NOVEMBER 25: The extrajudicial killing of a NOVEMBER 26: The mostly Indigenous residents NOVEMBER 28: An attack by unknown men on DECEMBER 3: The wave of killings continued in member of Anakpawis party, Apolonio Maranan, of 12 communities, in Surigao del Sur province, Karapatan’s human rights fact-finding mission December, claiming the lives of human rights takes place in Davao City. Maranan was the 54th Mindanao, are forced to flee by the massive in the Negros Oriental province in the Visayas defender Pastor Lovelino Quiñones, from victim of political killings in the region alone. deployment of government troops in their vil- region kills Karapatan’s regional coordinator Eli- King’s Glory Ministry; then Victor Danyan, Vic- Meanwhile, the residence of peasant leader lages. Among the evacuees were 51 teachers sa Badayos and a member of a local peasant tor Danyan Jr., Artemio Danyan, Pato Celardo, Imelda Gagap is indiscriminately fired at in the from 9 Lumad alternative schools and their 706 organization Elioterio Moises, critically injuring Samuel Angkoy, To Diamante, Bobot Lagase province of Caraga. Sargie Macallan, regional students. a third member of the team, youth leader Car- and Mateng Bantal, members of Indigenous coordinator of a peasant organization in North- men Matarlo. Earlier in the day the mission was umT’boli and Sulangan Manobo tribes; and on ern Samar, is physically assaulted by the mili- refused entry into the region by private goons the next day Fr. Marcelito “Tito” Paez, former tary commanding officer in the town of Opong, of the local mayor. parish priest and coordinator of the Rural Mis- Northern Samar. sionaries of the Philippines, Central Luzon.

[Left]Civilians are seen lining up in a military checkpoint in Mindanao, South of the Philippines.Mindanao is currently under martial n Feb. 23, several Ottawa Filipino Soli- law. darity organizations conducted a spirit- ed demonstration to oppose martial law [Far left]Soldiers in Mindanao, the Philippines’ southern- are seen inside the most island. ruins of a building in OSpeakers denounced the extra-judicial kill- Marawi, Philippines ings of Lumad (Indigenous) peasants and human on November 15, 2017. rights defenders – and more generally the use of Marawi City is in ruins the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the after a battle between Philippines National Police (PNP), paramilitary government forces militias and private armies to militarize the land and Islamic State (IS) that corporations just so happen to want. [Above] Soldiers from inspired militants in a the Armed Forces of battle that lasted for CANADA’S CALLOUT OF DUTERTE INCOMPLETE the Philippines (AFP) five months, displacing Much was made in November about Prime are seen during an hundreds of thousands Minister Justin Trudeau raising the issue of hu- operation ambushing of people. man rights with Philippines President Rodrigo suspected drug lords Duterte during the Association of Southeast affiliated with a [Left]‘Bobble Head’ Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila. terrorist group. The dolls of President Trudeau questioned Duterte’s endorsement of soldiers are part of a Rodrigo Duterte are the extra-judicial killing of people involved in the battalion serving in seen in the home of a drug trade. Duterte took offence to Western pow- Mindanao, South of the supporter on Tuesday, ers publicly criticizing his country when they are Philippines. April 11, 2017 in Metro not aware of the situation on the ground. Manila, Philippines. What is not well-known, and not mentioned [Left] Hands of a at all in the mainstream Canadian media, is that man are seen tied up usually with the ostensible goal of flushing out the President has endorsed attacks by the AFP after his arrest. The leftist militants. and PNP on popular organizations and peasant man is part of a group “These recent reports point to a mounting (Lumad) organizations in the country, particu- suspected of dealing and intensifying systematic campaign to silence larly in Mindanao. drugs. individuals and communities critical against the On Nov. 18, Duterte declared organizations government’s anti-people policies,” Karapatan such as Karapatan (which means “Rights” in WORDS: TIM KITZ Secretary General Cristina Palabay wrote in an Tagalog), the trade union central KMU (May 1 President Duterte previously served as the official statement. Movement), and PISTON (the organization of mayor of Davao City in Mindanao for 22 years. ”The Duterte regime, like his predecessors, public transit ‘jeepney’ drivers) to be terrorist or- During this time death squads killed 1,400 al- is making use of a blanket rhetoric to persecute ganizations, fronts for the Communist Party and a renewed interest in these remote and isolated met on Dec. 12 with officials from the Philippines officials stated that they had briefed the Prime leged criminals, drug users, and street children he called Agnes Callamard, a UN human rights Duterte and his National Police Director Gen- anyone tagged as ‘enemies of the State’ – in es- the guerilla New People’s Army. barrios on the ancestral lands of the Lumad. Now Embassy, NDP MP Cheryl