Category: Documents

Bulatlat Contributors  September 22, 2021

By RUTH LUMIBAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — “Tama na! Sobra na! Wakasan na!”

The people’s resounding call did not start yesterday. Decades ago, this was the same battle cry against the Marcos dictatorship, originating from one of the most legendary feats of the workers’ movement: the La Tondeña strike.

Only three years after Marcos imposed Martial Law, thousands of people, including about 800 workers of the largest distillery in Asia at that time, braved the wrath of state fascism and picketed to assert their rights. Workers were hired for eight weeks, thereafter terminated, and then rehired as contractuals. They went to the National Labor Relations Commissions (NLRC) – 30 times to be exact – to no avail. Justifiably, it was in the middle of this massive strike where student activist Edgar Jopson called, “Tama na! Sobra na! Welga na!”

After the La Tondeña strike, more than 200 other strikes broke out nationwide. More than 70,000 workers were involved and were supported by the church, youth, women, and other sectors. Their protests took many forms – silent strikes, sit-down strikes, slowdowns, mass leaves, stretching of the break period, among others.

Rattled with the resounding call for ouster and justice, the Marcos dictatorship devised means to curtail workers’ rights, ending up with the pro-capitalist Labor Code of the Philippines, an ingrained labor policy that the country hails up to this day, a labor disputes commission marred with bribery and corruption, and undue restriction over the workers’ strongest weapons – the right to strike, and the right to form unions.

The Marcos dictatorship’s labor policy

Prior to the declaration of Martial Law, the Philippine economy was already struck in a spiraling crisis. The National Census and Statistics Office (NCSO; now the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA) recorded almost a 20-percent rate of unemployment in 1931. According to the 1977 Yearbook of Labor Statistics, 78 percent of the total 6.347 million families in the Philippines in 1971 earned below P3,000 annually, and 41 percent of families earned P2,000 per year. Consequently, a Filipino family would have had to subsist on P5-P8 per day.

With prevailing economic conditions pushing the Filipino people further into poverty, strikes and uprisings became inevitable. Thus, towards the goal of curtailing the freedom of speech, of organization, and other fundamental human rights, Marcos orchestrated events building up to the imposition of Martial Law.

To control the spike of strikes and workers’ movements, Marcos made it a point to codify all existing labor laws of the Philippines. Showing utmost subservience to the United States, he welcomed the Rannis Mission with open arms and adopted their recommendations to the labor code – the same labor code we have up to this day.

The late Marxist political economist Edberto Villegas explained in his book, “The Political Economy of Philippine Labor Laws” that the Rannis Mission ‘pushed for an export-oriented industrialization and liberalization of imports in the Philippines, advising against trade protectionism and import-substitution.’ The mission was named after Gustav Rannis, its head, and was sponsored by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Bank (WB).

Consequently, the Rannis Mission laid the foundations for labor policies that prevail even up to this day.

1. Heightened export of labor and the OFW phenomenon

The Labor Code then created the Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB) and National Seaman Board (NSB) to take care of recruitment for overseas jobs. OEDB looked for employment for Filipinos abroad. Annually, 112,191 workers are deployed abroad, the Middle East being the most common destination.

Benefitting from these, a journal of the National Manpower and Youth Council (NMYC) cited how much host countries gained from the Filipinos’ cheap labor: US$50.9 billion.

September 21, 2021

On September 21, the whole world will observe the annual International Day of Peace. This year’s theme for the global observance is “Recovering Better for an Equitable and Sustainable World.”[1] The theme underscores the need for the global community to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic, “to think creatively and collectively about how to help everyone recover better, how to build resilience, and how to transform our world into one that is more equal, more just, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and healthier.”   The UN also wants us to direct our attention to people caught in conflict-affected areas because they are especially vulnerable as they lack access to healthcare.

The Philippines is one of the countries that are hardest hit by the pandemic. The country is also in the midst of a heightened armed conflict. Unfortunately, September 21 is also the anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law by the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. During this time, Marcos grossly trampled on human rights and the  armed conflict between the government and the New People’s Army (NPA) intensified.

