Duterte’s ‘revolutionary government’ is nothing but dictatorship

A Press Statement by the Movement Against Tyranny
October 15, 2017

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s idea of a “revolutionary government” is nothing else but the one-man dictatorship that he has been repeatedly dreaming of since last year.

Duterte merely wants to concentrate all governmental power to himself as president. He wants to further dismantle whatever little is left of the system of checks and balances provided by a rubber stamp Congress, a Supreme Court dominated by his and former Pres. Arroyo’s appointees, and easily intimidated Constitutional bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman and Commission on Human Rights.

He aims to further intimidate the critical press and overwhelm social media with his fake news-churning troll army.

Worse, in order to impose his “revolutionary” regime on the people, he will have to declare martial law nationwide, He will have to ban all forms of public criticism and dissent: protest rallies, strikes, political demonstrations of any kind, not even cultural shows, art works or social media posts. There will be wide-scale and utter disregard for due process, human rights and civil liberties.

Meanwhile, the same old oligarchic interests will remain, with Duterte’s family and friends as the favored cronies. The same old kowtowing to foreign interests. The same old corruption and criminality except cornered by the Duterte clique, the Davao group and even the ascendant mafia in the illegal drugs business.

Marcos tried the same thing before, resulting in 14 years of cronyism, plunder of the national treasury and economy and wholesale human rights violations of the worst kind.

The Movement Against Tyranny denounces Duterte’s so-called “revolutionary government” as nothing less than the usurpation of all powers to impose one-man rule and trample on the people’s democratic rights. We will not be cowed. We will not be silenced.

Making Christ alive

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
October 11, 2017

THIS is no gratuitous, baseless pursuit. We are not indulging in some fantasy when we exert the effort to make Christ alive in us. In the first place, because Christ himself is alive. He continues to be with us and is, in fact, actively intervening in our lives. We are not in some make-believe world.

It’s us who have the problem since we tend to ignore him. It’s the same problem once articulated by St. Augustine: “You were with me, but I was not with you.” And even the things around all point to us about Christ’s constant interventions in our lives. Still, we fail to be aware of him.

Christ, of course, died, but then he rose again, never to die again. And even if he rose again, he after so many days ascended into heaven. He should not be around anymore. But, no, he continues to be here, this time in the Holy Spirit!

Let’s remember that before he went up to heaven, he promised the coming of the Holy Spirit who would bring to us everything that Christ did and said. More than that, the Holy Spirit brings Christ alive in us.

This is how God works. The entire trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is involved in this continuing divine effort to bring us back to where we came from – that is, from God himself in whose image and likeness we have been created. And God in his work cannot be frustrated despite the mess we make.

We just have to exercise our faith to the hilt. With it we enter into a reality that goes beyond what we simply can see and touch and understand. With it we can feel at home even with mysteries which, by the way, abound in our life since we are not confined only to the sensible and material realities. Our world includes the spiritual and the supernatural.

Exercising our faith means constantly dealing with the Holy Spirit. Dealing with the Holy Spirit involves certain requirements, like deepening our knowledge of the truths of our faith by meditating on the gospel, studying the catechism, following the teachings of the Pope, etc.

It also involves constant spiritual struggle against our weaknesses, temptations and sins. It certainly involves developing virtues so that we gradually can be more perceptive of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Also indispensable is the recourse to the sacraments which are the very channels of grace that Christ himself instituted so that his presence and the effectiveness of his redemptive work on us can be perpetuated till the end of time.

This is how we can make Christ alive in us, Christ who will always understand us even if we many times fail him. We just have to do our part, and do it as best as we can, even to the point of heroism and martyrdom. This, in fact, is also the extent Christ does to reach us and to save us.

If we correspond actively to what Christ has done for us, we in the Holy Spirit can truly manage to make Christ alive in us. It is really just a matter of being consistent with our faith that brings with it the other virtues of hope and charity. In that way, we would be dealing with the Holy Spirit who will bring Christ to us alive.

From self-denial to self-fulfillment

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
September 30, 2017

THE secret is to follow Christ. He himself said so. “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, carry the cross and follow me.” (Mt 16,24) We need to be most familiar with this very useful formula in our life and try our best to live by it.

