The new anti-terror powers allow Philippines authorities to hold suspects for weeks without charge. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Rebecca Ratcliffe, South-east Asia correspondent
Thu 9 Jul 2020 06.48 BST

An anti-terrorism law that grants sweeping powers to president Rodrigo Duterte’s government is facing mounting legal challenges, as rights groups warn the legislation signals a new, dark chapter for the Philippines.

The act, which lawyers say uses a vague and overly broad definition of terrorism, permits warrantless arrests and allows authorities to hold individuals for weeks without charge. It is to be implemented later this month, though at least six petitions against the law have already been filed in the supreme court.

The government says the powers will allow it to respond to threats by militants, but rights groups warn the law could be used to lock up peaceful critics, and may even limit access to humanitarian aid. The law passed on Friday.

“Particularly in the context of Covid, where the role of humanitarian organisations has never been more important in terms of under-serviced communities, any action that hampers work of humanitarian organisations is really irresponsible,” said Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.

The law criminalises anyone who provides “material support” to an activity that is deemed a terrorist act. Though an exemption for humanitarian groups is outlined, Ní Aoláin says this is too limited, and the law could have a chilling effect on agencies delivering aid.

The Philippines has faced a recent increase in coronavirus cases, prompting the government to warn a strict lockdown may be reintroduced. Infections have so far reached 50,359, a fifth of which were confirmed in the past five days. There have been 1,314 confirmed deaths.

Edre Olalia, of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, who plans to file a petition opposing the law in the supreme court, fears the law will have ramifications not just for media, activists and opposition figures, but also members of the public who express opinions online.

He compared the powers provided under the anti-terror act to “a daily martial law”.

“It is unprecedented to give so much power to executive bodies,” he said. The definitions in the law, he added, are “so expansive and broad that even legitimate activity can be considered terrorism”.

Under the law, an anti-terrorism council, appointed by the president, will have the power to designate individuals and groups as terrorists and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. The law also allows for 90 days of surveillance and wiretaps, and punishments that include life imprisonment without parole.
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Duterte, who was urged not to rush to sign the act into law, has rejected concerns about its scope. Those not planning to bomb churches and public utilities to derail the nation had nothing to fear, he recently told the public, adding that communists were among the terrorists. The government continues to fight a decades-long communist insurgency, as well as threats from Islamist groups, in the south of the country.

In a televised address on Wednesday, he said: “Do not be afraid if you are not a terrorist.”

Ní Aoláin said the term terrorism was an “inherently suspect category”, however, and that the government was deliberately using the cover of counterterrorism to suppress rights.

Many fear the law’s sweeping definitions will provide a new tool to silence those who are calling for accountability for abuses committed under Duterte’s leadership, including extrajudicial killings carried out during an anti-drug crackdown launched after his election in 2016.

“The hand is already on the trigger and the law will provide the impetus to press the trigger,” added Olalia.

Over the past few months alone, action has been taken one of the country’s most prominent media outlets. In June, executive editor of Rappler, Maria Ressa, a critic of Duterte, was convicted of cyber libel – over a story she did not write, and under a law that did exist at the time the article was published. Meanwhile, the country’s largest broadcaster, ABS-CBN, which has been repeatedly threatened by the president, has been forced off air. Duterte has denied that either of these cases were politically motivated.

Among those challenging the anti-terror law are Christian Monsod and Felicitas Arroyo, who were part of a commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution. Several more groups are expected to file petitions.

The vast majority of supreme court justices are Duterte appointees. “We will push back, we will fight back,” said Olalia.

By Tonyo Cruz
MANILA BULLETIN
July 25, 2020

Many are in shock and in mourning over the sudden death of Utrecht-based Fidel Agcaoili, chief negotiator of communist rebels in peace negotiations with the government.

Who is this man who, despite the distance and the unremitting slander against the movement he represents, continued to command such strong feelings of admiration?

Fidel Agcaoili, 75, was perhaps best known as the longest-held political prisoner of the Marcos dictatorship. Arrested and detained in 1974 he was released only in 1985.

