Some friends later sent her the link to a malicious video by vlogger Renan Padawi (who goes by the name “Jackfloyd Sawyer” online) attacking her, but she brushed it off. She did not know Padawi personally. But this was not the first time she had had to deal with online attacks, after all.

But because close relations insisted, she finally forced herself to watch it. Her reaction was so visceral, that it took time for her to get to the end of the video. 

With each statement that Padawi made, Fokno cringed: “Kulang ka lang sa dilig (You just need watering)!” A rude way of saying she was badly in need of sex.

“Baka ‘pag nagkita tayo, shit, ibabangka kita sa dagat na walang hanggan. (Maybe when we see each other, I will send you off on a boat to the next life.)” In essence, threatening her life.

“It really was bastos. Nandiri ako. (It was really crude. It was disgusting.) I felt violated. He was saying some very sexually explicit things and kept pointing his finger and raising his clenched fist,” Fokno’s voice cracked as she recalled details during an interview with Rappler in March.

“I suffered sleepless nights, public ridicule, embarrassment, anguish. I felt unsafe online and in the real world. Knowing that he had many followers, I feared for my safety. I became paranoid and I made sure that I was home every day before it got dark.” 

Fokno’s experience is not unique. Following the rise of social media, cybermisogyny has taken gender-based violence online. 

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There is no need to suffer in silence, however. Filipinos using the digital space have avenues of redress for incidents such as these. 

As of May 2022, 3,700 cyber libel cases have been filed since the law was passed. From 2019 to 2022, 754 cases of violations of the RA 11313 (Safe Spaces Act) were reported.

Laws like the Safe Spaces Act and Cybercrime Prevention Act, as well as various support groups can hold individuals accountable and ease trauma that can result from online hate in all its many forms. What is important is to take action. 

Roots of online misogyny

Men do not have a monopoly on misogyny, according to licensed professional teacher, psychometrician, and psychologist Eizaleen Fusingan-Lappay. But, to a certain extent, it thrives because society conditions us to think that women are inferior to men, and as such, are subject to their power and authority. 

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study conducted from 2017 to 2022 shows that 99.5% of all Filipinos have biases against women.

To a degree, the pervasive milieu of online hate contradicts a number of Philippine core values such as pakikipag-kapwa (treating the other as an extension of the self), according to Carolyn Sobritchea of the Commission on Higher Education’s Technical Panel on Gender and Women’s Studies, and the University of the Philippines’ Center for Women’s Studies Foundation, Inc.

However, she said, some of our indigenous values, like utang na loob (debt of gratitude), can be misused, especially if appropriated by the ruling class for their personal agenda and political gains.

Lappay attributed the boldness of perpetrators of cybermisogyny to the online disinhibition effect, which makes a person disregard societal norms due to the anonymity afforded them by online platforms. 

Addressing trauma: Cybermisogyny and its discontents

Cybermisogyny can take many forms, from abusive language to grave threats. 

“Things happen very fast online,” Sobritchea told Rappler in an interview last May. “Someone can post a woman’s naked photo or make a defamatory statement with the click of a button. The damage to someone’s reputation spreads fast, resulting in trauma and emotional distress.”

Some people may be sitting with unresolved feelings that are building up as trauma, which is when residual negative energy or feelings stored in the body remain unresolved after an experience or event.

Following an encounter with cybermisogyny, Lappay said, it is important to undergo debriefing sessions. She strongly advised working with a mental health professional to process the experience in a safe space. 

Should someone not be able or ready to go to a face-to-face therapy session, there are  support groups online and MindNation has 24/7 chat support that can help.

Different ways to cope

Whenever Christine Abrigana, who started Lagim: A Filipino True Crime Podcast in 2020, receives snarky comments, she steps away from her screen until the emotions pass. 

She has made it a practice to delete inflammatory comments and block commenters because she doesn’t like dwelling on them. She also doesn’t discuss them with friends, though she sometimes vents on her Instagram Stories about mean comments. 

When she decides to answer them, she draws from her experience working in public family law and approaches with compassion, understanding, and respect – mindful that the person on the receiving end may be going through something.

When activist and academic Renee Karunungan-Edwards’ Facebook wall and message inbox were flooded with hate-filled messages following a post about then-candidate Rodrigo Duterte in March 2016, she documented them, taking screenshots that she then shared on her wall.

A previously published Rappler report documented the abusive messages online. Some Duterte supporters said back then: “Ul*l. T*ngina mo. UP ka man din galing, pero utak dilis ka. Bobo ka ang pangit mo. Sana ma-rape ka, manakawan ka. ‘Yan gusto mo, ‘di ba? Ayaw mo ng pagbabago dahil ayaw mo kay Duterte. Sana lang one of these days ma-rape ka para matauhan ka.” 

(Stupid. S*n of a b*tch. You are from UP but you have the brain of an anchovy. You’re stupid and ugly. I hope you get raped, or get mugged. That’s what you want, right? You don’t want change because you are against Duterte. I hope one of these days you get raped so you’ll become enlightened.)

