Members of Lumad group Kalumaran Mindanao hold a picket at San Pedro Street in observance of the International Day of the Indigenous Peoples on Wednesday, August 9. The group also announced the Lakbayan 2017, where thousands of Lumad and Moro people will travel to the capital for a protest caravan. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
The University of the Philippines system announced that it will not be collecting tuition from its students for the first semester of its academic year 2017 – 2018, regardless of financial status.
Ruel Cololot (left) and Ramil Cololot (right) languish behind bars after they were arrested by authorities on August 2 in Quezon town, Bukidnon province. Authorities claimed improvised explosives and firearms were found in their possession and accused them of being members of the New People’s Army. The two however, deny the accusations, saying they were ordinary farmers. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
Ruel Cololot, 35, admitted he once joined the New People’s Army but denied ownership or expertise in making the improvised explosive devices.
Jay Apiag, Karapatan Southern Mindanao Region, holds a photo of propaganda posters declaring Karapatan, Gabriela, Bayan Muna, and Anakpawis as supporters of the New People’s Army. Apiag called this acts of red-baiting, which results to real harm for activists in a press conference on Friday, July 4 in Davao City. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
Progressive groups here condemned the surge of different forms of red-baiting, which have become more conspicuous after President Rodrigo Duterte recently terminated the peace talks, and declared an all-out war against the New People’s Army.
Duterte said this is a “show of recognition and appreciation” to the government troops who are in the frontline of the administration’s war against terrorism and illegal drugs.
The recently concluded second wave of the National Interfaith Humanitarian Mission reported more than 300 cases of various human rights violations in the course of containing the Marawi City terror attack.
Children spend time playing in a covered court turned evacuation center in the town of Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur on Friday, July 28, 2017. They are the children of the 370 families staying inside the evacuation center for more than two months now. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
When the fighting broke out two months ago, many of Marawi’s residents refused to give up their homes, certain that the military would be able to handle the Maute — a previously small, ragtag band of extremists who pledged allegiance to the ISIS by occupying an abandoned municipal hall in nearby Butig town.
