Year: 2017

Young Filipinos at the forefront of protests demanding an end to police operations that have snuffed out thousands of lives. (Photo by Mark Saludes)

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan condemns Duterte’s bloody war on drugs

Vincent Go and Mark Saludes, UCAN Manila Philippines

August 24, 2017

A Philippine bishop likened a northern Manila suburb to Cambodia’s “killing fields” Aug. 23 as he encouraged grieving families to file cases against abusive police implementing President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan’s latest denunciation of the bloody campaign came as Duterte’s aides tried to defuse a public outcry over the Aug. 16 killing — caught on camera — of 17-year-old student Kian de los Santos in a community in Bishop David’s diocese.

At a press conference, Bishop David said the killing of de los Santos was not an isolated case, contrary to the government’s claim.

The bishop said he has heard from many families of people who died because they allegedly resisted arrest. Many witnesses have also seen police shoot people begging for their lives, he added.

Bishop David also questioned the lack of official response to roaming teams of killers in black clothing.

The bishop hinted at tacit government approval of vigilante groups.

“They roam our streets, especially in the informal settler communities, every night,” Bishop David said. “And I don’t know why they are invisible.”

There has been little official action on what police call “deaths under investigation,” which make up two-thirds of the 12,000 killings related to drugs in the past year.

Duterte on Aug. 22 said he would not attend De los Santos’ wake because he did not want to judge police involved until after a Justice Department probe.

He said Aug. 21 that any police found guilty by the courts would be jailed and not granted a presidential pardon he often promises for those implementing his drug war.

On Aug. 23, representatives of foreign governments called for an impartial probe into the killing.

Forensic experts from the public attorney’s office have said De los Santos was shot three times, twice in the head, while he lay prone on the ground.

Police suspects have also admitted they were holding De los Santos as per the footage caught by village street cameras.

Even Duterte’s popular ally, boxer and pro-death penalty senator, Manny Pacquiao, condemned the “excessive and unnecessary deaths” in the year-old campaign.

National defense chief Delfin Lorenza urged Filipinos to stay calm as he criticized the conduct of the police who killed De los Santos in Caloocan City.

“Whether or not he was involved in the use or trafficking of illegal drugs, he did not deserve to die in the manner that he did,” Lorenzana said in a statement.

National police chief Ronald de la Rosa has removed the police district commander who earlier claimed the video showed another suspect.

Despite the outcry, Duterte vowed to step up his anti-drug campaign and challenged his critics.

Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla downplayed a statement by an anonymous group called Patriotic and Democratic Movement (PADEM), which urged soldiers and police to oppose Duterte.

“The entire [military] along with all the men and women of the uniformed services and all our civilian personnel stand by the constitutionally mandated government and unequivocally supports the commander-in-chief,” Padilla said.

The PADEM statement accused Duterte of treating the security services as private armies, inciting police to engage in extra-judicial killings and having family and friends among top drug lords.

photo credit: Rome Reports

“Welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees”

Dear brothers and sisters!

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34).

Throughout the first years of my pontificate, I have repeatedly expressed my particular concern for the lamentable situation of many migrants and refugees fleeing from war, persecution, natural disasters and poverty.  This situation is undoubtedly a “sign of the times” which I have tried to interpret, with the helpof the Holy Spirit, ever since my visit to Lampedusa on 8 July 2013.  When I instituted the new Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, I wanted a particular section – under my personal direction for the time being – to express the Church’s concern for migrants, displaced people, refugees and victims of human trafficking.

Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43).  The Lord entrusts to the Church’s motherly love every person forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future.[1]  This solidarity must be concretely expressed at every stage of the migratory experience – from departure through journey to arrival and return.  This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities.

In this regard, I wish to reaffirm that “our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate”.[2]

Considering the current situation, welcoming means, above all, offering broader options for migrants and refugees to enter destination countries safely and legally.  This calls for a concrete commitment to increase and simplify the process for granting humanitarian visas and for reunifying families.  At the same time, I hope that a greater number of countries will adopt private and community sponsorship programmes, and open humanitarian corridors for particularly vulnerable refugees.  Furthermore, special temporary visas should be granted to people fleeing conflicts in neighbouring countries.  Collective and arbitrary expulsions of migrants and refugees are not suitable solutions, particularly where people are returned to countries which cannot guarantee respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.[3]  Once again, I want to emphasise the importance of offering migrants and refugees adequate and dignified initial accommodation.  “More widespread programmes of welcome, already initiated in different places, seem to favour a personal encounter and allow for greater quality of service and increased guarantees of success”.[4]  The principle of the centrality of the human person, firmly stated by my beloved Predecessor, Benedict XVI,[5] obliges us to always prioritise personal safety over national security.  It is necessary, therefore, to ensure that agents in charge of border control areproperly trained.  The situation of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees requires that they be guaranteed personal safety and access to basic services.  For the sake of the fundamental dignity of every human person, we must strive to find alternative solutions to detention for those who enter a country without authorisation.[6]

