Category: News

‘The inherent dignity of every human being must be firmly placed at the center of our reflection and action’

FEBRUARY 25, 2019 16:53
ZENIT STAFF PAPAL TEXTS
(FULL TEXT)

The Assembly, taking place from 25 to 27 February in the Vatican’s New Synod Hall, will focus on the theme: “Roboethics: Humans, machines and health”.

The following is the Pope’s address to those present:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I cordially greet you on the occasion of your General Assembly, and I thank Archbishop Paglia for his kind words. This meeting takes place in the first Jubilee of the Academy for Life: twenty-five years after its birth. On this important anniversary, last month I sent the president a letter entitled Humana communitas. I was moved to write this message first of all by the wish to thank all the presidents who have guided the Academy, and all the Members for their competent service and generous commitment to protecting and promoting human life during these twenty-five years of activity.

We know the difficulties with which our world struggles. The fabric of family and social relations seems increasingly to wear away, and there is a tendency to become wrapped up in oneself and one’s own individual interests, with serious consequences for the “the decisive global issue of the unity of the human family and its future” (Letter Humana communitas, 2). A dramatic paradox is thus outlined: just when humanity possesses the scientific and technical capacities to achieve a justly distributed well-being, in accordance with how it was delivered by God, we observe instead an exacerbation of conflicts and an increase in inequality. The enlightenment myth of progress is declining and the accumulation of the potentialities that science and technology have provided us does not always attain the desired results. Indeed, on the one hand, technological development has allowed us to solve problems that were insurmountable until a few years ago, and we are grateful to the researchers who have achieved these results; yet on the other hand, difficulties and threats, sometimes more insidious than the previous ones, have emerged. The possibility of doing something risks obscuring both the person who does, and the person doing it. The technocratic system based on the criterion of efficiency does not respond to the most profound questions that man poses; and if on the one hand it is not possible to do without its resources, on the other it imposes its logic on those who use them. Yet technology is characteristic of the human being. It should not be understood as a force that is alien to and hostile to it, but as a product of its ingenuity through which it provides for the needs of living for oneself and for others. It is therefore a specifically human mode of inhabiting the world. However, today’s evolution of technical capacity casts a dangerous spell: instead of delivering the tools that improve their care to human life, there is the risk of giving life to the logic of the devices that decide its value. This reversal is destined to produce nefarious outcomes: the machine is not limited to driving alone, but ends up guiding man. Human reason is thus reduced to rationality alienated from effects, which cannot be considered worthy of mankind.

We see, unfortunately, the serious damage caused to the planet, our common home, from the indiscriminate use of technical means. This is why global bioethics is an important front on which to engage. It expresses awareness of the profound impact of environmental and social factors on health and life. This approach is very in tune with the integral ecology described and promoted in the Encyclical Laudato si’. Moreover, in today’s world, in which there is close interaction between different cultures, we need to bring our specific contribution as believers to the search for universally shared operational criteria, so that they may be common points of reference for the choices of those who have the serious responsibility for taking decisions on national and international levels. This also means engaging in dialogue regarding human rights, clearly highlighting their corresponding duties. Indeed these constitute the ground for the common search for universal ethics, on which we find many questions that tradition has dealt with by drawing on the patrimony of natural law.

The Lettera Humana communitas explicitly recalls the theme of “emerging and converging technologies”. The possibility of intervening on living material to orders of ever smaller size, to process ever greater volumes of information, to monitor – and manipulate – the cerebral processes of cognitive and deliberative activity, has enormous implications: it touches the very threshold of the biological specificity and spiritual difference of the human being. In this sense, I affirmed that “The distinctiveness of human life is an absolute good” (4).

It is important to reiterate: “Artificial intelligence, robotics and other technological innovations must be so employed that they contribute to the service of humanity and to the protection of our common home, rather than to the contrary, as some assessments unfortunately foresee” (Message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, 12 January 2018). The inherent dignity of every human being must be firmly placed at the centre of our reflection and action. In this regard, it should be noted that the designation of “artificial intelligence”, although certainly effective, may risk being misleading. The terms conceal the fact that – in spite of the useful fulfilment of servile tasks (this is the original meaning of the term “robot”), functional automatisms remain qualitatively distant from the human prerogatives of knowledge and action. And therefore they can become socially dangerous. Moreover, the risk of man being “technologized”, rather than technology humanized, is already real: so-called “intelligent machines” are hastily attributed capacities that are properly human.

