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“Parang multong bumabalik ang pangyayari tuwing dumarating ako rito sa Mendiola,” sambit ni Miriam Aledia-Villanueva, 47 taong gulang, habang pinipigilan ang sarili na maiyak sa isang panayam pagkatapos ng martsa ng mga magsasaka mula Timog Katagalugan at Gitnang Luzon para gunitain ang ika-30 anibersaryo ng masaker sa Mendiola noong Enero 20.

Si Villanueva na anak ng maralitang magsasaka ay 17 taong gulang pa lang noong nangyari ang madugong pagbuwag sa martsa ng mga magsasaka tungong Mendiola noong Enero 22, 1987 para igiit ang tunay na reporma sa lupa sa noo’y Pangulong Corazon Aquino.

Kasama ni Villanueva ang mga myembro ng Social Action Center ng kanilang parokya sa Dasmariñas, Cavite kung saan siya ay volunteer at iba pang mga magsasaka mula sa Timog Katagalugan.

Nagmartsa ang may 20,000 magsasakang pinapamunuan ng Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) mula sa Gitnang Luzon at Timog Katagalugan mula sa Ministry of Agrarian Reform (MAR), na ngayon ay Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), sa Quezon City patungong Liwasang Bonifacio. Matapos ang maiksing programa sa Liwasang Bonifacio ay nagmartsa na sila patungong Mendiola kung saan pulu-pulutong na myembro ng Philippine Constabulary (PC) at Marines ang nakaabang. Hindi pa man nakakapaglunsad ng negosasyin sa pagitan ng mga nagmartsa at PC ay pinaulanan na ng bala ng mga ahente ng estado ang mga nagprotesta.  Bago ang martsa ay nakapiket na mula Enero 15, 1987 ang mga magsasaka sa MAR para makipagdayalogo sa ministro nito na si Heherson Alvarez at singilin si Pangulong Aquino sa pangako nitong pagbigay prayoridad sa reporma sa lupa.

“Hinabol kami ng mga may M-16 [na riple]. Nakita ko ring nakahandusay sa harap namin ang mga tinamaan ng baril na kasama naming mga taga Laguna,” pag-alala ni Villanueva.

Labintatlo (13) ang namatay sa tinaguriang ‘Mendiola Massacre’ samantalang lagpas sa isang daan ang sugatan dahil sa tama ng bala sa hanay ng mga magsasaka.

Kabilang sa mga namatay ay sila Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez, at Roberto Yumul.

Naging hudyat din ang pangyayaring ito sa paghinto ng usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng Gobyerno ng Republika ng Pilipinas (GRP) at National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

At sa halip na matakot o mapanghinaan ng loob, naging hudyat din ang pangyayari para magtuloy-tuloy si Villanueva sa pagkilos sa hanay ng mga magsasaka para ipaglaban ang tunay na reporma sa lupa dahil aniya, mas kailangan ito para makamit ang hustisya.

Ngunit, makalipas ang 30 taon mula ang malagim na pangyayari, hindi pa rin naisasakatuparan ang panawagan ng mga magsasaka para sa tunay na reporma sa lupa. Hanggang sa kasalukuyan ay wala pa ring ni isang napaparusahan na responsable sa masaker.

Para gunitain ang ika-30 anibersaryo ng Mendiola massacre, nagmartsa mula sa DAR papuntang Mendiola noong Enero 20 ang mga magsasaka mula sa Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) at Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) at sa pangunguna muli ng KMP.

Sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon ay sumama naman ang mga opisyal at kawani ng DAR sa pangunguna ng kalihim ng ahensya na si Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano na pangkalahatang kalihim ng KMP nang mangyari ang masaker.

30 taong walang hustisya

Nagsampa ng kaso ang mga pamilya ng biktima pero noong 1988 ay ibinasura ito ng Manila Regional Trial Court dahil umano sa kakulangan ng ebidensya. Noong 1993 ay pinagtibay ng Korte Suprema ang desisyon.

Nagbuo ng Citizen’s Mendiola Commission (CMC) si Pangulong Aquino noong Pebrero 27, 1987 para imbestigahan ang masaker ngunit nabigo itong matukoy ang mga responsableng opisyal. Sa halip na parusahan ang mga maysala ay nirekomenda pa ng CMC na kasuhan ng sedisyon ang mga lider ng KMP.

Ayon kay Propesor Lito Manalili, kasalukuyang Professor Emeritus ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas at dating Education Officer ng Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) at nasa unang hanay ng mga nagprotesta noong mangyari ang masaker, pinatawag ang mga opisyal ng KMP ni Pangulong Aquino ilang araw pagkatapos ng masaker.

“Itinanggi ni Aquino ang kahit anong responsibilidad sa pangyayari at idinahilan na bagong upo pa lang siya sa pwesto,” sabi ni Prop. Manalili.

Para kay Prop. Manalili, ang hustisya ay magkakaroon ng kaganapan kapag naparusahan ang mga responsable sa pangyayari.

Dagdag pa ni Prop. Manalili, “sa ngayon ay hindi na rin lang ito usapin para sa katarungan ng 13 martir ng masaker…ito ay ang magkaroon ng kaganapan ang kanilang ipinaglalaban, na siyang dahilan kung bakit sila namatay, at yun ay ang tunay na repormang agraryo.”

Nagpapatuloy na problema sa lupa

Nang mangyari ang masaker, bitbit ng grupo ni Villanueva mula sa Cavite ang panawagan laban sa kumbersyon ng National Development Corporation sa agrikultural na lupa sa kanilang karatig barangay na Langkaan Dos, Dasmariñas. Ngayon ay bahagi na ng First Cavite Industrial Complex ang lupang ipinaglaban ng mga magsasaka sa Langkaan Dos.

Tatlumpong taon ang makalipas ay ang lupa namang kanilang sinasaka na bahagi ng 372 ektaryang lupang inaangkin ng E.M. Ramos and Sons, Inc. sa Langkaan Uno, Dasmariñas ang pinaglalaban ni Villanueva. Ang halos isang ektaryang lupain na matagal nang binubungkal ng pamilya ni Villanueva ay bahagi ng planong gawing subdibisyon ng umaangkin ng lupa sa kabila na nasakop ito sa reporma sa lupa sa ilalim ng Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) noong 1990. Pero noong 2011 ay pinagtibay ng Korte Suprema ang desisyon ng Court of Appeals pabor sa umaangkin ng lupa sa Langkaan Uno na hindi ito maaaring maipasailalim sa reporma sa lupa dahil hindi na ito agrikultural na lupa.

“Doon kami nakatira at doon kami nabubuhay. Nakapagpatapos ako ng isang environmentalist na anak at may pinapaaral pa sa kolehiyo mula sa pagsasaka ng lupang iyon,” paglalahad ni Villanueva.

May 9.671 milyong ektaryang lupang agrikultural sa Pilipinas o 32% ng kabuuang 30 milyong ektaryang lupa ng bansa ayon sa 2002 Census of Agriculture and Fisheries (CAF). Pero ayon sa KMP, nananatiling siyam sa sampung magsasaka ang walang sariling pag-aaring lupa. Samantala, nakakonsentra sa 1% ng populasyon ang nagmamay-ari ng lupang may sukat na mahigit 50 ektarya pataas.

Kabilang sa mga nagmamay-ari ng malalaking lupang agrikultural ay ang mga pamilyang Yulo, Cojuangco-Aquino, Zobel-Ayala, Roxas, Floreindo, Escudero, Araneta at mga pinakamayayamang negosyante’t pangingoong maylupa na sina Danding Cojuangco, Jr. at Henry Sy.

Reporma sa lupa, ubod ng usapang pangkapayapaan

Hinimok naman ng KMP ang mga nasa peace panel ng usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan ng GRP at NDFP na alalahanin nila ang mga martir ng Mendiola massacre at ang dahilan ng kanilang ibinuwis na buhay—ang makamit ang tunay na reporma sa lupa at panlipunang hustisya.

“Dapat pagsikapan ng NDFP at GRP na mapagkasunduan ang kanilang mga burador at makamit ang katanggap-tanggap at substantibong Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER),” sabi ni Joseph Canlas, tagapangulo ng KMP.

Sa burador ng NDFP para sa CASER, mayor na usapin ang pagresolba sa problema sa pamamagitan ng tunay na reporma sa lupa. Kabilang dito ang libreng pamamahagi ng lupa sa mga nagbubungkal ng lupa, pagbuwag sa sistema na nagpapahintulot ng monopolyo sa lupa at pagpapaunlad ng produksyon sa pamamagitan ng mga serbisyo ng gobyerno at pagmodernisa ng agrikultura.