The second verb – protecting – may be understood as a series of steps intended to defend the rights and dignity of migrants and refugees, independent of their legal status.[7]  Such protection begins in the country of origin, and consists in offering reliable and verified information before departure, and in providing safety from illegal recruitment practices.[8]  This must be ongoing, as far as possible, in the country of migration, guaranteeing them adequate consular assistance, the right to personally retain their documents of identification at all times, fair access to justice, the possibility of opening a personal bank account, and a minimum sufficient to live on.  When duly recognised and valued, the potential and skills of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees are a true resource for the communities that welcome them.[9]  This is why I hope that, in countries of arrival, migrants may be offered freedom of movement, work opportunities, and access to means of communication, out of respect for their dignity.  For those who decide to return to their homeland, I want to emphasise the need to develop social and professional reintegration programmes.  The International Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a universal legal basis for the protection of underage migrants.  They must be spared any form of detention related to migratory status, and must be guaranteed regular access to primary and secondary education.  Equally, when they come of age they must be guaranteed the right to remain and to enjoy the possibility of continuing their studies.  Temporary custody or foster programmes should be provided for unaccompanied minors and minors separated from their families.[10]  The universal right to a nationality should be recognised and duly certified for all children at birth.  The statelessness which migrants and refugees sometimes fall into can easily be avoided with the adoption of “nationality legislation that is in conformity with the fundamental principles of international law”.[11]  Migratory status should not limit access to national healthcare and pension plans, nor affect the transfer of their contributions if repatriated.

Promoting essentially means a determined effort to ensure that all migrants and refugees – as well as the communities which welcome them – are empowered to achieve their potential as human beings, in all the dimensions which constitute the humanity intended by the Creator.[12]  Among these, we must recognize the true value of the religious dimension, ensuring to all foreigners in any country the freedom of religious belief and practice.   Many migrants and refugees have abilities which must be appropriately recognised and valued.  Since “work, by its nature, is meant to unite peoples”,[13] I encourage a determined effort to promote the social and professional inclusion of migrants and refugees, guaranteeing for all – including those seeking asylum – the possibility of employment, language instruction and active citizenship, together with sufficient information provided in their mother tongue.  In the case of underage migrants, their involvement in labour must be regulated to prevent exploitation and risks to their normal growth and development. In 2006, Benedict XVI highlighted how, in the context of migration, the family is “a place and resource of the culture of life and a factor for the integration of values”.[14]  The family’s integrity must always be promoted, supporting family reunifications – including grandparents, grandchildren and siblings – independent of financial requirements.  Migrants, asylum seekers and refugees with disabilities must be granted greater assistance and support.  While I recognize the praiseworthy efforts, thus far, of many countries, in terms of international cooperation and humanitarian aid, I hope that the offering of this assistance will take into account the needs (such as medical and social assistance, as well as education) of developing countries which receive a significant influx of migrants and refugees.  I also hope that local communities which are vulnerable and facing material hardship, will be included among aid beneficiaries.[15]

The final verb – integrating – concerns the opportunities for intercultural enrichment brought about by the presence of migrants and refugees.  Integration is not “an assimilation that leads migrants to suppress or to forget their own cultural identity. Rather, contact with others leads to discovering their ‘secret’, to being open to them in order to welcome their valid aspects and thus contribute to knowing each one better.  This is a lengthy process that aims to shape societies and cultures, making them more and more a reflection of the multi-faceted gifts of God to human beings”.[16]  This process can be accelerated by granting citizenship free of financial or linguistic requirements, and by offering the possibility of special legalisation to migrants who can claim a long period of residence in the country of arrival.  I reiterate the need to foster a culture of encounter in every way possible – by increasing opportunities for intercultural exchange, documenting and disseminating best practices of integration, and developing programmes to prepare local communities for integration processes.   I wish to stress the special case of people forced to abandon their country of arrival due to a humanitarian crisis.  These people must be ensured adequate assistance for repatriation and effective reintegration programmes in their home countries.

