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Greenfaith Livestream on FB

Starting this month until December 2020, we’ll be having a series of episodes highlighting the situation of ‘Sites-of-Struggle’. These SOS areas are mining affected communities.

We will know what it’s like for the people in these SOS areas to face the threats of COVID-19 pandemic and mining all at the same time.

“The Sites-of-Struggle in the Face of COVID-19: Stories of Mining Affected Communities (Homonhon Island)”

6:00 PM PHT | August 19, 2020

We Must Make a Stand for Life! Appeal Against the Death Penalty

August 12, 2020

To: All Laiko Members: Arch/Diocesan Councils of the Laity & National Lay Organizations

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

We have just released a Statement expressing our strong opposition to the Death Penalty Bill being considered in Congress. A copy of which has been sent to you yesterday. We urge the Heads of member organizations to disseminate this to your respective members and encourage each to make your own statement in support of our united stand for Life.

The following are concrete ways you may consider to make our position be heard:

1.      Make banners with messages to express our stand and place them in our group’s offices/centers or if possible, even in our homes;

2.      Encourage your members to write / visit the Senators and their Congressmen to express our strong opposition to the Death Penalty;

3.      Encourage everyone to participate in fora or other activities where this issue will be discussed;

4.      Watch and share with your constituents / members the webinar on Death Penalty given by CHR Commissioner Karen Dumpit last August 8, 2020 and all the other webinars on societal issues sponsored by LAIKO. They are all posted at the Facebook page of Laiko & CBCP News;

5.      Visit the Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas Website (cbcplaiko.org) and FB page as well as the CBCP News FB page for updates;

6.      Pray! Pray! And Pray!  Let us redouble our prayers so that our legislators will be enlightened and listen to the voice of God and the majority of the Filipino people.

WE MUST MAKE A STAND FOR LIFE!

“CHOOSE LIFE …THAT YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE.”(Deuteronomy 30:19)

Sincerely yours in the service of the Lord,

Noted by:

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

Laiko Statement on the Restoration of the Death Penalty

Restorative, Rehabilitative and with Access to Effective Legal Representation

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas laments and decries the actuations of our elected lawmakers in calling back from its grave the death penalty proposals. 

We urge you to remove the blinders that prevent you from seeing that death penalty is an offense ‘against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person.’ Its reimposition will single out for punishment the most vulnerable sectors of society who have no means to defend themselves. Moreover, as a country, our failure to honor our commitment, with the International Community, not to bring back death penalty, will not only put us in a bad light but lose their respect as well.

We would rather that you focus your attention on:

•          how to combat the effects of COVID-19 through a comprehensive program for the health and safety of your constituents; 

•          the speedy enactment of laws that will reform our judicial and correctional systems and;

•          how to stop the flagrant reality of graft and corruption.  

SHEMA! Listen and heed the words of some of our greatest Presidents:

“Those who have less in life must have more in law” (President Ramon Magsaysay)

“Respect for basic human rights must continue to be one of our prime concerns. We must live up to our pledge to act as guardians of the dignity and worth of the individual.” (President Manuel L. Quezon)

We Must Stand for Life! Let us Choose Life!

For the Laiko Board of Directors, 

11 August 2020

Stand For Life

Statement of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC)

We at the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC) reiterate our strong opposition to the move to revive the death penalty in the Philippines for the following reasons:

  1. The death penalty violates the inherent dignity of a person, which is not lost despite the commission of a crime. No person, no matter how evil he is perceived to be, is beyond reformation. Pope Francis has clearly and unequivocally exhorted countless times that capital punishment is an offense “against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society” and “does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.”1 Furthermore, in a statement in 2016, the Bishops stated that, “…when God had created man and woman, bringing human life upon the earth … God rested from the work of creation. In every human person is that incomparably precious breath of life from God himself… It is this Divine gift of life, sublime and unsurpassable, that the death penalty takes away. It is the breath of life, the gift of the Creator, that every judicial execution snatches and cuts short.”2
  2. There is no direct evidence to prove that the death penalty deters crime, as there are no conclusive studies, local or foreign, that would support this argument that it is indeed a deterrent. On the contrary, a 2009 research study found out that the consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not add any significant deterrent effect above that of long term imprisonment. Thus the general assertion that it indeed has a deterrent effect is merely speculative.3 Furthermore, crime statistics do not conclusively show that the death penalty deters the commission of crimes. Based on PNP data in the years after the abolition of the death penalty, crime volume has been actually decreasing4.
  3. The death sentence is irrevocable; once carried out, there is no possibility for rectifying an erroneous judgment by an imperfect system. With the death penalty justice is nothing but punishment. But true justice is restorative, never merely punitive. It gives the person the chance to change, no matter how slim the chance may be.
  4. The death penalty is tilted against the most vulnerable sectors of society, the marginalized and the poor. Experience shows that most, if not all persons meted the death penalty are the poor and uneducated, who cannot afford prominent lawyers to defend them.
  5. Being a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) enacted in 1989, as well as to the 2nd Optional Protocol of the ICCPR, the Philippines has committed before the international community not to re-impose the death penalty in the future. Reviving it will go against this commitment and will put our country in a bad light insofar as our standing in the community of nations is concerned.
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Affirming Our Call Against the Death Penalty

