By Julieta de Lima
Interim Chairperson, Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
February 18, 2021
 

I am honored to speak at the 9th Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace February 18-19, 2021 commemorating 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines and celebrating God’s gift of human dignity on the subject of Compelling Visions of Just Peace: The Ethical Imperative of Human Dignity in Social Transformation.

The 9th Ecumenical Church Leaders’ Summit on Peace is a chance once again to express our unity amidst our diversity as the 500 years of Christianity in our country is being commemorated.

In the spirit of Pope Francis, let us seek unity in diversity in dealing with issues that beset society such as when he pontificated: “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ, all of us, not just Catholics. …Even the atheists. Everyone!” on careerism, on judging homosexuals, on consumerism, on the environment, on marriage, remarriage and divorce and most importantly, on the option for the poor (Evangelii Gaudium) as he strives to make the Church relevant to the lives of the people.

Oppression and exploitation are a systematic violation of human dignity. It is in this regard that I wish to discuss human dignity as the core of the revolutionary process of transforming the oppressive and exploitative society we have in the Philippines towards a life of dignity for the Filipino people.

I share your vision of a just and enduring peace for the Philippines, which means peace beyond the silence of guns to the active presence of justice, right relationships with others and the rest of creation. It is tangible and manifested through food on the table, decent jobs and wages, clothing, shelter, education and access to the basic needs. To me this means Man proposes and God disposes, with the masses not only voicing the will of God but realizing it on earth. We make the plan but it is up to the masses, the people, to make this successful. In other words, our prayers are not enough, these must be substantiated by human effort.

Let me present to you the just demands and just aspirations of the people that have inspired the rise of the armed revolutionary movement in the Philippines. I shall also refer to the willingness of the same movement to negotiate a just peace, so brutally frustrated by the all-out war policy and termination of the peace negotiations by the Duterte regime.

These aspirations and demands are precisely among the objectives of the Program for a People’s Democratic Revolutioni as well as the 12-Point Program of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, which you may find at <https://liberation.ndfp.org/our-program/>

In both documents are the most important objectives of the national democratic revolution in the Philippines, which are to achieve full national independence and people’s democracy. The old democratic revolution of 1896 was anticolonial and led by the liberal bourgeoisie and was aimed at building a bourgeois democratic republic.

It was preceded by the secularization movement of the clergy in the Philippines led by Monsignor Pedro Pelaez, ecclesiastical governor of the Church and continued by native (Filipino) priests, the most famous of whom were the martyred priests Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora. Their martyrdom, their Christian sacrifice, inspired the national consciousness and coherence of the Filipino people as single nation of diverse ethno-linguistic communities. It is a historical fact that Spanish colonialism brought Christianity to the Philippines. But it is also a historical fact that the Filipino people have adopted it as a redemptive and liberating moral force in the same manner as one type of society after another has adopted science and technology as a progressive factor in advancing civilization.
Today’s new democratic revolution is led by the working class and is aimed at proceeding to the socialist revolution in consonance with the era of modern imperialism and the world proletarian revolution. The revolutionary leadership of the working class and its vanguard party ensures that the new democratic revolution has a socialist perspective, takes a socialist direction and is the preparation for the socialist revolution.

With the peasantry as the main force of the revolution, it is certain that the main content of the democratic revolution is fulfilled with the satisfaction of the peasant demand for agrarian revolution through free land distribution. And the line is set for agricultural cooperation and mechanization when the stage of socialism is reached.

It is necessary for us to study the different classes in Philippine society in order to know who are the motive forces and friends and who in varying degrees are the enemies of the revolution.

The motive forces of the revolution are the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and middle bourgeoisie. The enemies of the revolution are the imperialists and their domestic collaborators: the comprador big bourgeoisie, the landlord class and the bureaucrat capitalists. They are the forces of counterrevolution that wish to perpetuate the semifeudal ruling system of oppression and exploitation.

The comprador big bourgeoisie are the chief financial and trading agents of the US and other imperialist countries. The landlord class perpetuates private ownership of lands and subjects the peasants and farm workers to feudal and semifeudal conditions of exploitation and oppression.

The bureaucrat capitalists are the political agents of the big compradors and landlords but they have become a distinct class by accumulating power and wealth by using their governmental authority. They have gained notoriety as political dynasties wanting to perpetuate themselves in power in order to accumulate private capital and land.

The big compradors, landlords and bureaucrat capitalists are considered the class enemies because they exploit the people, especially the workers and peasants, and they use the semicolonial state to oppress the people and keep them within the bounds of the ruling system through violence and deception.

