HORRORS OF REALITY
PEARL OF THE UNJUST SEAS
– Lumine.
An innocent man hustling in jail and a murderer walking freely in the streets; a perfect representation of the justice system in the Philippines.
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Criminal injustice is very prominent in our society—there are a lot of cases concerning this issue, from planting evidence to freeing criminals with heinous crimes. What may be the reason behind it? Power. Through money and power, certain individuals can manipulate the justice system. They could put an innocent fellow for a crime they didn’t commit, simply by using their influence. It is a wonder how they could walk away with impunity, covering up their wrongdoings without showing any hint of guilt or conscience.
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An example of this is the case of a 53-year-old pedicab driver who was arrested for stealing 2 cans of Spam. We can suppose that the suspect did that because of poverty—maybe he just wants to feed his family; even so, it can still be considered a crime.
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According to an article by Jay Nelz, the management agreed to let his wife pay for the goods, despite that agreement, the management still turned him over to the police station—wherein he was charged with Crime of Theft thru Shoplifting. If that was the agreement and his wife was willing to pay for the luncheon meat, why was he still charged? They could just let them pay the price of the item instead of apprehending him. It is such a questionable act, making the issue bigger instead of simply letting them pay.
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Another example of injustice is the Jennifer Laude case, wherein Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, despite being convicted of homicide for killing Jennifer Laude, was recently granted absolute pardon by President Rodrigo Duterte—clearing him of all charges.
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Photograph taken by: Liwayway.
According to Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, Pemberton enjoyed special treatment during his detention period: he was detained at a special jail constructed just for him instead of being locked up in a regular prison. Pemberton serving in his own jail alone is truly unfair, especially for other convicts who are confined in an overcrowded prison with a harsh environment. Even if he was a foreign convict, it doesn’t mean that he should be receiving special treatment, it should be kept in mind that he still did a ruthless crime.
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President Duterte said that he granted pardon to Pemberton because there were no complaints that Pemberton had gone raging and was assumed to have “good character”. If that is the case, then why were other convicts who committed crimes that aren’t as grave as Pemberton’s still locked up despite having the “good character” that the president described? Could it be because they do not have the influence over the government?
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Locking up a man despite agreeing to pay the goods and freeing a man who killed someone for being transgender, it is a proof that the justice system shows partiality.
“Is the law made to protect the people, or it is the people that shall protect the law?” It seems like a puzzle, but the answer is yet unclear. It could be either; the law protects the people while the people do their best to protect the law—what a perfect collaboration. But that’s not what is happening in our society. Nowadays, those so-called defenders of justice use the power that they have for their own advantage. Instead of being righteous embodiments of law, they become kiss-ass politicians who use their platform to compete on who can suck up the president best. Regardless of the virtues that they have, they chose to do things that are quite the opposite—manipulating the justice system as an example. Doing those things not only taint the society with impunity, they also chasten the reputation of other law workers, discrediting those who are right and just.
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Can one still call this justice when there is no righteousness? Can one truly attain justice in a society overflowing with impunity? Questions of which arise from the minds of the people, but the truth remains a mystery. However, everyone must be cautious for no one is safe in the Pearl of the Unjust Seas.
– Hiraya.
THE BASIC RIGHT
Filipinos are taught their rights at the age of 6 and second to that list is the right for quality education. When the news is all about lack of classrooms, undistributed books and modules, the sudden decrease of enrolled students this school year, no one could imagine that in the education sector, something more terrifying has been going on. The actual horror happens somewhere down South where schools are not just incomplete in many ways, but are being forced shut or worse, bombed.
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Lumads are the indigenous people composed of more than 18 different Mindanao ethnic groups taking up 2.1 Million out of the total 6.5 Million indigenous people in the entire country. Because they live in remote places on and over the mountains, the concept of Lumad schools were built in order to cater to the Lumad who would like to learn the basics such as reading and writing. These schools do not offer the complete normal curriculum but instead teaches the people how to farm among other practical skills needed. However, only 38 out of 216 of these schools remained by September 2020 because of various reasons much worse than what people could think of.
