While the imposition of military rule in Myanmar has hit the headlines all around the world, the tragic situation in the Philippines is just as bad. The nation is under an authoritarian regime that promotes the killing of its own citizens.
We depend on Filipinos – we ignore their rights.
The Philippines is a driving force for the world economy, much to the sacrifice of Filipino workers who are forced, because of economic need, to leave home causing great emotional trauma to themselves and their families.
There are 12 million Filipinos working around the world. Filipino nurses, grossly underpaid in their own country, migrate to developed nations hoping for better paying jobs. Rapidly developing nations, especially the oil rich nations of the Middle East use Filipino construction workers. Many women employed overseas as domestic workers suffer physical abuse by their employers. The Philippines, known as the seafaring capital of the world, provides 25% of seafarers in the international shipping industry.
It is no wonder they leave home. The Philippines has been among listed among the 10 worst places to work in for the last 10 years, but the events of this year have turned a terrible situation into one that is intolerable. It is time for the world to stand in protest.
2020 ITUC global rights index recorded extreme state violence and suppression of liberties and recently things have just got worse.
According to Professor Gerry Lanuza, during the pandemic people called to the government for aid. They faced starvation and they wanted to support to face off Covid-19 like other South Asian nations. They wanted mass testing and vaccines.
Instead, the government used the cover of lockdown to arrest and punishing quarantine violators. President Duterte called on his police to shoot dead the violators of his public order requirements and this has led to grave abuses and human rights violations.
People like the Jeepney Drivers came out on the streets because they just needed food. People in the cities rely on small public utility vehicles called jeepneys to get around. With a lockdown in place the Jeepney drivers were prevented from plying their routes and thus have no income. Many are now in the streets begging so they can feed their families. Quarantine protocols are used to quell protests and more than 100 workers, urban poor, and activists were arrested.
Again, and again workers protests were prevented and protesters violently dispersed.
Last year the government unleashed an anti-terrorism bill that Prof Lanuza describes as more vicious than Covid 19. The act gives the President and his cronies the ability to call anyone a terrorist and from there they can be arrested without charge.
The militarist approach to lockdown is backed up by the well-funded National Task Force to End Local Communist Insurgency – a group run by the government to enforce its will.
What emerges is a process called ‘Red-Tagging’. Human rights activists, political organisers, leaders of indigenous communities, and trade union leaders are routinely labelled as being communists and are therefore ‘terrorists’. Likewise, many PVO’s serving the marginalized sectors and even churches like the IFI, UCCP and critical of government policies and programs are labelled as communist fronts. They are attacked on social media, and placed under surveillance. Some like the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines who have served the indigenous peoples (especially Lumads in the South) and rural peasants have been vilified, red tagged and their bank accounts frozen. Many have been arrested and so far, 56 Trades Union organizers and human rights defenders have been killed.
It is clear to the security forces that they will not be held accountable for murder. The President himself has dismissed human rights activists and publicly announced he would take responsibility for the killings.
The worst event was the Bloody Sunday Massacre on March 7. Nine activists were killed and six more taken into prison. Some of those killed were members of indigenous communities whose homeland is under threat due to plans for development.
Puroy and Randy dela Cruz were Indigenous Dumagats who sold local crops to buy essentials for their family. They were laid to rest in the Anglican Church. They had no reason to have guns, but they were active in raising concerns about a massive dam project that would uproot them from their traditional homes. In order to ensure that activists arrested will not qualify for bail, government forces serving search or warrant arrests would plant guns and explosives in their homes then charge them with illegal possession of firearms. They serve the warrants at dawn during the weekends when they know the courts are closed to process the charges.
Like the people of Myanmar, the Filipinos are brave and activists continue to go onto the streets to call for aid. Trade Union activists continue to organise workers and indigenous leaders seek to protect the environment from further development that will increase climate change.
They need people to stand with them in their quest for justice, and to notice what is going on.
Information for this article was gained from work with international observers and brave Filipino activists not named in this article. Please pray for them.