News Roundup 12 August 2022
Aug 12, 2022 • 5 min Read
CHR seeks talks with presidential panel for UN review of PH rights pledges | INQUIRER.NET – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has “reached out” to the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) in a bid to conduct dialogues with them for the impending United Nations (UN) review of the Philippines’ human rights pledges. The UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines’ human rights status is held every five years. It is set to be conducted sometime in October this year; it would be the first under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. CHR Executive Director Jacqueline de Guia revealed during a press briefing about the body’s own report for the UN rights review on Thursday that they have sent a letter to the PHRC, seeking a discussion on the UPR. “Of course, we want to make sure that our recommendations are heard, and that’s the primary purpose of today’s press conference, to popularize the issues and concerns surfaced by civil society and by the CHR. We continue also to open the lines of communications with [the] government and engage with them further,” de Guia, who is acting as CHR’s caretaker in the absence of a chairperson, told reporters. “That is the reason why we at CHR through our Human Rights Policy Office has reached out to the Presidential Human Rights Committee in recent days to make sure that we are also able to provide them our recommendations with regards the upcoming UPR,” she added. De Guia said their letter contains requests for a consultation, that CHR be included in the process of making a report ahead of the UPR. The government of a country being reviewed by the UN is required to submit its report on human rights. But the CHR will also submit its own version that includes inputs from civil society organizations – which observers utilize to countercheck the government’s claims. The acting CHR head said they asked the PHRC if they could comment on the report, and if they could also listen to grassroots organization before crafting the report.
Palace vows extensive probe into ‘illegal’ sugar imports | INQUIRER.NET – The investigation called by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. following the “illegal” resolution that supposedly authorized the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar in the country will be “extensive,” the Palace said Friday. According to Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, the investigation will cover more than just the resolution’s release. “Wala lang po kaming ipapahayag sa ngayon tungkol sa mga plano (We cannot say anything right now about the plans) because the investigation will probably cover a more extensive review than simply the resolution that was issued by the Sugar Regulatory Board,” Cruz-Angeles said during the Laging Handa briefing. The Palace spokesperson stressed that “heads will roll” if it the probe would discover that poor judgment led to the signing of the importation resolution, which she said the President, who heads the Sugar Regulatory Board and the Department of Agriculture concurrently, did not authorize “The moment na nalaman ng President na may maling nangyari dito nag-order agad ng imbestigasyon. Sinu-sino ang involved dito, ano ‘yung extent ng kanilang involvement? Was it attended with malice, was it negligence, was it simply just bad judgment?” Cruz-Angeles said. (The moment the President found out about this, he immediately ordered an investigation. Who were the people involved here and what was the extent of their involvement?) “If there are sufficient findings, then heads will roll,” she added.
Academics, culture orgs fight back vs KWF pulling off ‘subversive’ books | PHILSTAR.COM – Over 30 language, culture and educational departments panned the red-tagging of authors and some Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino commissioners’ purported order to pull out or stop the publication of at least 17 books labeled as “subversive” or “anti-government.” The unity statement said that “reading, analyzing, scrutinizing, citing, and using any reading material, regardless of the writer and the publisher, is part of the academic freedom of writers, teachers, researchers, and all citizens.” It also urged Congress to investigate Sonshine Media Network International’s redtagging broadcasts as these violate constitutional provisions on free expression. “Many books – be it in Filipino or English – will certainly cite or quote materials from various references, including those from groups considered by the government as subversive or revolutionary,” the unity statement read. “We join calls for the immediate abolition of [National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict] and other similar red-tagging entities that curtail the people’s right to information, right to free expression, and academic freedom.” “Such citation should not be treated as agreement or sympathy with the cited material, but rather a part of the typical academic and scholarly process of analyzing various sources. Granted for the sake of argument that a book agrees or sympathizes with a political ideology, such socially committed writing tradition is respected in the whole world and considered as an important element of any country that calls itself as democratic,” they added. In a YouTube video, three hosts of the SMNI tagged books written by Reuel Aguila, Rommel Rodriguez, Don Pagusara, Malou Jacob, and Dexter Cayanes, and more than a dozen more books published by KWF as “subversive” allegedly because they cited references written by the CPP-NPA. The program also red-tagged prominent art critic Alice Guillermo and the late National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera. After the program was aired, the KWF issued a memorandum calling on schools and libraries to pull out the “subversive” books for being “anti-government.” The KWF is the official government agency and regulating body of the Filipino language in the country and is an attached agency under the Office of the President. Former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict spokesperson Lorraine Badoy is one of those behind the video. She faces at least three administrative complaints over her red-tagging of healthcare and teachers groups and the presidential campaign of former vice president Leni Robredo before the Office of the Ombudsman. In a separate statement, KWF chair Arthur Casanova categorically denied the accusations and added that calling books “subversive is a dangerous accusation which may already be stepping on the boundaries of freedom of expression and academic freedom.” “These books which are alleged to be subversive passed through the review process of the KWF. All the books underwent the usual scrutiny that all publications of the KWF must pass, including receiving the imprimatur of the other two full-time commissioners. I did not railroad nor force any publication,” he said.
