All in the name of profit

Letters .

CHINESE President Xi Jinping, instead of bringing your money in our country with your lopsided deals, use it to serve your poor farmers and sweatshop workers who are struggling everyday to survive.

Sandugo-Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination joined progressive organizations in asserting Philippine sovereignty as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the country for a state-visit.

Although we are also poor, we don’t need the loan, nor we need dams and other big energy projects. We especially don’t need the shady deals which will only benefit business interests.

We oppose the scheduled sealing of China’s official development assistance (ODA) for Build, Build, Build infrastructure project New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Dam in Quezon Province. This P12.1 billion project will displace the Dumagat in their ancestral lands, drowning them deeper to poverty, thus virtually killing their race.

Among the China ODA projects is Chico River Pump Irrigation Project, which has already been signed. This double edged loan has just put our country subject to the China International Economic Trade Arbitration Commission. Meaning, should there be any disputes, settling this will be under the China’s law, not ours.

If President Duterte is willing lick the boot of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Filipinos, including the Moro and indigenous peoples, are not.

We need is a Filipino leader that will defend our sovereignty and our right as national minorities to self-determination. President Duterte is not that. He sold our country to imperialist countries such as US and China to further plunder our lands and natural resources all in the name of profit. –Jerome Succor Aba, co-chairperson, Sandugo

A Form of Censorship

THE Department of Internal and Local Government (DILG) has recently considered filing a case against the popular television series “Ang Probinsyano” for its “unfair and inaccurate” portrayal of the Philippine National Police (PNP). This is among the latest expressions of paranoia of the DILG and PNP, who seek to censor programs that reflect and allude to some realities on the corruption, brutality and dire state of affairs within the police, military and government. However, the DILG and the PNP are attacking a work of fiction, instead of resolving the very real problems plaguing the police and the whole gamut of the government’s security forces.

A fictional character is dealing with corruption within the government, along with a host of cronies, scalawag officers, among others. Inaccurate? The facts beg to differ. The Duterte regime’s bloody war on drugs has reportedly killed at least 4,500 people, filed under the category “deaths resulting from legitimate encounters.” Some 20,000 killings more are considered “deaths under investigation.” Apart from this, police officers have also been involved in corrupt practices, and other rights violations and misconduct. Recent developments have brought to the spotlight schemes such as sex-for-freedom and rape. One perpetrator even admitted that this was something considered “standard operating procedure (SOP)” during operations. This adds to the 31 rape cases since 2012 involving 43 police officers, according to women’s rights groups.

The PNP’s statement demanding a change in the program’s plot is a blatant display of state censorship. This is akin to Marcos’ removal of animated series “Voltes V” because it ended with the triumphant overthrow of an evil empire. Current DILG Secretary Eduardo Año, in his statement threatening the filing of charges against “Ang Probinsyano” and its staff, constitutes plain harassment. This is the same course of action undertaken by the police and military against activists and individuals who openly voice out and protest against the anti-people policies of the Duterte regime.

This development also comes in the wake of other cases of harassment against those who work in visual media and film. JL Burgos, whose film “Han-ayan” was screened in public, was surveilled by a suspicious man asking personal information about him. Arbi Barbarona’s “Tu Pug Imatuy” was labelled as “a film for the NPA” by a Facebook page that incites violence against activists and advocates of freedom of expression. This is also in line with the recent blanket declaration by government authorities tagging the showing of films critical to Martial Law as part of a destabilization plot against the government.

The PNP and the government’s security forces have become the villains in the eyes of the people not because of the programs aired on television, but because of their own brutality and lack of regard for people’s rights throughout the years, especially under the Duterte regime. What remains disturbing are the spate of killings, illegal arrests, abductions, and harassment. These heinous acts against the Filipino people are covered up, instead of resolved.

Karapatan questions and condemns these repressive moves by government forces and agencies. They should stop being so obsessed with their already notorious image, and instead start adhering to their mandate to genuinely serve and protect the Filipino people. We likewise demand accountability from the PNP and the DILG for its countless violations against individuals and entire communities who have been subjected to terror amid the government’s anti-people programs and campaigns. –Cristina Palabay, secretary general, Karapatan