Within the framework of the broad united front policy and tactics, the CPP refers to these enemy classes as the reactionary classes in order to focus the term “enemy” on the most reactionary clique that is in power. The sharpening of the term is meant to take advantage of the splits among the reactionaries and narrow the target of the revolution to the ruling reactionary clique as the enemy in a given period.

As I explained above, the motive forces and the friends of the revolution are the following: a. the working class as the leading class from the new democratic stage to the socialist stage of the Philippine revolution, b. the peasantry (essentially the poor and middle peasants and the seasonal farm workers) as the main force or democratic majority of the people and c. the middle social strata of the urban petty bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie.

Their needs and demands are expressed in the program of people’s democratic revolution (PPDR). And they participate in the revolution in order to realize this program. Their participation in the revolution spells the growth and advance of the revolution towards victory.

Why are the workers called the leading class of the revolution? The working class is the leading class of the revolution because it is the most advanced productive and political force among the various classes in Philippine society and in the world. It is the class that can sustain and further develop an industrialized economy even without the bourgeoisie. It is indispensable in the development of an industrialized socialist economy.

It is the class that is capable of leading the toiling masses to overthrow the state power of the bourgeoisie and replace it with the state power of the proletariat and fulfil the historic mission of socialist revolution and construction. The working class has the most developed theory for revolutionary change and the accumulated practice of leading successful socialist revolutions, despite the subsequent revisionist betrayal and capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union and then in China. The theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism encompasses philosophy, political economy and social science.

The working class has created the Communist Party as the vanguard party to focus on revolutionary theory and practice on the basis of the revolutionary mass movement. The Communist Party is the instrument of the working class for leading the revolution from the people’s democratic stage to the socialist stage of the revolution.

The peasant class (mainly the poor and middle peasants and traditional seasonal farm workers) is still the most numerous class in the Philippines and comprise the democratic majority of the people. The satisfaction of their demand for land through agrarian revolution is the main content of the revolution.

The protracted people’s war in the new democratic revolution is possible in the Philippines because the peasant class has provided the people’s army with the social and physical terrain, the widest sphere of maneuver for the people’s war against the enemy that is superior in terms of military personnel, equipment and training before the people’s army gains the upper-hand by capturing the weapons from the enemy.

The actual social investigation and class analysis done by the CPP belies the claim of the enemy that the Philippines is already a newly-industrialized country, even without having the capability to produce industrial capital goods. The trick of the enemy is to claim that out of the 45 million labor force or manpower in the Philippines 58 per cent are workers in the service sector and 19.1 per cent are workers in the industry sector. Thus, the working class is now supposedly 77.1 per cent, while the peasantry has dwindled to 19.1 per cent without the need of genuine land reform and national industrialization. Most of the so-called service workers are oddjobbers and are the off-shoot of the semifeudal economy and not the consequence of industrial capitalism.

The CPP is the principal instrument of the working class for leading the national democratic revolution and, subsequently, the socialist revolution. To be able to take this role, the CPP has to build itself as an ideological, political and organizational instrument of the working class. It has to realize the class leadership of the working class in the entire revolutionary movement of the people.

As the ideological instrument of the working class, the CPP is guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and has applied this theory on the history, circumstances and revolutionary practice of the proletariat and people.

As political instrument, it has formulated the general line of people’s democratic revolution through protracted people’s war and with a socialist perspective and has done the political work to build itself, the people’s army, the revolutionary mass organizations, the united front and the revolutionary organs of democratic power.

As the organizational instrument, it has built itself under the principle of democratic centralism in order to make collective decisions from the grassroots to higher levels of representation on the basis of democracy.

The CPP established the New People’s Army (NPA) to defend, advance and serve the people’s interests. In upholding human dignity in the Christian and Marxist sense as well as in accordance with the international covenants on human rights and humanitarian conduct in war, the CPP sees to it that as an imperative every fighter abides by the simply-worded three main rules of discipline and the eight points of attention to wit:

Obey orders in all your actions.
Do not take a single needle or piece of thread from the masses.
Turn in everything captured;

Speak politely,
Pay fairly for what you buy,
Return everything you borrow.
Pay for anything you damage
Do not damage crops,
Do not take liberties with women,
Do not ill-treat captives.

The NPA is the Party’s principal mass organization. It is not only a fighting force. It conducts propaganda work for party building, it carries out the agrarian revolution in the countryside, builds and protects rural bases and the people’s government.

