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…
“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…
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…
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…
In his fourth state-of-the-nation address President Duterte didn’t say a word about the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines that have shocked many all over the world. Just the week before, his government had been embroiled in a ruckus over the approval of a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council, urging the UN High…
The Department of Education’s order to suspend the operations of 55 lumad schools, mostly in Davao del Norte, is the latest challenge in the Mindanao indigenous people’s struggle to keep running their own schools as an expression of their cultural autonomy and identity. Should the DepEd order lead to the total shutdown of the schools…
In the past three years, close to 40 nations have been signing a resolution, initiated by Iceland, expressing concern over the rising number of killings related to President Duterte’s “war on drugs.” Initially they urged the Philippine government to stop the killings and undertake an impartial investigation on these cases. Subsequently they called on the…
In the Philippines, used as we are to tropical heat such as the long dry spell of recent weeks, global warming doesn’t seem to be the huge problem that it is in other countries where wild fires and extreme temperatures kill hundreds of vulnerable people. But even as we count ourselves lucky in this regard,…
The State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.” That’s how direct and clear the mandate on the government is under Section 2 of Article XII (National Economy and Patrimony) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. It…
For almost two weeks now, the midnight “maritime incident” near Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea has exercised to a considerable degree the Filipinos’ collective sense of outrage, then of outrage combined with disappointment, frustration, and shame. And their basic demand for accountability for the incident and its consequences calls for prompt and appropriate…