In line with her pastoral tradition, the Church is ready to commit herself to realising all the initiatives proposed above.  Yet in order to achieve the desired outcome, the contribution of political communities and civil societies is indispensable, each according to their own responsibilities.

At the United Nations Summit held in New York on 29 September 2016, world leaders clearly expressed their desire to take decisive action in support of migrants and refugees to save their lives and protect their rights, sharing this responsibility on a global level.  To this end, the states committed themselves to drafting and approving, before the end of 2018, two Global Compacts, one for refugees and the other for migrants.

Dear brothers and sisters, in light of these processes currently underway, the coming months offer a unique opportunity to advocate and support the concrete actions which I have described with four verbs.  I invite you, therefore, to use every occasion to share this message with all political and social actors involved (or who seek to be involved) in the process which will lead to the approval of the two Global Compacts.

Today, 15 August, we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.  The Holy Mother of God herself experienced the hardship of exile (Matthew 2:13-15), lovingly accompanied her Son’s journey to Calvary, and now shares eternally his glory.  To her maternal intercession we entrust the hopes of all the world’s migrants and refugees and the aspirations of the communities which welcome them, so that, responding to the Lord’s supreme commandment, we may all learn to love the other, the stranger, as ourselves.

Vatican City, 15 August 2017
Solemnity of the Assumption of the B.V. Mary

Concept Note Walk for Creation | Invitation Letter Walk for Creation | Solicitation Letter Walk for Creation 

Diego Velázquez – Coronation of the Virgin

In this feast, particularly cherished by the Popes of modern times, we celebrate Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church.

Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human race. Constituted by the Lord Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all choirs of Angels and the ranks of Saints in Heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, she petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and she obtains what she seeks.”

And Pope Pius XII added the following: “We commend that on the festival there be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this there is founded a great hope that there will rejoice in the triumph of religion and in Christian peace…

…Therefore, let all approach with greater confidence now than before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother to beg help in difficultly, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow…

. . Whoever, therefore, honours the lady ruler of the Angels and of men – and let no one think themselves exempt from the payment of that tribute of a grateful and loving soul – let them call upon her as most truly Queen and as the Queen who brings the blessings of peace, that She may show us all, after this exile, Jesus, who will be our enduring peace and joy.”

The statue of Jesus Christ towers from a platform. (Photo by Bong S. Sarmiento)

Site has become a place to pray for peace amid ongoing tensions in southern Philippines

August 21, 2017   UCAN

A giant statue of Jesus Christ in the troubled southern Philippines is drawing pilgrims to a rural town famous for indigenous art.

The Divine Mercy Shrine towers over Lake South town in South Cotabato province, home to the T’boli tribe known for their intricate, geometric T’nalak textiles.

The 10-meter high Christ statue, robed in white and red, is a beacon for travelers at night.

The statue’s height (33 feet) commemorates the age of Jesus when he died, according to Jesus Esquillo, assistant manager of the four-hectare, mountain retreat named for the devotion started by St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun.

At least a hundred people gather every Sunday to hear Mass in a chapel at the foot of the statue in Lamdalag village. Many pilgrims sit for vigils on Saturday nights.

Other religious images nestle by man-made pools and fountains, beneath scattered groves or at a nearby lake.

Across the shrine is a facility for visiting families and retreat groups.

A businessman and his wife developed the shrine five years ago. They opened it to the public in 2015 “to bring the people closer to God” and encourage more to pray to Jesus Christ as “the god of Mercy.”

Religious tourism has since brought crowds from across Mindanao, mostly praying for peace amid political upheavals and terrorist attacks. Lent sees thousands of visitors, Esquillo said.

Entrance to the shrine is free and all collections go to the host parish of St. John The Baptist.

“Innumerable are the traces of God’s presence”

August 21, 2017 Jim Fair   Francis

To His most Reverend Excellency 
Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi, Bishop of Rimini 
Most Reverend Excellency,

In the name of the Holy Father Francis, and mine personally, I address a cordial greeting to you, to the organizers and to the participants in the 38^th edition of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples.