Ayon pa kay Canlas, ang tunay na reporma sa lupa at pag-unlad ng kanayunan ang magbibigay daan para sa paglaya ng mga magsasaka sa ekonomiya, pulitika, at kultura, ang mayoriya ng bansa.

“Ang repormang agraryo ay prekondisyon para mapakawalan ang potensyal ng mga produktibong pwersa sa kanayunan at makamit ang pambansang industrialisasyon,” sabi ni Canlas.

Umaasa naman ang kalihim ng DAR na si Mariano na magiging positibo ang resulta ng usapang pangkapayapaan na kasalukuyang inilulunsad sa Rome, Italy.

“Ang nangyayaring pag-uusap ay naglalayon na i-address ang root causes ng armed conflict sa ating bansa kasama na ang paglutas ng nangyayaring agrarian unrest lalo na sa kanayunan,” ayon kay Mariano.

Tuloy ang laban

“Nagtutuloy-tuloy ako dahil hindi na lang ito para sa akin, dahil noon ay anak ako, ngayon ay nanay na ako, inspirasyon ko ang mga kasamang namatay sa masaker dito sa Mendiola,” sabi ni Villanueva sa pagitan ng mga hikbi.

Ayon pa kay Villanueva kung titigal siya ay mas lalong walang mapapala ang mga naging biktima ng masaker.

“Ang pangunahing larangan ng anti-pyudal na pakikibaka para sa lupa ay sa kanayunan ng ating bansa. Walang ibang maaasahan at pangunahing masasandigan ang uring magsasaka kundi ang kanilang organisadong lakas, mahigpit na pagkakaisa at tibay ng determinasyon ng paglaban, idepensa at igiit ang kanilang karapatan sa lupa,” sambit ni Mariano

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On a Monday morning rush hour, the traffic along the EDSA-Aurora intersection in Cubao, Quezon City was temporarily halted when around a thousand members of revolutionary organizations allied with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) held a lightning rally. The groups expressed their support for the ongoing peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and NDFP in Rome, Italy.

 

“Malaki ang nakataya sa yugtong ito ng usapang pangkapayapaan para sa malawak na masa na sadlak sa kahirapan dahil mga sosyo-ekonomikong mga reporma ang nakasalang at pinag-uusapan ng rebolusyonaryong gobyerno at ng rehimeng Duterte (There is a lot at stake at this stage of the peace talks for the people who are plunged into poverty because the socio-economic reforms is already next on the agenda with the revolutionary government and Duterte regime talks),” said NDFP Metro Manila in a statement.

The next supplemental agenda on the table for the GRP-NDFP peace talks is the drafting of the Comprehensive Agreement for Social and Economic (CASER) that is considered the “meat” of the peace talks. The agenda on social and economic reforms hit the core of the peace talks objectives, to address the root cause of the armed conflict.

On the other hand, the group slammed the Duterte administration’s apparent rush to sign a bilateral ceasefire.

 

“Nagmamadaling magkaroon ng bilateral ceasefire ang pamahalaan sa kabila ng papaliit na ang liwanag na nakikita ng masang Pilipino mula nang magsimula ang peace talks bunga ng kaliwa’t kanang paglabag sa ceasefire ng rehimeng Duterte (The government is in a hurry to sign a bilateral ceasefire while the hope that the Filipino masses see is getting dimmer since the start of the peace talks because of the left and right ceasefire violations of the the Duterte Regime),” said NDFP Metro Manila.

 

In a statement, revolutionary youth group Kabataang Makabayan spokesperson Maria Laya Guerrero called on the Duterte administration for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

 

“Mahalagang hakbang ito upang patunayan ang sinseridad ng gobyernong Duterte sa pagpasok nito sa usapang pangkapayapaan. Ito ay isang sukatan upang ipakitang kayang sundin ng pamahalaan ang mga pinapasok nitong kasunduan (The release of political prisoners is an important step to prove the sincerity of the Duterte government in the peace talks. This will measure how the government can comply with the agreements it signed),” said Guerrero.

Guerrero further stated that the promise of releasing political prisoners in exchange of a bilateral ceasefire agreement, it appears that the government is not after a lasting peace but an artificial peace in a form of a ceasefire.

 

NDFP Metro Manila emphasized that Duterte’s promise of change and reforms is slowly turning away from the people, so the people has no other recourse but to further intensify the people’s war they are waging.

“Sa digmang bayan makakamit ang tunay at pangmatagalang kapayapaan na hinahangad ng masang Pilipino (The Filipino masses can only achieve a genuine and lasting peace through people’s war),” the NDFP Metro Manila concluded.

 

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Members of Migrante Italy held a rally in front of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Italy to voice out their support for the peace talks.

“We in Migrante believe that the root of our country’s migration problem is the lack of agrarian reform, national industrialization and patriotic and independent foreign policy,” Franklin Irabon of Migrante Milan.

Irabon said this situation has forced Filipinos to go abroad.

“Because there is no land reform, we could not create wealth that would help us build industries that can support millions of Filipinos who want to make a living. The result is that we do not have the capacity to allocate resources of the country. Many are without livelihood. Many live in poverty. And that situation is perpetuated by laws and policies in economy and politics,” said Irabon.

Irabon also cited that there are 15 million Filipino migrants all over the world; four of every five are women.

Delegations from as far as Firenze, Milan, Bologna and Florence joined the rally in the morning and the peace forum in the afternoon attended by representatives of the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). The peace forum was held at the Basilica Santa Pudenziana, the Filipino Chaplaincy in Rome.

An OFW is impassioned in asking the first question in the open forum, questioning why she had to work hard so her kids would finish college only to be employed and to dream of working abroad like she had to do.

“What can you do to resolve this?” she asked.

GRP Peace Panel member Rene Sarmiento said that it is fortunate that the GRP Peace Panel Chair is also the Department of Labor Secretary who can look into the problem and conceive of solutions to the problem.

The main program of the third round of peace talks is the discussion of the GRP and NDFP drafts for a Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). The outline of this agreement has been agreed upon in the previous round.

To the NDFP, the core topics of the CASER included land reform and national industrialization.

“The current economic policies of the Philippine government run counter to industrialization efforts. Minerals are mined from our lands, sent out of the country where it will be made to steel and then we have to buy that product made from our own resources,” explained NDFP consultant Adelberto Silva.

Silva said that national industrialization would produce jobs in the country that would allow Filipinos to live in dignity as they also contribute to nation-building.

“In pursuing national industrialization, you would not have to go out of the country. You would have productive jobs. We would be able to make our own steel, make our own computers, machines, cars and what our country needs,” Silva addressed the OFWs.

The third round of peace talks went on a one-day break on January 22.

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According to human rights group Karapatan, there are remaining 392 political prisoners incarcerated in different detention centers in the Philippines. Since the President Rodrigo Duterte administration started, only 21 (17 are NDFP consultants) have been released in line with the peace talks. On the other hand, 32 were released due to the merits of their cases and because of the efforts of human rights groups and the families and lawyers of political prisoners.

Meanwhile, seven political prisoners have already died due to illness while in detention in 2016. One of them, Bernabe Ocasla, died under the Duterte administration.

“In our experience and in the experience of other peoples, it is possible to negotiate while fighting until the substantive agreements are forged to address the roots of the armed conflict and lay the basis for a just and lasting peace,” Ka Oris said.

However, Ka Oris stated that they oppose the use of indefinite ceasefires without substantial benefits for the people especially on substantive issues such as social and economic reforms.

“Such is tantamount to the capitulation and pacification of the revolutionary people and forces,” Ka Oris emphasized.

In a separate statement, the NDFP assured the GRP that the termination of the NDFP’s unilateral ceasefire does not mean the termination of the peace negotiations.

According to Agcaoili, they have formally notified the GRP of the termination of the revolutionary forces’ unilateral ceasefire.

In his formal letter, Agcaoili reminded Bello that they have succeeded in forging 12 agreements during the time of President Fidel Ramos even without a ceasefire declaration.

Among these agreements are the The Hague Joint Declaration which is the framework agreement of the peace negotiations that defines the purpose and objective of the talks, the principles guiding the peace negotiations, the items in the substantive agenda and the modalities of the negotiations; Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) which assures persons involved in the peace negotiations of exemption from harrasment, surveillance and arrest; and the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) which is the first item in the substantive agenda of the peace negotiations.

The next round of talks is set on April 2-6, 2017 in Oslo, Norway.

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Various sectoral groups expressed their indignation over the HTI fire and called for immediate inspection of the disaster.

