News Roundup 24 March 2023
Mar 24, 2023 • 4 min Read
Ignored by Palace, IPs to bring Kaliwa Dam campaign to churches and schools | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Groups who oppose the P12.2-billion Kaliwa Dam vowed on Friday to continue fighting to preserve their land and culture. The representatives of indigenous peoples’ communities were back in the capital a month after their grueling journey to Metro Manila ended without them getting a dialogue with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Hundreds of Dumagat-Remontados and their supporters walked for nine days in February from General Nakar in Quezon province to the City of Manila to persuade Marcos to halt the China-funded project.
Kaliwa Dam will submerge their ancestral domain, threaten their livelihoods, and destroy their culture, they said.
“We will continue our campaign for the cancelation of the project, and look for alternatives that will not destroy our culture and our forests,” indigenous peoples’ leader Conchita Calzado said in a briefing.
Calzado said they will campaign in schools and churches to get more people to support their call to stop Kaliwa Dam.
Conrad Vargas, convenor of STOP Kaliwa Dam Network, called on authorities to act on complaints filed by IP and environmental groups to halt the construction of access road leading to the dam, stop the tunneling in Rizal town, and the withdrawal of the certification precondition issued by the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples.
Full Story at: Ignored by Palace, Dumagat-Remontados to bring Kaliwa Dam campaign to churches and schools | Philstar.com
Senate probe sought into ‘unprofessional, inefficient’ departure protocols | PHILSTAR.COM – MANILA, Philippines — Sen. JV Ejercito is seeking a Senate investigation into what he called the “unprofessional” and “inefficient” departure protocol implemented by the Bureau of Immigration which has recently stirred controversy after stories surfaced of snoopy immigration officers who supposedly caused passengers to miss their flights.
In Senate Resolution No. 560 filed Thursday, Ejercito said “there is an urgent need to review the processes and departure protocols being implemented by the Bureau for international-bound passengers to avert similar incidents and to ultimately protect every Filipino citizen’s guaranteed constitutional right to travel.”
“The power of the bureau has been a subject of abuse over the years where there have been previous incidents of its officers subjecting travelers to a tedious and unreasonable departure procedure, causing travelers to miss their flights or their departure deferred by the officer altogether,” he said in a separate statement.
By the BI’s own count, more than 32,000 Filipinos were offloaded last year alone but only 472 were “found to be victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment,” 873 individuals misrepresented themselves or submitted fraudulent documents and at least 10 were minors attempting to fly out for work.
Ejercito said these incidents call for a review of the “outdated” Philippine Immigration Act and the modernization and professionalization of the BI.
Full Story at: Senate probe sought into ‘unprofessional, inefficient’ departure protocols | Philstar.com
‘Freedom of info’ under more Palace restrictions | INQUIRER.NET – Official goings on may become more blurry to the public eye after Malacañang added more exceptions to what could be accessed under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order (EO) on freedom of information (FOI) based on a memorandum disclosed on Thursday.
The expanded list of information excluded from public disclosure is contained in Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 15 issued on March 17 by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, with authority from Marcos, updating what was included in Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) No. 2.
Issued in July 2016, Duterte’s EO did not cover access to information from the legislature, judiciary, and even local governments, although it encouraged them to provide the same.
One of the exceptions to public access and disclosure are records of surveillance of terror suspects and the “communications” that had been intercepted and recorded, or wiretaps, by law enforcement agents or military personnel pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
Duterte’s EO No. 2 said this kind of information was “deemed confidential.”
He signed the antiterrorism law in July 2020 despite massive opposition due to fears that it would violate civil and political rights.
Full Story at: ‘Freedom of info’ under more Palace restrictions | Inquirer News
Traffic enforcer dies after saving cyclist | INQUIRER.NET – A traffic enforcer on duty was crushed to death by a 14-wheeler truck while helping pedestrians cross a street in Quezon City on Wednesday, March 22.
The pedestrians were all safe including the cyclist whom the victim pushed to the pavement to avoid being hit. The Quezon City Police District said that Jeffrey Antolin, 35, was assisting pedestrians cross A. Bonifacio Avenue when the Isuzu truck driven by Joel Dimacali hit him.CCTV footage showed that Antolin had already signaled the vehicles to stop because people were crossing, but the truck did not slow down, hitting Antolin who was rushed to Manila Central University Hospital. He was later pronounced dead. The truck driver faces charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.