Today, the quest for peace to end  the decades-old armed conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has become elusive again. Since last year, the government of President Rodrigo Duterte has closed its door to the principled peace negotiations with the NDFP. It rejected the results of the backchannel talks that Sec. Silvestre Bello had commenced with his NDFP counterparts in December 2019 to restart the peace negotiations after Duterte unilaterally terminated the peace talks in 2017. Then, it promulgated the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which became a law that enables the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to designate the NDFP as a terrorist group. This effectively buried years of laborious and painstaking agreements and gradual steps toward peace. Such actions of the government go against the calls of the International Day of Peace.

With the breakdown of the peace negotiations, record shows there had been significant increases in armed encounters between the AFP and the NPA.   There were many recorded violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, even in the midst of a debilitating health crisis.

Various sectors, even lawmakers are calling on the government to focus its attention and resources on the fight against COVID-19, rather than  further intensifying its counter-insurgency campaign. These calls came on the heels of the proposed 2022 budget where a big chunk goes to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) while slashing the education and health budget,   including the budget of the University of the Philippines and consequently that of the Philippine General Hospital. This act definitely  goes against our people’s right to peace.

In this light,  the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) enjoins the Filipino  people to  commemorate the International Day of Peace. Let us call on the government to prioritize the country’s need for transformative healing. Let us also call on the GRP and the NDFP to join the whole world in this important remembrance day by returning to the negotiating table, and together putting an end to further rights violations and the loss of life that result from the conflict.

Let the “…tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79 NIV)

[1] All references to this year’s theme about the International Day of Peace can be found at https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace

Issued and signed on this 21st day of September 2021.

The nation is on vigil for justice and accountability under the Duterte administration

Sept 21,2021

It is the mourning and the wailing following the inhumanity of Herod written in Matthew that plays in our minds vividly as we survey Duterte’s carnage: many mothers crying and keeping watch over their slain loved ones;  mothers in unbearable pain as they cuddle the body of a son killed in the war on drugs; and, mothers and spouses lamenting over their offspring or spouse gunned down in the street whether activist, human rights worker, or peoples’ lawyer in a lawless manner. Voices resound throughout the land demanding justice for the killings of loved ones, indigenous peoples and farmers, development workers, church workers and rights defenders, including the death of a newly born infant of a mother under detention. This violence to life continues to this day.

This grand swell is evident after years of state terror, torture and killing under the insidious “war on drugs,” the Anti-Terror Law and the NTF-ELCAC program. Instead of promoting peace these have bred pain and resentful hearts, orphans and widows. The militarized approach to the pandemic and the corruption now being exposed more than ever have rendered the general population vulnerable twice over. Do we wonder why people are rising not only in protest over state-sanctioned killings but also against the perfidy of government response to a grave medical concern like the pandemic?

President Duterte has failed the citizenry. He will not be able to escape responsibility and accountability. There, too is the ground swell of the “One Voice” for peace and justice. Even the international community has taken notice and joined the demand for accountability and the prosecution.

As we mark Marcos’ declaration of Martial rule and the tyranny and plunder that characterized it, we join the clamor for “Never Again!” and the call for learning the lessons of the past.

The vigil for peace and justice must continue. No more to a despot!

#StopTheKillings #ProsecuteDuterte

Signed  :

Most Rev. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D,. Apostolic Vicar of Taytay, Palawan
Most Rev. Gerardo Alminaza, D.D. , Bishop, Diocese of San Carlos
Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza, Secretary General, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Most Revd. Rhee M. Timbang, Obispo Maximo, Iglesia Filipina Independiente
The Rt. Rev. Rex Resurreccion B. Reyes, Jr.,The Episcopal Diocese of Central Philippines (EDCP)
Bp. Emergencio Padillo, United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)
Br. Armin A. Luistro, FSC, Brother Visitor, Lasallian East Asia District
Sr. Rowena Pineda, MMS, Chairperson, Sisters Association of Mindanao (SAMIN)
Sr. Ma. Lisa Ruedas, DC, Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation

ATM, LILAK and LRC are requesting for solidarity,
Click here to sign –> https://bit.ly/3nHqusI

We are outraged. We are in grief. We mourn the gruesome killing of Atty. Juan Macababbad, a people’s lawyer, a defender of rights of those who have less in life, and even lesser in law.