On February 1, 2017, 6 P.M., a fire broke out in the first floor of the House Technology Industries (HTI) complex within Cavite Export Processing Zone that trapped almost 200 to 300 workers inside the three-floored building of rubber, plastic and carton products for housing construction.

No less than a hundred were rushed to the hospital acquiring severe burns all over their bodies.

This tragedy made the public question the occupational health and safety (OHS) standards of the Singaporean-owned factory since this is not the first time the company had a history of factory fire.

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The war on drugs in the Philippines went on for six months before it was ordered halted on January 29 by President Rodrigo Duterte and on January 30 by his Chief of Philippine National Police Ronald Dela Rosa. The impetus was the kidnapping of South Korean businessman Jeck Ick Joo in Angeles City and murder inside Camp Crame.

For six months, the police and the vigilantes were on a killing spree; an international wire reported that the police had an almost perfect record of kills in its drug operations. They were on a virtual “license to kill” from the president who said he will back them up, for as long as it is done in the name of the war on drugs. Metro Manila urban poor communities were killing fields at night.

After much doggedness on continuing the uncontrollable rampage of war on drugs that saw the rise of drug-related killings to 7,000, the many incidents of innocents, mistaken identities and collateral damage killed, and various reports of corruption, abuses and crimes of the PNP in the conduct of the drug war, the war on drugs is said to be over. Or suspended, until the PNP is done with its internal cleansing, as Dela Rosa put it.  But by the end of January, no more drug operations said Dela Rosa and all anti-drug units at all levels of the PNP would be dissolved said Duterte.

However, at least five more killings in the drug war campaign was reported even after the order to halt the war on drugs.

I interviewed Prof. E. San Juan to give an analysis on Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

Could you give your honest assessment on President Duterte’s bloody ‘war’ against illegal drug operations in the Philippines? Do you see any fruitful gain in his drug war?

ESJ: While other countries such as Mexico, Thailand, China, even the U.S., have conducted State campaigns against drug trafficking (not specifically against drug use by individual addicts), they were compelled by popular unrest and legitimized by parliamentary regulations. They are usually accompanied with an educational program of raising public consciousness and mobilizing community involvement. With Pres. Duterte, it has become a personal campaign to prove that his experiment in Davao can work on a nationwide scale. That is fallacious. It is undemocratic because it relies mainly on the coercive self-serving agencies of the neocolonial-oligarchic State. Over six thousand victims, many small drug pushers, even individual users, have resulted. Fear has emptied the streets.  But will this stop the big-time drug-lords protected by mayors, governors, local politicians, including military and police officials?

The killing of the Korean businessman in Camp Crame is one proof that the PNP itself, and also the AFP, with the whole bureaucracy, serve as the sociopolitical armature of the drug industry. In short, it is a systemic problem that cannot be solved by State violence. What is the gain? If Davao is safe, my friends in Mindanao say, it is because of fear. While some neighborhoods may be free from drug-trafficking for now, poverty, quasi-feudal warlordism, and booty capitalism with its ethos of corruption remain to serve as a breeding ground for drug-trafficking as part of the fierce class-war among fractions of the ruling class and their retainers. Some say that Duterte wants to be the chief drug jefe, centralizing and concentrating this business for political ends, but for how long?

Is there any underlying motive behind the drug war?

ESJ: Duterte represents a section of the oligarchy that needs to build a base of support within the police, military and bureaucracy, to entrench itself against the traditional elite. That is one motivating strand. For another, the anti-drug campaign legitimizes the internecine rivalry of one group (with Bongbong Marcos and Arroyo) against others, by claiming to purge the nation of criminal drug lords. It terrorizes impoverished communities. It reinforces passivity of citizens, instilling dependence on authority. These are needed to shore up a moribund system. Despite reports that Duterte’s popularity continues to stay high despite the EJKs, the perceived motive of benefiting the public will resemble the temporary support that the dictator Marcos received in the early days of martial law. This support immediately faded, to be replaced with cynical suspicion, distrust, desperation, and finally massive anger at fascist, authoritarian methods. Mass rebellion is bound to erupt sooner or later.

It has been observed that there has been unanimously popular support in the Philippines for President Duterte’s drug war, notwithstanding the increasing condemnation of the continuing extrajudicial executions of suspected drug personalities. But could you further explain such continuously popular support for the drug war? Could popular support guarantee the drug war’s success in the long run?

ESJ:  Popular support may continue for a while, but economic and moral problems–unemployment, increasing frustration at contractualization, rural misery, brutality against farmers/peasants, especially Lumad and Moro, abuse of women, gays, transgender, etc.; pressures by migrants (Koreans, Chinese, etc), general anomie in a consumerist mall-dominated culture–are bound to increase as corporate competition intensifies and global capitalism suffers a deep recession in the next business cycle.

Is there really popular support in the sense that the impoverished barangays, residents in Caloocan, Tondo, etc. are mobilized to help the PNP? This is doubtful. Even if there is such a show, the authoritarian/patrimonial habits and folkways (embodied in Duterte’s whole performance style) militate against the precarious show of support manipulated in social media, etc. Can the drug war generate more jobs, increase salaries and pensions, lower costs of health care and education, etc.? Can it provide jobs for demobilized insurgents, Lumad and Moro, and for thousands of drug-addicts in need of rehabilitation, etc.?

Do you honestly believe that the success of the drug war in the Philippines is guaranteed when allegedly petty drug pushers and users are being summarily executed and when historical and sociological roots of the drug problem are being obscured? Do you also believe that these senseless killings would solve the drug problem?  

ESJ: This is a rhetorical question. But the assumption that it is a success needs to be questioned, since no big drug lords and their protectors in Congress and the bureaucracy have been indicted and jailed. So it’s successful in killing thousands, but let’s see if in the next five or ten years, we will not experience a resurgence of drug trafficking, thanks to Duterte’s eschatology.

How do you explain the Left’s concerns regarding what it apparently appeared as the wanton disregard for due process and human rights in the continuing drug war as the third round of informal talks between the Duterte government and the NDFP progresses? Could you also explain the deafening absence of moral indignation against these killings among many people?

ESJ: In our feudalized, patriarchal-authoritarian culture, we tend to follow and obey without question those in government, Church, and other traditional institutions. We rarely question authority in general, trusting in their patronizing aura or conscience if any. The Left so far is refraining from fully questioning the regime’s EJKs since Duterte’s Cabinet has proceeded in peace negotiations farther than the previous administrations. Instead, they have subsumed the issue under the CARHRIHL, etc. in a formalist, un-dialectical manner, leaving the initiative to the GRP. Bongbong Marcos will surprise them later. There is opportunist indignation from the Aquino-Roxas fraction of the ruling class, but not enough from the general public–except from the U.S. media, which functions as diplomatic groundwork for either a coup or more drastic neutralization procedures enabled by the JUSMAG-supervised military and cohorts of disgruntled warlords.

But do you honestly believe that certain groups and personalities with self-serving political agenda are using the condemnation of the allegedly extra-judicial executions of petty drug users as a credible excuse for their alleged plot to oust President Duterte?

ESJ: Whether they are personally motivated to use it to oust Duterte or not, the question remains whether the EJKs are acceptable under the bourgeois rules of the game. Clearly, the liberal ethical norms of modern states condemn killing without lawful rationale. The neocolonial State can justify everything, as long as the US and international agencies go along with it. However, they would prefer playing according to the liberal-constitutional rules that protect property, life as source of labor-power that produces value, etc. Since we live in a class-divided society, the rights of petty drug-users are nil compared to the rights of big drug lords and their patrons in Congress, PNP and AFP.

Do you believe that his ‘war’ against illegal drugs and against criminality has diverted public attention from this nation’s basic socio-economic problems that push a huge number of people to use illegal drugs?

ESJ: It has for the middle strata, professionals, etc. But not for workers and peasants whose immediate concerns are livelihood, earning income for food and healthcare, raising their families safely, etc. The petty bourgeois class won’t worry about the EJKs so long as they do not get in the way of their daily business concerns. Because you don’t really have, as yet, a critical mass of civil-society organizations protesting the EJKs, the killings will continue. Yes, to some extent, they are pushing aside much needed discussion of socio-economic problems, but before Duterte’s drug war, was there a huge number of citizens engaged in protesting sexual exploitation of youth and women, corporate mining and destruction of forests, coastlines, etc; and the oligarch’s manipulation of financial institutions and the courts to their advantage? The decadent oligarchy has nothing to offer. Youth enraged take up arms and join the insurgents, while others leave for North America, Europe, the Middle East…..

