Category: News

“I was imprisoned and you visited me” Mt. 25:36

STATEMENT

The COVID-19 global pandemic has adversely affected practically all the people in the world, rich and poor alike, regardless of race and creed. There is really a need for a united and concerted effort to curb this menace.

They say that critical times call for equally critical and drastic solutions. While we truly appreciate the government in its efforts in battling this pandemic, we wish to air the following concerns:

1. On the matter of the strict implementation of the ECQ rules:

State authorities have declared that they will be very strict in the implementation of the rules regarding the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the entire country, with violators being severely dealt with – with no chance for these to explain their side, and that they will just be apprehended, and detained with corresponding criminal charges filed against them in court.

While this hardline stance may somehow deter people from going out of their homes and venturing into the streets, we are concerned that this may pose more problems than solutions, mainly because of the big possibility that those who will be caught belong to the poor and indigent sector.

In certain areas we have learned, for instance, that many alleged ECQ violators were rounded up and brought to a sports complex where physical and social distancing was unfortunately not properly observed. We were informed that the detainees are not provided with food and water. The only way that they can be released is by posting bail with the courts for their temporary liberty. But where will they get the money to post bail, when these are mostly the poor? And since they are unable to bail themselves out, they eventually land in jail, thereby further contributing to the congestion in our prisons and exposure to the COVID-19 virus and other illnesses. But is this not the very purpose of the ECQ, i.e., to prevent the spread of the COVID virus through social distancing?

We are very concerned about the recent fatal shooting of an ex-soldier, who was said to have mental problems, after he allegedly tried to pull out a gun after being confronted by a police officer for violating quarantine rules. Even as we call for an in-depth investigation into this matter, we would like to appeal to our law enforcers to always exercise maximum tolerance and prudence in the performance of their duties especially during these troubled times.

2. On the matter of the transfer of PDLs with COVID 19 to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa:

We are deeply concerned about the report that the COVID positive female PDLs of the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) were ordered transferred to the New Bilibid Prisons – Medium Security Camp, an all-male facility. We believe that transferring female PDLs to this male camp is not advisable. At present, there are more than 7,000 inmates in this camp and this transfer will put other PDLs and even the prison officials and personnel in great jeopardy. Also, aside from PDLs, there are many residents in the area near the facility and the probability of transmission is very likely.

3. On the matter of moves calling for the release of PDL’s with minor cases to help in jail decongestion:

We join the call from other cause-oriented human rights groups for the expeditious release of vulnerable inmates who are ill, old, as well as the youth in conflict with law, and low-risk offenders. We all know the general condition in our country’s detention facilities (cramped, overly-congested and mostly unkempt) hence the probability that one will get infected and in turn infect other fellow detainees as well as the jail personnel manning the facilities, is very high. We call on the jail and prison authorities to implement this with great prudence, always taking into consideration the best interest of all PDLs.

Allow us then to make the following recommendations:

1. We beg the police to observe the proper rules of engagement and show utmost respect for the human rights of those under investigation and/or accused persons under our laws. Detainees should be provided with basic needs, e.g., food and potable water, a decent sleeping gear and be detained in a place where proper physical and social distancing can be observed. A good number may be turned over to their respective Barangay officials who will then check the individual stories of those arrested. Alternatives to detention should be considered, such as education of the violators and community service upon their release.

2. We propose that in releasing qualified PDLs to decongest our jails and prisons, priority should be given to the elderly, those who are sick, the youth, as well as those existing PDLs who were earlier granted release through the benefits of the good conduct time allowances (GCTA), but were subsequently ordered re-arrested; and finally those who are already qualified for Executive Clemency and favorably recommended by the Board of Pardons and Parole.

Needless to say, we also ask that support services be given to those who will be released, like those national prisoners who will have to travel back to their provinces. This can be in the form of transport services and inclusion in the Pantawid Buhay program of the government.

IMEMC News| May 1, 2020| By Kairos Palestine: April 30th, 2020:

Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:23-24)

The board of Kairos Palestine raises an alarm regarding the consequences of the third failed Israeli election in less than a year.  The resulting coalition entered on April 20, 2020, combines two of the most right-wing parties—Bennie Gantz’s Blue and White and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud—in a deal that directly threatens Palestinians’ freedom, health, and human rights.

Described as an “emergency government” to address the impacts of COVID-19, and under the cover of a so-called “coronavirus cabinet,” the State of Israel is empowered to continue its policies of home demolitions, closures, arrests, child detention, and settler violence.

