President Duterte has vowed to “finally accomplish the ultimate goal” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, started in 1988 by President Cory Aquino as her “centerpiece program.” On the CARP’s 31st anniversary observance last Tuesday, Duterte said he would distribute all agricultural lands in the country and accomplish the program’s ultimate goal through what he…
By DEE AYROSO
“The law was designed to serve as the coup de grâce against the sagging communist movement in the Philippines. It was the answer to the local reds’ shift in style from armed aggression to the more subtle ‘legal and parliamentary struggle.’ It was hoped that the law would finally break the back, or what remained…
Plans are afoot to bring back the long dead Anti-Subversion Act that became LAW 62 years ago. The military, the police and the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) are asking Congress to do just that on the argument that its re-enactment — it was repealed in 1992 during the Fidel V. Ramos presidency…
By DEE AYROSO
Every tyranny has used fear and hate to take power and to keep it. Coercion and the use of force have never been enough. A gun can only kill, but fear can make entire nations tremble, and hate lead them into committing the worst of crimes. Adolf Hitler used anti-Jewish sentiments to stoke German fears…
On Dec. 4, 2018, President Duterte signed Executive Order 70 constituting a body, headed by himself, called “National Task Force (NTF) to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict.” It set a six-month period, from its issuance, for the NTF to “formulate and start to implement, in coordination with relevant government agencies, LGUs, civil society and…
There will never be a time when I will declare martial law (in Negros Oriental). What I said was that I would take drastic action,” President Duterte clarified in a speech before local government officials in Malacañang on Aug. 7. He was referring to a statement of his spokesperson that he might declare martial law…
Dapat igalang ang pasya ng anak para sa sarili at dapat ipagmalaki anuman ang kanilang desisyon, lalo na ang pagsilbihan ang mamamayan.
The Philippine National Police’s complaint of sedition/inciting to sedition, cyber libel, libel, obstruction of justice, and harboring a criminal against lawyers, priests, Vice-President Leni Robredo, and several opposition candidates for senator in last May’s elections is likely to make it to the courts. If it does, it will be one more instance that critics of…
In 2015, on the fifth year of the P-Noy administration’s counterinsurgency program (Oplan Bayanihan), the Armed Forces of the Philippines declared the province of Negros Oriental as a “conflict-manageable and ready for further development” area. The implication was that the state security forces had succeeded in weakening the presence/influence of the New People’s Army in…