What are the serious implications of this nation’s drug war on every aspect of Filipino life and consciousness?

ESJ: For the first time, at least, there is some publicity about the harmfulness of drugs in paralyzing thousands, rendering them incapable of normal work. But whether this will stop drug-use, is another question. Narcotics like mass consumption, malling, wasteful indulgence in pornography and prostitution of all kinds, including selling intellectual property, TV and social media, beauty contests, media happenings and spectacles, celebrities, sports, religious rituals of all kinds–all these are substitutes that perpetuate class, gender, sexual and racial inequities.

What are the lessons that he should have learned from the failed drug wars in the US, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, and Indonesia?

ESJ: Each society is unique. Circumstances are different in each time and place, so concrete solutions have to be invented with the cooperation of the grassroots. The only lesson is that violence, State-legalized force, will not eliminate the lure of drugs. As you said, this is a socio-political problem endemic to societies ravaged by the barbarities of global capitalism with its technological efficacy for producing all kinds of drugs to distract the masses from its savage extraction of profit/surplus value from the blood and sweat of millions, esp. those in colonized and neo-colonized countries like the Philippines.

Could you assess the prospects of the drug war in the Philippines on the basis of the consequences of drug wars in the US, Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, and Indonesia?

ESJ: The prospect is either the awakening of millions of ordinary people to the systemic cause of drug-trafficking in the global capitalist competition for profit accumulation; or the decay and destruction of whole societies by the dominant, industrialized elites of the Global North. In between these alternatives, there will be ceaseless wars of national liberation and anti-imperialist insurgencies until private property of the means of production is abolished, and all forms of exploitation and oppression ended, and only then will human history begin. Maybe this will be the best future scenario for our country.

—

While the Filipino may only have a quick breather before another war on drugs rampage was set to motion, we must try to understand and act on people-oriented, both immediate and long-term solutions to the drug problem. As people who have been forced to witnessed grueling killings and sordid abuses of the national police with the backing of the president in the war on drugs, we must assert and unite as a people how we wanted to end the drug problem in the country.

(Prof. Epifanio San Juan Jr. is an essayist, editor, critic, and poet whose works have been translated into German, Russian, French, Italian, and Chinese. He is a professional lecturer at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Manila. He authored countless books on race and cultural studies for which he has been described as a “major influence on the academic world”, such as US Imperialism and Revolution in the Philippines, In the Wake of Terror, Between Empire and Insurgency, and Working through the Contradictions. He received the Centennial Award for Achievement in Literature from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 1999 for his outstanding contributions to Filipino and Filipino-American studies.)

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Atty. Edre Olalia gave this reaction to the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte that the latter is ordering the arrest of the peace negotiators of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Olalia provided the reasons going against Duterte’s rash pronouncement were that the NDFP consultants are covered by the JASIG, their temporary release under the jurisdiction of the courts and that Duterte and the GRP peace panel has not provided a written notice of termination of the peace talks.

“For those who were released by the government, they should – on their own volition – return here and go back to prison. Or else I’ll be forced to… I’m alerting all the intelligence community to keep track of where they are now. Yung na-release temporarily to talk with us in Oslo they should come back and submit themselves to the jurisdiction of this government because they are still prisoners. Walang pardon. Walang amnesty. Walang lahat,” Duterte said.

He announced his order to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to arrest the NDFP consultants after visiting the wake of slain AFP soldiers on the afternoon of February 5.

“Come home because you’re wanted and upon your arrival, I will arrest you and place you back in prison. If you don’t want to go back, you’re fugitives. I will cancel your passports and I will inform the international police for an international warrant,” Duterte said.

Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP peace panel chair, issued a statement on the NDFP website contradicting Duterte’s knowledge of the whereabouts the NDFP peace consultants.

“All 17 NDFP consultants released from detention last August 2016 are in the Philippines and are not in hiding. Those who took part in the third round of formal talks in Rome from 19 to 25 January 2017 have returned to the country as of 31 January. They are all protected from re-arrest in accordance with the JASIG,” said Agcaoili.

Duterte also canceled the peace talks on February 4 saying, “I will request tomorrow the Philippine contingent to fold their tents and come home.”

The third round of peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP already ended on January 25, 2017.

Duterte threat of rearrest is violation of JASIG, Philippine law

Olalia observed Duterte’s rash order for the arrest of the NDFP consultants is a blatant disregard and disrespect for the JASIG.

Under the JASIG, the NDFP peace consultants are “guaranteed immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or any other similar punitive actions due to any involvement or participation in the peace negotiations.”

Olalia said that if only the Philippine government would respect the JASIG, then the NDFP consultants would have not been arrested, detained and charged with trumped-up cases in the first place.

The JASIG or the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees was signed through the peace talks between the Philippine government (GRP) and the NDFP in 1994. The GRP peace panel under Duterte reaffirmed all the previously signed agreements in the peace talks in their June and August 2016 meetings and formal talks with the NDFP.

“Whether Duterte is mindful of respecting agreements and fulfilling promises in the peace talks, shows how much he is really willing to work for peace in the country,” said Olalia.

The political consultants are all still facing either trumped-up or defective charges of common crimes rather than political offenses that the defense lawyers are trying to get the courts to dismiss.

“This is in continuing violation of the Hernandez Doctrine and of the CARHRIHL. As such, they are not yet convicted and are presumed innocent and cannot per se be rearrested by that fact alone or by operation of law,” said Olalia.

The Hernandez Doctrine came from Supreme Court decision in the case People vs. Amado Hernandez that ruled that rebellion cannot be complexed with other crimes, such as murder and arson and that rebellion in itself would include and absorb the said crimes, thus granting the accused the right to bail. The Hernandez Doctrine is also recognized in the CARHRIHL.

GRP continued violation of CARHRIHL

While the GRP peace panel had assured the NDFP of its commitment to release political prisoners in the last round of talks, Duterte’s latest statement on the releases seemed to hold none of that commitment.

READ: The trail of the promise to release political prisoners

“I tried everything. I walked the extra mile, released prisoners, released their leaders so they could go to Oslo to talk. Now no, they want 400-plus prisoners who fought government under a rebellion. That is only given, common sense would tell you, after successful talks, hindi ka magrelease ng mga nasa preso at the beginning. What is there to talk about, kung release ko lahat sila. Why bother to talk?” Duterte said.

The NDFP had reminded the GRP before the third round of talks that the release all political prisoners is in compliance with another peace talks agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

The latest promise of the GRP on this matter came through the Joint Statement signed by both parties at the end of the third round of the peace talks.

A part of the Amnesty and Releases in the Joint Statement read “The GRP, with the assistance of the defense lawyers, shall expeditiously process the release of all the political prisoners listed by the NDFP starting with the 200 qualified prisoners either through bail, recognizance, pardon or other legal processes in compliance with the CARHRIHL and to allow them to participate in activities and mechanisms of the peace process.”

Duterte overturns more peace talks promises of his panel

“These [NDFP] consultants have been put under the effective jurisdiction of GRP courts because they were released only on bail and only for a six-month period. They have been required to secure court permission every time they went abroad to participate in the last three rounds of talks. Their bail renewal is due this month and, as reflected in the Rome Joint Statement of 25 January 2017, both their lawyers and the GRP have agreed to cooperate in this regard,” said Agcaoili.

Olalia said the GRP has formally committed to support this as expressly stipulated in the Rome Joint Statement of January 2017.

Would the GRP peace panel still comply with their peace talks commitment under new, conflicting order of their principal?

Olalia also asserted that, “only the courts which granted them temporary liberty by virtue of cash bails, some effective for 6 months since August 2016 while others rightfully till the duration of the peace negotiations, can act or order whether or not they can be validly rearrested, if at all, and not by the unilateral action of the PNP nor the AFP, much less even by the mere instructions of the GRP President.”

The extension of the effectivity of bail of the NDFP consultants to uniformly be “effective for the duration of the peace negotiations” have been explicitly agreed upon with the GRP even as early as the August Oslo talks, also according to Olalia.

GRP has yet to terminate peace talks

“The peace negotiations have not been properly terminated. According to the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), the safety and immunity guarantees, and the peace negotiations itself, can only be terminated by written notice given by one party to the other and which would take effect only after 30 days from its receipt,” said Olalia.

No written notice has been given by the GRP to the NDFP to date.

“Since the peace negotiations are not yet properly terminated and the JASIG — which was formally reaffirmed by the Parties in the Oslo Joint Statement of August 2016 are still effective, the NDFP political consultants as such are “guaranteed free and unhindered passage in all areas in the Philippines, and in traveling to and from the Philippines in connection with the performance of their duties in the peace negotiations,” said Olalia.