A decision of the Supreme Court gives us a look into what he had to endure: “Records reveal that Agcaoili was arrested on May 12, 1974 at Balicon Subdivision, Calasiao, Pangasinan, by elements of 5th Constabulary Security Unit (CSU) by virtue of ASSO No. 3225.”

A military tribunal, not a civilian court, tried Agcaoili. Although he had no choice, he challenged the charges, and he endured the long incarceration, to the point that he was serving way beyond the punishment meted against him by the military tribunal.

“The main resolution faithfully depicts the ordeal and travails of citizens under the deposed regime, whereby notwithstanding the lifting of martial law under Proclamation No. 2045 dated January 17, 1981, any person could be ordered detained indefinitely without charges with the issuance by the then president of a Presidential Commitment Order (PCO) or its successor, the Preventive Detention Action (PDA), and yet have no recourse to the courts with the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for alleged offenses against national security, which effectively stifled the basic constitutional rights and freedoms of our people,” said the court.

That was just a portion of what Agcaoili went through for his political commitment to challenge the Marcos dictatorship.

In a paper published in 1974 by the United States Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, Ninotchka Rosca wrote about how the military and police arrested, detained, and tortured activists and critics of the dictatorship.

According to Rosca: “Tactical interrogation includes the following: 1) holding the prisoner incommunicado for weeks or months, depending on the whims of the officers involved as well as the response of the individual to methods of interrogation; and 2) the dreaded “methods of interrogation.” The latter includes physical torture (beatings, plucking out the eyebrows hair and pubic hair one by one, pistol whippings, rifle butt blows, karate chops, kicks, burning of the flesh with cigarette butts and matches, burning the genitals of males with lighters), use of electric gadgets (electrodes attached to the genitals and nipples through which electric current is passed), and the use of drugs (the ISAF specializes in injections of sodium pentothal) without medical supervision. In the latter case, one old man appeared to have been given an overdose while inside the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) compound, as a result of which he was in stupor for three days. I have been told of cases where the minds of prisoners just disintegrated because of repeated doses of drugs given by the military; of those, however, I have no personal knowledge and would therefore limit myself to the case of this old man.”

Rosca added: “Recently, the Constabulary Security Unit put into practice a new form of torture: the arrested persons are given injections of morphine to force them into addiction and the drug is later withheld, in the hope that the anguish of withdrawal would force the prisoner into giving information. Receiving this kind of treatment to this time is Fidel Agcaoili, son of a prominent family in the Philippines and a graduate of an American university.”

Upon his release in 1985, Agcaoili could’ve led a quieter and more peaceful life, knowing fully well the unbearable costs to life and limb of remaining politically committed.

Instead, Agcaoili helped form SELDA, the organization of former political detainees together. Don Chino Roces, Juliet de Lima Sison, Romeo Candazo, former Senator Francisco Rodrigo, lawyer Jose Mari Velez, Benjamin Guingona, and Navy Capt. Danilo Vizmanos.

Accounts say the new democratic regime did not welcome it, but SELDA courageously filed a landmark human rights class-action suit against the Marcoses in the US.

Today, we owe Agcaoili and the SELDA co-founders a huge debt for their singular achievement of taking steps to legally holding the Marcoses accountable for human rights atrocities. Docketed as “Hilao vs Marcos,” the class-suit successfully proved atrocities of the Marcos dictatorship. The Hilao in the case title refers to the mother of and the case of PLM campus journalist and student leader Liliosa Hilao, who became the first political detainee to die while in the custody of the martial regime.

The SELDA case became basis for the law compensating victims of the dictatorship, and established in fact and in law the barbarities committed by Ferdinand Marcos during his reign of terror and plunder.

Agcaoili’s political commitment to democracy found him advocating the Left’s participation in the 1987 elections: He served as secretary-general of Partido ng Bayan (PnB). But at the time, the system still proved to be too insecure and unready for radical and progressive politics. Many PnB candidates, supporters, and officials were assassinated, while its offices were bombed. Right-wing forces would later admit being behind the attacks on PnB.

In 1992, Agcaoili reappeared as member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines negotiating panel in peace talks with the Philippine government.

