ibaloi), Datu Isidro Indao (Matigsalog-Manobo), Datu Mampadayag (Banwaon), Datu Mandayhon (Talaandig), Sergio Lumonday (Manobo), Vicky Taulo-Corpuz (Kankanaey) who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNSRIP), among other indigenous leaders, activists, and community organizers.
Meanwhile, Mindanao-wide alliance Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (KALUMARAN) assailed the government for its tagging of 13 tribal leaders from Mindanao as terrorists.
KALUMARAN secretary general Dulphing Ogan said most of these leaders are from indigenous communities fighting mining corporations and agribusiness plantations that are encroaching on their ancestral lands.
The group underscored that around half of 400 Mindanawons facing trumped-up charges are Lumad leaders. With the terror list, Ogan said that more fabricated cases are being readied by the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action (IACLA).
KALUMARAN also fears more Lumad killings are forthcoming on top of the 34 Lumad leaders already silenced by the Duterte administration.
“The inclusion of UNSRIP Corpuz and indigenous leaders is a desperate bid of this government to evade accountability for his ‘war against indigenous peoples’ in the Philippines,” he added.
Militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya also condemned the inclusion of three of their leaders and organizers from Batangas in the list including Erlindo Baes, Elsie Lucero and Marilyn Hernandez.
Fight in all fronts
Bayan and its allied organizations said that they are set to counter this terror listing and proscription petition in all fronts.
Human rights group Karapatan already submitted a new batch of complaints to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michael Forst, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Annalisa Ciampu regarding the issue.
Karapatan secretary general said, “Human rights defenders already have one foot in the grave, given the dangerous nature of their work. With Duterte’s terror list, this regime is intent on digging the grave and pushing rights defenders right into the pit.”
She added, “We call on all human rights advocates and the Filipino people to stay vigilant against such efforts to curtail our civil and political rights. The Duterte gangster regime is deiberately ignoring its obligations to promote and protect people’s rights.”
As an initial mass action against the terror list, Bayan said that they are set to hold a “Black Friday Protest” on March 16 at the DOJ main office in Manila. The group said that the rally will also be held in time for the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).
ACTIVISM IS NOT EQUAL TO TERRORISM. Satur Ocampo and other activists hold up placards bearing calls to stop terror tags against activists. Photos by Kathy Yamzon
“We got news – a real one – for Mr. Duterte and his gang: We will not be cowed. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. So back off, human rights attackers, and hands off human rights defenders, lest you sow and create your own undoing. We will overcome and prevail. We are not terrorists, we are people who love our country,” said Elisa Lubi, Karapatan national executive committee member and is also one of the listed ‘terrorist’ personalities in the DOJ proscription.
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Distortions of Contortions: Duterte Edition
The recent statement from Harry Roque declaring Mocha Uson as a role model for a Filipina during the International Working Women’s Day seems to be a mockery to those who desire for empowerment such as a Filipina.
For as everyone sought her posts, of showing distorted reports what more of comments coming from the regime’s supporters, the latter, using Roque’s terms, tends to redescribe her fanaticism as patriotic what more of empowering as a Filipina; and from it makes everyone think praising her in that commemorative day for women be mistaken for April Fools- thanks to her (as well as Duterte’s supporters) daily dose of “reportage”.
For as observed in social media pages, every fanatic understood the importance of virtual life and the tendency to act irrationally on issues worth concerning be it peace and order or the status of the economy. And from there showing a somewhat understanding of the use of social media as a mobilising tool, assuming to be as progressive as the progressives and as patriotic as the patriots, these apologists spew messages of change complete with patriotic colours and the usual ‘Pinoy Pride’.
But just like its predecessors, Uson, et al. firmly believe that their idol, assuming to be infallible in its actions, provides order and stability- even at the expense of civil liberties and of human rights; if not the one who will succeed in restoring their idealised glorious days of the pasts such as those from ‘72 to ‘86.
Sounds usual as in the past administrations, knowing that with social media as its tool, what more of various sites proliferate, they will continue in exploiting the virtual world to entice people to support the regime’s version of “change and development”- with failures, such as those of their predecessors, be emphasised as an example of what is to be detested in spite of the fact that some if not most of its policies continue with new names and terms; once they would even assume to be as “socialist” as the “socialists” like their idol, that they accommodate both “left” and “right” in the spirit of unity and inclusion, which is contrary to the existing divisiveness.
For what is really familiar is that they, with all its bravado, rather invoke messages of fear be in a form of a red scare, to those of a death threat, as they heckle those who are concerned in issues, what more of those who opposed their idol’s statements and policies. They would even favour their own versions of various reports as they broadcast it no matter how distorted or untrustworthy the information is as long as their idol is on the good light or his rivals getting ‘shitstormed’. Perhaps because they think mainstream or alternative media doesn’t favor theirs and be described as “yellow mouthpieces”.
And even not so political but still concerning matters like the recent fire at the University of the Philippines Shopping Centre has been an object of their ire as they describe the fire as “what they deserved for opposing Duterte” if not for describing the University as a “den of radicals and subversives”.
For sure everyone desires for a regime that tries to provide welfare and at the same time making efforts to bring development, a just order and stability; but, to think that with a regime synonymous with bloodstained “imposition of justice”, and most of which are riddled with “hearsay” if not justified by being a collateral damage if not a “sacrifice” to ensure order, then is this worth supporting for? Anyway, be it Lucio Tan’s reduction of obligations from a million to a several thousand, or the punishment of politicians due to corruption or drugs, or even the series of infrastructure-building activities, the change Duterte brought and supported by Uson and the rest of the gang isn’t change at all but a continuation of retaining interests with some “sacrifices” enough to save face and is packaged as a propaganda feat for their idol than those of a state duty to improve the people’s well-being. Prices of commodities and services continue to rise enough making people question about the recent tax reform law’s trustworthiness due to its effects. The infrastructure programs that they described as fruits of tax reforms turns out to be same old loans that has to be paid for years if not for decades as in the old days; all of these makes one ask: is this the change being babbled about?
All in all, from these examples show that as in the past, the socioeconomic policy remains neoliberal hidden in a populist or to use Duterte’s “socialist” trappings, with the president’s economic honchos trying to insist how necessary their rehash of policies even it affects badly those who actually voted and supported him. Farmers still demand land, workers for a just living wage, slum dwellers for decent homes and livelihood, even the women who once voted for/supported Duterte for his promises end detested him because of his slurs, no matter how he apologised or justified using hyperbole or using his ethnicity for an alibi.
But in spite of the ever-growing concern coming from all walks of life regarding these actually-existing situations the fanatic continues to churn its gospel of fear if not their version of change. Mocha Uson may still be appraised by the regime and its apologists, calling her as an “examplar of an empowered Filipina” as if like gospel truth the way their hecklings continue just like the old times, enough to make meme pages serve as their source of screenshots, if not intensify further actions regardless of those trying to malign through their comments and posts.
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