In Southern Mindanao, the human rights group Karapatan recorded 56 deaths of human rights defenders from the start of the Duterte administration from July 2016 to August 2021. The region also tallied 30 political detainees in the same period.
A human rights lawyer who is among the co-counsel of a petition to the Supreme Court against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 was stabbed in the head on Wednesday March 3, prompting colleagues to raise concern.
Martial Law survivor and activist nun Sr. Mary John Mananzan urged the Supreme Court to swiftly act on the 37 petitions filed against the Anti-Terror Act (ATA) of 2020.
Activists and rights defenders went around the city on Monday to remove posters that tagged them as “human rights violators” and “berdugo” (butchers), which they deemed is a threat to silence their advocacy with the Anti-Terror Act in effect.
Another set of posters tagging activists and rights defenders as wanted terrorists circulated in Davao City Thursday, August 13, this time including a bishop, a doctor and a Lumad school administrator.
One of the petitioners to the Supreme Court to declare the Anti-Terrorism Act is a lumad leader in Bukidnon who is detained and facing trumped-up charges and was previously charged with committing “acts of terrorism” under the Human Security Act.
“To be a committed journalist means you also have to survive the risks presented by a corrupt and intolerant government and its agencies, and other enemies of press freedom,” says Espina to journalists who want to strive in this field.
On the International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 8, Manobo leader and Bayan Muna representative Eufemia Cullamat called for an end to attacks of indigenous peoples in the country.
The 26th petition to the Supreme Court against the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act was filed August 7 by indigenous peoples, Moro leaders and their advocates.
Rights defenders, journalists, Moro and Lumad defenders gather at Ateneo de Davao University to signify their opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 by filing their petition to the Supreme Court through electronic filing on Monday August 30, 2020. (Photo courtesy of Atty. Mary Ann Arnado)