The talks produced more than 10 agreements, including the The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees, and the first substantive agreement, the the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Agcaoili took over as NDFP’s chief negotiator in October, 2016, and led the rebels’ peace overtures with the new president.

As chief negotiator, Agcaoili personally met with Rodrigo Duterte. He pushed for the negotiation and signing of agreements on social and economic reforms, and political and constitutional reforms: reforms supported and demanded by a broad cross-section of the public. The panel even agreed to an extraordinary ceasefire to help propel the peace talks, and broached the idea of national united front against China. The President however made starkly different choices, putting the talks in limbo.

Up until the end, Agcaoili was living a simple, frugal life in Utrecht. Hours before his passing, he was still posting and sharing news and commentary on Facebook about developments in the country he loved and served as a most courageous and visionary peacemaker and revolutionary leader. ###

Church leaders file a petition against the Anti-Terror Act of 2020 before the Supreme Court, July 24. (Photo by Leah Valencia)

Janess Ann J. Ellao
Bulatlat.com
July 24, 2020

MANILA – Church leaders joined the mounting legal opposition against the controversial Anti-Terror Act of 2020 as they filed their own petition today, July 24, before the Supreme Court. They said that under the new law, their ministries for the poor and the downtrodden may be misconstrued as an act of terror.

Petitioners include Bishop Broderick Pabillo of Archdiocese of Manila, Bishop Gerardo Aliminaza D.D. of the Diocese of San Carlos, Protestant leaders Bishop Rex Reyes Jr. of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, UCCP Bishop Emergencio Padillo, NCCP general secretary Bishop Reuel Marigza, nuns of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, priests, evangelical professors, and church lay people. Also one of the petitioners is former convenor of the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform Rey Casambre, who has been detained since 2018 due to trumped up charges.

“Our ministries—with marginalized sectors, the economically poor, and those who struggle at picket lines, with boycotts, and though others forms of legitimate and democratic challenge to oppression and exploitation—can be misconstrued as terrorism, supporting terrorism, or inciting terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Law,” Alminaza, one of the convenors of the Church people Workers Solidarity, said.

In their petition, church leaders assailed that the vagueness of the Republic Act No. 11479 or the Anti-Terror Act of 2020 will expose them to “credible threat of prosecution” for their ministries and advocacies.

Even before this law, petitioners like the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines have long been in the crosshairs of government. Their bank accounts remain frozen and its former head Sr. Elen Belardo is facing trumped-up charges filed by Presidential Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

The NCCP, too, was red-tagged during a congressional hearing in 2019, along with local and international humanitarian agencies.

Earlier this week, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter, expressing their disbelief about “the manner in which the contentious Anti-Terror Bill was fast-tracked” amid a pandemic.

“The dissenting voices were strong but they remained unheeded. None of the serious concerns that they expressed about this legislative measure seemed to be of any consequence to them. Alas, the political pressure from above seemed to weigh more heavily on our legislators than the voices from below,” the pastoral letter read.

A government official later claimed it was a violation of the principle of separation of church and state. However, the NCCP seconded the CBCP’s pastoral letter, adding it aims to fulfill church leaders’ prophetic duty to “announce and denounce the ills of society.”

Church leaders were assisted by lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center.

National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers
June 1, 2020

Yesterday’s railroading of the new anti-terrorism bill by the Lower House committees deliberating on the measure brings the country one more step towards a Marcosian dictatorship.

These shameless Congresspersons orchestrated a sneak attack on our civil and political liberties while the entire country was preoccupied by the Covid19 pandemic and the hard lockdown imposed by government.

Setting aside the various bills of their fellow congressmen, House leaders orchestrated the adoption of the Senate’s version in toto, without even changing a comma or a period. This put into waste months of careful deliberations by the joint committees and efforts by several House members to mitigate the bill’s dangerous and draconian provisions.