Hardcastle and officials Minister before his trip to Manila and will contin- – to Duterte’s loud approval. He has bragged Special Rapporteur, a “bitch” in a twitter-fu- eral Ronald dela Rosa have since called for the “all- sence, people who have raised legitimate con- Duterte said they are legitimate targets in the every corner of the country has been surveyed, from Global Affairs Canada. They informed these ue to monitor the situation. about executing criminals himself while mayor, elled argument – threatening to slap her if they out war” to continue against the National People’s cerns against the government and have provid- counter-insurgency war that has been policy of and the rights sold off to local and global mining officials of the escalation in human rights viola- On Feb. 7, 35 Canadian civil organizations, and more recently questioned whether drug us- ever meet. Army (NPA). The NPA, the armed wing of the ed viable alternatives to the people.” the last three Filipino presidents. He cancelled conglomerates. tions in the Philippines. including unions (such as Unifor, United Steel- ers are human. On Feb. 7, in a speech to soldiers, Duterte Communist Party of the Philippines, has mounted Karapatan has also raised the alarm about peace talks between the Filipino government The local people have resisted the arrival of The delegation pressed the Canadian govern- workers and the Canadian Union of Public Duterte swept into the president’s office joked about a “new order,” suggesting they tell an insurgency since the 1960s, and participated in Duterte’s plan to shift the Philippines from a and the National Democratic Front, a left-wing these mining companies and have formed popu- ment to take immediate actions to demand the Employees), as well as church organizations in 2016, promising to kill tens of thousands of female rebels “We won’t kill you. We will just intermittent truces and peace talks since the ‘90s. centralized to a federal government system. people’s movement with close links to the Com- lar organizations to defend their lands. Since Nov. halt to this escalation. Those actions included (such as Kairos, Development and Peace, and criminals, issue “1,000 pardons a day” to police shoot your vagina.” Earlier, in his first State of the Union address While this might ease regional and ethnic ten- munist Party of the Philippines. 18 many leaders of Karapatan, a leading human having the Canadian Ambassador meet with the the Beaconsfield Initiative), joined Filipino and soldiers charged with abuses, and end his On the economic front, Duterte has launched as President, Duterte had declared a unilateral sion, during the transition Duterte would as- Duterte has also extended martial law in rights organization, and peasant leaders have Filipino organizations under attack. solidarity organizations in expressing their six-year term by pardoning himself for mass what he calls an “audacious” plan to catch up with ceasefire with leftist rebels (including the NPA) sume both executive and legislative powers, as the city of Marawi – initially declared last May been killed or arrested on trumped up charges. The delegation also called on the Canadian concerns to the Canadian government about murder, according to the Australian Broadcast- the Philippines “more vibrant neighbours” by and initiated another round of peace talks. well as other dictatorial powers. to counter a seizure of the city by ISIS-related According to Karapatan, as of December government to immediately suspend all funding the proposed sale of 16 Bell helicopters made ing Company. 2022, striving to become a high-income economy Yet Duterte’s government has refused to re- Resistance against Duterte’s regime contin- insurgents – to all of the island of Mindanao 2017, there are already 126 documented cases to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and in December 2017 to the Armed Forces of the His profanity-laced speeches have delighted within a generation. ‘DuterteNomics’ have loos- lease political prisoners and stalled on implement- ues, however. A social media campaign restored until the end of 2018. His last budget defunded of extrajudicial killings in the entire country, at the Philippines National Police (PNP), and to end Philippines. supporters, and he has publically joked about ened restrictions on foreign corporations, invest- ing the two sides’ Comprehensive Agreement on the Commission on Human Rights budget, after the state-sponsored Philippines Human Rights least 930 cases of illegal arrests, 92 victims of all programs of cooperation with the AFP and the The letter cited a statement made by Phil- rape on at least three occasions. In one tirade re- ed in large infrastructure projects, and reformed Social and Economic Reforms (CASER). CASER Duterte slashed it 1,000 Philippine pesos (about Commission. torture, 426,590 victims of forcible evacuation, PNP through Global Affairs Canada, the Depart- ippine Major-General Restituto Padilla that the ported by The Independent he stated as mayor he the tax system. TRAIN, or the Tax Reform for Ac- aimed aims to get at the root causes of armed con- $30 CAN). At recent mass protests in