Franciscus Webinar Series with Fr Gerard Timoner III, OP
Master of the Order of Preachers
Emily Vital | August 26, 2021
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Human rights lawyer Rex JMA Fernandez was ambushed by a lone assailant this afternoon August 26 in Good Shepherd Road, Banawa, Cebu City. He was 64.
According to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL)’s count, Fernandez is the 57th in the list of lawyers and judges killed under the Duterte administration.
As a former legal counsel of human rights group Karapatan, Fernandez also took on cases of human rights victims filed military officials, including that of torture survivor Raymond Manalo against former Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.
In a statement, NUPL President Edre Olalia condemned the incident. “No words, indeed. Another colleague has fallen with his boots on. We had lost count. It has not stopped and every lawyer is a sitting duck,” he said.
He described Fernandez as “passionate, intense and brave, even as he was unique in many ways.”
Olalia said that even after Fernandez became inactive in NUPL, he continued to collaborate with fellow human rights lawyers in public interest cases.
Fernandez, founding member of the NUPL, handled the case of the Carbon vendors against the Carbon modernization project of Megawide Construction Corp, according to alternative media group Aninaw Productions. He also served as one of the lawyers of Cebu 8, or the protesters and bystanders arrested during a protest against the Anti-Terror bill on June 5, 2020.
Recently, Fernandez also figured in a dispute with condominium owner over water supply.
“Before he was silenced, he castigated the present administration which he had hitherto placed his sincere hope on would bring change,” Olalia said. “He died disillusioned that it was not meant to be.”
Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Cebu chapter also denounced the killing. “An attack on our brother-lawyer for case-related motives is an attack on the justice system and the rule of law we promised to protect,” the group said.
IBP-Cebu called on the authorities to investigate the incident promptly and bring the perpetrators to justice. Lawyers groups have been calling on the Supreme Court to act on the rising cases of extrajudicial killings and threats against the officers of the court.
(https://www.bulatlat.com)
August 20, 2021
Instead of reproaching the independent state auditing body for doing its job, President Duterte should have called for an investigation on the alleged deficiencies of the Department of Health (DOH) in the use of its P67.3-billion funds for the Covid-19 pandemic response.
The Commission on Audit (COA) said “the deficiencies in the handling of the P67.3-billion pandemic response fund were caused by noncompliance with pertinent laws, rules and regulations, and undermined the timely and efficient response to the pandemic last year.”
It said “the DOH failed to utilize P59.124 billion of its 2020 budget and was unable to use as much as P11.8 billion of the COVID-19 funds, which meant that these “were not translated [into] much-needed health supplies, equipment and services that could have benefited both the health workers and the general public during the critical times of the pandemic.”
To COA’s credit, it has flagged to the taxpayers what they should rightfully know. What is appalling is not the flagging of the COA report but the reaction of the President who said on national television that COA’s report allegedly implies corruption, particularly in connection with a P67.3-billion fund for pandemic response. The President even told Duque to “ignore the COA report, obviously unmindful if not oblivious, that COA is an independent constitutional body whose mandate includes publicly disclosing expenditures by state agencies.
At the start of his presidency, one of Duterte’s avowed commitments is to rid the government of corruption. He even declared that he would fire officials even with just a whiff of corruption. Why is he now muzzling the agency that guards against corruption, and shielding those who committed irregularities in using public funds?
What we see in all these is a colossal reek of deficiencies, mismanagement and even clear and present signs of corruption that warrant the resignation of Secretary Duque. In the best interest of the suffering Filipino people, he must resign immediately even if his “boss” tells him no to. And if the president cannot or will not rid the government agencies of corrupt officials, he must resign too!
Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum
Shay Cullen
20 August 2021
Indigenous peoples are under threat as never before and need the international community to stand with them as they demand justice, their ancestral land rights and an end to the exploitation and abuse they suffer in many countries.
They suffer discrimination, stigmatization and racism. How disingenuous that is since all people in the world today descended from some indigenous tribal people through the ages. In fact, DNA tests show that everyone in the world is descended from one common ancestor in Africa. Real science does not lie. The human species emerged in the Makgadikgadi-Okavango wetland. It was not just any home, but the ancestral “homeland” for all modern humans today. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/controversial-study-pinpoints-birthplace-modern-humans
Today, there are more than 476 million indigenous peoples that live in 90 nations around the world. According to the United Nations, they make up 6.2 percent of the world population. They have their own unique languages, culture, customs and traditions and have ancestral rights to their lands having possessed these from time immemorial. They are people that are capable of self-governance and have survived for many thousands of years before nations emerged in history. In the last 500 years, colonialism spread across the world and foreign nations invaded the lands of indigenous people, killed millions and stole and occupied their lands. The indigenous people were infected with western diseases against which they had no defense and millions more died. Others were massacred and driven to the edge of extinction.