In contrast, we do not experience the reactionary armed forces of the oppressive classes observing such a code of conduct. What we observe daily is the abuse of authority and the lack of concern for the welfare of the masses on the part of the armed forces as instrument of the bourgeoisie for protecting their interests as exploiting classes.

The CPP also established and built the National Democratic Front, which seeks to develop and coordinate all progressive classes, sectors and forces in the Filipino people’s struggle to end the rule of US imperialism and its local allies of big landlords and compradors, and attain national and social liberation. The earliest of its current 18 organizations is the Christians for National Liberation, which preceded the NDFP by two years. Its formation was inspired by the anticolonial priests Gomez, Burgos and Zamora martyred in the old democratic revolution as well as by Camilo Torres and liberation theology.

Your concept paper states: “The unpeace in our country has violated, defaced and deformed human dignity in our country and is a constant occurrence.” We must understand that imperialist powers and the local exploiting classes have built an economic system that grabs most of the social wealth creating by the toiling masses of workers and peasants and have developed a system of organized violence to enforce exploitative and oppressive laws and to suppress any critique or movement that is construed as a threat to the fundamentals of the ruling system.

In representation of the revolutionary forces the National Democratic Front has agreed with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines to engage in peace negotiations in order to address the roots of the armed conflict with mutual agreements on social, economic and political reforms in accordance with The Hague Joint Declaration. It is not entirely impossible to agree on these reforms, which are of a bourgeois-democratic character and which have been carried out in a number of East Asian countries, such as in post-fascist Japan and the so-called newly-industrialized countries since the 1970s.

This is the reason why revolutionary and progressive organizations like PEPP persist in campaigning for the resumption of the peace negotiations under all circumstances. They remain optimistic that their efforts would alleviate the dire situation of the masses even under the worst of circumstances.
As you have noted, communities, both in urban and rural areas, live in fear of constant threat – threat from an unseen virus, threat from increasing poverty, threat from arbitrary use of power from those who have sworn to protect them – and other forms of violence from the virus of tyranny.

Because of the violent resistance of the Duterte regime to basic social, economic and political reforms and Duterte’s termination of the peace negotiations, it becomes ethically and morally imperative for the Filipino people to participate and advance the protracted people’s war in pursuit of national and social liberation. It is also for this reason that a people’s armed force is both an ethical and moral imperative for the people to mobilize and defend themselves. Inaction on their part is to allow unpeace to reign in our country. It means allowing a tyrannical, treasonous and corrupt government to trample on the rights and interests and, therefore, the dignity of the people, especially the toiling masses.

The Duterte government unilaterally terminated the peace negotiations with the NDFP when it issued Proclamation 360 in November 2017 and designated the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations under Proclamation 374 of December 2017. It has since launched an all-out war against the NDF, the New People’s Army, the Communist Party of the Philippines and organizations it accuses as “front organizations”. The breakdown of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations has also led to unbridled ‘red-tagging’ of government critics, and church people and churches were not exempted from this practice by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Not satisfied with all the repressive measures it had already taken, the Duterte regime took advantage of the lockdown necessitated by the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic to impose further suffering on the people through racketeering and profiteering on the procurement and purchase of medicine, medical equipment, protective, etc and appropriating donations medical aid from governmental and private charitable institutions to line their pockets.

As we celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the country, let us strive ever harder to uphold human dignity and as your concept paper states, put this “at the center of our nation’s life in order for us to get in the right track for our collective journey towards peace”.

Let us strengthen our struggle for peace by striving to oust the tyrant and disable the instruments that victimize the people. We can then hope that upon the tyrant’s ouster or stepping down, a new administration that is patriotic, democratic-minded and concerned with the rights and welfare of the people can arise and is willing to resume the peace negotiations with the NDFP.

At the same time, we do not foreclose the possibility that Duterte is struck by lightning like Saul on his way to Damascus and agrees to resume peace negotiations because of the miraculous combination of prayers for and advocacy of peace by the people and the irresistible demands of the rapidly worsening crisis of the ruling system.

Thank you.

 ###

Part of the GRP panel at the table just as the 5th Round of peace negotiations was to start in the Netherlands.

By Interaksyon

May 27, 2017 – 8:39 PM

(UPDATE 5 – 8:49 a.m. May 28) Scrambling to save the fifth round of formal peace talks, the negotiating panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) meeting in The Netherlands have agreed to continue informal negotiations at 9 am Sunday, May 28, (3 pm Philippine time).