We need to understand better what intelligence, conscience, emotionality, affective intentionality and autonomy of moral action mean in this context. Indeed, artificial devices that simulate human capabilities are devoid of human quality. This must be taken into account to guide the regulation of their use, and research itself, towards a constructive and equitable interaction between human beings and the latest versions of machines. Indeed these spread throughout our world and radically transform the scenario of our existence. If we can also make these references bear weight also in action, the extraordinary potential of the new discoveries may radiate their benefits on every person and on the whole of humanity.

The ongoing debate among specialists themselves already shows the serious problems of governability of algorithms that process huge amounts of data. Likewise, the technologies for the manipulation of genetic makeup and brain functions also pose serious ethical questions. In any case, the attempt to explain the whole of human thought, sensitivity, and psychism on the basis of the functional sum of its physical and organic parts, does not account for the emergence of the phenomena of experience and consciousness. The human phenomenon exceeds the result of the calculable assemblage of the individual elements. Also in this context, the axiom according to which the whole is superior to the parts takes on new depth and meaningfulness (see Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 234-237).

Precisely in this area of the complexity of the synergy of psyche and techne, on the other hand, what we are learning about cerebral activity provides new clues about the way of understanding the conscience (of self and of the world) and the human body itself: it is not it is possible to disregard the interweaving of multiple relationships for a deeper understanding of the integral human dimension.

Of course, we cannot make metaphysical deductions from the data provided by empirical sciences. We can, however, draw from them indications that instruct anthropological reflection, in theology too, as has always happened in its history. It would indeed be decidedly contrary to our more genuine tradition to become set on an anachronistic conceptual apparatus, incapable of adequately interacting with the transformations of the concept of nature and of artifice, conditioning and freedom, means and ends, induced by the new culture of acting, typical of the technological era. We are called to place ourselves on the path undertaken decisively by Vatican Council II, which calls for the renewal of theological disciplines and a critical reflection on the relationship between Christian faith and moral action (cf. Optatam totius, 16).

Our commitment – also intellectual and specialist – will be a point of honour for our participation in the ethical alliance in favour of human life. A project which, in a context in which increasingly sophisticated technological devices directly involve the human qualities of the body and the psyche, it becomes urgent to share with all men and women engaged in scientific research and care work. It is a difficult task, certainly, given the fast pace of innovation. The example of the teachers of the Christian intelligence, who entered with wisdom and audacity in the processes of their contemporary world, with a view to an understanding of the patrimony of the faith at the level of reason worthy of man, must encourage and sustain us.

I hope you will continue your study and research so that the work of the promotion and defence of life may be increasingly effective and fruitful. May the Virgin Mother assist you and my blessing accompany you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you.

 [Vatican-provided translation of text]

Amid People Power month, Duterte urged: Lead a real EDSA in haciendas, remove ex-Marcos crony Cojuangco’s grip over 5,000-hectare Negros landholding

Task Force Mapalad
February 26, 2019

Hundreds of peasants who were already issued certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) but whose landholdings remain under the control of business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. are urging President Rodrigo Duterte to “do a real EDSA” by ending the former Marcos crony’s monopoly over a nearly 5,000-hectare property in Negros Occidental, consisting of 12 haciendas.

 “The more than 30-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was an offshoot of the 1986 People Power as Filipinos, including peasants, did not only move for the ouster of a dictator but also for the end of widespread poverty and injustice in haciendas. Also, the 1986 uprising gave birth to the 1987 Charter that upheld the rights of landless peasants to own directly and collectively the lands they till and receive a just share of the fruits thereof,” said Noel Magan, president of the ECJ CLOA Holders and Farm Workers Association-Task Force Mapalad (ECHAFAWA-TFM).

 “But the EDSA that we pushed and longed for didn’t become a reality in the vast tracts of land we had been tilling for decades. Up to now, just like during the Marcos regime, Cojuangco remains the lord of these landholdings. We thus urge President Duterte, as chief of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the country’s highest agrarian reform policy-making body, to make EDSA happen in these haciendas,” Magan added.

Moreover, Magan noted that it had already been a year since the PARC Executive Committee, headed by Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, issued on Feb. 22, 2018 a resolution recommending to Duterte the revocation of Cojuangco’s joint venture agreement with his former workers in haciendas awarded to the latter through the CARP. 