Every year the Titles of the Meeting invite to reflect on aspects of existence that the pressing rhythm of the everyday often makes us set aside. Everything seems to slip from us, caught as we are by the anxiety of turning the page in haste. Life becomes fragmented and risks becoming arid. Hence it is precious to stop every now and then to consider the great questions that define the human being and that it’s impossible to ignore altogether. In this connection, we can also read the theme of the 2017 Meeting as: “All that You Have, Bequeathed to You by Your Father, Earn It in Order to Possess It” (Goethe, Faust). It is an invitation to us to re-appropriate our origins from within our personal history. For too long it has been thought that the inheritance of our fathers should remain with us as a treasure, which it was enough to protect to keep the flame lit. It hasn’t been so: that fire that burned in the breast of those that preceded us has little by little been weakened.

One of the limitations of present-day society is to have little memory, to want to get rid of as useless and a heavy burden what preceded us. However, this has grave consequences. Let us think of education. How can we hope to have the new generations grow without memory? And how can we think of building the future without taking a position regarding the history that generated our present? As Christians we do not cultivate a nostalgic withdrawal from a past that no longer exists. Rather, we look ahead with confidence. We don’t have spaces to defend because the love of Christ knows no insurmountable borders. We live in a time that is favourable for an outgoing Church, but a Church rich in memory, driven by the wind of the Spirit to go and encounter the man seeking a reason to live. Innumerable are the traces of God’s presence in the course of the history of the world; all in fact beginning with Creation, which speaks of Him. The real and living God willed to share our history: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). God isn’t a memory but a presence, to receive ever again, as the beloved for the person that loves.

There is a sickness that can strike the baptized and that the Holy Father calls “spiritual Alzheimer’s”: it consists in forgetting the history of our personal relationship with God, that first Love that won us to make us His own. If we become :”forgetful” of our encounter with the Lord, we are no longer sure of anything; then we are assailed by the fear that blocks our every movement. If we abandon the safe port of our bond with the Father, we become prey to the whims and wishes of the moment, slaves of “infinite falsehoods’, which promise the moon but leave us disappointed and sad, in a spasmodic search for something to fill the heart’s emptiness. How can this “spiritual Alzheimer’s” be avoided? There is only one way: to actualize the beginnings, the “first Love,” which is not a discourse or an abstract thought, but a Person. The pleasant memory of this beginning ensures the necessary impetus to address the ever new challenges that also call for new answers, remaining always open to the surprises of the Spirit, which blows where it wills.

How does the great Tradition of the faith come to us? How does Jesus’ love reach us today? Through the life of the Church, through a multitude of witnesses that for two thousand years have renewed the proclamation of the advent of God-with-us, which enables us to relive the experience of the beginning, as it was for the first that encountered Him. For us also “Galilee is the place of the first call, where everything began!” and for this it’s necessary “to return there, to that burning point in which God’s Grace touched me at the beginning of the way. {. . .] when Jesus passed by my way, looked at me with mercy and asked me to follow Him; [. . .] to recover the memory of that moment in which His eyes met mine” (Francis, Homily in the Easter Vigil, April 19, 2014).

That look always precedes us, as Saint Augustine reminds us speaking of Zacchaeus: “He was looked at and then saw” (Discourse 174, 4.4.). We must never forget this beginning. See what we have inherited, the precious treasure we must rediscover every day, if we want it to be ours. Don Giussani left an effective image of this commitment that we can’t desert: “By nature, one that loves the child puts in his bag, on his shoulders the best that he’s lived in life [. . .]. However, at a certain point, nature gives the child, the one who was a child, the instinct to take the bag and to put it before his eyes. [. . .] Therefore, what we have been told must become a problem! If it doesn’t become a problem, it will never mature [. . .] Continue reading

Statement of the concerned Ateneo de Manila University faculty on the death of Kian Lloyd de los Santos and the recent spate of extra judicial killings

21 August 2017

On 16 August 2017, police officers accosted a 17-year-old Senior High School student named Kian Lloyd de los Santos in Caloocan City. Moments later, Kian, the son of an OFW mother, was found dead in what is believed to be yet another case of extra judicial killing. Kian was among those who were executed following the series of raids related to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, a grisly operation that resulted in the slaughter of 74 people, according to The Manila Times.

Amnesty International reports that the latest development in the president’s bloody campaign is reaching “new depths of barbarity.” Meanwhile, the Commission on Human Rights considers the scale of the recent killings to be “unprecedented.”

