‘Trash forces of doom’

IF only our eyes were a fountain of tears, we might weep day and night for the unrelenting slaughter of the most impoverished among our people. Striking terror, the Duterte regime delights in the blood of the slain masses. His Memorandum Order 32 signed on Nov. 22, 2018 has already yielded 87 fatalities in Negros alone with 17 killings occuring on the last week of July this year.

Hankering to justify these state-sponsored attacks, Bato dela Rosa along with members of the military and police have launched a red scare and black propaganda campaign to denigrate student activists and progressive organizations who are known for championing social justice and national democracy. We see no other motive for these fascist machinations other than criminalizing dissent, militarization of schools and to continue the regime’s bloody persecution of all marginalized sectors in Philippine society. All for the interest of the ruling class.

The regime is a destructive killing machine that constantly feeds human flesh and entrails to its predatory vultures in AFP and PNP.  It is hell bent on piling more victims on a soaring mountain of corpses. Let us then rise up and put an end to this dreadful sight by registering our loudest dissent and condemnation against these atrocities.

As the regime seeks to dash even the last remaining morsels of our democratic rights and freedom, now is the best time to be militant activists and unleash bold resistance against tyranny. Now more than ever, the country needs more activists of heroic caliber in order for the illumined masses to save this nation and future generations from pestilent damnation.

Let us turn our anguish into collective valor and determination to trash the forces of doom that have been ravaging incessantly in every underprivileged corner of our country. –Joanna Concepcion, chairperson, Migrante International

We still await justice

IT has been 117 months since 58 persons, 32 of them media workers, were waylaid and butchered on a hilltop in the town of Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

All because the leading members of a powerful and wealthy political clan could not countenance any challenge to their almost absolute rule over their province and believed they could get away with mass murder.

Nine years and nine months on, with the trial finally wrapped up, we are told we can finally expect a verdict before the 10th anniversary of the slaughter, the worst incident of electoral violence in recent Philippine history and the single deadliest attack on the press ever.

While convictions will surely be welcome, we cannot shake off the fact that taking close to a decade – though we have to stress, through no fault of the judge – to resolve a case involving so heinous a crime is already a gross injustice to the victims’ families and an indictment of our still badly damaged justice system.

We also cannot overlook the fact that many of the close to 200 accused remain at large after all these years and may ultimately evade the accounting they deserve.

And, as several kin of our fallen colleagues themselves have said before, while resolving the Ampatuan massacre may bring relief, it will not even begin to solve the festering culture of impunity that encourages not only the murder of journalists – we have thus far lost 186 since 1986, 13 under the current administration – but also the resort to violence for everything, from shortcutting the judicial processes, to the suppression of legitimate criticism and dissent, to the settling of personal scores because so many more killings remain unresolved, so many cries for justice unanswered.

The quest for real justice and democracy in our country remains a long, hard struggle but it is one we cannot afford to lose. Let us all remain firm in defending our rights and liberties. Let us not be cowed into silence but continue to speak truth to power. –National Union of Journalists of the Philippines