 “We will not forget what you said in May 2016 immediately after you won the presidency. You said, ‘I despised oligarchs (because) they get the fat out of the land.’ In August of the same year, you promised that you would ‘destroy the clutches of monster oligarchs in our country,’” Magan told Durterte.

 “Here is an example of a stubborn oligarch, who continues to squeeze wealth from our backs. We still believe in your 2016 promise, Mr. President. Please end our misery by ending Cojuangco’s reign. Please immediately convene the PARC and uphold the recommendation of your council’s executive committee to cancel Danding’s business venture involving our haciendas,” he added.

Tree decades of CARP, three decades of Cojuangco control

The TFM peasant leader is referring to the 12 contiguous haciendas found in the cities of Bago and La Carlota and the towns of La Castellana, Isabela, Hinigaran, Murcia, San Enrique, Himamaylan, and Pontevedra, all in Negros Occidental.

Magan said these were acquired by Cojuangco during the Marcos regime and placed under sequestration by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, but until now remain under the control of the San Miguel Corp. chair even after three decades of CARP implementation.

The haciendas, covering a total area of 4,654 hectares that were planted with assorted fruit trees such as mango, durian, pili, santol, and mangosteen, should have already been distributed by the Department of Agrarian Reform to its 1,756 tillers as early as 1988 or until 1992.

Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) of 1988 mandates the DAR to distribute to landless farmers private agricultural landholdings of more than 50 hectares within a period of four years since CARL became effective.

Despite the law, Cojuangco remained the owner of these commercial landholdings. In 1988, during the administration of Cojuangco’s cousin, the late President Corazon Aquino, then DAR chief Philip Ella Juico issued Administrative Order No. 16 deferring for 10 years the distribution to farmers of commercial agricultural landholdings.

Ten years later, in 1998, as the land distribution deferment ended, and it was supposedly already time for Cojuangco’s 12 haciendas to be distributed to its tillers, the DAR, under the Estrada administration, came up with what it called the “corporative” scheme — a fusion of the words “corporation” and “cooperative” – that allowed Cojuangco to retain control of the haciendas, by forming an agribusiness partnership with his hacienda workers.

 ‘Cojuangco, definitely not the farmers’ selfless ninong’

While certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) were generated by the DAR in 1998 in favor of the farm workers of the 12 haciendas, making them the new owners of the landholdings, the CARP beneficiaries were not able to have direct control over the management and production decisions in their own land.

Through DAR Administrative Order No. 2 of 1999, issued by then DAR Secretary Horacio Morales Jr., which set the rules and regulations for establishing JEE — Estrada’s initials — meaning Joint Economic Enterprises, it made it possible for Cojuangco to maintain control of the 12 haciendas.

During a much-hyped announcement covered by the media, Cojuangco said in 1998 that he would give away his Negros haciendas, valued at P350,000 per hectare, to his farm workers for a token fee of P1 per hectare. This earned him praise from then President Estrada, Cojuangco’s vice presidential running mate in the 1992 polls, who called the SMC chair the benevolent “godfather of land reform.”

Cojuangco’s supposed donation of the haciendas to his farm workers, however, was not without a trade-off. While he waived the compensation – worth about P1.6 billion – in exchange for the DAR’s acquisition of his landholdings and their distribution to his workers, Cojuangco made the establishment of a joint economic enterprise with the CARP beneficiaries of his landholdings a condition to his not receiving the compensation.

 “Even when we were already CLOA holders and could already start charting our lives without being slaves of a landlord, Cojuangco, refused to part with us, definitely not because he was a true, selfless, generous ninong, as claimed by Estrada,” said Magan, who is among some 1,200 CLOA holders of the 12 haciendas urging Duterte’s PARC to void their joint enterprise with Cojuangco.

 “Through a manipulative scheme that created corporate layers, separating us from directly managing our own land, Cojuangco was able to continue his greedy grip over the 12 haciendas, until he was able to dilute our rights and control over our CARP-awarded property, until we came back to who we were before, when we were still landless – hungry, poor, and powerless,” he added.

After the DAR cancelled Cojuangco’s land titles to the haciendas and issued CLOAs to the businessman’s workers in 1998, making them the new landowners, the same certificates were again cancelled by the department.

Another CLOA, a collective title, was generated by the DAR in 2003 and was issued to the ECJ Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multipurpose Cooperative (EFARBEMCO), making it the new owner of the haciendas that would transact with Cojuangco’s ECJ & Sons Agricultural Enterprises, Inc. under the joint economic enterprise deal.