In light of the railroading that has taken place in the HOR, we can anticipate the quick passage of the bill into law. The Senate bill now adopted by the House provides for the following draconian provisions:

• a more vague and broad definition of terrorism to include virtually any kind of protest action or expression of dissent;
• new crimes like threatening, planning, training, preparing, facilitating, conspiring, proposing or inciting to commit “terrorism” that further widen the already overbroad scope of the crime of “terrorism”;
• ex parte or one-sided designation or proscription of persons or groups as “terrorist”;
• legalizing guilt by association via the crimes of recruitment, membership, and providing material support to a designated “terrorist” or “terrorist” group, organization or association;
• arrest without warrant and detention without charges from 14 to as much as 24 days versus the current 72 hours;
• relaxed rules on physical and electronic surveillance, examination and freezing of assets and bank accounts for persons or groups suspected of engaging in “terrorism”.

This vague, overbroad and expanded definition of “terrorism” and its related crimes will provide the basis for abuse by authorities, making it much much easier to intimidate, harrass, invade the privacy, arrest and detain anyone on trumped up charges.

This is a threat to those opposing the Duterte government’s surrender of our national sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, the murderous yet sham “war on drugs”, the criminal bungling of the Covid-19 response, the crackdown on human rights defenders, the appointment of a virtual military junta running the government, and the favored treatment of presidential relatives, business cronies and political loyalists.

It targets critics of government and the status quo, social reformers, members of the Opposition, the critical press and the civil liberties and human rights of every Filipino.

We appeal to the remaining upright and freedom-loving members of the House to reject this abominable piece of legislation when it reaches the plenary.

We call on our people to vehemently oppose this latest attack by the Duterte regime on Philippine democracy.#

References:

Ephraim B. Cortez
NUPL Secretary General
+639175465798

Josalee S. Deinla
NUPL Spokeserson
+639174316396

By the Movement Against Tyranny
May 30, 2020

Yesterday’s railroading of the new anti-terrorism bill by the Lower House committees deliberating on the measure brings the country one more step towards a Marcosian dictatorship.

These shameless Congresspersons orchestrated a sneak attack on our civil and political liberties while the entire country was preoccupied by the Covid19 pandemic and the hard lockdown imposed by government.

Setting aside the various bills of their fellow congressmen, House leaders orchestrated the adoption of the Senate’s version in toto, without even changing a comma or a period. This put into waste months of careful deliberations by the joint committees and efforts by several House members to mitigate the bill’s dangerous and draconian provisions.

In light of the railroading that has taken place in the HOR, we can anticipate the quick passage of the bill into law. The Senate bill now adopted by the House provides for the following draconian provisions:

• a more vague and broad definition of terrorism to include virtually any kind of protest action or expression of dissent;
• new crimes like threatening, planning, training, preparing, facilitating, conspiring, proposing or inciting to commit “terrorism” that further widen the already overbroad scope of the crime of “terrorism”;
• ex parte or one-sided designation or proscription of persons or groups as “terrorist”;
• legalizing guilt by association via the crimes of recruitment, membership, and providing material support to a designated “terrorist” or “terrorist” group, organization or association;
• arrest without warrant and detention without charges from 14 to as much as 24 days versus the current 72 hours;
• relaxed rules on physical and electronic surveillance, examination and freezing of assets and bank accounts for persons or groups suspected of engaging in “terrorism”.

This vague, overbroad and expanded definition of “terrorism” and its related crimes will provide the basis for abuse by authorities, making it much much easier to intimidate, harrass, invade the privacy, arrest and detain anyone on trumped up charges.

This is a threat to those opposing the Duterte government’s surrender of our national sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, the murderous yet sham “war on drugs”, the criminal bungling of the Covid-19 response, the crackdown on human rights defenders, the appointment of a virtual military junta running the government, and the favored treatment of presidential relatives, business cronies and political loyalists.

It targets critics of government and the status quo, social reformers, members of the Opposition, the critical press and the civil liberties and human rights of every Filipino.

We appeal to the remaining upright and freedom-loving members of the House to reject this abominable piece of legislation when it reaches the plenary.

We call on our people to vehemently oppose this latest attack by the Duterte regime on Philippine democracy.#

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVZ4_OL2x-U&w=640&h=360]

ECUVOICE PHILIPPINES
29 May 2020

Under the global pandemic, cooperation through the United Nations highlights the importance for physical distancing and other coordinated health responses to the COVID-19 virus around the world. In a similar spirit, engaging UN human rights mechanisms have proven salient in efforts to draw attention to human rights violations in various countries and press for their rectification.

