Lunes, Oktubre 25, 2021

Halalan 2022, A Make or Break for Social Movements

Nagsipaghain ang mga kandidato for national posts na sila ang alternatib sa masahol na administrasyong Duterte. Ngunit maliwanag naman na karamihan sa kanila ay mga alyado ng Duterte administration mula noong 2016. 

Para sa mga Kilusang Panlipunan, ang Halalang 2022 ay napaka-mahalagang yugto ng pagsusulong ng mga demokratikong karapatan ngayon at sa pag-alpas sa nakakasakal na kalagayang mayron.

Pagkakataon ito upang buksan ang kagyat at tiyak na tagumpay bilang pundasyon sa mas mataas na antas ng mga pakikibakang demokratiko.

Ang ating pasya ay susi sa bukas ng bansa at ng ating lipunan.

Kabuhayan Kalusugan, Karapatan, Kalikasan, Katarungan at Kasarinlan - iilang puntong gabay sa ating paglahok na walang ilusyon.

full credits to photo owner.

Sabado, Hulyo 4, 2020

Statement: Anti-Terrorism Act cannot win against terrorism!


Anti-Terrorism Act cannot win against terrorism!
Fight for A Democratic, Ecological and Peoples’-Centered Philippines!

It was either to let it lapse into law or sign. Duterte preferred to sign it last 3 July 2020. To veto is not his option.

The passage of the ATA or Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act 11479) and signing it into law have just spoken who and what this administration really is and intends to do – sow terror and stifle the voices of the dissent, a tyrant.

Proven in the past administrations, war and attack to the democratic demands and criticisms only heightened rebellions and resistance. The neglect to the democratic demands of the peoples and communities have provided a space for the extreme and violent tendencies. And the new Anti-Terrorism law is a desperate answer to these from the very start.

We believe that the new ATA is a systemic assault to silent the democratic demands of the peoples for a meaningful, democratic, just, pro-people, pro-environment, pro-human rights governance and society. This is in fact an institutionalization of the militarist framework in dealing with social and democratic aspirations of the peoples and sectors, criticisms and dissents. This can also be weaponized against the massive clamor for accountability in the government’s COVID-19 pandemic response that is maligned with corruption and abuse of authority issues. Of the same extent, it could be used against the political oppositions in the upcoming 2022 National elections for a mere ‘suspicion’ of being affiliates and supporter of terrorist groups.

Mindanao in most cases have been a witness and even destroyed by the Anti-Terrorism campaign of the world that for most cases, have targeted BangsaMoro and Indigenous Peoples asserting for their Right to Self-Determination and Ancestral Domains; the peasant, fisherfolks and rural populations aspiring for land reform and tenure; the social and political activists struggling for their respective rights and welfare; and the rest of the populations resisting development aggression by the collaborating multi-national agribusiness, mining corporations and political lords. The prevalent connivance of the political oligarchs, capitalists and corrupt law enforcers to repress peoples’ and community’s democratic assertions could even be justified using ATA.

The Duterte administration and its allies in the Lower House, the Senate and the security sector should be reminded that the 1987 Philippine Constitution remains the highest law of the country. In fact, this 1987 Philippine Constitution (that the current Duterte administration keeps on undermining) is a product of that historic people’s resistance in the country that toppled down the tyrant Marcos.

We demand to the Supreme Court to automatically declare Republic Act 11479 or ATA unconstitutional.

We call on all justice, peace, democracy and human rights loving individuals, organizations and movements to stand and resist by all necessary means all forms of abuse and repressions.

While we stand against all forms of violence and terrorism, we cannot gamble our inherent rights as persons, peoples and communities. Further let us demand foods, medicines and wellness – a community and people-centered pandemic response and NOT threats, bullets and lies in this trying times.

Let us be of full vigilance and don’t lost a sight to the fight for a democratic, sustainable, ecological and pro-peoples socio-economic and political future.

Let us overcome the CoVID-19 pandemic and the threats to democracy and human dignity together.

MindanaOne
katipunanmindanao@gmail.com
July 4, 2020

#ScrapTerrorLaw #ResistTyranny



Lunes, Hulyo 1, 2019

Press Release/Statement: Young farmer killed in Bataan over agrarian land


10 JUNE 2019

Hermosa, Bataan – Tensions broke out in Barangay Sumalo after farmers protested a checkpoint illegally installed by private guards of Riverforest Development Corporation which led to a violent confrontation that took the life of one and injured two others.