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Colleagues:
The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) is organizing A Roundtable Discussion on Integrating Labour Migration Reporting in the Journalism Curriculum: The Philippine Experience. The event is supported by the World Journalism Education Council (WJEC) and UNESCO.
The forum will feature the experience of the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) in crafting the Labour Migration Reporting syllabus with support from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Please join us in this live virtual event. This is scheduled on 02 September 2021 at 15:00 TO 16:30 (Manila Time).
Registration is free. To register, visit https://amic.ac-page.com/labor-migration-reporting
Among the discussion points are: the need to offer Labour Migration Reporting in the Journalism Curriculum; main lessons learned in the crafting of the syllabus which can be useful to other countries; challenges journalism educators will likely encounter when they roll out the syllabus; and outcomes expected from journalism students after taking up the course.
Invited to this forum are journalism educators, media and other stakeholders from the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region.
A certificate of participation will be issued to those attending the webinar.
For other concerns, please email IMELDA SAMSON at i.samson@amic.asia.
We, the One Faith, One Nation, One Voice (OFONOV) – Cordillera Chapter, coming from different Christian traditions, sects and denominations, declare our solidarity with the people of Apayao, in a prophetic chorus proclaiming that we choose life (Deuteronomy 30:15-29), to defend the rights of the poor and the needy (Proverbs 31:9), and to announce the favourable year of the Lord for justice and freedom.
We lament the brutal killing of Atty. Victor Domingo Begtang Jr., assigned to the City Prosecutor’s Office in Ilagan City, Isabela. He was shot dead by unidentified men on June 23, 2021 in his hometown in Sitio Hanhan, Barangay Malama, Conner, Apayao. We mourn over the merciless killing of Enrico “Ike” Cabasag, a Barangay Councilor of Barangay Ripang, Conner, Apayao and an environment defender. He, together with the peoples’ movement, was a vocal opposition to the river dredging project in the municipality. Some unidentified men murdered him right there in their house in the evening of March 14, 2013. His death inspired the people of Barangay Ripang to continue with their struggle and give justice to his death.
We strongly condemn these senseless and barbaric killings that took the lives of these civil servants who have dedicated their lives to the welfare and development of their hometown. It has become a deplorable pattern that government critics and political dissenters are silenced through extra-judicial killings. This is unacceptable for us in the religious sector and for the people of Apayao who believe in the rule of law and due process.
We call for a stop to the extra-judicial killings in the Province of Apayao and in the country as a whole. We believe that peace-loving civil servants of Apayao don’t deserve this. We have faith that the people will stand up for truth and justice to reign in our midst.
Let us join the peace-loving people of Apayao in their call to end the killings of critics and political dissenters. Let us support the people to speak out and make known what they believe in, and fight for what they think would benefit their generation and the future. Let us unite and stand up in pursuing justice to the killings and put those responsible behind bars.
Let us work together for it is our Christian duty to safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples, to protect them from those who would curtail their collective and basic human rights and freedoms, and to defend land, life and resources from corporate greed and plunder.
Let our voices be heard like the sound of the gongs reverberating its call for justice and peace in our land.
STOP THE KILLINGS!
STAND UP FOR JUSTICE!
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream
– Amos 5:24
Politics and Political Participation: A Call for People’s
Solidarity, Empowerment and Social Justice
20 August 2021
By Vatican News staff writer
August 24 2021
Pope Francis has sent greetings to the members of the Laudato si’ Inter-University Congress scheduled to hold from 1-4 September in Argentina.
In the video message delivered in Spanish, he expressed hope that the initiative will “advance social awareness and consciousness” for the care of our common home.
“The Encyclical Laudato si’ is not only a ‘green’ Encyclical, it is also a ‘social’ Encyclical,” the Pope said, hoping that the Congress will help its scope and consequences to become more visible.
Finally, with a request for prayers for himself, the Pope blessed the participants at the Congress.
Laudato si’ Congress
The Congress is organized by the National Inter-University Council (CIN) and the Council of Rectors of Private Universities (CRUP), in conjunction with the Bishops Conference of Argentina (CEA) on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the encyclical Laudato si’.
The conferences, talks, and other activities, put together under the theme “Caring for the Common Home,” will promote dialogue on some of the main themes of the 2015 encyclical, including fraternity, personal dignity, intercultural dialogue, the environment, and integral development of people, among others.
The Congress will bring together both national and international experts that will share their expertise on the multidimensional complexities of the various themes in order to foster dialogue about joint action in the future.
The Laudato si’ Congress will be accessible virtually to facilitate participation from all over the country.