Given the pressing situation in the country, engagement with the UN HRC as a platform for accountability, justice and advocacy is increasingly imperative.

#NoLockdownOnRights will weigh COVID-19 responses against the inalienable, universal, indivisible, and interrelated character of human rights and standards in upholding them, particularly in light of the observations of widespread and systematic human rights violations as well as a further shrinking of democratic space in the Philippines. First-hand testimonies, inputs from UN Special Rapporteurs and analyses by civil-society, human rights leaders will articulate perspectives and focus energy for the furtherance of promoting and defending human rights.

April 23, 2020
Agence France-PresseGuillaume Lavallée

UNITED NATIONS, USA – Taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to erode human rights would be unacceptable, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday, April 16, unveiling a new report on the issue.

As governments around the world implemented extraordinary measures to deal with the outbreak, activists have increasingly warned of strongmen regimes using the crisis to roll back rights.

Rights groups have called states out for everything from violence, threats to press freedom, arrests and smartphone surveillance implemented to fight the wave of infections.

“Against the background of rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and a pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic,” Guterres said in a statement.

“This is unacceptable.”

He called on governments to be transparent, responsive and accountable.

“Civic space and press freedom are critical. Civil society organizations and the private sector have essential roles to play. And in all we do, let’s never forget: The threat is the virus, not people,” Guterres said.

The UN report on human rights and COVID-19 suggested that governments think about the consequences of their actions, saying “for better or for worse it is critical to consider the long-term whilst planning our short-term responses.” – Rappler.com

NUPL
PRESS STATEMENT
21 APRIL 2020

As Luzon marks its 36th day of lockdown a.k.a. community quarantine, the political and economic rights of the people are also under virulent atack.

Pleas for economic relief for the marginalized households, calls for mass testing, appropriate health-based approach to the pandemic and adequate protection for frontliners, have not been fully, efficiently, timely and properly addressed by the national government.

Worse, the government and some vocal and visible figures of this administration peddle, pass off or tolerate their own fake news and concocted narratives to create an image of being on top of the situation in addressing the pandemic. At the same time, it is tapping on its pawns with rifles and boots on the ground to sow terror and muzzle those who choose to see and expose the grim reality– that the deadly virus continues to claim lives and that the government by and large bungles and baffles through the crisis.

Proof of this and straight from the horse’s mouth is the recent admission that the Duterte administration has yet to draw up concrete, orchestrated and comprehensive plans in addressing the pandemic, after a month’s implementation of the lockdown.

The more than 30-days lockdown has demonstrated just how bound and determined this administration, not in “flattening the curve” of COVID-19 cases, but at committing human rights violations with impunity along the way. It is hell-bent on “flattening” and dismissing criticisms on the glaring “double standards” in the implementation of its own lockdown policies, the real talk of growling stomachs, and the sound proposals of experts to cushion the economic impact of a dominantly militarist approach to the crisis.

We will never forget how the administration, through its combat-ready eager forces in uniform, to many a bigoted bureaucratic minion, to an arrogant local queen, down to an overzealous barangay tanod with a baston, used its iron fists on people with no big names by exposing them under the sun, keeping them in dog cages overnight, hauling them like scampering rats, mocking, humiliating and parading them, and sending them to already overcongested jails.

These, while invoking “compassion and understanding” to the entitled and a bunch of equally non-self-effacing government officials who broke lockdown rules with their posh parties, idiotic photo ops and multiple frontlining at testing with their “VIP” advantage while valuable doctors and nurses die without really confirming what hit them.

We will always be reminded of how the administration’s mouthpieces flaunt its disregard of basic human rights by mass warrantless arrests for allegedly violating lockdown policies and misinforming the public that human rights are no longer honored amid the pandemic. We have noted how the government has mocked and continues to mock freedom of the press and information with their desperate efforts to tweak the number of COVID deaths and of people dying without being tested for the virus, with how medical frontliners go to battle without the prescribed personal protective equipment, with how people fighting the virus and their families shall defray medical expenses with PhilHealth’s limited coverage and the dire situation of our healthcare system overall; and now, their yet another frenzied attempt at besmirching the reputation of independent media outfits and all-time favorite “redtagging” of peoples’ organizations for reporting the real score on the ground and simply sending immediate relief to impoverished communities, as with the case of the Norzagaray 7.

