Month: June 2020

June 19, 2020

Nearing death’s door, aging and ailing Negros farmers mourn over Danding’s failure to return to them their land before tycoon died

‘Cojuangco lived and died rich, while we continue to be poor and may likely die still poor and landless despite working hard’

Following Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.’s recent demise, aging and ailing farmers of Negros Occidental expressed grief not just over his passing, but also because the businessman died without returning a vast agricultural landholding in the province to them, even when the said property was awarded to the peasants over two decades ago through the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“Many people were saddened by Mr. Cojuangco’s death. They remembered him as the kingmaker, the tycoon, and the boss of a company that sells the country’s most popular beer. Some politicians even described him as a very nice person with a kind heart,” said Noel Magan, president of the ECJ CLOA Holders and Farm Workers Association (ECHAFAWA)-TFM, a Negros-based peasant group and member of the national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad.

“But for us, his former farmworkers, while we also condole with his family and loved ones over their loss, what we will never forget was Cojuangco’s failure, in fact, refusal to give up control over a landholding that was no longer his,” Magan said.

“This caused us misery, prolonging our hardship, especially among my fellow peasants, who have grown old serving no one but Boss Danding but stayed poor and are now suffering from serious illnesses but can’t afford treatment. Perhaps, they would later on die without also affording a decent burial,” he added.

Magan is referring to the 12 contiguous haciendas covering 4,654 hectares found in the cities of Bago and La Carlota and the towns of La Castellana, Isabela, Hinigaran, Murcia, San Enrique, Himamaylan, and Pontevedra, all in Negros Occidental.

The haciendas, used to be owned by the late Cojuangco through his firm, ECJ & Sons Agricultural Enterprises, Inc. were supposedly awarded to Magan and 1,200 other farmworkers, through certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) that were generated in their favor by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in 1997.

However, the farmworkers/CARP beneficiaries were unable to directly manage their haciendas and benefit from the fruits of their labor “because Cojuangco remained the lord of the landholdings,” said Magan.

Cojuangco’s continued grip over the haciendas became possible through DAR Administrative Order No. 2 of 1999, issued by then Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales Jr., during the presidency of Joseph Estrada, who was Cojuangco’s vice presidential running mate in the 1992 polls. The order set the rules and regulations for the establishment of a joint agribusiness venture between Cojuangco and the CARP beneficiaries.

Under the business deal, Magan’s group, through the ECJ Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative, the use of the landholdings owned by the CARP beneficiaries would be assigned to the joint enterprise in exchange for a 30 percent equity in the venture, while Cojuangco’s camp would get 70 percent-equity in exchange for providing capital, facilities, and technical expertise to operate the haciendas.

We, the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres in the Philippines, impelled by the love of Christ to educate the young and serve the poor and underprivileged in our hospital and pastoral ministries, are moved by that love to proclaim and promote a just and humane society, where people can enjoy free exercise of their rights and practice critical solidarity in socio-political affairs.

We believe that authentic democracy promotes critical solidarity between the people and the government.  As citizens, we are convinced that active participation in nation-building not merely means being cooperative to government programs and policies but also includes giving constructive criticism as a form of check and balance to government powers.

While we condemn terrorism, we cannot be silent on the dangers of the Anti-Terror Bill approved by Congress.  We reject the bill as anti-poor and the marginalized, anti-democracy, anti-human rights.

“Be alert and of sober mind!” (1 Pt. 5:8)

We believe that terrorism is an evil that must be subdued.  But every act against it must be based on clear and precise understanding of terrorism for it to be just, humane, and effective in promoting a peaceful and harmonious community.  The broad definition of terrorism in the Anti-Terror Bill can be misused and abused, thereby endangering legitimate pastoral works and associations on behalf of the poor and marginalized in society. In an era where red tagging is rampant, our fight for social justice and equity, human rights and freedom, any action or words that call the government to accountability and responsibility can be recklessly labelled as terrorist acts. Teaching the young how to protect and fight for their rights and freedoms and practice responsible and critical citizenship may be construed as promoting or tolerating terrorism, thereby stifling the integral education of the young, which we earnestly promote.