NDFP panel spokesperson Luis Jalandoni told reporters Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza requested for the postponement of the resumption of their panel-to-panel meeting
originally scheduled at 8pm Saturday (4 am Philippine time).

The parties met at 6:30 in the evening (12:30 am Philippine time) for the NDFP to submit a written reply to the GRP’s statement that it would not participate in the fifth round of talks
unless the Communist Party of the Philippines rescinds its earlier order to the New People’s Army to further intensify its military operations against state forces.

The NDFP also said the GRP asked them to sign a bilateral ceasefire agreement for the fifth round to proceed. Reacting to the NDFP’s written reply, GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello
III said the NDFP reply is “worth looking into.”

Both the NDFP and the GRP refused to divulge the contents of the reply, however, saying they have mutually agreed to keep the current informal negotiations between themselves.
Their early evening discussion was attended by the Third Party Facilitator, the Royal Norwegian Government.

The GRP and the NDFP are still trying to save what appeared earlier in the day to be an imminent cancellation of the round, sources from both parties said. Bello and NDFP counterpart
Fidel Agcaoili were seen holding backchannel talks in between panel-to-panel discussions in apparent efforts to save the formal round.

Earlier, Agcaoili said it is the third consecutive round the GRP presented conditionalities before the peace negotiations formally opened.

The GRP has been consistently asking the NDFP for a bilateral ceasefire agreement since the third round in Rome last January. The NDFP position, expressed repeatedly, is that such is
only possible when socio-economic reforms as well as political and constitutional reforms agreements have already been signed and implemented in accordance with The Hague Joint
Declaration of September 1, 1992.

5th round still possible

Both parties said the fifth round is still possible.

Earlier reports reaching Manila on Saturday, May 27, indicate that the 5th Round of the formal negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Noordwijk aan Zee, The Netherlands has been put in suspended animation by a last minute conditionality that almost scuttled the talks,
now best described as “in recess” as a result.

The respective panels of both sides promptly scrambled to troubleshoot the negotiation in order to try and salvage the peace talks.

The NDF Negotiating Panel said it was drafting a reply to its Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) counterpart as part of efforts to find common ground, untangle the
bind and allow the fifth round of formal peace negotiations to proceed.

Bello, Agcaoili, The Netherlands

Sylvestre Bello of the GRP panel and NDF’s Fidel Agcaoili (back to camera) working to keep the peace talks in The Netherlands from collapsing. Photographed by Kodao Productions
The government of the Philippines had announced it would not proceed with the scheduled 5th round of talks, through Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella “in the light of the latest
public announcement by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to accelerate and intensify its attacks against the government due to the President’s declaration of martial law in
Mindanao.

“We question the sincerity of the CPP/NPA/NDFP, if they truly are in pursuit of peaceful coexistence. The Duterte administration would rather pursue the path of genuine dialogue to
build a nation worthy of its citizens.”

Abella’s statement wrong

GRP chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III, for his part, clarified that Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella’s statement was wrong. Abella’s announcement was lifted from Dureza’s
prepared statement read to Filipino and Dutch journalists covering the talks. Informed of Abella’s announcement, Bello looked surprised but underscored that such statements should
come only from the government panel present in The Netherlands.

“The fifth round is still a possibility,” Bello maintained. The panels are set to meet again in a last ditch effort to salvage the scheduled fifth round, Kodao Productions indicated in a
dispatch as reported by Raymund B. Villanueva.

The CPP order to NPA

The CPP order had been in response to the intensified AFP operations and widespread human rights violations preceding and following the declaration of Martial Law in the whole of
Mindanao.

President Duterte justified his Martial Law declaration by citing as reason the terrorist actions of the Maute Group in Marawi City. But Lorenzana declared that the NPA was also a
target of AFP military operations.

Silvestre Bello made a subsequent clarification that Duterte had said that the Mindanao martial law was not aimed against the NPA.

NDF reply

NDFP chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili said their reply will clarify to the GRP the NDFP panel could not order the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to retract its order to the New
People’s Army (NPA) to further intensify their offensive operations against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Agcaoili explained the CPP’s directive was a response to GRP Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s statements that the NPA was among the targets of President Rodrigo Duterte’s
Martial Law declaration over the entire Mindanao region.

Agcaoili cited bombings of communities in North Cotabato and Bukidnon that killed one civilian and injured several others in the past two days.

“There are NPA units operating in those areas,” Lorenzana reasoned.