The self-denial asked by Christ is not of the kind that leads us to our self-annihilation. Far from it. It will rather lead us to our self-fulfillment. It is asking that instead of our own selves, we should have Christ as the center of our attention always, the very core and substance of our consciousness. We need, of course, to exercise our faith to live by this divine indication.

And the reason is simple. Christ is the very pattern of our humanity in its original state and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. It’s him in whom we can have our ultimate fulfillment, our true and lasting joy and peace. That’s why Christ said he is “the way, the truth and the life” for us. We cannot go to God, our Father and creator, except through him.

We have to be wary of certain ideologies, cultures and lifestyles that tend to replace Christ as the cause of our self-fulfillment. Sad to say, these appear to be proliferating these days. We have to learn to do battle with them.

The self-denial asked by Christ will obviously require a lot of effort and sacrifice. That’s because we have to contend with our tremendous tendency to stick to our own selves – our own ideas, desires, ambitions, etc. Besides, this tendency is constantly reinforced now by the many allurements of the world, not to mention, the tricks and wiles of the devil himself.

But again, we can be sure that all this effort and sacrifice is all worth it. We need to do everything to wean ourselves from our own selves and start to rely on Christ completely. That absolute reliance on Christ does not annihilate us. It will simply bring us to our most perfect and ideal state. We should have no doubts or qualms in pursuing that ideal.

With Christ, we would know how to use our powers and faculties properly. We would have a clear idea of the real and ultimate purpose of our life here on earth. With him, we somehow would know how to cope with all the possible situations we can have here, including our problems, mistakes and failures.

The self-denial asked by Christ does not remove our involvement and engagement in our earthly and temporal affairs. It simply puts them in the right context and the right direction. We cannot deny that especially these days, we are exposed to many and complicated distracting elements which we have to learn to handle.

The self-denial asked by Christ frees us from unnecessary baggage. It improves our vision and understanding of things, and predisposes our heart to the real love which can only be a sharing in God’s love and, therefore, our true fulfillment.

We therefore should not have superfluous things, creating needs that are really not needs, and thereby generating attachments that can be a hindrance in one’s relation with God and with others.

How should the work on the Asian Charter for Human Rights be carried forward?

By BASIL FERNANDO, AHRC
September 22, 2017

The following is a presentation made at a workshop organized by the Asian Human Rights Commission and the May 18th Foundation (14-16th September 2017) on the preparations for the 20th Anniversary of the Asian Human Rights Charter 1998. This paper addresses the direction the Asian human rights movement should take in order to contribute to the improved enjoyment of rights in Asian countries.

The Asian Human Rights Charter (hereinafter ‘the Charter’) was aimed at changing how human rights work was conducted in developing countries. This remains relevant to the context of most Asian countries, particularly because of the lack of developed systems for the administration of justice. The aim was to improve the actual realisation of human rights by the people. The institutions and systems required for the administration of justice are primarily the policing system, which plays the vital role of investigating into human rights violations; the prosecutions department, which is meant to call out violations of the law; and the judiciary, which is meant to adjudicate competently and impartially. All of these institutions and systems had to undergo significant improvements;

How were we to do that? That was what the Charter was meant to address.

The general human rights movement engages in calling for inquiries into massacres and other gross human rights abuses, and demands the prosecution of the perpetrators.

The Charter introduced the approach of investigating into the actual capacities of the institutions required for the administration of justice, in order to discover the defects that prevent people from accessing their rights. After establishing what was wrong with the system, the goal was to then engage in work that could help to overcome these defects and improve the enforcement of human rights.

For example, women in most Asian countries are denied their rights to liberty, education and equal opportunities for employment, and many suffer sexual abuse and associated forms of violence. Why is it that the police, prosecutions department and judicial system in their countries are unable to protect the rights of women? Why can’t women travel in the evenings and at night like men? Why are the police, prosecutions department and the judiciary unable to ensure the rights of women to move about in the way that men are able to move about? If the rights of women are to be enforced, it is necessary to find out why the institutions responsible for enforcing these rights have failed. In the same manner, we can discuss other examples like the rights of minorities, such as Dalits in South Asia. To discuss the rights of women or other groups without discussing why the institutions of justice fail them is to leave human rights purely as a dream or a pie in the sky.