We firmly believe and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms as enshrined in our Constitution as keys to authentic human and social development.  As foundations of democracy, they are to be zealously valued and safeguarded.  We reject the Anti-Terror Bill because it threatens our valued rights and freedoms of expression, of speech, of the press, of association, and the right of the people to assemble peaceably and petition the government for redress of grievances, since anyone can be a suspect and be tagged by the government as terrorist. Student and pastoral actions critical of government’s inaction and abuses can now be considered acts of terrorism.

We believe that the Anti-Terror Bill violates the Constitutional provisions of due process and separation of powers.  The bill subscribes to the principle of guilty until proven innocent, warrantless arrest, arbitrary detention up to 24 days, as well as the establishment of an all-powerful Anti-Terror Council under the Office of the President with the power to determine what constitutes terrorism—a role exclusively reserved by the Constitution for the courts. We cannot allow the government to exercise Martial Law-like powers under the pretext of protecting the people against terrorism.

At a time where our people are suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the approval of the Anti-Terror Bill is badly timed.  It shows how the government is railroading the signing of the bill into law while people cannot gather en masse to express their disapproval.  The pandemic has become an excuse for them to do what they want, hoping that they can pass public scrutiny.  Instead of focusing their attention on alleviating the sad condition of the people, the economy, the frontliners, and the victims of the pandemic, the government is busy fortifying its powers. An Anti-Terror Law in the hands of abusive leaders is a disaster for the people they swore to protect and serve.

June 15, 2020

 To: All Diocesan Councils of the Laity
       National Lay Organizations and 
       Lay Institutions and Groups

 A warm “Laudato Si’” greeting to all of you!

 The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has embarked and announced a Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year from 24th May 2020 – 24th May 2021. It hopes that this anniversary year and the ensuing decade will indeed be a time of grace and “Jubilee for the Earth”, for humanity, and for all God’s creatures. The anniversary year which began with the Laudato Si’ Week 2020 last May 16 to 24, is now proceeding with several initiatives focusing on the preparation and celebration of the Season of Creation on September 1 to October 4, 2020.

This year of celebrations and actions for the Season of Creation align squarely with the CBCP Pastoral Letter entitled “AN URGENT CALL FOR ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION, HOPE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE EMERGENCY”, which reiterated its appeal made in 2003, stating:

“In 2003, we issued Celebrating Creation Day and Creation Time to introduce the celebration of Creation Day on September 1st of every year and the observance of Creation Time between September 1 and October 4.”

The pastoral letter also echoed Pope Francis’ call by declaring that:

“As your pastors, we call for a continuing ecological conversion in all our Metropolitan Provinces, Dioceses, Parishes and Basic Ecclesial Communities — to discern the issues and actively care for the earth in personal, communitarian and institutional levels.”

Therefore, the CBCP- Episcopal Commission on Lay Apostolate (CBCP-ECLA, Laiko) endorses to you the Season of Creation 2020 and encourages the different Diocesan Councils of the Laity, National Lay Organizations and other Lay Institutions to promote and celebrate this in your different Dioceses, Parishes and Organizations. 

A more detailed program of activities and liturgical resources will be proposed and circulated soon by the GCCM-Pilipinas and Partner Organizations for our common use, which may also be properly contextualized in your respective localities.

We thank in advance the Global Catholic Climate Movement-Pilipinas and Partner Organizations for their dedication in calling everyone to a collective response to care for our common home.

Sincerely yours,

+ MOST REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, SDB, D.D.
Chairman
CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Laity

16 June 2020

FR. MARVIN MEJIA
Secretary General
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
Intramuros, Manila

Dear Fr. Mejia,

Greetings of peace and good health!

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference on the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Health Care would like to share to all arch/dioceses the updated COVID-19 response directory attached herewith containing the following:

• Directory of National Government Agencies
• Directory of COVID-19 Testing Laboratories
• Directory of COVID-19 Referral Hospitals
• Directory of Mental Health Services for COVID-19
• Directory of Telemedicine Services for COVID-19

Keeping everyone in our prayers through the intercession of Our Lady, Health of the Sick.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely in the Lord,

June 16, 2020

 To: Their Excellencies, the Bishops,
      The Clergy and the Religious
      All Diocesan Councils and National Lay Organizations,

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 In the light of the recent conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas would like to invite you to a brief by Atty. Theodore Te, (former SC Spokesperson) Legal Counsel of Ms. Ressa, on June 19, 2020, Friday, 3 PM via Zoom.

