Month: March 2019

We are soliciting your support to the statement, Easter Manifesto, a Passover Meditation for the Filipino People which was discussed and approved during the Lenten gathering and the participants had their name affix to the statement. 

1.      We are a people whose living faith has seen us through critical periods in our    history. Today, an even greater faith in a merciful God and in ourselves as a nation is   called for. Obstacles that in the past have blocked our path towards nationhood pale     in comparison with the amoral brutishness the relentless battering the Duterte regime is subjecting the moral fiber itself of our people. The indomitable spirit of the Filipino is under tremendous pressure. Political patronage is rampant. No institution of our democratic system and no well-meaning individual have been spared the smear of dirt the presidential snout untiringly spouts. Long standing traditions of propriety and good breeding have been set aside. Isinantabi ang delikadesang ating kinagisnan at pawang kagaspangan at kahalayan ang ipinaiiral. (That sense of decency upon which we were raised has been set aside; rudeness and obscenity have taken over.) The shady and secretive deals our economic and political leaders have entered into with foreign powers are compromising our sovereignty as a people.

No sector of Philippine society has been left unscathed and unmolested. The Filipina is disrespected. Not even a statue in honor of the misnamed and maligned “comfort women” has been left untouched. Children are by law (legal maneuvers!) rendered criminals and are unduly punished.

2.      We deplore the shame that has befallen us. We denounce the morally bankrupt leadership of Rodrigo Roa Duterte. We accuse him and his cohorts of unprecedented corruption, enriching themselves by exploiting the poorest of the land – indigenous communities, farmers, coconut growers, peasants, and laborers. They lie and cheat with impunity. They perpetuate dynasties that enable a few families to appropriate vast political and economic powers. They have prostituted our democratic and cultural values. They have betrayed our trust. They have stolen the future of the yet unborn Filipino by squandering at bargain prices our country’s natural resources.

‘The choice of law and the venue for disputes is once again surrendered by the Philippines in favor of China,’ senatorial bet Neri Colmenares tells Rappler

Ralf Rivas
Published 2:26 PM, March 24, 2019
Updated 2:53 PM, March 24, 2019

MANILA, Philippines– The Kaliwa Dam project, which seeks to prevent another water crisis in Metro Manila, is a magnet of controversy.

Already hounded by environmental and social concerns for decades, another issue surrounding the dam is a loan contract with China, which senatorial bet Neri Colmenares said was contentious.

“It is as onerous [as the Chico River irrigation project],” Colmenares told Rappler on Sunday, March 24.

The public can now go over the deal, as well as 8 other big-ticket infrastructure projects, after the Department of Finance (DOF) recently made public all loan agreements.

The Kaliwa Dam’s loan contract had articles pertaining to “waiver of immunity,” similar to the controversial Chico River irrigation project.

Colmenares said these were telltale signs of Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy.

What is the project about? Located in Quezon province, the Kaliwa Dam is expected to supply some 600 million liters of water per day to Metro Manila. (READ: Manila Water on the hunt for new water sources)

The dam will be constructed by Beijing-run China Energy Engineering Corporation.

Several news reports stated that construction is targeted to start during the 3rd quarter of the year, and is expected to be completed by 2023.

24 MARCH 2019

On March 25, 2019, Monday, around four hundred (400) family members, children and supporters of the fifty three (53) locked out workers from Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin Shipyard (SAMAHAN), Workers for People’s Liberation (WPL) and Friends of Hanjin Workers (FHW) will gather at the Mehan Garden at 8:30AM and troop towards the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Intramuros Office by 9:00AM to demand the return to work of locked out employees.

“Kahit nagkakasakit, naaaksidente at may posibilidad na mamatay gaya ng mga katrabaho naming naaksidente sa yarda, nagtiyaga kami at nagtrabaho ng maayos alang-alang sa aming mga pamilya. Ngayong nasa ilalim ng voluntary rehabilitation ang kompanya, kalabisan ba ang kahilingan naming manatili sa trabaho bilang maintenance sa yarda at isama kami hanggang sa muling pagbubukas nito?” lamented Efren Vinluan, SAMAHAN President.

Early this month, 113 of the 312 workers for shipyard maintenance were locked out of the worksite because they refused to sign the Voluntary Retrenchment Package (VRP) offered by the Hanjin management. The VRP stipulates a back-to-zero employment record, ‘five-month contracts’, as well as a quit claim form. Workers brought their plight to the Labor Department Sec. Silvestre Bello III, who said that the VRP is illegal, but refused to help bring the workers back to the shipyard.

Say work of activists will only get harder following withdrawal from international court

UCANews | Joe Torres, Manila, Philippines
March 18, 2019

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) has raised fears among activist groups of a worsening human rights situation amid an anti-narcotics war they say has killed more than 20,000 people in three years.

The Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body, called the withdrawal a “reversal of the country’s commitment to international treaty obligations and a step back from the gains the Philippines has achieved in promoting justice and human rights.”

In March last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced he was tearing up the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC, after the Dutch-based tribunal announced it would initiate a preliminary crimes against humanity probe into Duterte’s “war on drugs.”

The ICC, however, announced that the Philippines’ withdrawal would not affect its preliminary examination, which covers incidents that took place since the start of the ant-narcotics campaign on July 1, 2016 and while the country remained a state party to the Rome Statute.

The Philippines ratified the statute on Aug. 30, 2011.

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC took effect on March 17, a year after the government transmitted a notice of withdrawal to the office of the U.N. secretary-general in New York.

It is the second country to leave the court after Burundi withdrew in 2017.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said the withdrawal poses a challenge to human rights activist to work harder in monitoring human rights abuses.

The prelate said he believes the court despite the withdrawal will still pursue the cases filed against Duterte.

The ICC is currently evaluating 52 cases that alleged the Philippine president committed crimes against humanity.”

Human rights group Karapatan warned the statute withdrawal “may signal another wave of intensified attacks against human rights defenders.”

The group’s deputy secretary-general, Roneo Clamor, said that even when being part of the ICC, activists and rights advocates who sought to expose state-perpetrated violations were increasingly being threatened and killed.

“With a vindictive government, all should be wary of Duterte’s acts of severe reprisals,” said Clamor.

On March 18, the presidential palace downplayed the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC, saying, “the sky has not fallen and the sun still rises in the east.”

Lawyer Salvador Panelo, the president’s spokesman, said the criticisms of the withdrawal raised by human rights groups and Duterte critics were “misleading and baseless.”

He challenged critics to instead file cases in court “to test the validity of their assertions.”

“There is no culture of impunity under this administration,” said Panelo, adding that the criminal justice system continues to be “operational and strictly compliant with the constitutional requirement of due process.”

He said reported “extrajudicial killings” linked to Duterte’s “war on drugs” were not state-sponsored.

In an earlier statement, the ICC said dumping the Rome Statute is a sovereign decision that has “no impact on ongoing proceedings or any matter that was already under consideration by the court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.”

The ICC, established in 2002, is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands. It has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

Former addict turned priest refuses to let intimidation prevent him helping drug users, victims of drug-related killings

UCANews | Marielle Lucenio
Manila, Philippines, March 15, 2019

In the Philippines, where admission to having a history of drug addiction can mean a bullet in the head rather than a stay in a rehabilitation center, drug dependents have chosen silence.

For Divine Word priest Flaviano Villanueva, however, his past has become a narrative that keeps him going in his mission to serve.

In 1995, before he entered the priesthood, he hit rock bottom after a “short period” of substance abuse. It became a new beginning, he said.

“The catalyst need not always be the bright side of things,” he said. For him, it was when he realized that his drug taking was getting the best of him as a person.

He said his relationships were then crumbling. “Nothing was going well for me. I felt that there was more to life than sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” he said. 

The moment of discernment prompted the future missionary priest to look for the meaning of life far from what he was used to.

“I told myself that I would go cold turkey, but if it didn’t work then I would subject myself to professional help,” he said.

Eventually, however, it worked for him “with God’s grace.”

He decided to leave his home in the Philippine capital and went to the provinces where he worked as a lay missionary.

In the middle of the “realities of life” in the villages, Father Villanueva found himself at a crossroads where he opted to enter the convent.

In 2006, the former drug addict became a priest.

After ten years as a missionary priest he established a center in 2015 to help Manila’s street dwellers.

The St. Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center became his way of responding and providing “something more concrete and better” to alleviate the lives of the poor.

The center aims to recreate and empower lives by offering food and a clean shower to the homeless.

“The second phase is about reclaiming their self-respect,” said Father Villanueva, adding that the center’s “clients” are given the opportunity to study.

This phase, he said, is offering a livelihood and employment “to help restore their self-worth.”

“As one goes through this process, one is able to realize that there is life beyond the streets,” explained the priest.

Father Villanueva recalled a story, one of many that he has encountered in his work.

One Sunday, a person approached the priest after Mass and handed him a card. The priest politely refused, thinking that the man was trying to sell him something.

“Father, I’m not here to sell you anything,” said the man.

“I’m just giving you my calling card to let you know that I was here for six months, following, falling in line, eating and taking a bath, listening to you,” the man added.

“Now I’m an assistant supervisor. This is my card to prove that I am already employed, and I am here to thank you.”

Not all visits to the center, however, are as pleasant as that of the grateful man.