The deadly violence erupted last June 08, 2019. Christopher Villete (26) and Elmer Bautista Jr. (22) were caught up in a heated altercation with Riverforest’s guards after the two questioned the legality of the said checkpoints that prohibited residents from bringing farming or building materials in to the Barangay. A guard allegedly threatened Villete and Bautista Jr. with a balisong (butterfly knife) which prompted the two to report the incident to Elmer Bautista Sr. (54), a Barangay Kagawad.

Bautista Sr. rushed to the scene and confronted the guards about the threats his son and nephew received. Shortly thereafter, Titanic Mystica (60), Riverforest’s “communication officer” and known supporter of the company arrived, firing several warning shots from his .9mm pistol before facing an angered Bautista Sr. with more threats and provocation.

According to witness accounts, violence erupted when Mystica allegedly pointed his gun at the direction of Bautista Sr. and the two young men while threatening to pull the trigger. This prompted Bautista Sr., to step into the line of fire to protect his son and nephew. Mystica however, allegedly fired at Bautista Sr., hitting him in the chest. In an attempt to defend themselves, Villete and Bautista Jr. grappled with some guards, while Mystica kept firing at onlookers who rushed to aid Bautista Sr. Witnesses also say that Villete was knifed in the chest by the guard who threatened him earlier.

Seeing Bautista Sr. being beaten and dragged to a nearby security outpost, Villete, Bautista Jr. and several young men attempted to take Baustista Sr. to safety, going toe-to-toe with several guards while Mystica allegedly fired more shots at them. Bautista Jr. was hit by a bullet in his foot and was maimed. Amidst the confusion, Villete and several others managed to reach Bautista Sr.’s side. Witnesses say that Mystica, now pointing his gun at Bautista Sr.’s head pulled the trigger and missed. Instead, the bullet hit Villete in the face.

Bleeding and coughing blood, Villete cried for help before collapsing to the ground. Angered by what they saw, both farmers and residents rushed to subdue Mystica, who already ran out of bullets. Barangay Captain Rolando Martinez along with the village peace keeping corps arrived after the shootings, and put Mystica into their custody for a later turnover to local police forces. The three farmers including Mystica were then rushed to the hospital, with Villete pronounced dead upon arrival.

Villete was raised by a farming family in Sumalo and was active in a group of young community defenders who stood up against various forms of harassments from Riverforest’s private security. In 2017, he led his peers during Sumalo’s 100-kilometer march from Bataan to Quezon City and joined the 2-month camp-out protest at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Central Office. Villete worked as photocopier machine operator in the nearby Hermosa Ecozone and Industrial Park and was supposed to leave the country for Taiwan as an Overseas Filipino Worker before the end of June.

For more than two decades, the Samahang Nagkakaisang Magsasaka ng Barangay Sumalo (SANAMABASU) has led the struggle for land rights in a 214 hectare property claimed by the Riverforest Development Corporation, a property developer owned by the Litton Family. In 2006, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Riverforest, ending Sumalo’s decade-long legal struggle against a petition to convert their farmlands to commercial/industrial use. In 2011, the conversion order issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform to Riverforest lapsed after the company failed to introduce substantial development in the disputed property, enabling the farmers to file for Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) coverage. Since then, Riverforest has intensified the presence of armed security personnel in the area, installed enclosures that prevented farmers from freely tending to their crops, and filed criminal cases against persons who actively resisted various forms of harassments from the said armed guards.

In January this year, the Office of the President (OP) released a 17-page decision revoking Riverforests’ petition for land conversion and ordered the DAR to initiate the process of coverage and distribution. Riverforest again stalled the process by refusing entry of DAR personnel set to conduct ocular inspections and surveys in enclosed land parcels in the disputed area.

Jaime Tadeo of Paragos Pilipinas, a national farmer’s organization supporting SANAMABASU, says that the Villete’s death reflects the terrible realities in the countryside, where farmers’ rights are constantly trampled by those with enough power to assert better claims over lands. The prevalence of harassments and killings of farmers despite thirty-one years of CARP according to Tadeo, illustrates the lack of government intervention to protect tillers entrenched in agrarian conflict as well as the DAR’s weakness in promoting redistributive reform against strong land-owner resistance.

Trinidad Domingo of the Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK) explains that protracted land-struggles and the slow-paced process of coverage and distribution leads to the erosion of farmer’s rights as it empowers landlords or corporations to operate with impunity—in their attempt to dissolve the claims of actual tillers over the land. Domingo adds that some local DAR officials are known to broker backdoor land deals and have colluded with landlords and corporations to stall the progression of agrarian cases or halt the actual distribution of lands to potential beneficiaries.

Fe Andulan, a farmer leader of SANAMABASU laments that Christopher’s death could have been prevented had DAR been quick enough in its effort to uphold the OP decision. “Though we are aware of the legal-technicalities involved before actual distribution of lands can take place, each passing day without any resolution to our case creates more tension between the community and Riverforests guards who continue to harass and intimidate us,” Andulan adds. “We pray for peace in our community as we are frightened for the safety of our loved ones. But as we mourn our loss, we also vow to continue the struggle for land and justice.”

The Save Agrarian Reform Alliance strongly condemns the killing of Christopher Villete as well as the hundreds of tillers who lost their lives in the fight for social justice through agrarian reform.

In line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s mandate to finish Land Acquisition and Distribution backlogs by 2022, we challenge the DAR to hasten the resolution of agrarian cases and as well as the process of coverage and distribution, especially in areas where the safety and well being of farmers are constantly under threat.

We are also compelling the DAR as well as other agencies involved in the implementation of CARP to prioritize the distribution of Private Agricultural Lands, particularly those under Compulsory Acquisition as it embodies the ideal of the program to dismantle the monopolies of oligarchs and corporations over land.

In light of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People working in Rural Areas, we call on government to come up with stronger measures to protect farmers in agrarian conflicts from harassments and violence as well as to establish safeguards that protect potential and existing beneficiaries from land-grabbing, title cancellation, land conversions and other forms of reversals,

Let this not be another case of serious human rights violations where the violated are the ones being prosecuted. This case is a test to the capacity of this government to bring justice to farmers against the impunity of a corporation and its abusive agents on the ground, in this case the armed guards, whose main task is to defy the law and resist agrarian reform.

SARA also enjoins other sectors and social movements to also push for the effective implementation of agrarian reform as it is not only a farmers’ issue, but is closely tied to the future of the country’s food security. We must again look into the deep seated issues plaguing our countryside and work towards protecting and uplifting the hands that feed our nation.#

grabbed from the original link:

JUSTICE FOR LABOR ORGANIZER/LEADER DENNIS SEQUENA!


"We Mourn but shall Rise on your grave Comrade Dennis!

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a labor organizer in Barangay Bunga in Tanza, Cavite, while he was giving a lecture on trade unionism last 2 June 2019. The 48-year-old, known fondly by colleagues as Ka Dennis, was the vice chairperson of Partido Manggagawa (PM) Cavite and Party’s 4th nominee for the party-list race during the 2019 midterm elections.

We would like to extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to the family, relatives and comrades of Ka Dennis. We join the whole labor and workers’ communities, unions, movements, centers and activists in the country and the world in the condemnation in the strongest term and cry for justice. Ka Dennis is best remembered for his work organizing laborers in the Cavite EPZA. He asserted their rights and spoke out against contractualization despite the threats from the international corporations collaborating with the local business and political elites.

Partido Manggagawa urges authorities to act with dispatch and catch the perpetrators’ behind the kilings of Dennis Sequeña, who was slain less than a week before his birthday.

He was laid to rest last June 12, 2019 in time of the 121st commemoration of the Philippine Independence. The date of the burial was not to celebrate the said commemoration but a strong message and clamor for real independence of the workers and common citizens that fall prey to the elitist interests.

We strongly urge the Department of Labor and Employment and the whole Philippine government to bring justice to Ka Dennis’ death and end all forms of oppression and repression in the working places and communities of the country.

Ka Dennis death is one among the thousands of the murders of peasant, union, social, Lumad and people’s organizations leaders and activists under Duterte’s administration done with impunity. Their deaths are real manifestation that in a society like the Philippines the fight for the democratic assertions of the people are answered in murderous and barbaric way.

Ka Dennis, you will forever be remembered as a Hero of the Workers in the Economic Processing Zones and all other making places. Your death has emboldened us to keep the fighting with workers’ and peoples’ rights against all forms of oppression and exploitation."

June 16, 2019

MindanaOne Peoples’ Movement (Mindanao)
Kilusang Maralita sa Kanayunan (Mindanao)
Kagkalimwa OFW Federation (Cotabato and Maguindanao)
Kaagapay OFW Resource and Service Center (Cotabato City)
Demokratikong Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Lanao
Nagkahiusang Mangingisda alang sa Kalambuan (SND, Lanao)
Lanao Fisheries Advocacy Network
Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (Mindanao)
Association of OFW Children (Citabato City)
Laban Kababaihan (Mindanao)
Pagilidan Farmer's Organization for Unity and Development (SND, Lanao)
Lanao Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
Alyansa ng mga Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao (Cotabato-Maguindanao)
Initiatives and Movement for Gender Liberation Against Discrimination (Mindanao)
Mindanao Peoples' Peace Movement
Nagkahiusang Mag-uumang Organiko (Agusan-Surigao)
Kahugpungan sa mga Mamumuo sa Lanao
Alyansa ng Kabataang Mindanao para sa Kapayapaan

(Open for more signatories and endorsement. PM us.)

Photo credits to Partido Manggagawa/CPM during the Funeral March for Ka Dennis. June 12, 2019.

#Justice4KaDennis
#Justice4KaDennisJustice4All

Healthy, Cool, Calm, Peaceful Future: A Duty, A Journey - Jhong


"I am Jhong, Pedro Boyel Fenis, Jr. A graduate of Agriculture. An agroecology advocate and practitioner, I am a peace and justice advocate. I am 32.

Been active in social and peace movements in the youth sector in 2008 thru the Movement of Young Catalysts for Change (MYCC) as part of the Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement (MPPM) – a movement of Tri-Peoples in southern Philippines.

In various exposures, community exchanges and engagements I realized that unequal distribution and access of and to power, wealth and participation made war and conflicts, hunger and injustices, rebellion and destructions, hostilities and biases. My personal commitment pushed me to pursue my interest in Agriculture. I have seen the wealthy potentials of the vast lands in Mindanao but poverty and hunger is pervasive. In some way, having food and control over their economic lives enables peoples and communities to stand together and be free from impositions. It is easier said than done, but it is true in some of my experiences. In my mind there is a necessity of these communities to have an ecological-scientific inspiration to till on their own, reclaim their rights and be instruments in cooling down the earth, calming down conflicts and feeding their families. It has to start somewhere, in their homes and communities.

Since graduation last 2013, I offered my service to a people’s organization advocating and promoting land rights, organic and natural farming – the Democratic Movement of Peasants (DKMP) in Lanao del Norte. I was able to share but substantially I learned from the people and communities.

In AKMK and MPPM respectively I have seen and experienced the diversity and differences of peoples’ faiths, cultures and way of lives but they have many things in common. These peoples and sectors dream of just peace, realization of individual and collective rights, sustainable and inclusive development, a healthy home and earth, etc. And I am very thankful to MPPM in helping me broadened my perspectives and inviting me to join this year’s Japan Peace March.

In the same way that my colleagues from Mindanao who joined the Peace March International Youth Relay: Nino, Vhong, Matet, Butch and Laida – I am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to walk with you, to be in solidarity with you to respond to the continuing call of every Hibakusha for justice, peace and nuclear elimination.

I am happily joining the 2019 Japan National Peace March thru the International Youth Relay to join your fight against all forms of weapons of mass destruction. I am also excited to personally experience the inspiring stories of my comrades who have joined before on the eagerness and persistence of the Hibakushas (Nuclear Survivors), labor unions, alternative cooperatives, women organizations, academe, youth, faith-based groups and grassroots organizations in this movement. More importantly, as a Peace and Environment activist, my moral obligation to be one of the many individuals that might be inspiring fellow youth and children in Japan to get involved and help shape a cool, calm, healthy, peaceful future.

KALINAW, HEIWA, PEACE "

TJG's STATEMENT ON THE RECENT LUMAD KILLINGS IN MAGUINDANAO

Hindi available ang buod na ito. Mag-click dito para tingnan ang post.

Lunes, Mayo 6, 2019

Sectoral Organizations and May 2019 Candidates Sign Pact of Cooperation

Because election is all about the rights and welfare of the basic sectors, communities, peoples and the general public Peoples' Agenda should be the core concern of the whole electoral exercise.

Nagkahiusang Mag-uumang Organiko, Kahugpungan sa Kababayen-an alang sa Kalambuan and Kalye Trese Youth Organization and some of the candidates for SB membership in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur signed a Pact of Cooperation inclusive to the May 13, 2019 mid-term elections and after. The signing was witnessed by Brgy Poblacion IPMR Saturnino Pagios, Jr. and the present sectoral resident-voters within Brgy Poblacion and neighboring brgys.

Key themes of the signed document:
1. Support to Agriculture (infra, facilities, implementation of existing laws)
2. Support and recognition of the rights of women, youth and PWDs
3. Recognition of the Indigenous People's Rights, Culture, Tradition and Way of Life
4. Support and Services for the Elderlies
5. Environmental Protection and Ecological Development Programs

Schedules for meetings and dialogue among othet candidates pertaining to the organizations' 2019 electoral are being set in the coming days.

May 4, 2019
Purok 13, Poblacion, Sibagat, Agusan del Sur

KASABUTAN SA PAGTINABANGAY

Representatives of the Organizations and Candidates take a photo after the signing of the Pact of Cooperation

Women Representative signs the Pact in behalf of her org.