What the AHRC wanted to suggest is that, in the same way that human rights groups advocate fact-finding missions into massacres and other crimes, there must also be fact-finding missions to discover the defects of the systems of justice that deny people redress for crimes and deprive them of their rights. Unfortunately while the human rights movement advocates fact-finding missions into massacres, it is not a mainstream practice to engage in fact-finding missions into problems of the justice system. This may be because the issues about defects of justice systems do not arise in developed countries under normal circumstances. Therefore, human rights investigations are confined to especially horrifying events and humanitarian catastrophes. This piecemeal approach is not suitable for countries that do not have the kind of institutional development that developed countries have because the day-to-day practices that lead to such catastrophes inevitably involve the administration of justice.

To be practical, let us ask the following questions:

a) Can the human rights movement engage in fact-finding missions with the view to make a proper assessment of, for example, the state of judicial independence in their countries? Can they look into the reasons why impunity prevails while the judiciary claims that it is independent? Is it because judicial officers are ill-educated or politically influenced, or because they do not really appreciate the idea of equality before the law? Or are there other reasons? If we know the reasons, then we can address the issue of impunity and take corrective actions to end it. Without this step, we will only be forever complaining about impunity. Impunity will continue despite such complaints. Ultimately, without the ability to understand the changes that need to be made and then taking steps to change things, the human rights movement could be seen as unable to show people what it can really offer to improve lives.

b) We can also undertake fact-finding missions into ineffective police investigation systems, with the view to finding out why such incompetence, which often leads to corruption, remains unchallenged. What are the causes of this situation and what is the way to change it?

c) The same questions could be raised about prosecutions, by undertaking similar fact-finding work.

The fact-finding methodologies may vary. It could be similar to the fact-finding missions into massacres. It could also be by way of extensive documentation work into the attempts taken by victims to seek justice and to find out why they have failed. It could also involve academic forms of fact-finding. Whatever be the method, the ultimate aim is to find the real causes of the defects in the system, with the view to work towards overcoming these problems.

This whole approach calls for a different type of activism. In assessing whether human rights defenders are sufficiently equipped to do their expected tasks, we must ask the questions that are raised above. There is no other way for human rights defenders to be well equipped to do their work.

Can this last year before the 20th anniversary of the Charter be the year in which we could experiment with new approaches to fact-finding and other human rights work, including advocacy and monitoring, which are directed towards the improved knowledge, and thereby increase the capacity of human rights defenders to improve their justice systems? This would increase the practical usefulness of human rights work for the people of their countries.

How can the advances that have come about in modern technology be used for the above purpose of fact-finding about justice system problems? And how could it further improve methods of advocacy so that more people could be influenced to undertake various types of functions as change makers? Additionally, how can we learn about the negative uses of modern technology, through which repressive states could use technology to repress work for the advancement of human rights? And how could we learn to counteract such methods?

Freedom of expression being the key to the improvement of human rights, how could this freedom be used for gaining and spreading a critical understanding of the defects of justice systems? These defects obstruct the enforcement of human rights, and it is important to develop ways to give expression to these problems so that whole nations and the international community could have a better understanding of the local situations, and thereby be in a position to take effective actions to overcome these problems.

Can we recondition activists to expand their work beyond the limited methods that they have gotten used to in accordance with earlier practices, and thereby learn to develop more efficient ways of showing people that their frustrations about human rights can in fact be explained, and that, with a proper understanding of defective systems of justice, actual improvements and even great changes could be brought about?

In short, can we envisage a new form of activism and dynamism and create a new type of human rights defender, one who does not merely talk about defending rights but can really protect the rights of the people they are working with?

Make war to gain peace

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
August 29, 2017

WE have to understand the proper relationship between war and peace. Christ himself who is the prince of peace recommended a kind of warfare that we have to undertake all the time. This can be gleaned from the following words of his:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword…Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” (Mt 10,34 ff)

In another part of the gospel, he also said: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.” (Mt 11,12)

We have to understand though that to be violent in this sense does not mean to be destructive but rather constructive, driven by love and the desire to be united with God and with the others in a way proper to us as children of God and brothers and sisters among ourselves.

Our life here on earth cannot but be in some form of struggle. Aside from our innate urge to grow and develop that requires some effort, we also have to contend with enemies whose sole intent is precisely to bring us down, to divert us from our proper path toward holiness.

