THE College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) calls on President Rodrigo Duterte to exhaust all avenues to remove Mary Jane Veloso from death row. It is his responsibility to do so as president. Duterte’s ostensible “go-ahead” on Mary Jane’s execution raised some red flags. As the president, it was expected of him that he will do his utmost on categorically asserting that Mary Jane is merely a victim. A Jakarta news outlet reported Indonesian President Joko Widodo as saying that Duterte gave the green light to the execution of Veloso, who was sentenced to death for possession of drugs in 2010. Malacañang’s statement that Duterte merely said “follow your own laws” to the Indonesian president betrays the Filipino people’s collective action which prompted Veloso’s temporary reprieve last year. It is the legal system of Indonesia which brought Mary Jane to her current ordeal, so saying that Indonesia should follow its own laws is like surrendering the fight for Mary Jane’s reprieve. Moreover, it disregards the success of the efforts of Filipinos last year to pressure the Indonesian government to stop the execution. Duterte should be assertive and aggressive in protecting overseas Filipino workers (OFW). Duterte is bound by his duty to defend and stand for Filipinos overseas, especially drug-trafficking victims like Mary Jane. Veloso’s case stems from a larger problem rooted on the lack of decent jobs and high wages in the country. Veloso and other Mary Janes of the country would not be prone to illegal recruitment, human traffic, drug trafficking if the issues highlighting the scarcity of proper jobs and decent wages were addressed. -Jose Mari Callueng, president, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines   Rights and Education IN a bid to combat “historical revisionism” and enable the youth to learn about the crimes and excesses during the Marcos dictatorship, we have filed a bill providing for the inclusion of the mandatory study of Martial Law atrocities, as well as the Philippines’ human rights situation in all school levels. House Bill no. 3511 seeks to mandate the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to “formulate courses, subjects and/or special lectures on human rights to be taught as separate courses or incorporated in existing subjects now being taught at all levels of education throughout the country.” At present, the subject “Human Rights” is being taught by Philippine schools only on a voluntary basis. This bill seeks to make human rights subjects a mandatory part of the curriculum of all educational institutions in the country. In the face of the country’s human rights situation and the revival of the debate on the former dictator’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, it is high time that lessons on human rights and the atrocities of the Martial Law era be taught to our students. Various groups have already voiced out the lackadaisical approach of our education department in teaching our students about the atrocities of the Marcos dictatorship, which is one of the reasons why many youth and students are easily beguiled by Marcos apologists who seek to revise the late dictator’s tainted reputation. The lack of a solid human rights curriculum also plays a role in the continuing climate of impunity in the country. There is really a pressing and serious need for the government to educate its citizens, especially the youth, on their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The role is stipulated in the Constitution, which specifically calls for all educational institutions to ‘inculcate... respect for human rights. -Sarah Elago, representative, and Marjohara Tucay, president, Kabataan partylist   Unprecedented WE express our full support and appreciation of President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for American soldiers to leave the country. This is unprecedented, and the US soldiers should leave immediately. President Duterte is right in asserting what has long been demanded by the people: ending the more than century-old US military intervention in Mindanao, which among others resulted to massacres of civilians, like the 1906 Bud Dajo massacre before and the 2015 Mamasapano debacle in recent time. We hope that this is just the start and, eventually, President Duterte also pursues the abrogation of the onerous and lopsided treaties like the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca). With this, we can truly say that the country have a truly independent foreign policy. - Carlos Isagani Zarate, representative, Bayan Muna