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The Department of Education itself has forced shut a number of Lumad schools because of alleged anti-government teachings and terrorism group recruitments done on the school themselves. For the same reason, 584 cases of attacks, bombings, and harassment among many others were documented since the start of the current president’s regime. The military and the president himself claim that these schools are used as National People’s Army (NPA) training centers. Clearly, the incidence of red-tagging does not stop with the big universities in Metro Manila.
As most of the Lumads are currently residing in NCR Universities’ Bakwit Schools, they struggle to let their voices be heard. The Lumads continue to defend their right for Education and at the same time their rights for their ancestral lands. According to them, these accusations of terrorisms are only done to prevent them from learning how to read and write which are the basic skills needed in order to make transactions with businessmen who attempt to use their ancestral lands for mining and business projects. When schools are shut down and students are too scared to even go, there would be no means for them to gain such knowledge. A win for the opportunistic land-grabbers.
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The horror goes beyond what happened to them because their current situation appears to be more terrifying. To stay in Bakwit Schools, miles from home, fearing your lives, and be in the middle of the pandemic is not a nightmare but their reality. No one knows how long this is going to take. The scary thing is that for as long as leaders see more value in economic opportunities rather than its own people, their struggle to fight for the basic right for education may not stop here.
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SOURCES :
https://www.cnn.ph/regional/2019/10/8/deped-salugpungan-schools.html
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Photograph taken by: Genjitsu.
LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY
– Astrum.
The LGBTQIA+ community has been fighting for their rights and have always been discriminated, however the proposal of the SOGIE bill may change all of that. The proposal of the SOGIE bill has brought out many kinds of reactions from the people and the LGBTQIA+ community itself and some of these reactions have revealed the true horrors that the community goes through.
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After a recent hearing the LGBTQIA+ community has been called a “super special elite class” which caused outrage between the whole community. Being told that the community is asking for more and asking to be treated special is something hard to hear. The community has only asked to be given equal rights but why are officials claiming that they are asking for more? It seems unfair if someone wants equal rights but then proceed to call the people asking for it as a person who wants to be treated special or a class higher from other people.
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The reactions of other religious groups have also shocked me towards their reaction towards the LGBTQIA+ community, especially with the current Pope’s approval towards them and with his remarks of positivity towards same-sex marriage. However, some religious groups have stated things that has offended the community. It is unfair that some of them believe that the community needs to go through some sort of rehabilitation project just because they are being who they are and being honest about themselves. I also do not think that asking for LGBTQIA+ rights stop people from practicing their religious beliefs so I don’t see any problem.
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The responses stated are only a few of the things the LGBTQIA+ community hear and these statements have caused pain to them. These responses are only sneak peaks of the horrors the community goes through and some of the reasons why the community needs a law that protects them. Besides that, there have been people killed, denied jobs or education, harassed, and are seen as non-humans just because of being who they are. The community is even being associated to pedophiles and necrophiles when they clearly have no relation to each other. And instead of seeing actions against these doings, the people who cause harm to the community actually get pardoned and we start to act like it isn’t a big deal when it actually is. Only a few areas in our country give protection to the community and it’s sad to see how the majority of the members don’t have some sort of safe space. Self-expression is something that everybody does, but why do the members of the LGBTQIA+ community have to go through all of this just because they’re being themselves?
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The world is slowly opening up and accepting the community one small step at a time. I don’t see the problem about being part of a community and the reason why they have to be discriminated and deprived from their rights. These horrors that the community has to go through can be at least lessened when one simple bill is passed. No one’s rights are lessened once we give rights to others, so why can’t we give them rights? It is sad to see how many people aren’t ready for this conversation when many members of the community are already suffering. Whether we like it or not, we will have to learn to speak up about these issues to help the members of the LGBTQIA+ community and to lessen their burden. Straight or not, we are all still human and we all deserve to live in a world free from discrimination, harassment, and unfair treatment.
