Chacha to worsen land dispossession and poverty, rights groups say
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
Amid the circulating advertisements to change the constitution, several groups argue that it would worsen poverty in the country. On 15 January 2024, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that the Charter Change (Chacha) initiative would expose the country’s alienable and disposable lands to 100% foreign ownership.
Read more: Chacha to worsen land dispossession and poverty, rights groups say
Groups call for resumption of peace talks, push for genuine agrarian reform
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and other groups voiced out its support for the resumption of peace negotiations in a gathering in Manila on 22 January 2024, to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre. The first peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) started immediately after Corazon Aquino was installed as president after the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The talks however collapsed after Aquino's security forces opened fire on farmers and allied groups who were demonstrating near the presidential palace to demand for genuine land reform.
Read more: Groups call for resumption of peace talks, push for genuine agrarian reform
UN experts seek Marcos Jr. explanation over ‘unchecked antiterror powers’
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
Days before the full implementation of the antiterrorism law, six United Nations experts made public a letter they wrote in October last year asking the Marcos Jr. administration to explain cases of “judicial harassment, office raids and targeted financial sanctions” on rights watchdogs and its “seemingly unchecked powers.”
Read more: UN experts seek Marcos Jr. explanation over ‘unchecked antiterror powers’
Transport strikes force GRP to delay jeepney phaseout, modernization
- Published: 16 January 2024 16 January 2024
The series of transport strikes in the last quarter of last year pressured the Manila government to delay the implementation of its much criticized Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
House Speaker Martin Romualdez pressed the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to review and extend the enforcement of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) that the government has been trying to implement since 2013.
Read more: Transport strikes force GRP to delay jeepney phaseout, modernization
GRP continues to violate international humanitarian law and CARHRIHL
- Published: 16 January 2024 16 January 2024
Last December 25, the fascist Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) dropped several massive 250-lb bombs on a guerrilla camp of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon in the early morning of December 25 killing ten people. During the same attack, according to reports, the AFP repeatedly fired artillery rounds using the US- and Israel-supplied ATMOS stationed in their military camp in city. The AFP continued with the aerial bombardment in the evening and the following day.
Read more: GRP continues to violate international humanitarian law and CARHRIHL
Latest Ayungin Shoal altercation raises tensions in West PH Sea
- Published: 16 January 2024 16 January 2024
Tensions between China and the Marcos Jr. administration continues to escalate in the wake of the latest altercation in the Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea as each country blames the other for the incident.
The Marcos Jr. regime said that on 22 October during a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, China’s “dangerous maneuvers” led to collisions between boats owned or sanctioned by the two governments. A China Cost Guard ship collided with a Philippine military-contracted boat Unaiza May 2, while a Chinese Maritime Militia ship collided with the Philippine Coast Guard’s BRP Cabra. China on the other hand claimed it was the Philippines which provoked the incidents.
Read more: Latest Ayungin Shoal altercation raises tensions in West PH Sea
First anniversary of Ka Joma Sison’s martyrdom commemorated
- Published: 25 December 2023 25 December 2023
Last 16 December, the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Comrade Jose Maria Sison, great Filipino leader, teacher and communist, was commemorated through conferences and cultural performances.
Read more: First anniversary of Ka Joma Sison’s martyrdom commemorated