While safety guarantees are co-terminus with the talks, Olalia said that the immunity guarantees hold even after the JASIG and peace negotiations are effective precisely because that aims to protect them and encourage their participation or involvement in the peace process.

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The helpless sight of fire engulfing the House Technology Industries (HTI) complex in the province of Cavite added to the number of worst workplaces disasters in the Philippines, joining the tragic Kentex factory fire in Valenzuela in 2015 to the list.

Two years ago, the shocking blaze in the Kentex slipper factory, where iron grills were built over the windows, trapped around 200 to 300 and claimed the lives of 72 workers.

In an eerily similar situation, in February 1, 2017, no more less than a hundred HTI workers were caught by fire, scorching their bodies from head to toe. Despite the large figure of injured, a number of workers were left unaccounted hours after the incident.

 

Two days after the tragic HTI fire, Justice for Kentex Workers Alliance joined the national day of protest of workers against Duterte administration to highlight the unaddressed issue of inhumane and hazardous workplaces across the Philippines, citing HTI as the most recent example.

Workers decried the unfulfilled promise of ending all forms of contractualization, enduring situations that only become public knowledge in times of tragedies like the HTI and Kentex fire. The fire in Kentex caused the workers’ situation of being paid an average of P200 to P300 in a 12-hour day work and without overtime pay, SSS, Philhealth and other benefits to be revealed. Meanwhile, 5,000 contractual workers out of 13,000 employees in HTI received only an average of P 200 in a 8-hour day work. Accidents to workers in these situations was also a double whammy, where they are not paid while there is no work or while they are injured and they have to undergo medication when they do not have medical benefits, said members of the Justice for Kentex Workers Alliance.

 

A fire victim to another fire victim

With the recent tragedy in the HTI factory fire, Justice for Kentex Workers Alliance asserted that the fight to end dangerous and grave working conditions must continue.

According to the Bureau of Fire Protection Chief Bobby Baruelo, HTI was also caught ablaze last 2012. This is not the first time that HTI workers suffered working in hazardous factories.

 

As mandated by the law, clearances, however, must be sought from official of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) before institutions can enter for further investigations. Even the local government units are limited from interfering with the fire situation.

For Ammied Rada, the president of the Justice for Kentex Workers Alliance, this tragedy that HTI workers have suffered will only continue if they let injustice persist and to let those who are accountable get away with their crimes and offences.

 

“Ang pangyayari sa loob ng Kentex ang nagmulat sa akin […] Akala ko hindi ito mangyayari sa pamilya ko. Kaya huwag na nating antayin na mangyari pa ito tulad sa HTI. [The tragedy that happened inside the Kentex factory enlightened me. I thought it this tragedy will not happen to my family. We should not wait for this to happen to factories like HTI],” said Rada.

More than a year after the Kentex fire

Where most residents in Valenzuela live by being laborers in the rows of sweatshop factories in the city, Rada was a worker in Kentex slipper factory before he transferred to another factory when fire reduced Kentex into ashes.

 

But three of Rada’s siblings were the among those who were trapped workers inside the blazing slipper factory. Only one of his siblings survived the fire.

“Ito ang mahirap. Walang pa rin kaming hustisya at ang bagal, ang sobrang bagal ng kaso [This is what’s difficult. We have yet to attain justice and our case is very slow-paced],” Rada lamented.

 

More than a year after the factory fire, there is no significant development to the criminal charges filed by kin of victims and survivors of the factory fire against owners Ong King Guan and Beato Ang. Kin and survivors argued that the owners could have prevented the tragedy by securing the factory’s occupation health and safety (OHS) standards.

Workers must fight

With a hundred and more are workers burned by the factory fire, many were rushed to the hospitals. The kin of other victims waited outside the restricted factory complex to know the updates on their mothers, fathers, children and grandchildren who worked in the burned factory.

“Hindi po natin ito madadaan lamang sa luha. Nandiyan na at nangyari na. Dapat matuto dahil hindi lang sa Kentex, hindi lang sa HTI ang pangyayaring ito, kung ito ay pabayaan natin, bilang isang biktima, bilang isang manggagawa [We cannot resolve this through tears. It’s there. It happened. As fellow victims and workers, we should learn from this tragedy because it will not only happen in Kentex and HTI if we let this pass,” Rada imparted.

 

After the Kentex fire, Rada has been joining the local and regional protests of workers’ groups. He soon became a familiar face in the protests that even call issues apart from Kentex factory fire. He supports the call to end contractualization and to implement national minimum wage for all Filipino workers.

“Sana balang araw makakasama ko sila rito na nagpapahayag ng mga damdamin nila. Ihayag nila ang katotohanan. Dahil alam ko pare-parehong pinagsasamantalahan ng mga kapitalista kaming mga manggagawa [I hope that one day I would see them [HTI fire victims] here to speak what they feel and to speak of the truth. Because I know we, workers, share similar experiences of exploitation from capitalists],”said Rada.

 

Rada said that workers should not be satisfied with just silently working and earning one’s keep, but workers have to push for improvements of their wage and working conditions.

“Kailangan lumaban lang. Hindi natin makakamtan ang hustisiya hangga’t hindi lumalaban [We need to fight. We cannot attain justice if we will not fight].”

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Atty. Edre Olalia, political prisoners’ defense lawyer and peace talks counsel, reiterated that rearresting freed political consultants involved in peace talks on President Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal orders violates rights, due process and binding peace talks agreements.

“The arresting officers and personnel can be held liable for illegal, arbitrary arrest, detention, damages and other charges,” said Olalia.

Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa told reporters at Camp Crame in an ambush interview on Monday that the President has instructed the arrest of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants.

“The President has given orders to arrest upon entry into the Philippine soil the following: Wilma Tiamzon, Benito Tiamzon, Vic Ladlad, Adelberto Silva, Alfonso Jasmines, Alfredo Mapano, Loida Magpatoc, Pedro Codaste, Ruben Soluta, Ernesto Lorenzo, Porferio Tuna, Reynante Gamara and Tirso Alcantara,” said Dela Rosa.

Dela Rosa said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) will serve the old warrants against the NDFP consultants.

Olalia also hit the PNP order and logic to re-arrest the NDFP consultants by serving old warrants as a “legal contortion.”

“Pinalabas sila under safe conduct pass pero ngayon live pa rin ‘yung arrest warrant because of the cases filed against them. Hindi naman na-quash ‘yung warrant nila (They were allowed to leave the country under safe conduct pass but their arrest warrants are still live because of the cases filed against them. Their warrants were not quashed.),” said Dela Rosa.

Olalia said that these old warrants are no longer valid.

“Warrants deemed served have been extinguished upon their earlier arrest and after being taken into custody and effective jurisdiction by the courts. [The PNP] Need new valid court order or valid bench warrant to rearrest them. Bail stands unless cancelled, which is not the case,” said Olalia.

Olalia said that the people must be alarmed should arrests on old warrants be allowed to happen, as it would mean even those have posted bail, have been acquitted, served their sentence or pardoned can still be arrested later because old arrest warrants have not been “quashed.”

Olalia had earlier said that “only the courts which granted them temporary liberty by virtue of cash bails, some effective for six months since August 2016 while others rightfully till the duration of the peace negotiations, can act or order whether or not they can be validly rearrested, if at all, and not by the unilateral action of the PNP nor the AFP, much less even by the mere instructions of the GRP President.”

NDFP consultant arrested in Davao City

“The NDFP strongly condemns the arrest of Ariel Arbitrario, NDFP Consultant for Mindanao, and his companions, in a checkpoint in Toril, Davao City, today,” said NDFP Negotiating Panel Chair Fidel Agcaoili in a statement sent to the media.

Arbitrario is a publicly-known consultant in the peace talks and is the holder of NDFP Document of Identification Number PP 978542 dated 22 August 2016 that has been duly acknowledged by GRP Chairperson Silvestre H. Bello III on 16 September 2016, the statement also disclosed.

The Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) signed by the NDFP and the Philippine government in 1994 and reaffirmed by Duterte recognized that NDFP consultants are “guaranteed immunity from surveillance, harassment, search, arrest, detention, prosecution and interrogation or any other similar punitive actions due to any involvement or participation in the peace negotiations.”

Agcaoili hit the Philippine government for also violating its own laws and due process.