Manila on 56,456 victims of threat, harassment and intim- ment of Defence, the RCMP and other agencies helicopters would be used for military internal “should have been first” in line to rape Jacqueline celeration and Inclusion plan, has slashed taxes flict through measures like land redistribution. Valentine’s day, Filipino women cut off the poi- MARTIAL LAW FOR THE GOOD OF CORPORATIONS idation, and 362,355 residents affected by indis- in Canada. security operations. Hamill, an Australian missionary who was killed for businesses, corporations and the rich, while After three Filipino Armed Forces soldiers sonous tongues of a Duterte effigy, vowing to What is at stake in Mindanao, the most criminate firing. Francisco Fernandez, Deputy Chief of the The Canadian government thought they during a 1989 hostage crisis in Davao. raising them for consumers and small producers. were killed in Bukidnon, Duterte cancelled the “uplift the status of women” in the face of their southern of the 7,000 islands that make up the “Duterte’s verbal threats have had chilling Philippines Embassy told the delegation, “You would only be used for search and rescue efforts. During the fallout from those comments, Duterte has supported a peaceful devolution ceasefire, called for the arrest of leftist negoti- “macho-fascist” leader. country, is the expropriation of Lumad lands implications on the ground,” said Karapatan sec- cannot take what Duterte says as government Upon notification of General Padilla’s statement, Duterte’s daughter Sara said she was a rape vic- of power to the Muslim Moro people of Mindan- ators, and declared NPA and its purely political And while the Occupy movement has fizzled by mining corporations, and the exploitation of retary general Cristina Palabay in a statement policy. You must only examine what are writ- International Trade Minister Francois-Philippe tim herself, but would still vote for her father. ao, who have been fighting central government leftist allies “terrorists.” out in North America, it is going strong among minerals for export on the international market. released Nov. 27. “With a bloodthirsty and trig- ten government declarations.” (Sound familiar?) Champagne ordered a review of the sale. Pres- Duterte responded by publically doubting her rule since the Spanish and American colonial Duterte appears to be taking the same the urban homeless and rural poor of the Phil- International mining corporations, like all ger-happy military and police to do his bidding, He said he would forward the list of “alleged” ident Duterte’s response was to cancel the pur- story, and according to the Philippine Daily Inquir- era. However, when the ISIS-affiliated Maute scorched earth approach with leftist and Indig- ippines. Various groups continue to disrupt foreign corporations, had only been allowed to the Duterte regime has, without hesitation, used human rights violations mentioned by the del- chase of the helicopters, ordering the AFP to find er called her a “drama queen.” Sara is the mayor Group, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Lib- enous groups that he used with the drug trade. mainstream politics and business-as-usual by operate in the Philippines as long as they had a all ploys within its power to terrorize individuals egation to the Minister of Justice and the Presi- other suppliers. of Davao. eration Front, attacked the city of Marawi, Dute- Last July Duterte threatened to bomb Lumad collectively seizing public spaces, using them for Filipino partner who had 50 per cent ownership. and entire communities.” dent’s Office for investigation. ICHRP-Canada continues to build awareness Duterte has also wolf-whistled a female re- rte’s government responded with martial law schools for operating without government per- housing and/or farming. But with the passage of the 1995 Mining Act, Cheryl Hardcastle said she would try to get of the escalation of human rights violations in porter who asked him a question, and routinely and a declaration of “all-out war.” mits and “teaching the children to rebel against “Duterte has only isolated himself further,” mining companies could be 100 per cent owned PUTTING PRESSURE ON THE DUTERTE REGIME the Philippines on the agenda of the Human the Philippines and to continue to mobilize pres- belittles female political opponents with com- After six months of bombing and urban war- government,” as quoted in The Guardian. Human concluded Palabay in her statement, “thereby by foreign corporations. Representatives of the International Coalition on Rights subcommittee of the House of Commons sure on the Canadian government to take effec- ments about their gender and sexual attrac- fare, Duterte declared the city “liberated,” but said rights organization Karapatan has since docu- justifying the defiance of the public against his The global mining industry thus developed Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) – Canada International Affairs Committee. Global Affairs tive action. tiveness. According to the Philippine Daily Star, martial law needed to continue to speed recovery. mented the bombings of dozens of communities, rising dictatorship.”