She subsequently filed cases – with legal services offered pro bono – citing violations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act and Omnibus Election Code. As of March, the Comelec had handed down subpoenas. The legal process is ongoing. Karunungan-Edwards, who is now based in the United Kingdom, will attend court proceedings online.

Fokno, Abrigana, and Karunungan-Edwards have accepted that the online attacks on them ebb and flow, depending on the political climate in the Philippines.

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Online crime and offline consequences

After suffering through many sleepless nights and anxiety, Fokno decided to file a case against Padawi. Since she lives in Benguet, Fokno went to the Philippine National Police Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit in the Cordillera. There, through an app, an officer helped her document the video that Padawi posted.

Then, she wrote an affidavit. She also asked witnesses, who had watched the video and seen firsthand the effects it had on Fokno, to write statements.

With those documents, a police officer accompanied her to the provincial prosecutor in Benguet. In September 2022, the case People of the Philippines vs. Renan Padawi was officially filed. In February 2023, Padawi pleaded guilty to violating the Safe Spaces Act. He has yet to settle the fine and civil liability of P150,000.

Fokno did not need to spend any money on any step in the process. 

She has been encouraged by messages she receives from women, many of whom are strangers to her, thanking her for inspiring them to fight back against their attackers.

Building communities of empathy and action

According to Lappay, empathy-building connections and communications will empower people to speak kindly and mindfully online, as well as to help set awareness in dealing with cybermisogynists, including forging alliances to help those who are defamed and shamed on various online platforms.

“We have the power to create safe spaces in the virtual world if we speak up and stand for the victims,” she said. Then, we can once again look at each other, eye to eye, as fellow human beings and extensions of each other, though mediated by technology. 

Sobritchea advocates for a multi-layered approach. First, for content moderation of online platforms to prevent online abuse – knowing full well that there are risks to regulation, which can curtail freedoms, especially of small organizations and the marginalized. 

Next, by showing models of positive portrayal of women and giving space for their narratives to be heard. And finally, by empowering women to help them protect themselves. She said there are many laws and mechanisms to combat violence against women.

Dr. Gregor Mate, who has lectured and published extensively on life-long impacts of trauma, blames our modern globalized culture for what he calls an epidemic of loneliness. 

But an antidote lies in technology too: “We have to use the technologies that we have to connect with each other. People need to build virtual communities where they can share their ideas, their miseries, and their joys, and talk about their values. Seek connection on the local level, internet level.”

Though it seems that cybermisogyny has become commonplace in our society, individuals and groups can fight back to destroy the culture of online hate: by healing from their trauma, by seeking justice under the law, and, in the long-term, by building communities of care that hark back to the values deeply embedded in our Filipino identity. – Rappler.com

Mari-An Santos is a fellow of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.

The year 2016 could very well be the annus horribilis for community journalism. Suddenly legacy news media outlets became “presstitutes” on social media – thanks to the advent of troll farms of various political camps.

Community journalists were hardest hit by the cyberattacks owing to the more intimate nature and proximity of the people they cover compared to the reportage in metropolitan centers in the country.

It was during this same year that there was a spike in the number of online attacks, harassment, and cyberattacks against community journalists and legacy news media outlets. These online attacks were mainly aimed at silencing reportage on the killings under the pretext of the war on drugs by then-president Rodrigo Duterte.

A study by the Freedom for Media, Freedom for All Network, released on November 23, 2018, documented at least 99 cases of “acute and creeping online and offline attacks against news media organizations and journalists” in the first 28 months of Duterte’s presidency, or from July 1, 2016, to October 31, 2018.

That is roughly four journalists attacked online and offline per day.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Philippine Press Institute, MindaNews, and the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism comprise the network.

Red-tagging

In Cagayan de Oro City, online attacks on various social media platforms have taken a more specific tact: red-tagging.

In March 2020, Cagayan de Oro City-based veteran journalist Froilan Gallardo was red-tagged when he showed solidarity with the television network ABS-CBN on the possible cancellation of its legislative franchise. 

Along with other reporters, Gallardo was attending a rally in support of ABS-CBN at the TV network’s regional office in Barangay Bulua when a courier delivered copies of bond paper-sized posters that accused him of being a member of the revolutionary movement.

The material also targeted the late Nonoy Espina, and his sister Inday Espina-Varona (now Rappler head of Regions), Renwynx “Don” Morgado, a staff member at the Misamis Oriental capitol’s information office, and Loi Algarme, a reporter at Radyo Natin.

“Speaking truth to power is not a crime. I’m getting tired of this red-tagging. I say bring it on,” Gallardo said.

Gallardo pointed out that starting in 2016, partisan bloggers and influencers have drowned out legacy media outlets. He said the partisan influencers had flipped the narratives on almost all of the critical issues affecting Philippine provinces.