“Our lawyers have advised us that Arbitrario’s release last August is secured by bail.  Even in accordance with [Philippine government’s] own laws and processes,  Arbitrario´s arrest is in contravention of [Philippine government’s] own rules of procedures as he is claimed to be under the jurisdiction of GRP courts,” explained Agcaoili in the statement.

Kilab Multimedia reported that Arbitrario and his companions Jun Sinday and Roderick Mamuyac were apprehended at Task Force Davao checkpoint in Sirawan Toril at 9am today. They were interrogated by military and CIDG personnel. They were then brought to the CIDG Region XI office for further interrogation, despite the three and peace and human rights group’s assertion on JASIG. Reverend Jurie Jaime of Exodus for Justice and Peace and Karapatan in Southern Mindanao Region led a quick reaction team to Arbitrario’s arrest.

(Featured image also from Kilab Multimedia) 

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The eponymous Genesis flood narrative Noah’s Ark where God had intended to return the Earth to its pre-creation watery chaos and re-creating it through the survivors was all but the opposite of what became the household name Project Noah (as did storm surge). Project NOAH had tried to save as many people from the inconveniences and much more the perils of floods and avoiding any such disastrous effects of natural calamities to recur as Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Project NOAH was a tweet away in answering the flood status in affected areas. Project NOAH had real-time updates. Project NOAH had visualizations. Project NOAH seemed like it had its thing going that many thought it would replace or subsume the weather forecasting PAGASA. But more than the technology, in the Noah we know of today, there is not the archetypal antediluvian patriarch savior, but a team of mostly young scientists who have stayed home to serve the country.

Unlike the rainbow covenant, there would be more floods and calamities, especially in the time of unraveling effects of world climate change. But, no more Project NOAH?

The end of NOAH?

On an ordinary day—that is if there’s no typhoon or any calamities—the first thing Bernard Racoma will do when he arrives in Project NOAH’s office is to check if its website is up and running.  But when there’s a severe weather disturbance, they work in 12 to 16-hour shifts, even on weekends and holidays to monitor the data that come’s into NOAH’s website and ensure that the site will not crash due to heavy traffic.

Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards) is a project funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and implemented by the University of the Philippines (UP). The program is a multi-disciplinary government program that provides real-time data of hazards including typhoon, flood, landslide and storm surges from different sources including the government’s weather bureau Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). These data are translated into high resolution maps, graphs, real time updates and risk assessments which is used by different government agencies including local governments in their disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) efforts and emergency response.

“They work beyond the call of duty,” said Dr. Mahar Lagmay, Project NOAH Executive Director, referring to the researchers and scientists working with the government’s hazard and risk assessment program in a press conference on January 31.

Racoma, 28 years old, is a graduate of BS Applied Physics and MS Geology in the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD). When Project NOAH was just a brainchild in 2012, he was among the graduate students, researchers and scientists from UP who were pooled to start the project.

More than four years later, Racoma is still with Project NOAH and among the leading developers of NOAH’s website. The web developer team’s task is to develop and improve the website which he describes as a ‘work in progress’ and upload all the maps and data created and gathered by other teams from NOAH.

But come March 1, Racoma along with some 40 skilled and highly trained researchers and scientists working with Project NOAH in different project components and specializes in different fields will lose their jobs if the program will not find funding to continue its operations before the project ends on February 28. In 2016, Project NOAH had around 80 personnel but was reduced to half due to budget constraints.

In a statement, DOST Secretary Fortunato De La Peña said that “it [Project NOAH] has delivered very useful technologies as part of its research outcomes and these technologies have been put to use. The extension was given up to end of February 2017 and part of the condition was the transfer of the technologies for use in operations in the government agencies who have the relevant mandate.”

Sec. De La Peña said that PAGASA will take over the operations of Project NOAH.

“PAGASA is the principal government agency that would take over the operations aspect of the delivered outputs/technologies,” said Sec. De La Peña.

Serving the people

“We have to take care of the human resource, that’s more important than any technology we developed,” said Dr. Lagmay.

But like any other project-based employment, except for Dr. Lagmay who is a tenured professor in UP Diliman and Dr. Enrico Paringit who leads one of NOAH’s project component DREAM (Disaster Risk Assessment, Exposure and Mitigation), all of Project NOAH’s staff are contractual employees.

In 2016, the salary of NOAH’s staff was delayed for five months because of the necessary bureaucratic process to release the funds for their salary.

“We need to take care of our scientists, they need to eat too, they need to provide for their children. They are highly trained and skilled scientists that deserve respect,” said Dr. Lagmay.

Jam Galang, 26 years old, one of the information officers of NOAH, has been with the program since January 2013 and has experienced several months of delayed salaries. Galang is a graduate of BS Geology and currently finishing his master’s degree in UP Diliman.

“’Pag walang sweldo, kakainin na lang ang pride at manghihingi sa mga magulang (If there’s no salary yet, I’ll have to eat my pride and ask from my parents),” shared Galang shyly when asked how they survive during months when their salaries are delayed.

Galang said that he decided to stay with NOAH despite the delayed salaries because there is fulfilment in disaster mitigation work. He started as a research associate, then as research scientists and later on was assigned with the landslide team who mapped landslide prone areas.

“This is one of the rare fields of science na hindi abstract at nararamdaman ng mga tao ang halaga nito (This is one of the rare fields of science that is not abstract and which people can relate to and understand its importance),” shared Galang.

Jared Martin Cortez, 22 years old, who has been with NOAH for two years as part of the web development team, shared he wanted a job that directly helps people.

“Gusto kong gamitin ang skills para makatulong sa tao, yun ang nagtutulak sa amin na patuloy na magtrabaho kahit delayed ang sweldo (I want my skills to be used to help people, this is what pushes us to continue working even if our salary is delayed),” said the Cortez.

Dr. Lagmay expressed his concern over losing the team working with Project NOAH.

“We need more (disaster scientists) because our problems in the future will become worse especially with the threat of climate change impacts. Those scientists, when they disband where will we get people like them? We spent four years training them,” said Dr. Lagmay.

Dr. Lagmay further praised his team and described them as very loyal to the country and passionate with their work.

“We need an army of scientists,” Dr. Lagmay emphasized.

However, reports cited that Sec. De La Peña said that 15 to 20 of NOAH’s staff will be absorbed by PAGASA.

Dr. Lagmay on the other hand clarified that not all can be transferred to PAGASA because NOAH is not a forecasting agency.

Project NOAH’s staff include highly trained and experienced scientists, physicists, geologists, hydrologists, anthropologists, geographers, mappers, civil engineers, computer scientists, web developers, communicators and even artists.

“Sana ay pangalagaan [ng gobyerno] ang mga scientists at researchers at huwag pabayaan na umabot sa brain drain (The government should take care of its researchers and scientists and not allow the situation to reach a brain drain),” appealed Racoma.

Unfinished business

“It has to be understood that Research Projects have start and end dates. In this particular project, the promised deliverables have been met and and now ready for adoption and use,” said Sec. De La Peña in his statement.

De La Peña furthered that if there is a new project proposal, it can be submitted and considered for funding.

However, Dr. Lagmay clarified that NOAH’s work is far from over. He explained that one of NOAH’s project component, ISAIAH or Integrated Scenario-based Assessments of Impacts and Hazards, the one currently funded by DOST for P25M is the one ending on February 28.

The Project ISAIAH mapped risk assessments on a municipal level and conducted trainings with the local government and different government agencies. However, the project only covered 15 provinces out of the 81 provinces in the Philippines.

Dr. Lagmay expounded that they want to finish the work so they submitted another proposal in November 2016 to cover the remaining provinces but there’s no feedback yet about the status of the proposal. Thus, the assumption that after February 28, Project NOAH will have no more funds to continue its operations.

He further clarified that the program NOAH has no funding but only the project components under the program.

“Hindi natitigil ang pag-aaral dahil every disaster unfolds in a different way (Research will never stop because every disaster unfolds in a different way),” Dr. Lagmay said.

For 2017, Congress allocated P2.4B for DOST’s Science and Technology Funding Services which is translated into the department’s Grants-in-Aid Program. In the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2017, a special provision is indicated that the DOST shall “give priority to research on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Better in the academe

Dr. Lagmay appealed to everyone especially the government to continue supporting Project NOAH. He said that the best way to sustain the program is by institutionalizing it.

In November 2016, Zamboanga del Sur 1st District representative Divina Grace Yu filed House Bill 4521 that seeks to establish NOAH Center under the Office of the President.

Dr. Lagmay said that NOAH can be attached to any agency but it would be better if it is in the academe so the program will be continuous and conducive to think of new products.

“Research and development is best with the academe. The academe is here to help address societal problems,” Dr. Lagmay explained.