Furthermore:

As a result of the political arrangement, Gantz gave up his campaign promise to amend Israel’s Nation-State Law which legalizes institutional discrimination in Israel, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In the deal for a joint government, Gantz relinquished his commitment not to pursue annexation in the West Bank without international consensus, freeing Netanyahu to pursue his long-standing promise to annex substantial portions of the West Bank as early as July 1.

While the “emergency government” may only take up legislation related to the coronavirus, an exception was agreed upon to consider bills related to U.S. President Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century.

According to international law, an occupier is mandated to see to the health and welfare of the occupied, but a lack of medical supplies, the complete blockade of Gaza, Israel’s control of the Palestinian economy, piracy and theft of Palestinian tax money and increased restrictions on movement put Palestinians at a greater risk of suffering from COVID-19.

For the past few years and especially during the administration of both Trump and Netanyahu the foundations of the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis have been sabotaged by the different policies and announcements that both administrations have unilaterally adopted. This annexation is only one of these moves. While we see that the equation of land for peace have lost its credibility and now look impossible for a two states solution, we at KP are committed for our people and churches to continue to struggle for the values that make for peace. Equality and Justice are our beacon.

Thus, we urge all churches to support these values in every means. We urge them to say no to injustice of any illegal political move and building for a future of equality on this land between all the peoples, no matter what the political frame it brings at the end.  We struggle for democracy and the natural human rights in this land, that no people are under occupation or discrimination or siege. That people enjoy their self-determination without prejudice to their religious, national or ethnic origin. This land has been blessed by its multicultural, multi- faithful and multi- national identity. This is how it should look like in any solution.

In this struggle, Kairos Palestine calls on people of faith and all those of conscience around the world to:

Plead with your elected representatives to hold the State of Israel accountable to international law and human rights;

Demand that your governments do not recognize Israel’s annexations of East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan, that your governments express their disapproval of Israel’s further plans of annexation, and that your governments pressure Israel with concrete measures to comply with international law and UN resolutions. All know what is due to the Israelis, and what is due to the Palestinians. Clear decisions are already taken by the UN. So why further waiting to apply what is already decided? Just comply with what you have decided. Take concrete measures which compel Israel to comply with your own decisions.

Protect Palestinians’—and all people’s—right to resist, including Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, until Israel complies with its obligations as an occupying power.

Our plea is rooted in what is described in the Kairos Palestine document as “the logic of love”—a concern for the life and future of both peoples with a firm hope for the day when both oppressor and oppressed create a new society for all the people of the land.

“Kairos Palestine, the most extensive Palestinian Christian ecumenical non-violent movement, is based on Kairos Palestine document: A Moment of Truth, launched in 2009, affirming that the Palestinian Christians are part and parcel of the Palestinian nation, calling for peace to end all suffering in the Holy Land by laboring for justice, hope and love, embraced by the Christian community, signed by all historically recognized Palestinian Christian organizations, and endorsed by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem”.

 Circular No. 20-25
April 30, 2020

To All Bishops and Diocesan Administrators Your Excellencies & Reverend Administrators,

 This is to bring to your attention a fake Facebook (FB) page “CBCP Official” now in circulation. We would like to share with you an advisory on how to address this concern. There are two ways to stop this:

1. Do a mass report to FB. If we can gather about a hundred people, or more, reporting this to FB, FB will take it down. We have attached below a simple instruction how to do this. Your social media staff may be instructed to report this fake page.

2. We report this to NBI’s cyber crime division. But it will take long, especially at this time.

Moreover, Your Excellencies are respectfully asked NOT to post a notification or statement about this fake FB page. That will trigger attention and curiosity, consequently draw more people to that page.

Thank you. Stay well and keep safe.

Sincerely yours,
Fr. Marvin S. Mejia
Secretary General, CBCP

After calling out China, he is backing the pope’s call for a ceasefire as the world fights Covid-19

UCAN News
Michael Sainsbury
Myanmar
April 24, 2020

Unbowed, indeed perhaps emboldened, by the ill-informed attacks on him for calling out China for its role — by withholding information — in assisting the spread of Covid-19 and for its repressive murderous regime, Myanmar’s Cardinal Charles Bo has joined Pope Francis and others in calling for a global conflict ceasefire during the pandemic.

Just as he understands China better than his critics, the president of the Asian Federation of Bishops’ Conferences is also all too familiar with conflict. The country whose Church he has led so well as archbishop of Yangon for 17 years has been racked with conflict for the entire 72 years of its independence.

“I am convinced that continued military operations, precisely when the whole nation is suffering a crisis, will have catastrophic consequences for our nation,” the 71-year-old cardinal wrote in just the latest of so many missives he has released on the topic of peace.