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– Augustin.
AMONG US
Also, it is also possible that the Duterte administration could use this to prosecute those who are drug suspects, government critics and to undercut civil liberties such as the free press. The new Anti-Terror Law states that it is not for people who continuously advocate and protest. Lawyer Neri Colmenares, however, argued that for the administration Duterte, “terrorism is any form of dissent.”
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On the other hand, Nasino’s case along with her child does not justify how privileged individuals were treated much better in the name of “compassion” and “humanitarian grounds”. What about Bong Revilla who has multiple charges of plunder and was able to visit his sick father in 2017? What about Zaldy Ampatuan who was given permission to attend his daughter’s wedding?
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Who killed Baby River? At the very least, the question of what caused Baby River’s death is just a shallow inquiry. Instead, the question of who is something that we should ask to ourselves.
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Reina Nasino and Baby River’s story is the indictment of the Philippine justice system. It will be a mistake not to see those same marks of injustice in the child’s very death, and how it has been caused not by pneumonia alone, but by the factors that led to it.
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Their story is the symbol of what has gone wrong in the administration of Duterte and how they used up their means just to persecute political prisoners that unfortunately led to the death of the youngest victim of the new Anti-Terror Law.
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SOURCE:
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https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/multimedia/slideshow/10/17/20/baby-river-nasino-burial
Baby River may have died of pneumonia, but it does not serve as the sole nor as an explanation of her suffering. At the heart of her death is the horrors of being killed under clear injustice.
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Arrested in November 2019 for alleged possession of illegal firearms, Baby River’s mother, Reina Mae Nasino, spent her pregnancy in Manila City Jail, to which she described that she lived under “cruel and inhumane conditions” as detainees’ families have been prohibited from visiting since March 2020 due to the threat of COVID-19 . She and her family appealed to allow Nasino and Baby River to be together for at least 12 months for exclusive breastfeeding, but unfortunately, the judicial process was delayed, saying that they do not have the facilities and manpower.
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Only a few days after Nasino gave birth to Baby River, who had a low birth weight because of the difficulty in pregnancy, the child was immediately taken away from her after the court denied her petition to be with the child for at least six months. Baby River soon died on the 9th of October, having lived most of her 100 days away from her mother.
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It is easy to say that she developed pneumonia and lived under poor living conditions but it does not justify how compassion was not given for a mother who only wanted to embrace her child for the last time without being handcuffed and being under tight police watch. Nasino and her child would not undergo all these ill treatment if it were not for the Anti-Terror Bill which was championed by President Rodrigo Duterte. It has been just a few months since it was signed but it already started with terrorising the fundamental rights and freedoms of Filipinos.
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With the Anti-Terror Law, the Congress will allow for a long period of warrantless detention and expanded surveillance of those law enforcement deemed suspicious. The government may have assured the public that the Law will not affect the activists, however, the Speaker of the House once told the activists to “not allow terrorists to hide within their ranks” which directly means that the administration of Duterte is misinformed about the difference of activism and terror - that those who actively join activism will participate in armed rebellions.
THE UNENDING MISERY OF LGBTQIA+
– Sol.
With the enlarging number of LGBTQIA+ Community, or the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, and Asexuality, the number of LGBTQIA+ identities receiving discrimination enlarges as well. And according to NAMI or the National Alliance on Mental Illness, there is strong evidence from recent research that members of this community are at a higher risk for experiencing mental health conditions— especially depression and anxiety disorders.
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In the present day, most homophobes think that being a member of the mentioned community is diagnosed into a mental disorder, which creates the stigma. Before this, in the year 1973, the American Psychological Association, or the APA, has released a statement that being a member of the said community is not an illness.