National industrialization

Science and technology for the people advocates group AGHAM expressed their support to Project NOAH’s team.

“An essential public service such as that provided by Project NOAH should have an established place in the government and should be given adequate and continuous funding without the need to renew regularly,” said AGHAM’s Secretary-General Finesa Cosico in a statement.

Cosico also emphasized that this set-up, where scientists are only tapped when there are available projects, not only forces scientists to work abroad where they will be given regular positions, but also discourages them to work for national development.

“In project-based ventures, researchers are compelled to either haggle for extensions or submit a new project proposal in order to retain their positions once the project’s termination date arrives. Integrating the projects into relevant agencies will ensure the welfare of the scientists involved in it,” said Cosico.

The group pointed out that national industrialization is the key to strengthening the government’s disaster risk reduction management capabilities.

“If there is national industrialization, our nation’s capability to cope with disaster will be strengthened and we will have a pool of experts that will have continuous research and development on the adaptation of technology,” said Cosico.

The post NOAH: More than technology, it’s the human resource appeared first on Manila Today.

In the morning of January 26, 2017, relatives, neighbors, barangay officials and human rights advocates trooped to the Police Community Precinct 4 in G. Tuazon St., Sampaloc, Manila and tied black ribbons on their fences. The survivors of another extrajudicial killing victim in the war on drugs wanted to inquire with the police about updates on the killing of Ernesto Tapang. He was 51 years old.

“Nakaupo lang po ang kapatid ko. Hindi adik iyon. Tinadtad nila ng bala. Nakahiga, sumigaw po ang kapatid ko kaya bumaba ako: ‘Aray! P***** i**! Aray!’ [My brother was sitting (in front of our house). He is not a drug addict. They peppered him with bullets. He fell down and shouted: ‘Ow! M***** f***! Ow!’ That’s why I went downstairs.],” said his brother, Renato Tapang, in an interview with the media right after the incident.

Tapang sustained 19 gunshots from four unidentified gunmen, 2:30 AM of January 25 at Firmeza St., Sampaloc, Manila. He is the third victim in Zone 54 alone in just a short span of time.

Tapang has no record of any criminal and drug activities. Relatives and barangay officials claimed that Tapang is not on the drug list in the area and is said victim of random shooting and mistaken identity.

On February 2, kin and supporters wore white shirts bearing the text: ‘Justice for Eric “Brader” Tapang’ in his funeral march. They stopped in front of Sampaloc, Manila’s police station and held a noise barrage to show indignation and to call justice for Tapang.

“Dapat po baguhin ang pamamaraan ng gubyerno. Hindi basta-basta lahat pinapatay nila. Maawa naman sila sa mga taong walang kasalanan [The government should change its method (of curbing drug proliferation). They shouldn’t kill just anyone. They should spare those who are innocent],” Renato grieved.

Stop the Killings Network are alarmed over the spate of killings across the country under the guise of the government’s “war on drugs.” The group also called for the junking of Oplan Tokhang, as killings still happen despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s and Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa’s oders to halt the drug war on January 29 and 30 respectively.

Photos by Kathy Yamzon and video by Justice for Eric Tapang FB Page.

The post Another non-drug lister killed in war on drugs appeared first on Manila Today.

“From now on I will consider the CPP-NPA-NDF a terrorist group,” said President Rodrigo Duterte on February 4, in the same announcement he made on the termination of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

With this, he turns his back on his various statements through the years on the lead organizations of the revolutionary movement in the Philippines, engaged in a civil war with the Government of the Philippines (GRP).

Among his statements in the past either recognizes the ongoing revolution or identifies himself as similar with the revolutionaries.

 

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(Updated) National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) counsel in the peace process Atty. Edre Olalia said that the terrorist tag is alarming, wrong and must be corrected.

“The CPP-NPA-NDFP cannot be considered terrorist organizations because they adhere to international humanitarian law (IHL) on the rules of war and especially on the protection of civilians and non-combatants,” said Olalia

International humanitarian law compliance

In 1991, the NDFP declared its adherence to international humanitarian law, Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II. These are additional guidelines with regards to the protection of victims—including the wounded and the sick and whether or not they took part in a non-international armed conflict.

In July 1996, it issued the NDFP Declaration of Adherence to the Geneva Conventions and Protocol I and deposited it with the Swiss Federal Council, the official depository of IHL and also provided a copy to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the official guardian of the IHL. By submitting the said declaration, the NDFP has assumed rights and duties to adhere the IHL.

The NDFP also declared their adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which guarantees the rights of children including protection during armed conflict.

In the same Declaration, the NDFP stated that “it is ever resolved to ensure that the rights of children are respected and that their welfare is assured under the policies and laws of the people’s democratic government and under the programs of its pertinent social agencies and the mass organizations of children, parents, teachers, women and other sectors interested in the rights and welfare of children in all urban and rural areas of the Philippines.”

“This tagging of the revolutionary movement as terrorist was a big obstacle in the peace talks before and this was used to force a surrender without addressing the reason why there was an armed conflict in the first place,” added Olalia.

IHL violations

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) hurled accusations of IHL violations against each other through the years.

The latest came from the AFP, when it said three unarmed soldiers were killed by the NPA in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon on February 1. The AFP said the bodies were desecrated, received 76 bullets between the three.

President Rodrigo ranted against the inhumane treatment of the soldiers, said they were killed like animals. This incident prompted a string of rash decisions from Duterte—withdrawal of unilateral ceasefire, cancellation of peace talks, CPP-NPA-NDFP, verbal rearrest order of NDFP consultants, and declaration of all-out war—most of which have been opposed by NDFP peace counsel and human rights groups as violations to peace talks agreements and the government’s own laws and due process.

Ka Allan Juanito, spokesperson of the NPA-North Central Mindanao Region Command, said in a statement sent to the media on February 7 that the deaths of Corporal Pat O. Non, Corporal Nino Christopher Talabor and Sergeant Owen Yee of the 8th Infantry Battalion were due to a legitimate encounter in line with the NPA’s policy of “active defense” before the scheduled lifting of the unilateral ceasefire on February 10.

Juanito said that three .45 pistols were seized from the soldiers, “Armscor issues with serial numbers 2052053, bb01224 and 1435922.”

Juanito also said “the three corpses were not desecrated other than the gunshot wounds.”

NDFP Senior Adviser Luis Jalandoni said in a TV interview that “the incident should be investigated because it might be a rubout” as the “NPA is not likely to waste bullets.”

“To the families, relatives and friends of the fallen soldiers, we offer our sincere condolences…It has been a consequence to Duterte’s unilateral ceasefire that AFP-PNP-CAFGU has since violated by invading the areas of the revolutionary movement. They suppress and hassle the livelihood and daily activities instead of bringing peace and development to the people of more than 500 barangays they [are] supposed to serve,” apologized Juanito in the same statement.

The AFP also constantly accused the CPP-NPA-NDFP for using child soldiers, while the New People’s Army (NPA) denied this accusation. Known recruitment videos of the NPA called on only 18-year old and above to join have circulated online.

The NPA also accused the military of forcing children and non-combatants in the barrios to serve as military guides, also using children of known NPA fighters and revolutionaries as hostages to lure their parents out of hiding, as with the oft-repeated story of Andrea Rosal, child of deceased NPA spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal.

Terrorist tag makes US happy

Youth group Anakbayan Metro Manila believes that the military and the US are the first ones to be happy with Duterte’s complete turnaround against the peace negotiations and tagging the CPP-NPA-NDFP as terrorist groups.

“The US through its agents in the AFP are the spoilers in the peace process. They exerted much influence over Duterte in pressing for a bilateral ceasefire which is tantamount to capitulation without freeing political prisoners first and agreeing to social and economic reforms which aim to address the root cause of the armed conflict,” said Kristian Advincula, Anakbayan Metro Manila’s Spokesperson.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Secretary General Renato Reyes, Jr. share the same sentiment that “only the fascists and the ruling elite are happy with the terrorist tag as it justifies their all-out war declaration.”

“Of course the US considers JMS [Jose Maria Sison] in its terror list. JMS is a principled revolutionary, a staunch anti-imperialist. US imperialism feels threatened by what JMS represents. The oppressed people of the world however know better than to swallow hook, line and sinker the US claim,” said Reyes in a Facebook message in reply to Manila Today.

Since 2002, the CPP-NPA and Jose Maria Sison are listed as foreign terrorist organization and individual respectively by the US State Department.

Sison, in a speech during the New World Summit in the Netherlands back in 2012, cited that the interests behind the “terrorist” listing of the national liberation movement in the Philippines are chiefly those of the US among the imperialist powers.