 In as much as this legal battle affects many major rights of citizens and institutions, we need to have a clearer understanding of its background, case development and most importantly, its constitutional implications on the Filipino people and our democracy.

 “Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm!”
(Abraham Lincoln)

 We wish for our people to continue making a stand for justice, righteousness and freedom, but on the foundation and primacy of truth.

Should you be interested, please email back to the CBCP-Laiko (laiko_phils@yahoo.com.ph attn: Joseph Jesalva) so we can send you the link.

For the Council of the Laity of the Philippines,

Noted by: 

  + MOST REV. BRODERICK S. PABILLO, SDB, D.D.
 Chairman  CBCP-Episcopal Commission on the Laity 

16 June 2020

Quezon City, Philippines — One month after network giant ABS-CBN got shut down by a cease and desist order from the National Telecommunication Commission, Rappler CEO and Executive Editor Maria Ressa was convicted over cyber libel charges, Monday, June 15. The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 sentenced Ressa to a minimum of six months and one day to a maximum of six years in jail.

 The social development network, Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc (PMPI) expressed “dismay and outrage over these turns of events. In a statement it said that the right of people to access information is violated by these actions and is a de-facto government crackdown on media perceived to be hostile to it. The need to provide a balance information, not only government propaganda is healthy for society’s democracy. Democracy is founded on the capability of its citizens to critical information.

 PMPI National Coordinator, Yoly R. Esguerra further said that “The indictment of Maria Ressa and the continuing cases filed against her, are not only about Maria, or Rappler, or even just an issue of press freedom. It is the asphyxiation of our democracy, an indication of a sick and manipulated justice system, of legislative lapdogs, of a control-freak and vindictive executive branch.”

 She adds “that information should be considered as an “oxygen of democracy”. The ability of citizens to participate effectively in the social and political life of the nation depends, in obvious ways, on the breath of information it receives.”

 Echoing statements of many rights group, it says that this is another nail in the coffin for our already strangled democratic rights and a clearly an intimidation to all dissenters of the Duterte administration. It further said that the indictment is an attack to press freedom, especially since President Rodrigo Duterte has been very vocal against the online news outlet, he even banned Rappler from Malacañang because of its supposed ‘twisted’ reporting in 2018.

The Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Manila Priory and the Academic community of St. Scholastica’s College Manila express their strong dissent to the Anti-Terrorism Bill already submitted by Congress to Malacañang.  

It seems to us the present Human Security Act (Republic Act. No. 9372, “An Act to Secure the State and Protect our People from Terrorism”) is sufficient if the targets are the real terrorists deemed so by common understanding.

The Anti-Terrorism enrolled bill submitted by Congress is objectionable to us because of the following reasons:

1.         Now a person can be detained for 24 days without a judicial warrant of arrest (Sec. 29) in violation of our Constitution.
2.          It has expanded the meaning of terrorism that now could include any form of advocacy, protest and dissent, among others, if the authorities will interpret their intent as to “cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life, or to create a serious risk to public safety” (Sec. 4).
3.          It has the same punishment of life imprisonment for intent and commission of the act regardless of the stage of execution (Secs. 4 and 6).
4.          The burden of proof of innocence is on the one accused. This goes against the basic principle that one is innocent until one is proven guilty. In this case one is guilty until one proves himself/herself innocent.

It is clear to us that the Anti-Terrorism Bill is not targeting the real terrorists but dissenters, political opposition, critics, activists, etc. Democracy essentially includes dissent and critique. To make this unlawful is to kill democracy.

This Bill, if enacted into law, will not put an end to real terrorism. In fact, terrorism defined as causing fear and panic, will in fact be the one that will sow fear and widespread panic and therefore will give rise to another kind of terrorism: STATE TERRORISM.

We call upon those who wish to preserve what ever democracy we still have in the Philippines to express their dissent against the passage of this bill into law and support the June 12 protests.

Signed:

Sr. Adelaida Ygrubay, O.S.B.                    Sr. M. Christine Pinto, O.S.B
           Prioress                                                         President  

We, the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines – Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities (CBCP-BEC), serve as an ecclesial body that coordinates the BECs or neighbourhood-based faith communities in the Parishes all over the country. Majority of our members are poor and marginalized living among and with the indigenous peoples, believers of other faiths, and even members of other churches. In solidarity, we endeavour to promote and build up God’s Kingdom of justice and love, peace and total human development in today’s society.