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However, the stigma does not end there. There are various families that does not support the idea of having an LGBTQIA+ identity in their clan, and this either results to the child being unable to out themselves, or worst, they were abused by their own father— especially the gay ones. Their misery continues even when at school. One of the major cause of bullying is discrimination, and most of the bullied students are a member of the said community. There are times that some members experiences sexual or physical assault and harassment other than discrimination from the hands of people who does not support them. In relation to this, a transgender woman— Jennifer Laude, was killed by a heterosexual man when he found out that Laude was a transgender.
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In 2000, former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago and former Akbayan party-list representative Etta Roses first filed the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression Equality Bill (SOGIE Bill) also known as Anti-Discrimination Bill (ADB) in the congress. SOGIE Bill was passed up to the 17th Congress. However, the bill was not approved. And in 2019, it was refiled once again in the 18th Congress. This bill received a lot of protests from various groups of Christians who sees homosexuality is a sin as stated in the Bible. Just recently, Eduardo "Eddie" Cruz Villanueva, most generally referred to as "Bro. Eddie Villanueva", an evangelist, said that he wants a rehabilitation program for the members of the community after the supporters of SOGIE Bill uproars in the Social Media to immediately pass the bill after the President gave an absolute pardon to a former US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton— the murderer of Jennifer Laude.
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The stigma sparked upon the statement Villanueva gave, causing the bill to become a trending topic on the internet. This results in a debate on both sides. It is the APA who have already made the statement to remove the stigma, and none of the members of the community deserves to undergo rehabilitation just because they are valid to themselves.
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Who’s most likely to be rehabilitated? The LGBTQIA+ identities who are only true to themselves or the homophobes who only did are discriminate and bully them physically, emotionally, and mentally?
– A.S.
RED-TAGGING COULD BE DANGEROUS FOR EVERYONE
Photograph taken by: Cookie.
Victims of red-tagging may be subjected to the following, as stated by the REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9372, also known as the HUMAN SECURITY ACT OF 2007:
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• SECTION 7. Surveillance of Suspects and Interception and Recording of Communications
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The provisions of Republic Act No. 4200 (Anti-Wire Tapping Law) to the contrary notwithstanding, a police or law enforcement official and the members of his team may, upon a written order of the Court of Appeals, listen to, intercept and record, with the use of any mode, form, kind or type of electronic or other surveillance equipment or intercepting and tracking devices, or with the use of any other suitable ways and means for that purpose, any communication, message, conversation, discussion, or spoken or written words between members of a judicially declared and outlawed terrorist organization, association, or group of persons or of any person charged with or suspected of the crime of terrorism or conspiracy to commit terrorism.
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Provided, That surveillance, interception and recording of communications between lawyers and clients, doctors and patients, journalists and their sources and confidential business correspondence shall not be authorized.
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SEC. 19. Period of Detention in the Event of an Actual or Imminent Terrorist Attack.
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In the event of an actual or imminent terrorist attack, suspects may not be detained for more than three days without the written approval of a municipal, city, provincial or regional official of a Human Rights Commission or judge of the municipal, regional trial court, the Sandiganbayan or a justice of the Court of Appeals nearest the place of the arrest. If the arrest is made during Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or after office hours, the arresting police or law enforcement personnel shall bring the person thus arrested to the residence of any of the officials mentioned above that is nearest the place where the accused was arrested. The approval in writing of any of the said officials shall be secured by the police or law enforcement personnel concerned within five days after the date of the detention of the persons concerned: Provided, however, That within three days after the detention the suspects, whose connection with the terror attack or threat is not established, shall be released immediately.
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SEC. 39. Seizure and Sequestration.
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The deposits and their outstanding balances, placements, trust accounts, assets, and records in any bank or financial institution, moneys, businesses, transportation and communication equipment, supplies and other implements, and property of whatever kind and nature belonging: (1) to any person suspected of or charged before a competent Regional Trial Court for the crime of terrorism or the crime of conspiracy to commit terrorism; (2) to a judicially declared and outlawed organization, association, or group of persons; or (3) to a member of such organization, association, or group of persons shall be seized, sequestered, and frozen in order to prevent their use, transfer, or conveyance for purposes that are inimical to the safety and security of the people or injurious to the interest of the State.
