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 37^th 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. 

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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