“Now is the time for decisions that will build Myanmar as a united, peaceful, prosperous nation and member of the family of nations. Conflict makes Myanmar especially vulnerable.”

Cardinal Bo’s concerns, as a prince of the Catholic Church and leader of its Asian bishops, of course extend beyond the borders of his own country and across a region where peace has so frequently been interrupted.

His bid for peace in Myanmar has arguably been the most consistent thematic of his time as a prelate. In 1990, he was ordained as bishop of Lashio in Shan state, which shares a long border with China. It is a hub for trading with the Middle Kingdom, a battleground for drug lords — part of the notorious Golden Triangle — and home to several militias including the United Wa State Army, which has been reported to have 25,000 fighters but has now had 30 years of peace with the country’s military.

It is important to understand that Myanmar is the nation in South and Southeast Asia that has been most tortured by conflict since the Second World War. Civil wars have raged on and off for seven decades between dozens of ethnic militias, mainly in the seven ethnic-based states that surround the center of the country where the majority ethnic group, the Bamar, live.

Some critics of Cardinal Bo’s full-frontal speaking of truth to the power of the Chinese Communist Party did not take the time to understand how China is seen in Myanmar as a putative economic and cultural colonist.

Bo himself put it very neatly in a presentation he made in July 2019.

CENTER FOR TRADE UNION AND HUMAN RIGHTS (CTUHR)
Public Information and Education Department
April 17, 2020

On April 15, 2020, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that its COVID-19 Adjustment Measure Program (CAMP) is now closed for new applications. OIC Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said that this is to give way to the transition to the wage subsidy for small business program of the Department of Finance.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights is strongly dismayed with this announcement. Since the lockdown was implemented, lots of families suffered from hunger as the promised assistance in the form of relief goods and cash aid comes slow or does not come at all. Displaced workers have been relying on DOLE’s P5,000 assistance for their families’ sustenance for the duration of the quarantine but have encountered numerous problems such as their employer’s non-compliance with the requirements, refusal of the company to apply, DOLE’s hotline that is not working, DOLE’s rejection of the company’s application and the slow and long process of the application with many workers not receiving anything even after a month of its implementation.

“This government is adding more harm than good to the workers and the poor, with their inconsistent and overly bureaucratic processes of giving the urgently needed aid. Why is the CAMP application being closed down when many workers are still in dire need of support? Why is the responsibility being transferred to the DOF who knows nothing about the workers’ situation? Instead of simply giving the promised assistance, this government is wasting precious time on its bureaucratic measures than providing urgently needed aid.” said Daisy Arago, CTUHR Executive Director.

The Labor Department estimates that around 1.6 million workers are affected by the lockdown due to COVID-19. It also reported that the CAMP has provided Php1.2 billion aid to 236,412 workers and is in the process of distributing aid to 85,563 more workers in the coming days. “We cannot fathom how they can afford to stop the assistance program when it has given aid to barely 15% of their conservative estimation. Providing assistance to displaced workers is under the mandate of DOLE. Transferring it to another department is simply unjust, irresponsible and pointless. Give the Php51 billion wage subsidy to DOLE and expedite the process of distributing the aid,” Arago added.

DOLE’s Estimate Number of Affected Workers in the Formal Sector

Arago also noted that the data of the Labor Department is conservative. According to think-tank Ibon Foundation, the number of workers who may be affected by the Enhanced Community Quarantine, both from the formal and informal sector is at 11 million. This is based on the 2018 labor survey force.  

CAMP is one of the promised financial assistance programs of the Duterte Administration amid this  COVID-19 pandemic through DOLE. Without economic activity, it is difficult for the workers to fend for their families needs. Thus, the P5,000 assistance from DOLE, insufficient as it may be, is a big help to meet the basic necessities of their families.

CTUHR also noted its continuous appeal to big companies to pay their workers despite work stoppage because of the enhanced community quarantine.###

Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura
Federation of Agricultural Workers | Philippines
APril 17, 2020

The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura heavily criticized the Duterte government for threatening the Filipino people with further repressive measures such as explicitly placing the country under Martial Law instead of urgently providing them with aid.

According to UMA Chairperson, Antonio “Ka Tonying” Flores, “The primary reason why many are going against quarantine rules is the lack of prompt and adequate socio-economic aid. Many barangays have not yet received the already limited social amelioration.”

“Meanwhile, agriworkers have not been included in the Department of Labor and Employment’s Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) as they are considered as informal sector workers, even if there are cases of work stoppage in plantations and mills. Neither were they able to access DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) project,” Flores added.

In the IATF’s third report to Congress, it boasted of providing assistance to 118,086 workers under CAMP and 167,941 workers under TUPAD.