The Philippines is a democratic country. Being a democratic country, citizens have the right to speak up, for they are merely exercising their freedom of speech.
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Democracy is not democracy if the citizens turn a blind eye to a government’s short-comings. It is not democracy if the citizens are forbidden to speak up to demand their needs and criticize the government’s wrong-doings to its people and the state.
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It is important to note that democracy relies not only on the reliability and responsibility of state institutions but also in equal measure on an active and engaged civil society. However, the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly are not always safeguarded – even not in states that call themselves democracies.
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The Philippines has laws to enforce the rights upon which democracy is based. However, political activists and, most significantly, human rights defenders are often criminalized for using their sanctioned rights.
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In the case of actress Liza Soberano and Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, they were only exercising those rights in a forum organized by Gabriela, a left-oriented women’s rights group. Nevertheless, they were warned to be dissociated with the group lest they suffer the fate of other activists killed. This situation shows that celebrities are not immune to red-tagging as much as we thought they are.
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It is proof that anyone, no matter who they are, an ordinary citizen or a celebrity, can be red tagged for merely speaking up if they do not share the same political views like the ones in power.
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Red-tagging or red-baiting is the harassment or persecution of a person because of “known or suspected communist connections.” In the Philippines, red-tagging refers to publicly identifying the people as linked to the CPP, NPA, or the NDF.
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It is a common strategy of state actors to intimidate and muzzle government-critical individuals, activists, human rights defenders, and organizations who peacefully fight for their rights, labeling them as state enemies.
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It can happen to anyone, and it is mostly those who dare to speak up against the government. They see the citizens’ awareness of their incompetence as a threat to the ones in power, so they resort to red-tagging to effectively silence them.
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Understandably, the government is wary of terrorists, especially now since the New People’s Army had started recruiting students and youth for their members. The government may be concerned about the safety of the Filipino people, especially the youth, but red-tagging will not do anyone any good. It will only normalize abuse against activists.
The accused or a person suspected of may withdraw such sums as may be reasonably needed by the monthly needs of his family including the services of his or her counsel and his or her family's medical needs upon approval of the court. He or she may also use any of his property that is under seizure or sequestration or frozen because of his/her indictment as a terrorist upon permission of the court for any legitimate reason.
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Any person who unjustifiably refuses to follow the order of the proper division of the Court of Appeals to allow the person accused of the crime of terrorism or of the crime of conspiracy to commit terrorism to withdraw such sums from sequestered or frozen deposits, placements, trust accounts, assets and records as may be necessary for the regular sustenance of his/her family or to use any of his/her property that has been seized, sequestered or frozen for legitimate purposes while his/her case is pending shall suffer the penalty of ten (10) years and one day to twelve (12) years of imprisonment.
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Red-tagging is being used to justify attacks, harassments against activists and government critics. The dangers of being red-tagged do not end with an arrest. For many political activists, it cost them their lives.
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Red-tagging has had a prejudicial effect on citizen’s exercise of their democratic freedom of speech. While the higher-ups claim that democratic values drive red-tagging, it is the opposite; it is a way for the government to attack citizens whose views on the government and other public issues do not align with what they want to show to citizens. Hence, they settle in silencing the people.
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SOURCES:
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https://www.rappler.com/nation/angel-locsin-sister-red-tagged-by-parlade-star witness
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https://mb.com.ph/2020/11/03/lacson-relieved-angel-locsin-not-an-npa-member parlade-clarifies-red-tagging-statements/
https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/celebrities/abs-cbn-statement-defending angel-locsin-liza-soberano-parlade-red-tagging
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https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1355983/angel-locsins-sister-accused-anew-of being-an-npa-member
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https://www.cnn.ph/news/2020/10/23/Angel-Locsin-NTF-ELCAC-Parlade-red tagging-Ella-Colmenares.html
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https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2007/ra_9372_2007.html
FEAR OF A WOMAN
– Apo ni Eugenio.