After reflecting on the nature, scope and intent of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, and studying its ramifications in the light of BECs’ life context, we express our disagreement towards this Bill. To begin with, it is a deflection or deviation from the life-issues of our people.

1. Deflection from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our grassroots communities are the ones most affected by the pandemic. Fear is present everywhere. Fear that the spread of the virus might escalate. Fear on the uncertainties that the “new normal” holds for them. The trauma inflicted by the pandemic on the poor and the marginalized is immense and they do not need another law to add to that nor repress their dissatisfaction of what they are going through.
2. Deflection from the priority of economic survival. Our grassroots communities are the most vulnerable to the worsening poverty of the country. They are the ones directly hit by the “No work, No pay” policies. Many of them lost their jobs, or if not, finding it difficult to return to their previous employment due to lack of transportation, company’s reduction of workers or work hours. Fresh graduates are uncertain of employment. Joblessness is shackling every home and community. Government efforts must focus on prioritizing the economic recovery of its people and not on this Anti-Terrorism Bill which is not an answer to the country’s economic malaise.
3. Deflection from the continuing struggle of the Indigenous Peoples and pressing ecological concerns. Indigenous Peoples and those helping them are most vulnerable to red-tagging. What the IP’s need are laws that will truly respond to their unduly neglected socio-cultural concerns like land problems, human rights violations, etc., that continue to cause them social unrest and poverty, and not laws that will further degrade them nor opportunities to use and abuse them. Furthermore, we are in the climate emergency situation which highly exposes everyone, especially the poor, to tragic and fearful calamities. There is an intimate connection between the emergence of the COVID-19 and the worsening of unhealthy ecosystem. Hence, the government must seriously address these ecological concerns as one of the post-pandemic measures to avoid another pandemic, rather than the Anti-Terrorism Bill.
4. Deflection from our treasured values as Filipinos. The current pandemic has highlighted again and again our core values of “bayanihan, pananagutan, pagmamalasakit, pagtitiwala at pananalig sa Diyos”. Aside from the government’s “ayuda” programs. Both big and small corporations, NGOs, families, and even simple individuals did their share in responding to the crying needs of the victims of the pandemic. The government must find ways to reinforce these efforts in order to build up a post-pandemic nation instead of the Anti-Terrorism Bill which instils suspicion and fear to the poor and the marginalized who are very prone to abuses of those in power especially that this Bill contains several questionable provisions. 

Statement of Concerned Disaster Risk Reduction Organizations and Practitioners of DRRNetPhils on the Anti-Terror Law of 2020

12 June 2020 | Quezon City

DEVELOPMENT work is anchored on the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, where our rights as Filipino people are promoted and upheld to enjoy “independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.”

For these reasons, we ask the President of the Republic to veto the proposed Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020.

The DRRNetPhils represents in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) various disaster risk reduction organizations and practitioners, many of whom are grassroots-level, community-based, faith-based, and local groups that are duly registered to Securities and Exchange Commission and other government accreditation bodies. Per Republic Act No. 10121 or the Philippine DRRM Law, civil society organizations are recognized as key stakeholders and vital to our country’s resilience-building.

Many of DRRNetPhils members work in high-risk areas and conflict hotspots to provide much needed inclusive aid to the most vulnerable communities. It is not uncommon that many of the network’s member organizations duly recognized by the state experience harassment, discrimination, and red-tagging in rural areas riddled with conflict. Even in urban areas, our members suffer from baseless and malicious propaganda that affect their operation to serve poor communities vulnerable to natural and human-induced hazards. What development and humanitarian workers need is protection to assist the government in helping the least capacitated communities toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and in responding to the Sendai Framework for DRR. What we do not need are policies and laws that will only authorize further abuses that are already realities on the ground.

Today marks the 122nd Philippine Independence. As we celebrate our freedom and our democracy, we encourage every stakeholder, every duty-bearer, every policy-maker, and especially the President to look back at our country’s milestones and gains. There have been hardships and struggles to learn from, written all over our history—and even now we are faced with unprecedented crisis. But while we all aim to help our country surpass all these from different perspectives, let us not forget to look at our Constitution: the guide to ensure we do not forget that we are building a just and humane society together, with social justice and human rights as our foundation.###