Flores said, “The Bukidnon Sugar Milling Corporation (BUSCO) stopped its operation for about two weeks. In Agusan del Sur, Soriano Farms and Lapanday banana plantations in Cabadbaran and Jabonga reduced working days from six to three days a week. But none of their workers reported having received any aid from DOLE for not being able to work due to companies’ temporary closure or compressed work week.”

“The administration has given so many promises and targets undelivered. The least that agriworkers need are menacing remarks from the President as the country tries to survive a pandemic.”

“Instead of intimidation, why doesn’t the President present what he is going to do in order to protect our food frontliners? Why does he not talk about measures to ensure that their produce are bought at fair prices?”

In Cagayan Valley, traders bought rice farmers’ palay at P14/kilo taking advantage of their desperation to get their produce to the market. In Batangas, molasses were bought at P10/kilo instead of P40 because only one trader was buying molasses from small sugarplanters, while sugar plummeted from P1,500 to P1,200 per bag (50 kilos).

“What can the President say about the fact that only agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from 2010 to the present are the only ones who will be given IDs, which will be used to access much needed services to increase their farm production? This resulted to thousands of ARBs not being included in the cash assistance and seedlings program by the DAR. A case in fact are Hacienda Roxas ARBs in Nasugbu who are already at about 1,500. Meanwhile, none of our member farmworkers in rice fields have reported of getting assistance from the Department of Agriculture.”

“The President seems to think that he and his Cabinet members’ ineptitude in addressing the pandemic can be covered up by militaristic solutions and verbal abuse. He undermines the public in misleading them that it is the “quarantine violators” who are responsible for the country having the highest number of Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia, when he allowed more than 500,000 Chinese into the country in failing to declare a travel ban immediately just to please China. For all these reasons, he should already resign together with DOH Secretary Duque.”

“If the President continues to fail to heed the people, this will only lead more people to support the call for his ouster,” Flores ended.

Military ops continue under Covid-19 quarantine in North Negros

Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
April 17, 2020

Civilians in North Negros continue to fear combat operations of combined forces of the 79th Infantry Battalion (79th IB) and the Special Action Forces (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) even as the whole province of Negros Occidental came under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to control the Covid-19 pandemic.

Based on initial reports gathered by the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA), military operations have continued in rural areas of Escalante City, Calatrava and Toboso despite the province-wide implementation of the ECQ.

In Toboso town, the home of Quintin Palay and other members of the Palay clan in Sitio Odiong, Barangay Bandila was forcibly entered and ransacked by elements of the 79th IB and SAF last April 15, around 6:30 in the morning.

The military threatened and interrogated a 12-year old minor who was in the house while other family members were out working in their monggo fields. The child reportedly fainted due to intense pressure.

The particular combat operation had been going on for several days in the upland areas of Barangay Pantao and Bandila, where the soldiers also engaged in betting and cockfighting. The soldiers who ransacked the Palay home were reportedly in civilian clothes. Other soldiers nearby were busy gambling.

This April, combat operations were also monitored in upland barangays of Marcelo, Minapasuk, Cambayubo, Winaswasan, Macasilao, Cruz, Malatas, Pantao and Paghumayan in Calatrava; Bug-ang, San Isidro, Bandila and Tabun-ac in Toboso, and many other barangays in Escalante City where the so-called National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict of the Duterte administration (NTF-ELCAC) continue to engage in their rabid campaign to force ordinary civilians and peasants to surrender en masse and admit to their links to the armed communist movement.

Particularly in Barangay Bug-ang, Toboso and Barangay Malasibog, Escalante City, operators of the NTF-ELCAC continue to coerce peasants to break up their cooperatives and surrender their lands back to landlords and corrupt brokers of anomalous financial grants endorsed by the military.

Meanwhile, there are also reports of abuses in Covid-19 checkpoints where personal belongings of civilians are searched and intensely inspected by police and military personnel without protective gear, while some civilians are ordered to remove their face masks to identify them. Authorities have also been arresting so many civilians who break the curfew and other additional restrictions of the quarantine implemented by local governments.

NNAHRA noted that while civilians are strictly barred from crossing town and city borders to avoid the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the army and police on combat operations can freely enter quarantined barangays without any personal protective gear and without notifying local officials of their activities.

Human rights advocates call on authorities to seriously address the Covid-19 situation and pull-out military troops from communities. Aside from causing abuses and rights violations, the unhampered movement of police and military personnel can potentially unleash the outbreak of the virus in upland areas where health services are scarce, if not completely unavailable.