He added that the NDF could only recommend to the CPP in much the same way that GRP’s chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III and Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza could not
order the AFP and the GRP security cluster to withdraw their all-out war policy against the NPA and lift President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration over the entire Mindanao
region.

Agcaoili said they have gone as far as they could go in recommending to the CPP to reconsider its order to the NPA.

GRP’s cease fire demand

Agcaoili revealed the NDFP panel was also told by the GRP panel it wants a bilateral cease fire agreement signed during the fifth round. “We have made our position clear that until we
reach an agreement on social and economic reforms as well as political and constitutional reforms, there could never be a cease fire,” Agcaoili said.

“We hope they would receive our reply positively so that, hopefully, we can proceed with the opening ceremony of the fifth round tomorrow [Sunday],” Agcaoili said.

Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza says the negotiations were put in jeopardy by the decision of the Communist Party of the Philippines to order the NPA to intensify attacks in the
face of the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao.

“We question the sincerity of the CPP/NPA/NDFP, if they truly are in pursuit of peaceful coexistence. The Duterte administration would rather pursue the path of genuine dialogue to
build a nation worthy of its citizens.”

Word reaching Manila from The Netherlands, indicated that the fifth round of formal peace negotiations had, indeed, hit a snag with the announcement by the government panel of its
conditionality.

Mixed signals

This is the second time the GRP submitted to its counterpart a set of demands before a formal opening to a round of formal peace negotiations. For his part, the NDF’s negotiating
panel chair Fidel Agcaoili reacted to the Abella statement: “This is contrary to what the GRP negotiators are saying here, after they submitted to us a copy of Dureza’s opening speech
containing such a pronouncement. They [the GRP panel] are now clarifying that they are they are willing to sit down and find solutions to the problems. So, like everyone else, the
NDFP is receiving mixed signals from the GRP. But we hope to know the real score in a couple of hours’ time.”

In a press briefing, the NDF panel said this demand by the GRP is a new one and it was not included in their April 6 Joint Statement that the fifth round of talks shall focus on the socio-
economic reforms agenda.

NDF added that a signed bilateral cease fire agreement must only come after ground rules for its implementation have been forged by the parties: “We are supposed to be talking while
fighting like the parties have successfully done in the past, especially during the Ramos regime.”

The status at the moment may best be described as a “recess” while both sides try to work out whether to proceed or not.

– With Raymund B. Villanueva, Kodao Productions

Former peace talk consultant Alfredo Mapano (left) pays a visit to Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, then the head of the archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, after his release from prison in 2016. JIGGER J. JERUSALEM

By: Jigger J. Jerusalem – @inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Mindanao / 07:57 PM December 01, 2020

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A group of Christian church leaders advocating for peace is questioning the arrest of Alfredo Mapano, former peace talk consultant of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), while he was at work in a government corporation in Misamis Oriental province.

“Is the government program of national reconciliation and rebel reintegration all for show?” said Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) in a statement.

The statement was signed by PEPP conveners Archbishop-emeritus Antonio Ledesma of Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese, Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) Diocese of Cagayan de Oro and Bishop Ligaya San Francisco of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) northwestern Mindanao.

It said the case of Mapano cast doubt on the sincerity of the government’s call for rebels to lay down their arms and return to the fold of the law.

Mapano, who had been working at the Phividec Industrial Authority in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, was arrested by a police team from Bayugan town, Agusan del Sur province last Nov. 27 for a case of robbery in band.

Mapano had served seven years at the Misamis Oriental provincial jail until 2016, when he was freed on bail to serve as consultant in peace talks between the government and NDFP.

At Phividec, he worked first as a corporate social responsibility officer tasked with dealing with informal settlers within the 3,000-hectare industrial estate that hosted big corporations like SMB Brewery, power plants and international ports. He became security officer after that.

PEPP said “while leading a normal life with his family,” Mapano also spent time as “active partner in the government program for national reconciliation” and spoke in different forums on peace.

On several occasions, Mapano quietly facilitated the assimilation of former rebels in society and helped those who are threatened, PEPP said.

The bishops said at the time of the supposed crime committed by Mapano in Agusan del Sur and Bukidnon provinces in 2017 and 2019, he was already working in Phividec.

“It is mind boggling to think that he could be in these far-away places while working in a government office,” PEPP said.

“We view with alarm and concern that Alfredo Mapano, a former peace negotiator and now a rebel-returnee, government employee and active partner of the government program, has become a victim of the government’s hollow promise,” it said.

“Instead of the promised ‘peaceful return to the fold,’ he is once again subjected to political persecution with these latest trumped-up charges filed against him,” PEPP said.

“We urge the government to abide by its promise to accept our rebel brothers and sisters who have decided to return to the fold of the law and offer them a chance to lead a peaceful life and contribute to peace-building,” the group said.

Peace cannot be achieved when even those who have given up violence and have chosen to work for peace are still politically persecuted, the bishops added. 

xxxxx

August 21, 2020 9:53 PM PHT
Michelle Abad – Rappler.com
MANILA, Philippines

‘We are saddened and appalled by the ongoing violence and threats against human rights defenders in the Philippines,’ says the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday, August 21, called for “independent” and “thorough” investigations into the recent killings of two human rights defenders in the Philippines.

The OHCHR was referring to agrarian reform advocate Randall “Randy” Echanis and human rights worker Zara Alvarez, who were killed within days of each other. Echanis suffered around 40 stab wounds while Alvarez was shot dead.

“We are saddened and appalled by the ongoing violence and threats against human rights defenders in the Philippines, including the killing of two human rights defenders over the past two weeks,” OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssel said in a statement Friday.

“We welcome the statement from the Presidential Palace denouncing ‘any form of violence perpetuated against citizens, including activists’ and note that investigations into both cases are underway,” she added.

Anakpawis chair Echanis, 72, was among those accused of killing 67 individuals in the alleged purging within the ranks of the New People’s Army more than 20 years ago in Leyte. They were arraigned for murder before a Manila court in 2015.

Echanis had a long career of advocacy work in fighting against injustice and inequality, stemming from his days as a student.

Alvarez, 39, was imprisoned for almost two years. After her release, she worked as Karapatan’s paralegal and as research and advocacy officer of the Negros Island Health Integrated Program, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros group.

Before being shot by a lone gunman in Bacolod, Alvarez asked for protective writs. She died before the court could give it to her.

Both Echanis and Alvarez were among the more than 600 people that the Department of Justice wanted to declare as terrorists in a proscription case filed in February 2018.

Following Alvarez’s murder, her colleague Clarizza Singson received a death threat on Facebook warning her that she would be next.

“The UN Human Rights Office stresses the need for independent, thorough, and transparent investigations into the killings and for those responsible to be held to account. Effective measures must be taken to protect other at-risk human rights defenders and to halt and condemn incitement to hatred against them,” said Throssel.

The OHCHR also called on the Philippine government to ensure that relevant agencies fully cooperate with investigations led by the country’s Commission on Human Rights.

The administration under President Rodrigo Duterte has long been conducting a crackdown on people whom they tag as communists or terrorists. Government platforms were also found to be red-tagging the media.

With the anti-terrorism law in place, human rights groups warn of further dangers this could mean for ordinary people who voice dissent. – Rappler.com

Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform
July 24, 2020

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) is deeply saddened over the passing of Fidel Agcaoili, the Chairperson of the NDFP Peace Panel.

May God’s comforting hands be with his family and friends in their time of mourning…

By Jose Maria Sison
NDFP Chief Political Consultant
August 10, 2020

In the strongest terms, I condemn the murder of Randall (Randy) Echanis and his neighbor who were unarmed. Randall was a peaceful social activist. He was a mild-mannered man of 72 years. He had a consistent modest personality with a high level of education and intellect. He had long dedicated himself to his social advocacy and had made tremendous sacrifices for many decades.

Bishop Felixberto Calang
Convenor, Sowing the Seeds of Peace
July 27, 2020

It is our wish that the President’s SONA may contain even the slightest window of opportunity for the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations. We wish, not hope, because the imposition of the Anti-Terrorism Law is the single biggest obstacle to the revival of the peace process.

We renew our call that in the midst of the Covid 19 pandemic, there be ‘social distancing’ in the battlefield. This will allow the government to focus its full attention and resources on the people’s health, while also allowing the forces of the National Democratic Front to complement this effort. But it is clear that 4 years into the Duterte Presidency, we see a whole-of-state approach, dominated by military and police generals, to the most pressing issues of our time including the Coronavirus pandemic.

Going into the final stretch of the Duterte government, dreams for an independent foreign policy, genuine land reform, and a just and lasting peace— hatched and launched in Davao City in 2016— have been taken over by anti-democratic, anti-national, and anti-people measures and appear to be the legacy that the President seeks to leave behind.

Bishop Felixberto Calang
Iglesia Filipina Independiente
Diocese of Cagayan de Oro

Convenor, Sowing the Seeds of Peace

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.