We, the concerned faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University, condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrendous spate of extra judicial killings. We denounce the state terror that President Duterte is unleashing upon the citizenry. The culture of violent impunity that he instigates is a threat to the fundamental virtues that bind us as a nation.

Since the introduction of Oplan Tokhang on 30 June 2016, the Philippine Daily Inquirer would report on 16 February 2017 that about 2,127 people had been killed. In May, as ABS-CBN stated, that number would balloon with no less than the Philippine National Police admitting to terminating 12,000 suspects. One shudders to think of the current numbers of the dead summarily executed without access to their legal rights.

Continue reading

Pambansang Pagtitipon ng Katutubong Kababaihan 2017
“Our Stories, Our Struggles for Rights, for Justice”

Kami, mahigit isang daan na mga katutubong kababaihan mula sa 31 na katutubong komunidad ay nagtipon sa Lungsod ng Kalookan mula 24 hanggang 27 ng Hulyo, 2017 upang sama-samang ipahayag ang aming mga saloobin at pagsusuri sa kasalukuyang kalagayan at kaganapan sa aming komunidad, sa kalikasan at sa buong bansa. Kami ay mga kababaihang kumikilos noon pa man para sa depensa ng aming mga lupain at teritoryo, at sa pagtutulak ng aming mga karapatan bilang katutubong kababaihan. Kami ay bahagi ng mga organisasyon sa aming komunidad, gayon din sa iba’t ibang mga kilusan at kampanya para sa karapatan at tunay na pagbabago ng lipunan.

Kami ay mga kababaihan sa kanayunan, at ang aming mga lugar ang tunay na nakakaranas ng karukhaan at iba pang porma ng karahasan. Ang aming pagdalo sa pagtitipon na ito ay isang malakas at aktibong pagpapahayag na kaming mga katutubong kababaihan ay hindi mananahimik at kiming tatanggapin na lamang ang mga polisiya at mga pahayag ng administrasyon ng Pangulong Duterte, nang walang pagtatanong at kritikal na pagsusuri.

Sa kanyang unang SONA, pinahayag ni Pangulong Duterte sa sambayanan na kaming mga katutubo ay may armas para depensahan ang aming sarili, at ito ay ang batas IPRA. Ngunit ang batas ay mananatiling isang sulatin na mismong papatay sa amin kung hindi ito gagamitin sa maayos na paraan. At ang batas, kahit gaano kaganda, ay mananatiling mga pangako lamang, kung ang kaayusan ng ating lipunan ay mananatiling pinaghaharian ng mga mayayaman, at may matinding diskriminasyon laban sa mga mahihirap, kababaihan at sa mga katutubong mamamayan.

Magpahanggang ngayon, kami bilang katutubo ay di pa rin bilang sa opisyal na talaan o national census. At kung hindi kami bilang, kami ay hindi kinikilala, at di kabahagi sa mga programa at batayang serbisyo ng pamahalaan.  Kami ay walang representasyon sa mahahalagang “governing structures” at limitadong partisipasyon sa paggawa ng mga desisyon.  Kami ay napipigilan sa aming pagsasabuhay ng sariling pagpapasya sa aming reproductive rights, o ang aming reproductive self-determination.

Tulad pa rin ng mga nakaraang mga administrasyon, ang Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 ay salat sa mga programa na tutugon sa mga batayang pangangailangan naming mga katutubong kababaihan. Bagkus, malaki ang aming takot na ang PDP ay lalong paiigtingin ang agawan at tunggalian sa aming mga lupain at teritoryo; at pagkawasak ng mga natitirang kagubatan at likas yaman; at magpapalala ng aming kahirapan at marginalisasyon.

Ang likas yaman na nanatili sa aming lupain, dahil na rin sa aming pangangalaga at pagpapahalaga, ay patuloy na nagiging sanhi ng militarisasyon, ng pagpasok ng mga dambuhalang korporasyon, at nagiging mitsa ng aming buhay bilang mga tagapagtanggol.

Ngayong ikalawang SONA ni Pangulong Duterte, may mga binitiwan syang pangako – pagpupursigi sa pangangalaga ng kalikasan, paghihigpit sa mga minahan na nakakasira ng kapaligiran; at ang pagtugon sa mga epekto ng pagbabago ng klima lalo na sa seguridad ng pagkain.  Maganda sanang marinig ang mga ito.  Pero hindi namin nakakalimutan ang di pagkumpirma kay dating Sec. Gina Lopez ng DENR, na siyang nagpapasara sana ng mga marurumi at “korup” na mga minahan.  Sa pagkaka-alis kay Ms. Lopez, nanalo ang interes ng korporasyon ng mga minahan at ng mga tao nito sa pamahalaan.