As the narrative shifts at conveniently and erroneously putting all the blame on arguably “hard-headed” poor people for the continued spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, there goes our late-night President Duterte again, with his recent threat of a “martial-law like crackdown” implementation of the lockdown.

While threats of a martial law-like crackdown are certainly legally untenable and open to constitutional challenge and debate, this is something that should never be taken lightly as the administration’s henchmen in uniform have already continued to cause human rights violations, silence critics or send them behind bars through non-use, misuse and abuse of the legal system.

At this point, we should reiterate that the “rule of justice” has never ceased to operate. Basic economic, social, political and civil rights have never been reduced to a mere enumeration of empty do’s and dont’s as what control-obsessed wielders of power, high and low, try to undermine.

The lockdown and the pandemic are not the government’s “passes” to sow a reign of terror, cultivate a climate of fear and blind obeisance, and commit human rights violations with impunity.

For as soon as the dust settles, there will be an accounting and accountability. Every single duck walk, every prolonged exposure to the sun, every carrying of coffins, caging, show trials, nuisance investigations, arbitrary arrests and more importantly, the unacceptable failure to feed and care for the people when they needed a government most are memorialized in different forms and images, ready to be retrieved in a time of reckoning.

In the meantime, despite practical
limitations, we will continue to counter the misinformation, the false narratives, the empty claims, the arrogant threats. the chipping away of our rights and dignity. We will continue to equip the people with legal knowledge, competent advice and as prompt aid as possible to protect and defend their rights.

Asserting and exercising one’s individual and collective rights are not incompatible with preserving life, caring for health and ensuring our welfare which are rights themselves.

When this pandemic is over, our basic rights and dignity should still be with us. #

Reference:

Ephraim B. Cortez
NUPL Secretary General
+639175465798

Josalee S. Deinla
NUPL Spokesperson
+639174316396

Kodao Productions
April 14, 2020

The family of a political detainee has asked Supreme Court Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta for his immediate release along with other sickly, elderly and pregnant prisoners of conscience.

In a letter to Peralta Monday, April 13, the family of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Rey Claro Casambre asked the country’s chief magistrate for his temporary release amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis.

“My father’s freedom will remove him from otherwise high vulnerability to the coronavirus while in prison, and enable us, his family, to better care for him as he struggles through illnesses,” Casambre’s daughter Xandra Biseño said.

Casambre, supposedly immune from arrest as a consultant to the peace talks between the government and the NDFP, was arrested along with his wife Cora on December 7, 2018. Cora was later freed due to a lack of evidence.

Biseño said their family fears for the life and safety of Casambre who is of advanced age and suffering from type 2 diabetes and a heart condition.

Casambre has an enlarged ventricle, mitral valve prolapse, and aortic valve prolapse with mild regurgitation, his daughter said.

Biseño’s letter, also sent in behalf of by her mother Cora, Casambre’s sister Sr. Mary Aida Casambre, RGS, and other family members and friends, is in support of the petition filed by Kapatid on April 8 seeking the Supreme Court’s “compassionate intervention” and “exercise of equity jurisdiction” for the release of select prisoners, including political detainees.

The lead petitioners are 22 political prisoners who are mostly elderly and sick, including six women, one of whom has leprosy while another is five-months pregnant.

Biseño said that despite assurances by penal authorities that the country’s jails are “100% safe” during the Covid-19 crisis, they are highly concerned that Casambre and others like him are put at an even greater risk.

“There is a general lack of jail space and facilities for social distancing, proper nutrition to put up resistance against the virus, prompt testing of prisoners and jail employees with Covid symptoms to enable ample isolation, quarantine, and treatment for the infected and the safety of those who are not,” Biseño’s letter reads.

Prison authorities have admitted that Philippine jails are over 500% congested, and tally about 4-5,000 deaths every year notably at a higher rate among the detained elderly.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology earlier announced the death of an inmate on March 25 at a Quezon City jail prison.