#FightCovid19
#DuterteVirus
#SerbisyoMedikalHindiMilitar
#TulongHindiKulong
#MassTestingNow

By CBCP News
April 17, 2020
Manila, Philippines

The spread of coronavirus into a congested jail facility has triggered deep concern from the bishops’ prison ministry.

Nine detainees and nine personnel at the Quezon City Jail have tested positive for the virus, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology said.

The BJMP said it is now conducting extensive contact tracing to contain the contagious respiratory disease.

The infected inmates were brought to a quarantine facility in Payatas.

The prison employees afflicted with the virus were also advised to undergo home quarantine as they do not have sever symptoms.

Bishop Joel Baylon of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care said they are hoping that all measures taken by the BJMP will stem the spread of the virus.

“We hope and pray that the protocols which have been set in motion will help these patients to recover fast and further prevent the spread of the disease,” Baylon said.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, meanwhile, described the detainees’ situation as a ‘nightmare’.

“The nightmare for prisoners has begun. That makes all of them inside PUIs (persons under investigation) and PUMs (persons under monitoring),” he said.

Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos has earlier demanded for the government “to act with urgency” to decongest prisons and conduct mass testing.

“Or else, God forbid, prisons and those in them may sink like ill-fated Diamond Princess and other cruise ships, as physical distancing and self-isolation are spatially impossible,” Alminaza said.

“Political prisoners, the sick, the elderly and those detained on petty crimes and misdemeanor may all be considered for release – this is a matter of life and death, calling for extraordinary measures,” he said.

Statement on Earth Day celebration

Human life depends on the well-being of the planet and all of its inhabitants. The more we disturb biodiversity, the more we put our lives and health in danger.

A study conducted by the Harvard Medical School said that “when we develop an infectious illness, we tend to believe that we caught it from another person, who in turn caught it from someone else, and that germ that made us ill had never resided in any species other than our own.”

The study revealed that this belief is false more times than not. “For most human infectious disease – some 60 percent – the pathogen has lived and multiplied in other organisms before having been transmitted to people,” the study said.

Today, as we celebrate Earth Day, we must expand the COVID-19 pandemic narrative beyond health and economic issues. We must look at environmental destruction as the root cause of the global pandemic. Humans take wildlife out of their natural habitats and exploit finite resources. Human activities – destructive extraction, coal projects, large-scale logging, mono-cropping plantation, among others – destroy biodiversity as if we are not part of it.

The COVID-19 pandemic not only calls for a deep social and structural conversion but for a very intimate ecological conversion and change in our ways toward the environment.  Our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is in the hands of us all but to prevent more pandemics and crises in the future will depend on how we take care of Our Common Home.

Our remaining forests and biodiversity are continually being threatened by extractive mining operations and the building of dams. Respect for God’s creation is disregarded when irresponsible mining practices are allowed to continue. Land and life are desecrated when almost two-thirds of the ancestral domains of indigenous peoples and more than half of protected and key biodiversity areas are directly threatened by mining applications and operations. Despite shreds of evidence against 26 mining operations ordered closed or suspended last February 2017, not one mine has stopped extracting because of technical administrative loopholes. Social justice is not served when only the few mining companies, many of which are also owned by political leaders, reap the benefits from mineral extraction.

Another problem related to mining is the phenomenon of our country’s growing dependence on fossil fuel-based energy, such as coal. There are at least 23 existing coal-fired power plants operating across the country; 28 more may be operational this year. To support and sustain this dependence, a huge number of coal power plants involved in extensive coal extraction has to be put in place. Thus, coal mining projects have been allowed to increase to 186, including small-scale ones. Worse is, most of these coal projects are located within the vicinity of communities of indigenous Filipinos and are supported by rich ecosystems and biodiversities.

The burning of coal and other fossil fuels and the destruction of nature are natural consequences of extractive mining. Needless to say, these industries are pursued primarily for profit accumulation and rarely, if at all, in response to peoples’ needs. This is the root cause of the continuous escalation of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere which, in turn, is causing the climate crisis.

The prevalent anthropocentric and utilitarian perspectives tend to negate our ethical role of responsible stewardship and deny the reality that humans are part of nature. We need a paradigm shift in order to reestablish our sacred relationship with nature. Pope Francis in the Encyclical Laudato Si underlines that: “Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.” (Laudato Si, #139).

A paradigm on ecological conversion needs to usher in a new awareness: that the earth and all of nature is our common home. We are part of nature and we need to respect and protect our home – the entire ecosystem, the habitat and biodiversity of the planet. As Rachel Carson reminds us: Man is part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

Father Edwin Gariguez
Executive Secretary
National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/ Caritas Philippines
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines