Ronalyn V. Olea or Len to her colleagues loves to brew coffee strong enough to keep everyone in the newsroom awake. She’s a vegan and a bike commuter, braving the chaos of the road to get to meetings and errands.
Ronalyn V. Olea or Len to her colleagues loves to brew coffee strong enough to keep everyone in the newsroom awake. She’s a vegan and a bike commuter, braving the chaos of the road to get to meetings and errands.
Behind his macho posture and ashen face, Duterte is afraid to the core. He is fighting against the prospect of him being made to account for all his crimes. He is doing everything to stop us, the Filipino people, from exercising our right to have better governance and better society.
“We are against terrorism but the law [against terrorism] should not violate human rights and the Philippine Constitution.”
“Si Duterte ang pinakamasahol, pinakanakamamatay at pinakapahirap na virus na nanalasa sa mamamayan.” (Duterte is the worst, most lethal, most burdensome virus to afflict the Filipino people.)
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the trial was "a test run for the latest weapon the State can now wield to intimidate and silence not only the media but all citizens who call out government abuse."
The very act of spreading fear reveals this administration's fear of the power of the people.
Who have been declared “communist-terrorists” by state security forces and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict? Practically all sectoral organizations advocating for reforms and genuine change. They did not spread terror or cause panic among the public but called on the government to act on legitimate demands of ordinary citizens.
With billions of pesos at its disposal, from the nation’s coffers and from loans incurred in our name, this government still failed to institute even the minimum standards for COVID-19 response. Of the P380-billion COVID-19 budget under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, it has spent P12.32 billion for health or merely 3.2 percent of the total COVID-19 allocation.
While it is true that ordinary citizens are expected to maintain civility, speaking out should not be criminalized. We are being punished for demanding from government what it should have been doing in the midst of a health crisis.
“Now they have an idea of how painful and difficult it is for the families of the disappeared.”
“The humane treatment of persons under detention and their release from prison in the midst of a raging pandemic are in consonance with international laws, among them the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which the Philippines is a state party.”
Karapatan ST is calling on the government to focus on “providing relief and serving the people through coming up with a solution to the crisis, instead of using the pandemic as an opportunity to intensify fascist attacks on the citizenry.”
The Duterte administration should focus its energy on containing the virus instead of containing the growing discontent.
“Let us value the life of each cultural worker affected by this crisis. What we need is immediate response toward the realization of our collective well being, right to health, and freedom to create and speak up.”
Instead of a moratorium on debt payments, the Duterte administration wants the country to sink deeper in debt. It is shamelessly taking advantage of the pandemic to push for the interest of his foreign masters.
Contrary to claims by Health Secretary Francisco Duque, the Philippines comes second to Malaysia in terms of the number of COVID cases in Southeast Asia. The country is the also the second highest in terms of COVID-19 deaths in the region.
All these actions aim to create chilling effect, to force us into silence amid the Duterte administration’s glaring failure to address the COVID-19 crisis.
As we witness the excruciatingly slow and inefficient governance of this administration, more lives are on the line – not only due to the dreaded disease but also due to hunger and desperation.
After all the deliberations, the public demands more concrete answers. Immediate actions to combat COVID-19 do not require emergency powers. The problem is that from day 1, the Duterte administration does not have a comprehensive plan to deal with the crisis.
“Congress will make a disastrous mistake if its solution to the corona virus threat is centralizing more power to one man, especially one who believes that the problems of the country can be simplistically solved with the use of brute force and martial law powers.”
“We cannot fight without knowing the extent of the enemy.”
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