Prisoners’ families deliver nutritious food and supplements regularly to the detainees because prison rations are insufficient to keep the detainees nutritionally fed, Biseño said.

Water supply is irregular due to rationing by the concessionaires, she added.

“The helplessness and anxiety that the fatal microbe could hit our imprisoned relatives – who have no reason to be in prison at all because they are but falsely charged – is becoming unspeakable, Biseño wrote.

Her letter said the release of elderly, sickly and pregnant prisoners will also aid government’s objective to arrest the spread of the coronavirus by decongesting prisons and removing highly vulnerable individuals detainees as had been done in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Germany, Italy, United States of America and Morocco.

Biseño’s letter was also sent to Senate President Vicente Sotto, Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights Chair Richard Gordon, House of Representatives Committee on Justice Chair Vicente Veloso, and Makati District 2 Representative Luis Campos.

The Department of Social Work and Development, Department of Justice and the BJMP said they support the decongestion of prisons by giving elderly and vulnerable inmates temporary freedom. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Kapatid – Families and Friends of Political Prisoners
January 17, 2020

Mula sa mga piitan, kaming mga Consultant ng National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) ay nagpapaabot ng mainit na pagbati sa mga namuno sa pagdaraos ng pagtitipong ito: Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, Pilgrims for Peace, at Kapayapaan Campaign for a Just and Lasting Peace.

Karapat-dapat purihin ang inyong pagsisikap na muling maipagpatuloy ang negosasyong pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng gobyernong Duterte at NDFP.

Pormal na tinapos ng gobyernong Duterte ang negosasyong pangkapayapaan sa ikalawang pagkakataon noong Nobyembre 2017. Alinsunod sa mga utos ng kanilang pinunong kumander, lalong pinatindi ng Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Philippine National Police (PNP) ang mga operasyon nila laban sa Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) sa mga larangang gerilya nito sa kanayunan.

Pinatindi rin nila ang mga pagpatay, pag-aresto at pagpapakulong sa mga pinuno at aktibista ng nga ligal na progresibong organisasyon ng mga manggagawa, magsasaka, guro, kawani, abogado, mamamahayag at maging mga elemento ng taong simbahan na pawang inaakusahang tagapagtaguyod ng CPP-NPA. Noong maagang bahagi ng 2019, alinsunod sa kanyang Executive Order No. 70, itinatag ni Duterte ang National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) sa ambisyosong layunin na tapusin ang CPP-NPA sa pagtatapos ng kanyang panunungkulan.

Hindi iilan ang nagulat nang inanunsyo ni Duterte noong unang linggo ng Disyembre 2019 na pinapunta niya si Sec. Silvestre Bello III sa Netherlands para makipag-usap kay Kasamang Jose Ma. Sison, NDFP Chief Political Consultant, tungkol sa muling pagpapatuloy ng negosasyong pangkapayapaan. Ang ginawang ito ni Duterte ay pag-amin niyang hindi malilipol ang CPP-NPA bago matapos ang kanyang panunungkulan. Naoobliga rin ang rehimeng Duterte na muling ipagpatuloy ang negosasyong pangkapayapaan dahil sa tumitinding krisis sa ekonomiya at pulitika.

Patuloy na sumisidhi ang krisis sa malapiyudal at malakolonyal na lipunan na siyang ugat na dahilan ng armadong tunggalian. Patuloy ring lumalaban ang mamamayan sa kabila ng marahas na panunupil at panlilinlang ng rehimeng Duterte. Bigo ang EO 70 at ang diumano’y “whole of nation approach” nito na pigilin ang pakikibaka para sa tunay na kalayaan, demokrasya at katarungang panlipunan.

Itinataguyod namin ang desisyon ng NDFP na harapin ang gobyernong Duterte sa negosasyong pangkapayapaan sa kabila ng marahas at madugong mga atake ng rehimeng Duterte sa mga rebolusyonaryong pwersa at sa mamamayan.