Under the business deal between EFARBEMCO and ECJ & Sons, the use of the landholdings owned by Magan and his fellow CARP beneficiaries would be assigned to the joint enterprise in exchange for a 30 percent equity, while Cojuangco’s camp would get 70 percent-equity in exchange for providing capital, facilities, and technical expertise to operate the haciendas.

 ‘Our land rights were thinned down, even erased’

In 2004, EFARBEMCO and ECJ & Sons entered in a new joint venture agreement, creating another entity – the South Negros Joint Venture Corporation (SNJVC) – that was given by the cooperative the right to develop, operate, cultivate, and improve the 12 haciendas for 20 years or until 2024, renewable for another two decades.

The last three years of any elected administration can be very contentious and trying times. The national leadership’s ability to effectively respond to political and related challenges will be significantly shaped by the outcome of the upcoming 2019 mid-term elections. Indeed, the 2019 election is a Prologue to the 2022 elections in all its uncertainties and opportunities. While the 2019 election is only one arena of contestation it can set the line of march for more momentous events for the next few years.

Introduction

Regular elections are an enduring feature of Philippine political life. While there continue to be deep-seated structural and procedural problems attending its practice in the country, the electoral tradition is a well-established arena for choosing elected representatives from the lowest governing constituency (the barangays) to the national governing bodies (the legislature and the presidency). Electoral exercises trace their roots to the first local elections held during the Spanish and American colonial eras, albeit strictly limited to the propertied and educated classes. Under American colonial rule, the first local (town) elections were held as early as 1899 and in 1907 the first election for a national legislature was conducted. Thus, with the exception of the Japanese occupation era (1942-1945) and the martial law period under Pres. Marcos (1972-1986; although sham elections were held in 1978 and 1981), the country has experienced regular although highly contested elections at both the local and national levels for most of the country’s political history.

Elections in the country require the investiture of massive resources to fill up numerous elective positions. Under the 1987 Constitution, the presidency is up for election every six years (incumbent is entitled to a single 6-year term of office with no reelection) while all other elective positions are contested every three years. In the 24- person Senate (the upper legislature), 12 members are elected nationally every three years for a six-year term.

In the 2019 mid-term elections, the following government seats will be contested: 12 senators, 59 party list representatives, 243 district representatives, 81 governors and vice-governors each, 780 provincial board members, 145 city mayors and vice-mayors each, 1,628 city councilors, 1,489 municipal mayors and vice-mayors each and 11, 916 municipal councilors. Moreover, in September 2018, five new congressional seats were created by Congress (the national legislature) putting the total of elective positions, national and local, in the May 2019 elections at 18,086.

In the former Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), one governor and vice-governor and 24 ARMM regional assembly persons were also elected. However, with the approval in a plebiscite last January and February 2019 of the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), there will be a new regional government to be elected in 2022. In the meantime, a Bangsamoro Transitional Authority made up of 81 members selected by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Duterte administration will assume responsibility for ruling the transitory regional government till the May 2022 elections.

Key Features of Elections in the Philippines: Powerful Dynasties and Weak Parties

There are two enduring features of Philippine politics that define much of its dynamics especially in the context of its long history of elections: its domination by powerful political families and its weakly institutionalized political parties. Electoral control by dynastic political families is rooted in the early inception of elections under American colonial rule which legitimized the economic and political power of provincial elites. Consequently, elections also catapulted the local elites to positions of elective national power (particularly the lower and upper houses of the legislature or Congress). Since independence in 1946, new political players have found it difficult to undermine this dynastic control of elections due to the continuing oligopolistic control of resources and election rules and prohibitive electoral campaign costs that favored the traditional elites. Not surprisingly, many of the powerful elites who trace their roots from their ascendancy during the American colonial era and the post-independence era continue to be key players in the current national political scene: the families of Marcos-Romualdez- Araneta, Aquino-Cojuangcos, Roxas-Araneta, Osmeña-Lopez, Macapagal-Arroyos, and the Estradas, to name the most powerful.

Task Force Mapalad
February 17, 2019

Get angry for landless farmers, over DAR’s dismal CARP accomplishment

Thousands of farmers belonging to national peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) have expressed apprehension that agrarian reform would suffer a major setback under the Duterte administration amid the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)’s dismal performance in land distribution and the agency’s recent issuance of an administrative order (AO) fast-tracking land use conversion.

