“Yet we are still waiting for the Court to deliver what the Chief Justice vowed. One of the petitioners has already given birth and like what we’ve feared, the day after giving birth, she was brought back to prison with her baby.”
“Given the vast and greater powers bestowed under the law, it will have a wide-ranging effects of violating existing constitutionally-guaranteed rights of our people, thus, the issuance of a ?shield against injustice, a temporary restraining order, against its enforcement, effective until the finality of the judgment, is fair and prudent under the circumstances.” By ANNE MARXZE…
They appealed to the member-States of the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt and endorse High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s report, including recommendations for continuous monitoring and independent and impartial investigation of the human rights situation in the country. By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com MANILA – A day after President Rodrigo…
Despite these loans, government was only able to spend P98.3 billion for 17.5 million households as of June 27. According to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, the subsidy amounts to just P53 per family or P12 per person per day for the past 106 days since the COVID-19 lockdown started. By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com…
Despite gaining broad opposition, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said President Duterte still signed it into law as “his time is running short and opposition to his fascist rule is growing stronger by the day that he now desperately needs the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to conduct his all-out crackdown on dissent.”
“It is not enough to argue that the Government’s heavy-handed policies remain popular in the country. Because victims tend to be from lower socio-economic classes and relatively disempowered communities, there is an even stronger imperative to ensure their protection. We must not let them down. Political leadership is about respecting, promoting and protecting the rights of everyone in society, in particular the most vulnerable, so as to leave no one behind.” — UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet
“The Philippine government cannot just simply throw all consistent and persistent accounts of violations and frustrations with domestic remedies through the token of another washing machine to discombobulate the mind and deodorize the foul stink.”
“The authorities cannot violently disperse it and forcefully arrest the protesters, when the said protest action is held peacefully and, now with proper observance of health protocols under the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The advancement of broad, vague and overly abrasive definition and legislation relating to terrorism can have the opposite of the intended effect which is that by silencing voices, by cracking down on civil society, by weakening the due process and protections offered by the criminal justice system that doesn’t strengthen the States by rather weakening the due process protections offered by the criminal justice system — that doesn’t strengthen the States but rather weakens it in the long run.”
“Whether they like it or not, the government is responsible for human rights. Not the UN Special Rapporteurs, the civil society. This is the responsibility that they all (States) have signed.”
“The human rights situation in the Philippines has now reached a level of gravity requiring a robust intervention by the UN. The Human Rights Council must do everything in its power to prevent the continuation of widespread and systematic human rights abuses against the Philippines people.”