For the Paul Ekman Group, Fear is one of the seven universal emotions experienced by everyone around the world. Fear arises with the threat of harm, physical, emotional, or psychological, real or imagined.
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For children, it is the monsters lurking under your bed during bedtime or the broccoli their parents place on their every meal. For some women, fear is being afraid of dark alleys after a night-out with friends, steps heavy with fear as they walk on the damp road. Not entering an elevator occupied by a single man, or holding house keys in between their fingers on dark streets while wondering if they have to use them.
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Sexual violence is pervasive. But what makes it so hard to address?
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Stigma could be a start. Oftentimes when women are raped, they are asked questions that frame the violence as a fault of their own rather than that of the perpetrator. They are asked: What were you wearing? Were you drinking? Are you sure you didn’t say yes? But did you say no? Or when police officers tell you they'd just dismiss the case you submitted for sexual violation because you're just wrong, and no one had touched you in ways you don’t want to be touched.
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Or it could also be fear, the fear of the consequences is a huge obstacle woman face when it comes to sexual harassment or aasault - fear of losing their job, fear of being branded as a troublemaker, fear of their physical safety, fear of losing their credibility, and the fear of being slut-shamed. This is true whether the case is about a young woman going home after a party, a college student on her way to school while riding a public vehicle, or a woman lining up for a piece of hamburger.
Like the case of the young Fabel Pineda. In a statement issued by the Philippine National Police on July 5, they said that Pineda and her 18-year-old cousin were arrested for violating the curfew, and coming home drunk from a party, four days ago. Both women were allegedly harassed, but Pineda escaped. The morning after the incident had happened; Pineda went to the Cabugao Police Station to file a complaint against the two police officers from neighboring town San Juan for acts of lasciviousness. After filing charges against the two police officers, Pineda requested for a security escort to accompany her and her family home but was denied.
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This case is only one of the many cases where women sought help from the authorities, but instead was taken advantage of. Women are denied their basic human rights, simply because they are women. And this goes way before, when women are only seen as sexual objects by men.
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On the same day, reports say that Pineda was on a motorcycle ride home with her family from the police station when two riding-in-tandem assailants knocked down their motorcycle and gunned her down. By the time she was brought to a local hospital, she was declared dead on arrival.
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Aside from the dismissal of the case filed by Fabella, the wheels of justice for the separate criminal cases of murder and rape appear to be moving too slow as the Department of Justice (DOJ) has not yet acted on the charges more than two months after the charges were filed.
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Many women even refuse to report the harassment as they have seen how others have been treated. They fear that it is hopeless, because they won’t be believed. Women who have been harassed feel helpless, they think that they can’t get that justice that they so badly needed. These fears cause women to think that there is nowhere to turn, to feel trap and even feel hopeless.
This case has added another piled up dirt that has tarnished the authority’s reputation. In July 2017, Duterte suggested that he thought it would be acceptable for someone to rape the winner of Miss Universe, an international beauty pageant. Earlier on that same year, while addressing a group of soldiers, he even joked that men would be allowed to rape three women without punishment.
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Knowing that there are sexual offenders lurking around is scary, but what’s more scary is knowing that the highest official of the country can blatantly joke about sensitive things like this in public, is pure terror.
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Sex offenders are difficult to prosecute, but officers accused of sexual crimes are even tougher to convict.
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The rape of one woman is a degradation, terror, and limitation to all women. Most women limit their behavior, and even cautious of the clothes they’re wearing because rape exists. Women live in fear of men, and rape. Men, in general, do not. That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population. As if the men have their hand around every woman’s neck or have a gun pointed in their head.
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Violent crime victims are more often women than men, according to CBS. Women are more scared- likely because their fear of rape bleeds into their fear of all crimes.
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For every woman, fear is the low hum beneath the music of their daily life.
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