Kung seryoso ang gobyernong Duterte sa negosasyong pangkapayapaaan, dapat kilanlin at igalang nito ang mga kasunduang napagtibay ng GRP at NDFP, kabilang dito ang The Hague Joint Declaration, Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), at Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). Kung matutupad, makakatulong nang malaki ang mga kasunduang ito sa pagsugpo sa malulubhang paglabag sa mga karapatang pantao ng AFP at PNP.

Kung seryoso ang rehimeng Duterte sa muling pagpapatuloy ng negosasyong pangkapayapaan, kailangang ipagpatuloy ang nasimulan nang pagbalangkas sa mga saligang repormang panlipunan at pang-ekonomiya. Napagkaisahan ding ipamamahagi hindi lamang mga lupaing publiko kundi pati mga asyenda ng mga panginoong maylupa. May mga probisyon ding napagkasunduan tungkol sa suportang pinansyal sa mga pangangailangan sa pagsasaka at pagbabawal sa mga pagbebenta ng lupang ipinamahagi upang mapigilan ang rekonsentrasyon ng mga lupa matapos ang ilang taon.

May mahahalagang napagkaisahan din ukol sa pambansang industrilisasyon at pagpapaunlad sa ekonomiya. Kailangan ang pambansang industrilisasyon upang makamit ang matagalang pagpapaunlad ng ekonomiya at patuloy na dumami ang trabaho.

Mahalagang tukuyin ang malalaking hadlang sa pagpapatuloy ng negosasyong pangkapayapaan. Ang una ay ang mga militarista—mga retiradong heneral na nasa Cabinet at mga kasalukuyang pinuno ng AFP at PNP. Sa simula pa lamang ng pag-uusap ay tinutulan na nila ang unilateral ceasefire at mabigat ang loob na sumunod sa utos ni Duterte. Iginiit nina National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana at DILG Secretary Eduardo Año ang pagdaraos na lamang ng mga lokal na usapang pangkapayapaan at tinutulan ang tuwirang pakikipag-usap sa NDFP.

Nitong huli, ang Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER) ay kinondena ni Gen. Carlito Galvez, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. Sinabi niyang paso na ang balangkas ng CASER, hindi ito makakatulong sa mamamayan, at ito ay isang kataksilan sa bayan.

Lubos kaming nakikiisa sa tugon ng tagapangulo ng NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms laban sa mga atake nina Esperon at Galvez sa usapang pangkapayapaan at sa CASER at balangkas ng The Hague Joint Declaration. Malinaw at mahinahong nagpaliwanag ang NDFP at pinabulaanan ang pambabaluktot, kasinungalingan, at paratang ng mga militarista ni Duterte. Lalo lamang inilantad nina Esperon at Galvez ang kanilang mga luma at pasong kaisipan noong Cold War pa.

Tahimik si Duterte tungkol sa mga pahayag sa publiko ng mga militaristang laban sa muling pagpapatuloy ng negosasyong pangkapayapaan sa NDFP. Subalit paulit-ulit namang iginigiit na kailangang mag-usap muna sila ni Jose Ma. Sison nang harapan dito sa Maynila bago makausad ang negosasyon, nang walang ibang garantiya sa kaligtasan ng una liban sa di-mapagkakatiwalaang salita ng huli.

Wastong tinukoy ni Jose Ma. Sison na ang panukala ni Duterte ay alinman sa isang bitag o di kaya ay gagamiting dahilan para muling tapusin ang negosasyon.
Mahalaga para sa NDFP na igiit ang negosasyong pangkapayapaan ay gawin sa isang neutral third country. Ayaw ng NDFP na maulit ang karanasan nito sa negosasyon noong 1986–1987.

Pinakahuli, hindi dapat mag-alala na kapag hinarap ng NDFP ang gobyernong Duterte sa negosasyong pangkapayapaan ay mapapabango nito ang sarili. Mananatili ang katayuan ng rehimeng Duterte kung magpapatuloy ang mga paglabag sa mga karapatang pantao at hindi nalulutas ang mga saligang suliraning panlipunan at pang ekonomiya.

Matuloy man o hindi ang usapang pangkapayapaan, makakaasa kayong patuloy kaming matatag na makikiisa sa inyo sa pakikibaka para sa isang tunay, makatarungan at matagalang kapayapaan.

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