“Though we are still confident that President Rodrigo Duterte is sincere in his desire to end the misery of landless farmers, we are afraid that his recent statement over his frustration in the DAR’s slow processing of land conversion applications and the issuance of the AO could send mix signals that the department’s priority now will no longer be land distribution but land conversion,” said Teresita Tarlac, president of TFM’s Panay-Negros Chapter.

DAR Secretary John Castriciones recently issued AO No. 1, series of 2019, whose aim is to hasten the processing of applications for conversion of agricultural landholdings into non-agricultural use. The AO was issued amid Presiden Duterte’s frustration over the agency’s slow processing of land use conversion applications.

Last January 22, while in Lucena City, the chief executive warned DAR officials to fast-track land conversion or they would face dismissal. Last February 6, the President walked out of a Cabinet meeting as he again got angry over the DAR’s sluggish pace in resolving land use conversion applications.

DAR’s very low CARP accomplishment also worthy of Duterte’s anger
“There’s also good reason to get extremely angry about the DAR’s CARP accomplishment under the present administration because it is the lowest in history. And we hope that the President will likewise get angry for us and over the DAR’s failure to fast-track land distribution despite the fact that land claims are already on the agency’s table, only awaiting issuance to farmers of certificates of landownership award (CLOA),” said Tarlac.
“In many landholdings, including in Negros Occidental, all the DAR, with the Registry of Deeds (ROD), needs to do is generate and issue the CLOAs to the farmers to pull the administration’s CARP accomplishment up. All it needs is to lift a finger, not move heaven and earth to end the plight of landless farmers. But it isn’t doing an already easy task. Isn’t this equally exasperating and worthy of President Duterte’s anger and frustration?” she added.

TFM earlier called on the chief executive to start completing CARP in Negros Occidental, where land monopoly persists despite the nearly 31-year-old CARP. The group said the President, through the DAR, could start it by hastening the issuance of CLOAs to the province’s some 1,000 farmers working on 30 landholdings covering around 900 hectares, which are already ripe for CARP distribution but remain “parked” at the ROD.

“We still remember what President Duterte said in May 2016, days after he won the elections. He said he ‘despises oligarchs’ because ‘they get the fat of the land.’ Many of the agricultural landholdings where oligarchic landlords built their wealth are supposedly already in the hands of their tillers now, but remain under the control of hacienderos simply because the DAR and the ROD are not fast-tracking the issuance of CLOAs,” said Tarlac.

Lowest in CARP history

Data from the DAR show that the Duterte administration, in its first two years in office, had the lowest land distribution accomplishment since the Cory Aquino administration started CARP in 1986.

A total of 63,202 hectares of CARP-covered agricultural landholdings was distributed to farmers under the present administration from 2016 to 2017.
The highest land distribution accomplishment was recorded in the first two years of the Ramos administration. It was able to distribute to CARP beneficiaries a total of 679,341 hectares in 1992 and 1993.
The second highest accomplishment was during the first two years of the Estrada administration wherein a total of 269,427 hectares was distributed from 1998 to 1999.

This was followed by the administration of President Benigno Aquino III with 222,069 hectares from 2010 to 2011; by the Arroyo administration with 215,983 hectares in 2001 and 2002; and by the Cory Aquino administration with 114,259 hectares in 1986 to 1987.

The DAR is still left with at least 500,000 hectares of private and public agricultural landholdings that remain undistributed to landless tillers. About 20 percent or some 100,000 hectares of this CARP balance is found in Negros Occidental, known as the country’s bedrock of feudalism.

Stop the crackdown vs. activists and stop killing farmers!

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Philppine Peasant Movement) demands the immediate release of peasant leader Ireneo Udarbe, KMP national council member and chairperson of KMP-Northern Mindanao Region and Lumad leader Datu Jomorito Goaynon, chairperson of Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization.

The two were arrested on January 28, 2019 in Brgy. Patag, Cagayan de Oro City by joint elements of Philippine National Police (PNP) Region 10 and the 4th Infantry Batallion Military Intelligence Bureau based on a warrant issued by Judge Emmanuel Pasal of the Cagayan de Oro City RTC Branch 38.

They were charged with fabricated criminal charges of rebellion, illegal possesion of firearms and explosives and election gun ban.

They were initially reported as missing by their colleagues on January 28, 2019 and were surface and presented by the police on the next day as alleged ranking NPA members.