We are not simply ranged against natural difficulties, challenges and trials in life, but rather with very powerful and subtle nemeses. The natural enemies alone are already formidable.

But we still have enemies tougher than these. As St. Paul said, “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Eph 6,12)

Truth is many people – in fact, I would say all of us one way or another – are looking for effective ways to develop our spiritual life and to be skillful in the unavoidable spiritual warfare in this life.

People, including the young ones whose stirring for the spiritual can be sharp and intense if hidden, want to know, for example, how to pray, or how to keep it going amid the many concerns in life. Getting engaged with God all throughout the day eludes them.

They actually want to know how to grow in the virtues but do not have ample support to pursue the goals. For example, to remain chaste, if the interest still flickers, remains an impossible dream.

They see glimpses of the need for the cross, for sacrifices in this life, but they get stalled if not hostaged by worldly distractions. Many want to get out of their self-absorption, but no one helps them, giving them ideas or simply encouraging them.

We need to find ways of how to wage war to gain the peace that is proper to us. We have to do a lot of personal apostolate based on friendship and confidence. We should teach our friends in personal direction and confidential chats how to wage this spiritual struggle in the concrete environment they are in.

One clear principle to follow here is to motivate them to truly fall in love with God and with everybody else. That love has creative ways of waging war against the enemies of God and of our soul.

Justice for Kian, justice for all!

A press statement by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN on the death of Kian delos Santos
August 26, 2017

BAYAN joins the nation in grief and outrage over the death of Kian delos Santos. We march today to bring Kian to his final resting place and to support the call for justice for all victims of Duterte’s fascist drug war. We call for accountability of the police officers directly involved in the killings as well as accountability of the commander-in-chief who sanctioned the killings.

President Duterte's war on drugs is a war on the poor. It falsely claims to be a solution to the proliferation of illegal drugs but targets mostly street-level dealers and not the big criminal syndicates in and out of government. The killings themselves corrupt the police force through a system of quotas and financial rewards for police officers. Rather than eliminating crime, Duterte's grotesque drug war has spawned new crimes and encouraged impunity on an entirely new level.

Duterte's drug war is a fascist non-solution to the problem of illegal drugs. So long as corrupt bureaucrats and their criminal syndicate partners remain untouched, and so long as poverty drives people to desperation, the problem of illegal drugs cannot be decisively resolved. No iron-fisted approach will succeed.

The brutality of the drug war reflects the same fascist mentality and policies that have resulted in the militarization of the countryside and gross human rights violations against farmers, Lumad and Moro people. It is the same fascist mindset that has resulted in abuses under Martial Law and the US-led war on terror. Meanwhile, the shameless lying and fabrication of evidence committed by the PNP in the case of Kian has long been a practice of the police and the military when they file trumped-up charges against activists.

The fight against impunity is a shared struggle of all freedom-loving Filipinos. The murder of Kian is an assault on all of us, especially the poor.

As Kian is laid to rest, we call on the Filipino people to continue the fight against tyranny and abuse, against fascism and impunity. We call on the people to resist the fascist, US-backed Duterte regime.

Killing Kian: A Nationwide Phenomenon

A press statement by Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas - Karapatan Eastern Visayas chapter
August 21, 2017

The Worsening Cases of Human Rights Violations Nationwide

The human rights situation in the Philippines has become far worse than how it was in the first quarter of President Duterte’s term as head of the Republic. Almost 10 months ago, Rodrigo Duterte shot out words that out-rightly called on his military and police forces to run amok and kill people who are implicated in the illegal drug trade even if it is in the most remote of ways. His statements that tolerated extra-judicial killings were taken as nothing short of formal policy and resulted, 10 months later into a total of 8000 victims of the administration’s War on Drugs.

Now that Duterte has completed a total of 14 months in office, his War on Drugs has claimed more than 13000 civilians under the operations of the Philippine National Police and their toleration of vigilante groups wantonly wreaking havoc on urban poor communities.

Claiming the Lives of Minors

Last August 18, a Grade 11 student by the name of Kian De Los Santos was killed in a police operation meant to raid a drug den in a local village in Caloocan. The operation took the life of Kian, who the PNP claimed was implicated in drug-related activities and had presented earlier this morning alleged collaborators and partners of the said 17-year old.