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES IN THE PHILIPPINES

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2020

(Approved on November 28, 2019 by the General Convention of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines held at The Lutheran Center, Sta. Mesa, Manila).

Last July 22, 2019, for the second time the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, asked the Congress to reinstate death penalty for “heinous crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder.” This was the first priority legislative measure that the President mentioned in his 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress.

The House Committee on Justice discussed 12 bills seeking the re-imposition of capital punishment for heinous crimes, particularly on plunder and drug-related cases. This measure seeks to amend Republic Act 9346, the law that abolished death penalty in the criminal justice system. Supporters of this re-imposition argued that death penalty would dissuade heinous crimes and serve justice to the victims.

However, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) reminded the government, Philippine law makers and the citizens that reintroducing the death penalty “will be a serious breach of international law” – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1986 and the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR in 2007.

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In solidarity and defense of our doctors and nurses at the frontlines of COVID-19 response

The Presidential late-night address did not respond well to the collective cry of our Medical Health Workers—an appeal to declare the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) protocol for the Greater Manila Area to address the growing infections of COVID-19.

This appeal of our Medical Health Workers are for real to fight the virus, for they themselves are on the frontlines of healing and caring our sick Filipinos.

The call for an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) should not just be dismissed by blabbermouthed propaganda, our Medical Health Workers’ call is a manifestation of telling our government: to address the pandemic with medical solutions! They have seen how not to address it: of how this government spent billions of money on failed priorities, and allow the virus to infect more; of in-effectivity of military responses; and of political minions, military men and business interests advising on COVID crisis.

Indeed, the call of our Medical Health Workers is a revolution from the heart… They want to heal our land, they want us to be free from the virus, and more importantly, they want us to take “time-out” of our fears of the COVID-19.

It is counter-revolutionary for our government, to not heed their call, and still resort to their shadowed hard-headedness at the expense of our health safety and of the plight of our front-liners. It is counter-productive again, presenting other ways to recruit doctors and nurses in a military-way, but failing to assure the guarantee of just compensation and humanitarian assistance to those who are working in hospitals since the start of the pandemic. It is counter-Filipino of not listening and responding well to the cries of our medical front-liners!

As a pastor of the people of God, I am one with our Medical Health Workers in their call and commend their continuing heroic service to the Filipino people; remembering these words in the Bible: “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.” (Jeremiah 33:6)

Invitation to Aug. 7 Webinar: Magsasaka Hindi Terorista

Online Forum sa Anti-Terrorism Act at Epekto nito sa mga Magsasaka

Dear Friends and Peasant Advocates,

Greetings of Peace and Solidarity!

We are inviting you to a webinar forum entitled,

“Magsasaka Hindi Terorista!: Online Forum sa Anti-Terrorism Act at Epekto nito sa mga Magsasaka”

on August 7, 2020 from 2:00-5:00 PM (see attached tentative program flow).

To discuss the salient points of the Terror Law and its implications on peasant organizations and their advocates’ struggle for land, rights and justice, we have invited Atty. Chel Diokno, Chairperson of the Free Legal Assistance Group.

This will be followed by a sharing of peasant organizations and advocate groups who will serve as reactors to tell their own experience of state repression and what they foresee will be the effect of the Terror Law for their sector in the coming days.

The webinar will also feature cultural performances by Ms. Mara Marasigan of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and Sining na Naglilingkod sa Bayan (SINAGBAYAN).

The webinar is hosted by Anakpawis, UMA, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, AMIHAN Peasant Federation of Women, PAMALAKAYA National Federation of Fisherfolk Organizations, National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, SINAGBAYAN, Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo, Rural Women Advocates and Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo, which have been organizing the Peasant Update Online Forum since the start of President Rodrigo Duterte’s militarist Covid-19 lockdown.

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