At ano ang magiging silbi ng mga pangakong ito tungkol sa kalikasan, kung kami mismong mga katutubo ay di man napangakuan ng pag-aruga, at pagkalinga? Imbes, ang mga nabitiwang salita ukol sa amin ay pananakot at pagbabanta. Nariyan ang pagbanta na bobombahin ang iilan na lamang na paaralan ng mga katutubo dahil ito daw ay nagiging training ng mga rebelde. Nariyan ang pagsabi nya na ang lakas ng pwersa ng mga NPA ay ang mga Lumad.  Napaka iresponsable ng mga salitang ito – lalo nyang pinalalala ang problema namin sa seguridad. Naiipit kami sa tunggalian ng mga NPA at militar – kung hindi kami rebelde o komunista, kami naman ay informer ng mga militar.

Paano na ang mga lehitimong pagkilos naming mga katutubong kababaihan para sa aming mga karapatan? Ang mga ganitong pananalita ay tahasang pananakot, pag-gigipit at pagpapatahimik sa amin. At kung iisipin, ito ay nanggagaling mismo sa Pangulo ng ating bansa; ang tinuturing na ama ng ating bayan. Napakasakit naman na magkaroon ng ama na puno ng karahasan, at kalupitan. Nangako sya na lalong paiigtingin ang gyera laban sa droga, ang gyera laban sa terorismo – na sa loob ng kanyang unang taon, ay pinatunayan nyang ang mga ito ay gyera laban sa aming mahihirap. Ito ay napakalungkot, at hindi katanggap-tanggap na mismong ama ng bayan, ang syang patuloy na nanghihikayat ng patayan, ng karahasan, sa kanyang sinumpaang pangangalagaan.

Pero kahit may takot man sa aming kalooban, para sa aming pamilya, sa aming komunidad, at para sa aming sarili, kami ay di matitinag. Kami ay hindi patitinag sa isang Pangulo na hindi marunong kumilala sa salitang “karapatan” at “paggalang”. Sa paghamon ni Pangulo Duterte, lalo kaming titindig upang ipaglaban ang aming karapatan bilang katutubong kababaihan, at ipagpapatuloy ang pagdepensa sa aming lupaing ninuno.

Ang dangal at dignidad ng kababaihan ay patuloy na niyuyurakan ng tila naghaharing presidente. Kung kaya’t ang aming pakikibaka ay pakikibaka para sa lahat ng kababaihan.

Kami, higit isang daang katutubong kababaihan, nagmumula sa 31 na katutubong komunidad, ay nangangako na aming palalakasin ang aming mga sarili, organisasyon at komunidad, palalawakin ang aming hanay, upang ang boses ng katutubong kababaihan ay mas maging maigting at kasama ang tinig ng buong katutubong mamamayan, at kilusang kababaihan, na bibiyak sa kulturang mapang-api, mapanupil at mapagsamantala.

Sama-sama kaming kikilos at igigiit ang mga sumusunod –

Angkop na kaunlaran at ekonomikong kapangyarihan ng Katutubong Kababaihan

Karapatan ng Katutubong Kababaihan sa Edukasyon

Karapatan sa Lupaing Ninuno

Hustisyang Pangkalikasan

Reproductive Self Determination o Sariling Pagpapasiya sa Pangangalaga sa Sarili at iba pang usaping pangangatawan at pangkalusugan

Dignidad at Karapatang Pantao ng Katutubong Kababaihan

At ng iisang tinig, kami ay nananawagan –

Itigil ang militarisasyon lalo na sa loob ng aming lupaing ninuno.

Itigil ang di makatarungan giyera laban sa mga mahihirap at katutubo.

Itigil ang red-baiting o ang walang katibayan at malisyosong pagtatak sa mga katutubo bilang kaaway ng administrasyong Pangulong Duterte.

Itigil ang batas militar.

Tiyakin ang representasyon ng katutubo sa usaping pangkayapaan bilang isang independent IP voice.

Pinagkasunduan nitong 26 ng Hulyo 2017
sa Villa Consuelo Retreat House, Camarin, Lungsod ng Kalookan
​(photos by: Susan Corpuz/LILAK)​