‘Anti-Terrorism Council’ labels Jalandoni, 5 others as terrorists
- Published: 15 June 2022 15 June 2022
“I am not a terrorist,” declared Luis G. Jalandoni, upon learning of his designation as a terrorist by the Duterte government’s ‘Anti-Terrorism Council’. He added, “I have worked for more than three decades for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.” Jalandoni is a Senior Adviser of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines Negotiating Panel in peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines. Prior to 2016, he served as Chairperson of the NDFP peace panel for more than 20 years.
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Tarlac police arrest 97 farmers, supporters
- Published: 15 June 2022 15 June 2022
The Philippine National Police arrested 97 agrarian reform beneficiaries and their advocates in a hacienda in Tarlac province, northern Philippines, on 9 June 2022. Among those arrested are six farmer beneficiaries, four minors, two senior citizens, 45 farmer advocates, 30 students, 11 social researchers and three drivers. The police accused them of membership in the New People’s Army and charged them with obstruction of justice, some with malicious mischief.
Marcopper Mining ordered to pay mining disaster victims
- Published: 15 June 2022 15 June 2022
After a legal battle of 21 years, the Marinduque Regional Trial Court in central Philippines ruled on 16 May 2022 to grant the damages plea of 30 complainants against the Marcopper Mining Corporation for causing the one of the country’s worst mining disasters in December 1993. The court ordered Marcopper to pay PhP200,000 (US$3,800) in temperate damages and PhP100,00 (US$1,900) in moral damages to each of at least 30 plaintiffs that filed the case in 2001. Marcopper was also ordered to pay PhP1 million (US$19,000) in exemplary damages to all the plaintiffs.
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NPA stops illegal logging operations in Sultan Kudarat
- Published: 15 June 2022 15 June 2022
A unit of the New People’s Army successfully stopped an illegal logging operation in the southern Philippine province of Sultan Kudarat on 1 June, when it stopped two operators working with the illegal logging operations of D.M. Consunji Incorporated. The NPA Red fighters explained to the operators the need to defend the indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands and to care for the environment.
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The most repressive election since dictator Marcos – International Observer Mission
- Published: 31 May 2022 31 May 2022
The widespread irregularities and violence in the May 9 national elections in the Philippines undermined the democratic process that “took place in the most repressive context since the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos,” said Séverine de Laveleye, member of the Chamber of Representatives of the Federal Parliament of Belgium and Commisioner of the International Observer Mission to the Philippine elections, when she presented the IOM interim report.
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US advocates push for human rights investigation in the Philippines under Marcos II
- Published: 31 May 2022 31 May 2022
Appalled by the prompt congratulatory message of US President Joe Biden on the proclamation of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as president of the Republic of the Philippines, human rights advocates in the US criticized President Biden and proposed instead to investigate the human rights conditions in the Philippines.
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Academics call for defense of truth and academic freedom vs. Marcoses
- Published: 31 May 2022 31 May 2022
Philippine scholars and academics launched on 19 May the online petition, Manifesto in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom. “We want to bring out a strong statement in defense of historical truth against the unrelenting efforts to revise the historical record of plunder and human rights violations during Martial Law and the entire Marcos era,” said Professor Oscar Campomanes of the Ateneo de Manila University, one of the initiators of the Manifesto.
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