Amid the release of a CCTV footage which showed how Kian was defenseless in the presence of police officers who were visibly harassing him, the PNP still claimed the police they were on the defensive when they shot Kian whom they asserted “fought back” and “threatened” the security of the officers.

We call on all human rights groups, organizations and formations to condemn the blatant murder of Kian De Los Santos, who is one of many victims across the entire nation who’s lives have been claimed by the police’s war against the poor. There is also particular weight on the murder of Kian because his is one of many cases where the police has been implicated in the murder of minors, the youngest was that of a 4-year old girl in 2016 and a similar case of a 5-year old boy in Pasay of the same year.

The War on Drugs in Tacloban City

In Eastern Visayas, there have also been reports of extrajudicial killings committed by the Philippine National Police. Just last August 16, a Kenneth Bertes was killed in a police operation for being implicated in illegal drug trade. According to the mother of Kenneth Bertes, the boy was unarmed and defenseless against the police who were armed and greater in number. In 2016, there were also similar cases of reported extra-judicial killings committed on children belonging to the urban poor communities of downtown Tacloban and near the airport area.

The mere fact that these executions are taking place, not just in Caloocan but in different parts of the country is evidence that the murder of Kian Delos Santos is not an isolated case but a national phenomenon. And despite the growing public clamor to end the killings, Duterte has expressed support over the rise in the death toll. This is a clear indication that the president no longer wants to represent what is best for the people and operate within a framework of justice, from this we can predict that the killings will persist and will worsen throughout the rest of his term.

As a convener of the Rise Up for Life and for Rights Alliance, we believe that human rights is of paramount concern and must be upheld on all fronts.

JUSTICE FOR KIAN DELOS SANTOS! JUSTICE FOR THE VICTIMS OF STATE FASCISM! STOP THE KILLINGS!

Never be afraid to approach God

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
August 17, 2017

NOR be ashamed. Even if we have offended him big time or find ourselves in a most shameful condition, let’s never hesitate to approach God to ask for pardon or any kind of help. God is always a Father whose only delight is to love us all the way. He is ever ready for that, and, in fact, very eager too. He will do everything to help us in any way.

This is what we learn from the episodes of the Canaanite woman (cfr Mt 15,21-28), the official whose daughter just died, and the woman suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years. (cfr Mt 9)

In the case of the official, Christ dropped everything to go to the house of that official and along the way happened to help the woman also.

In the case of the woman, it has to be noted that she was publicly regarded as an outcast. But she was determined to approach Christ even secretly, and even if only to touch Christ’s cloak.

“If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured,” she said to herself. Her strong faith, her confidence, her humility, all contributed to the granting of her desire. “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you,” Christ told her. And she was cured.

Let’s take note that more than just the cure of her hemorrhages, Christ told her she was saved. Christ is more interested in the salvation of our sinful soul, which is more important than in the cure of any health problem.

In the case of the Canaanite woman, Christ readily saw how great her faith was, and so he relented even if at the beginning he ignored her. Christ was simply testing her faith. And by so doing, he also showed that faith can transcend and cross racial and cultural boundaries.

Let’s hope that we can have the same attitude as the Canaanite woman, the official and the sick woman. Let’s not delay in going to Christ by whom all our needs are satisfied. Let’s have the same attitude, the same faith, confidence and humility that these three characters had shown.

More than that, let’s also show among ourselves the same attitude that Christ had toward these three characters. Let’s be quick to help others, to understand them, to be patient and merciful with them. Let’s develop a universal heart that can accommodate everybody with love.

Let’s remember that we have to like him, since as the Son of God, he is the very pattern of our humanity, and as the Son of God who became man, he is our redeemer who definitely resolves our earthly human predicament.

Let’s spend time meditating on this wonderful truth about the fatherhood of God to us in the hope that we can develop that intimate spirit of filiation to him. Let’s remember that our divine filiation should be the foundation of our relationship with God.

We are not just one more creature of his. We are the masterpiece of the whole of his creation. We are children of his, yes, in spite of the mess that we can manage to create because of the misuse of our freedom.

We have to learn not to be afraid of him, nor ashamed to approach him because of our stupidities. The fear of the Lord, which is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is simply the fear of offending him, but not the fear to approach him after we may have offended him.

◄◄home I next►►