Atty. Juan Macababbad was killed after he walked his clients out, through the gate of his modest house in Suralla, South Cotabato.  Two unidentified gunmen shot him several times on the head.  He was rushed to the hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.  Atty. Macababbad is the 58th lawyer killed under the Duterte government, according to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

But for the indigenous people, and rural poor, who he had served as their lawyer for free, Atty. Macababbad is more than a statistic. His killing meant a loss to their access to justice. His killing meant them being more vulnerable to manipulation of the legal process of corporations, and even state forces. Atty. Macababbad handled cases of land conflicts, mostly between indigenous people and corporations and land lords; trumped-up charges against community leaders opposing mining, plantations and other mega projects encroaching upon their ancestral domains. For us, human rights, environmental, and IP rights advocate groups, the killing of Atty. Macababbad is a loss of a fellow human rights defender, who committed his services for the poor people.  For his family,  it is a loss of a good father, and a husband.

For all of us, the killing of Atty. Macababbad should be seen as a brazen act of violence, an utter disregard for life,  and a violent form of silencing of those who defend human rights. This is the legacy of the Duterte government – the deepening of the culture of violence; the demonization of human rights; and the lack of accountability, and justice.

May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

(Psalm 33:22)

On the day we joyously celebrated the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, our brothers and sisters in the Philippines, particularly in Visayas and Southern Luzon, had faced another devastating disaster due to Typhoon Jolina. Recent reports show that the aftermath of the typhoon’s wrath had destroyed homes, opened economic deficiencies, left people missing, and unfortunately, declared a number of victims as deceased.

On behalf of the bishops of the Philippines, I offer my condolences to those bereaved. May the souls of those who died be looked upon by God with mercy and compassion. On behalf of the bishops of the Philippines, I offer my condolences to those bereaved. May the souls of those who died be looked upon by God with mercy and compassion. As one Church, I invite all of you to pray for our fellow Filipinos who were affected by the typhoon so that they may feel hope amidst their suffering. Let us ask for the intercession of Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted, that they may find consolation in the warmth of God’s love.

As we all continue to strive under the hardship dictated by the pandemic, may our hearts be open to look upon our neighbors who are in a great need.

Let us remember the words of the Holy Father when he visited Japan way back in 2019 in which he says. “The path to a full recovery may still be long, but it can always be undertaken if it counts on the spirit of people capable of mobilizing in order to help one another.” Indeed, our healing takes time, but with the help of each other, through the words of Pope Francis, may we realize our duty to extend our hands rooted in our capability to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Let us pray that Typhoon Kiko may not be as devastating as Typhoon Jolina.

May God the Father embrace our country so we may find comfort and peace.

+ROMULO G. VALLES, D.D.
Archbishop of Davao
President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines
10 September 2021

Our dear people of God in Northern Philippines:

The Messiah must be killed and after three days rise again. The Lord predicted His fate and by His death and rising, our sins are forgiven. It was a necessary sacrifice born from His total obedience to the Father. His death is the only death we need. There is no other death needed anymore to improve our situation or to merit God’s mercy. The death of Jesus was the death once and for all.

How may we describe the present social condition of our nation?

It is like living in the valley of death—killing of drug users and opponents; helpless death in the pandemic, death by governance without vision, death by shameless corruption that seems to break all records. Killings! Murders! Deaths!

Since the past five years, more than thirty thousand poor Filipinos have been killed in the campaign against illegal drugs.

Journalists have been killed, political opponents have been murdered, court judges have been assassinated, priests have been shot and critics have been bullied and threatened. The killers are at large and the blind supporters of these murderers applaud the killers.

The pandemic was a calamity of nature that we could not control. We saw death in our homes and offices. The heroic medical health workers risked their safety and some perished with their PPEs on. While other nations have risen from the pandemic, our death toll continues to rise.

The poor are slowly dying from joblessness due to ridiculous confusing quarantine classifications. Incompetence kills peoples. Ineptitude kills nations and economies. Hunger kills slowly.