“The ‘terrorist’ listing seeks to demonize the movement and justify the use of violence and deception against the people and social activists in order to preserve and promote the socio-economic interests of the US monopoly bourgeoisie.” Sison explained.

He said that the US to continue drawing superprofits from the working people and oppressed nations and peoples and seeks to crush their resistance.

‘Combating terrorists’ as justification, Sison argued that “it [US] has launched wars of aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying their social infrastructure in the process.”

The GRP peace panel suggested to the NDFP in the third round of peace talks that they would recommend the removal of Jose Maria Sison, CPP Founding Chairman, in the US terrorist list in the presence of reporters. This suggestion, however, did not materialize in the Rome Joint Statement signed at the end of the third round of peace talks on January 25.

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(Updated) Initial reports estimated 1,000 families are deemed affected as fire razed an urban poor community in Malabon on night of February 8.

At around 4:00 PM, fire broke out in Hernandez compound in Brgy. Catmon. As of 9:40 the fire has reached Task Force Bravo. Under Task Force Bravo, around 27 fire trucks are needed to be deployed in the area.

From reports gathered by Manila Today correspondents, as of 7:30 AM, 118 families are evacuated to Brgy. Catmon’s covered court, 147 families in Catmon Integrated School, 200 families in Tonsuya covered court and 50 families in Conduction Site in Catmon’s dumpsite area.

Cause of the fire is still unknown.

The communities affected in Brgy. Catmon are People’s Village, Gozon and Hernandez.

Brgy. Catmon has an estimated 36,000 residents, the fourth third largest barangay in Malabon.

Rechel Bañola, Gabriela organizer in Malabon appealed for help for the affected residents.

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“Karapatan strongly urges President Rodrigo R. Duterte to rethink his statement on the termination of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)” opened the human rights group in a February 6 statement.

The group believed that the Duterte’s backing out from peace talks will bring more suffering to the people and pointed out the Philippine military as perpetrators of human rights violations during the time of ceasefire and active phase of peace negotiations from June 2016 to January 2017.

“Pres. Duterte should see that one big roadblock is the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) being warmongers and peace saboteurs, within and outside the peace process,” continued the statement.

Karapatan cited political killings, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and detention, threats and harassment of village residents were perpetrated by the AFP without let-up, exposing the GRP’s unilateral ceasefire “as a sham.”

Karapatan tallied 10 extrajudicial killings, 2 enforced disappearances and 25 illegal arrests and detention and thousands affected in cases of AFP encampment of schools, medical, religious and public places, and cases of threats against civilians due to indiscriminate firing, bombing, artillery fire, landmines, etc. The group submitted their report of GRP political and civil rights violations from August 21 to December 26, 2016 during the peace talks.

The group also pointed out that the AFP is standing in the way of the release of political prisoners, as Duterte himself admitted.

Until recently, Duterte committed to release the political prisoners in compliance with peace talks agreements.

READ: The trail of the promise to release political prisoners

“Ultimately, it is the people who will suffer from the absence of GRP-NDFP official peace talks. History has shown that militarist measures such as counter-insurgency programs never led to the solution of armed rebellion in the country. They instead lead to human and people’s rights violations against the masses in rural and urban communities,” said Karapatan.

Deal with issues on the formal peace table

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP) on February 8 called on both the GRP and the NDFP “to resume the formal peace talks in order to address the roots of the armed conflict despite recent developments that threaten to scuttle it for good.”

The PEPP took note of recent developments that, in just over the weekend, threatened the work for peace.

“Negotiations should not be bogged down by accusations and counter-accusations. Outstanding issues should be threshed out in principled dialogue over the negotiating table where great strides towards peace have been made in the last three formal rounds of talks between the two parties facilitated by the Royal Norwegian Government,” said the statement.

The PEPP said that the parties should make use of the Supplemental Guidelines to the Joint Monitoring Committee under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) to address the accusations of both parties that have led to the present breakdown. The Supplemental Guidelines was signed within the third round of peace talks from January 19 to 25.

“The PEPP has always maintained that all signed agreements that were painstakingly negotiated by both parties are signs of hope and should be honored to serve as building blocks for a better future. This recent crisis in the peace talks shows how fragile the peace negotiations are and the people’s vigilance is needed to see to it that the parties involved stay on course,” said the statement.

The PEPP is a platform working for a just and enduring peace by supporting the peace process between the GRP-NDFP. PEPP includes the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP), Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) and the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum (EBF).

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National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) counsel to the peace talks Atty. Edre Olalia said that the NDFP consultants still cannot be rearrested even with the Government of the Philippines (GRP) termination of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG).

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process had sent a letter via e-mail to the NDFP regarding the termination of JASIG on February 7.

READ: NDFP acknowledges GRP termination of peace talks

Olalia said that effectivity of the termination of the JASIG takes effect only after 30 days from receipt by the NDFP of the notice of termination. Until the 30-day grace period lapses, all the JASIG guarantees remain.

He recognized that the safety guarantees, stated as “free and unhindered passage in all areas in the Philippines, and in traveling to and from the Philippines in connection with the performance of their duties in the peace negotiations” are co-terminus with the peace talks.

He held, however, that immunity guarantees remain even if peace talks are terminated.

“Immunity guarantees are perpetual and permanent and remain in force even after the JASIG is terminated and the formal peace negotiations are effectively terminated precisely because the rationale is to protect them and encourage their participation or involvement in the peace process without running the risk of any such punitive action thereafter,” said Olalia.

Out on bail

Olalia also said that the NDFP consultants are validly out on bail: there are no valid outstanding and unused or unserved warrants of arrest for them and there are no court orders cancelling or shortening their cash bails as there are no existing legal grounds to do so.

“Will they still be arrested by the PNP and AFP notwithstanding the above? Or will the GRP honor binding and solemn bilateral agreements or follow the proper legal and judicial procedure? That is, of course, an entirely different question to be answered,” said Olalia.

Series of legal opinions

In the past days, Olalia promptly released several legal opinions responding to rash, successive pronouncements of President Rodrigo Duterte regarding the peace negotiations with the NDFP.

On Duterte’s statement of cancellation of peace talks on February 4, Olalia and the NDFP asked for a written notice of termination to consider the consequences following the president’s decision. They reminded that the JASIG remains in effect prior to the notice of termination’s 30-day grace period.

Duterte’s terrorist tag for the CPP-NPA-NDFP had Olalia responding that “the CPP-NPA-NDFP cannot be considered terrorist organizations because they adhere to international humanitarian law on the rules of war and especially on the protection of civilians and non-combatants.”

READ: CPP-NDF-NPA terrorist tag is wrong – peace counsel

On Duterte’s verbal rearrest order of political prisoners on February 5, Olalia said that “NDFP consultants are covered by the JASIG, their temporary release under the jurisdiction of the courts and that Duterte and the GRP peace panel has not provided a written notice of termination of the peace talks.”

When Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa said that the NDFP consultants would be arrested using old warrants, Olalia described it as a “legal contortion” and said that “Warrants deemed served have been extinguished upon their earlier arrest and after being taken into custody and effective jurisdiction by the courts. [The PNP] Need new valid court order or valid bench warrant to rearrest them. Bail stands unless cancelled, which is not the case.”

He also raised the alarm on violation of rights and due process in the PNP Chief’s logic saying “it would mean even those have posted bail, have been acquitted, served their sentence or pardoned can still be arrested later because old arrest warrants have not been ‘quashed’.”

Olalia also warned that, “The arresting officers and personnel can be held liable for illegal, arbitrary arrest, detention, damages and other charges.”

NDFP does not acknowledge OPAPP letter

“It is unreasonable for any Party to unilaterally terminate the peace negotiations without just cause and squander the gains so far achieved,” said NDFP Panel Chair Fidel Agcaoili in a statement.

Agcaoili enumerated gains in the third round of talks concluded only two weeks after Duterte’s announcement of peace talks cancellation, being headway in the social and economic reforms agenda, signing of Supplemental Guidelines to the Joint Monitoring Committee, exchange of drafts for political and constitutional reforms and a late February schedule for the reconstitution of the JASIG list and bilateral ceasefire discussion.

Agcaoili also noted that the letter was improperly addressed and sent.

He concluded that for all the reasons he gave, “the NDFP cannot acknowledge receipt of the 07 February 2017 email letter of Sec. Dureza. The NDFP cannot be a party to an unjust, unreasonable and improper termination of the JASIG. The GRP bears full responsibility for its unilateral decision.”

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