Prior to their arrest, the two activist leaders were harassed and redtagged by the AFP. The two are actually on bail after they were first arrested along with 11 other activists in General Santos City based on trumped-up criminal charges last July 2018.

The two activist leaders are spearheading peasant and indigenous people’s campaigns against militarization and human rights violation in Northern Mindanao region. Last May 2018, Udarbe joined farmers and Lumad organizations against the 8th and 88th IBPA.

They also joined the International Fact Finding Mission on the atrocities of Martial Law in Mindanao last April 2018.

Under the extended Martial Law in Mindanao and Oplan Kapayapaan, the Duterte regime’s state security forces are committing grave and blatant violations of the people’s socio-economic and cultural rights, civil and political rights, and the rights of persons in the midst of armed conflict in Northern Mindanao.

Blanket repression across Northern Mindanao target entire rural communities and zero-in on individuals affiliated with various people’s organizations.

Violations of rights of the people of Northern Mindanao, especially farmers and national minorities, are committed by state forces with the direct motive of silencing their struggle for land, ancestral domain and right to self-determination.

Military force and deployment in communities are clearly used to pursue the interests of corporate plantations and other forms of environmental plunder.

On January 30, 2019, combined elements of PNP-CIDG, AFP, and MisOR-NICA raided the office of Misamis Oriental Farmers Association (MOFA) in Villanueva town and arbitrarily arrested four adult and 3 minors (two are toddlers).

The arresting team arrived at around 6:30pm, planted explosives and firearms, and forcibly took the seven individuals who were staying at the office.

Among those taken were MOFA Chairperson Jerry Basahon, Gerald Basahon, Marivic Colita and her one-year old child, Mylene Colita and her two-year old relative, and a 16-year old minor identified only as Janine.

According to initial reports, AFP soldiers arrived at the MoFA office and starting searching the office premises and compound without a search warrant. When the MOFA members asserted that the search is illegal, the soldiers punched and kicked Jerry Basahon. The PNP-CIDG arrived with a search warrant and took the individuals. Jerry’s cousin Gerald Basahon was not included in the search warrant.

The police claimed that they arrested 4 NPA leaders based on two search warrants for violation of RA 10591 and RA 9516 or illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The police also claimed that they found a hand grenade, a land mine, a . 45 caliber pistol and documents at the MOFA office. MOFA leaders and members Jerry, Gerald, Marivic and Mylene were presented by the police as New People’s Army (NPA) leaders.

They were brought to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) detention center in Camp Evangelista, Patag, Cagayan de Oro City. All six activists arrested are still detained.

(UPDATED) The United States, in a rare statement on a domestic controversy, says it hopes the cyber libel case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa ‘will be resolved quickly’

Rappler
Paterno Esmaquel II
@paterno_ii
Published 7:55 PM, February 14, 2019
Updated 12:19 AM, February 15, 2019

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The United States released a rare statement on Thursday, February 14, stressing the need for due process in the cyber libel case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.

“We hope the charge against journalist and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa will be resolved quickly in accordance with relevant Philippine law and international standards of due process,” said the US embassy in Manila.

The US rarely releases statements on specific Philippine issues such as this. Foreign embassies, after all, avoid commenting on domestic controversies involving the sovereignty of another country. The US is however an advocate of the rule of law, free speech, and democracy.

On Twitter, former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright denounced Ressa’s arrest, calling it “outrageous.”

“The arrest of journalist Maria Ressa by the Philippine government is outrageous and must be condemned by all democratic nations,” said Albright. “I’m proud to call her a friend and to stand with her in defending the principles of a free press.”

Canada on Thursday also issued a statement about Ressa’s arrest.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist herself, said she is “deeply troubled by reports” that Ressa was arrested.

“A free press is a bedrock of democracy. Canada reiterates its call for due process to be respected and for journalists to be free from harassment and intimidation,” Freeland said.

The National Bureau of Investigation arrested Ressa on Wednesday, February 13, due to cyber libel, and detained her overnight in its Manila headquarters. Ressa posted bail on Thursday.

Ressa is facing a string of cases in the Philippines as the Duterte administration slams Rappler for its critical coverage. International news groups and journalists have condemned the threats to press freedom under Duterte’s watch. (READ: Maria Ressa’s arrest part of broader gov’t campaign, say rights groups) – Rappler.com