Bullets kill. Viruses kill. Governance without direction kills. Corruption kills. Trolls kill with fake news. Hunger kills. When will the killings stop? The poor pay for the corruption of the powerful. The nation is sinking in debt.

Are we facing a dead end and are we helpless? NO. We overcome evil by the power of good. Our help is from the Lord!

This is the time for PENITENCE AND ATONEMENT for our national and personal sins. We can organize penitential rosaries and reparation prayers to the Divine Mercy that the Lord may forgive our murders and our support of murderers. May our penitence lead us to generous and courageous works of mercy and charity in our own personal little ways! “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love,” said Mother Teresa.

We citizens must be law abiding but we are not pacifists.

We must RESIST a murderous and corrupt public order guided by the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church #400…admitting that it is legitimate to resist authority should it violate in a serious or repeated manner the essential principles of natural law.

Saint Thomas Aquinas writes that “one is obliged to obey … insofar as it is required by the order of justice“. Natural law is therefore the basis of the right to resistance.

Non-violent resistance, such as peaceful assemblies of dissent or sober discussions of social issues guided by the Gospel or rallies for honesty and heroism, is the path we must choose always (#401). This is the only morally acceptable resistance.

We have a moral duty to resist and correct a culture of murder and plunder as much as the prolonged pattern of hiding or destroying the truth. “As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism” (#407)

In #408 of the same Compendium, we are taught that “In the democratic system, political authority is accountable to the people. Representative bodies must be subjected to effective social control…The obligation on the part of those elected to give an accounting of their work is a constitutive element of democratic representation.”

Guided by this, we commend, bless and encourage the FULL INVESTIGATION, by those in authority, of any whiff of corruption; as we also reproach, rebuke and censure those who obstruct the legal process to arrive at truth and justice. To them we use the rebuke of the Lord “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Mark 8:33).

FREE ELECTIONS which allow the selection and change of representatives is the most effective way to make political authority accountable (cfr. #408). In this spirit, we plead with our youth and first time voters to register themselves. We appeal to the sense of patriotism of the reluctant candidates to bring back ethics in our political life and run according to your conscience not according to the surveys.

This is not the time for despair but courage. This is not the time to be quiet but to stand up for God. Against the tide of murders and plunder, let us bear witness to TRUTH and LIFE!

Fr. Wilfredo T. Dulay, mdj

the people of God and realpolitik

            When the 2^nd Vatican Council defined the Church inclusively, it wasactuallysetting the record straight.  Consequently, the many other ambivalent, incomplete and outdated descriptions attached to the Church such as – “the pope, the bishops, the priests and religious”, “the hierarchy and the clergy”, “Christendom”, “the last functioning monarchy”, “the collectivity of all the   baptized”, “the Roman Catholics”, “the churches recognized by the Vatican”, “the Kingdom of God”, “breathtaking Romanesque and Gothic structures”, etc. – all fell away. 

            The Council’s definition – the people of God –made it clear that the Church is a place where God calls people into communion.  It is a place where to gather, not to scatter; a place that welcomes everyone; a place to find oneself among other children of God.  It is an oasis of living waters where the shepherd tends to his flock (cf Ps 23).  As the title itself of the Vatican Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, Lumen Gentium (“Light to the Nations” in Latin), clearly tells it – the Church is a place of light.

            Similarly, the definitions attributed to politics^[1] are also many and confusing.  But one, realpolitik^[2], is a stand-out.  In contrarian fashion to the definition of the people of God as a place of light, realpolitik or, politics as commonly regarded, is a dark place where to get lost because it is a political system based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations. In other words, realpolitik is a political system with no principles.  It operates on the basis of convenience and gain (profit).

            It is alarming that today a growing number of politicians has transformed politics into a murky domain where honor is bartered and corruption budgeted, a place where false dreams are peddled, a place where the people are betrayed.  But because politics affects their lives directly and unavoidably, people are drawn to it like moths to the fire. That’s where they get lost, their welfare measured least and their sorry plight considered last.

            For so long the Church has been called forth to enter politics.  To this day the political situation remains an open invitation for the Church: that is where the people are.  However, the Church may not go there to engage in partisan politics and play the profit-sharing game with the powerful.  Or, foolishly try to outsmart them.  (Jesus issued the warning that the children of this world are smarter in matters not pertaining to God’s reign.)  She must enter the political world conscious of her designated task. And lest she forgets, the Church must keep in mind that her calling is to share in a non-profitable way the mission of the Lord who was “anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and new sight to the blind; to free the    oppressed and to announce the Lord’s year of favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

the silence of the lambs & the silence of shepherds

            The lambs are silent because they are scared.  Most of them are.  But that ought to       surprise no one.  Their fear is well-founded.  How many petty drug peddlers and poor drug     addicts have been killed?  How many laborers, lumad Filipinos, farmers, activists and union    organizers have been “neutralized” by members of government armed forces, hired assassins and  vigilantes? 

            Yet, many activists keep on protesting.  That’s what is surprising.  They are scared but they persist risking limb and life to set aright what is not well!

            What is not easy to understand is the silence of the shepherds.  What’s keeping their mouths shut and their eyes closed?  Are they also scared?  Surely, they, too, must be scared.  But, their silence is more difficult to comprehend.  The reasons more complex, or, at least, made complicated by circumlocution.  In the real world and recognizing realpolitik for what it is, we are aware that some members of the clergy, in particular those of the hierarchy, are known for their use of influence peddling.  It is argued that maintaining cordial relations with those in   power could be useful in helping Church people and the poor whenever they get in trouble with the authorities. 

            In other words, there is the implied adherence to the casuistic idiom that “the end justifies the means.”  A prominent Church figure, an archbishop, whenever criticized for accepting      donations of questionable provenance was often heard rebutting: “I don’t care where the money comes from, as long as I could use it to help the poor.”  A modern saint when asked why she   accepted money from a notorious former First Lady was also quoted that “It doesn’t really matter if the money were from the devil himself, if by it I could feed the hungry.”  And what about the perks that come with coalescing with the elite and powerful – the places of honor at dinners and social gatherings, generous gifts and donations for their charities in behalf of the poor, attention if not recognition, and photo-ops, among many other prerogatives?

            All the same, neither the Cardinal Archbishop famous for his political savvy, nor the  canonized saint known for her asceticism, is the reference point for Christian practice.  They are not the yardstick of Christianity.  Rather, “It is the Lord” (Dominus est).  The way of Jesus is the true measure of Christian living.

            Christianity is not power-based. Has never been and will never be. That is, if we go by the teachings and deeds of Jesus as we know them by faith in both the Scriptures and Tradition.  Christianity is a manner of being human exemplified by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Is not the Incarnation of the Word of God a radical renunciation of power?  More than just a lifestyle, it is a way of life undergirded by love, humility and service, values unregarded by the power    brokers of this world –

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (Philippians 2:5-7)

the separation between Church and State

            Every time a conflict between Government and the Church would arise, either party would invoke the principle of the separation of Church and State, depending which side feels  aggrieved.  In many countries, including those in Latin America and the Philippines, when the Church denounces abuses against human rights, dictatorial governments angrily tell the clergy to keep to the sacristy and mind their own business.  And when governments threaten to tax church property, the hierarchy would cry foul and invoke the freedom of religion. This happens         everywhere the Church is perceived by the powers that be as a threat or, as a force to reckon with. They seem not to bother as much where the Church is a tiny minority, or a non-entity, as is the case presently in China.  [a quick digression: Perhaps, the Chinese Communist Party has not yet heard that demographers have been predicting that by 2030 China will be the largest       Christian country in the world, surpassing Brazil and the United States.^[3]]  

            Even though it might only have the value of a footnote in our history books, it’s good to recall that when the members of the Constitutional Convention drafted the Philippine 1987    Constitution and inserted the concept of the separation between the Church and the State into the document, they said they were following the lead of American jurisprudence, and that they were basing themselves on the US Constitution.  Unfortunately, without verifying their claim.  

            In fact, even though “in our own time the judiciary has embraced this figurative phrase (namely, the wall of separation between Church and State)^[4] as a virtual rule of constitutional law and as the organizing theme of Church-State jurisprudence, the metaphor is nowhere to be found in the US Constitution.”^[5]