“Oppressive lockdowns and widespread joblessness are causing grave hardships on the masses, stoking widespread anger, rousing them to fight back and inciting more and more people to join the armed resistance to fight and seek the ouster of the US-Duterte regime.”
An urban poor group is demanding the Bulacan police to surface arrested urban poor leader Concepcion Opalla, who continues to be denied her right to lawyers and relatives three days since her arrest.
By DEE AYROSO
As President Rodrigo Duterte feasted during his “humble” birthday celebration yesterday, a detained Lumad student was deprived of celebrating her 18th birthday with family and supporters in a social welfare facility in Cebu City.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday. It is also called Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. Jesus triumphantly enters the holy city of Jerusalem. It is in Jerusalem that the paschal mystery will happen. Jesus rides on a colt like a king. However, the kingship of Jesus is not of power but humility; not to reign but to serve.
PAMANTIK-KMU has stated before that the Duterte administration is specifically targeting labor activists and unionists. These attacks, the group claims, intensified since the start of lockdown due to COVID-19 on March 17, 2020.
By DEE AYROSO
The Duterte administration will end in 2022, but Dutertism could still continue to afflict the country for the next six years and even beyond should any of Mr. Duterte’s lackeys, cronies, clones, and surrogates win the presidential election that year.
Among several others, the National Union of People’s Lawyers and the human rights watchdog Karapatan – which both have been red-tagged and whose members have become EJK victims – have welcomed the Supreme Court’s response, the Senate resolution and Drilon’s filing of the anti-redtagging bill.
“To fight for health, aid, education, jobs and justice now is a matter of survival amid the pandemic, and the climate and human rights emergencies. To strengthen our unity and act now against all forms of abuse, discrimination and tyranny is our assertion for a better future.”
#DuterteResign trended on the Philippines’ social media platforms, after the country’s capital and its neighboring provinces were put yet again on a stricter lockdown.