The algorithm employed by social media platforms, he added, could also be partly to blame. Gallardo said that social media started out as a platform where we could have an exchange of ideas. But when the trolls of partisan political camps took over, a lot of people were effectively misled.

When former journalist Pam Orias was red-tagged in 2019, she said her parents wept and asked her to leave her job at the now-defunct SunStar Cagayan de Oro Daily (Sunstar-CDO).

“It’s really difficult to reconcile with the concerns of your family and your desire to write,” Orias told MindaNews in an August 7, 2019 news article. 

Bandwagon, pressure 

While they appreciate the benefits of social media presence in terms of growing their audience and marketing, Iloilo journalists also acknowledge the downside of the current trend.

May Ortega, news director of Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, said interaction between a news organization and the audience used to be a one-way setup, but social media “democratized” not just the exchange of opinions but bashing as well.

“The downside of our situation is that everybody can now chime in on just about anything. But it also exposes journalists to attacks and unfair comments that tend to undermine our work. The bandwagon effect is an effective way for our detractors to gang up on us. One nasty comment against us could trigger a flood of reactions from similar minded netizens. Such is what happened to cases of red-tagging of journalists – one false accusation ballooned to the wholesale vilification of our colleagues,” she added.

Panay News editor Glenda Tayona agreed with Ortega’s observations on online attacks against journalists, particularly red-tagging, online bashing, and gaslighting.

“Apart from the pressure of looking for and creating content, the more concerning aspect are attacks on our colleagues in the community. It’s stressful to read nasty comments on our reports but what is more painful are the gaslighting statements that could lead to bodily injury to journalists,” Tayona said.

Apart from online bashing, attacks against journalists have become more sophisticated, like what happened to several news organizations that were part of Facts First PH.

For one, lawfare or the use of laws to intimidate news organizations has become a norm in the Philippines.

The 2022 Digital News Report of Reuters described how a former presidential communications official threatened that “the government’s anticommunist task force intended to take legal action against Rappler for allegedly spreading disinformation, as well as against Facebook for allowing Rappler and Vera Files ‘to abuse the immense powers’ of their designation as the platform’s third-party fact-checkers.”

Cyberattacks on news organizations and fact-checkers also became widespread, particularly in the lead up to the 2022 elections.

“Big and small news organisations were targets of what seemed to be coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that crippled their websites for hours, even days. Apart from Rappler and Vera Files, ABS-CBN, GMA News, CNN Philippines, Interaksyon, PressOnePH, and Mindanao Gold Star Daily were attacked; so were alternative news sites Bulatlat and Pinoy Media Center. Months earlier, the attacks against Bulatlat and another alternative site were traced to an IP address assigned to the Philippine Army. The country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index slipped further, by nine spots to 147th out of 180 countries,” the 2022 DNR described the Philippine situation.

Daily Guardian, which is also part of Facts First PH, also suffered DDoS attacks weeks before Filipinos went to the polling centers in May 2022. For three days, its website was inaccessible due to unusually heavy traffic to the site.

Infodemic 

At the height of the pandemic, Cagayan de Oro wasn’t exempt from the deluge of disinformation, from so-called alternative cure against the COVID-19 virus to fake announcements of quarantines.

Community journalists were in a quandary as to where best to source information about the pandemic because most people in government, including the Department of Health-10, were also in the dark and appeared disorganized in disseminating information.

Online trolls, of course, jumped into the chaos.

These fake news articles on the pandemic flooded local Facebook pages. Many of the community journalists had petty arguments with their family members.

“I even have arguments with my mother because she believes in almost anything she reads on Facebook,” said Gallardo.

Exacerbating this anxiety-inducing events on social media, community journalists were also unsure of their job security because many legacy news outlets, especially print medium, shut down. Freelance reporters and contractual media workers bore the brunt financially, especially those who lost their jobs due to closures as their media outlets declared bankruptcy.

Long-time sports reporter Lynde Salgados was so depressed when his outlet SunStar Cagayan de Oro Daily declared bankruptcy on June 30, 2020, that he stopped writing altogether for at least two years.

“This is the only craft I love and am good at. How am I going to feed my family after this?” Salgados said.

Salgados’ editor-in-chief Pamela Orias dreaded the thought of their news outlet shutting down.

“I have no other job options,” Orias said in a Gold Star Daily article. After 25 years, Sunstar-CDO decided to stop running the presses.

Pushing back

Amid the challenges they are facing, community journalists in the Visayas and Mindanao have banded together to reclaim their place on social media platforms.

Most news houses in the provinces are taking the cudgels in fighting for their place in the digital platforms.

Gallardo said it is high time for journalists to push back against disinformation and the attacks.

“The democratic aspirations of the republic will never come to fruition if its people continue to refuse to practice it,” Gallardo said.

Former journalist Joseph Ben Deveza, who now teaches a communication subject in Xavier University’s Development Communication under its College of Agriculture, said the problem started when the legacy news media failed to nip in the bud the fake news the so-called influencers and trolls spread on various social media platforms.

“It is understandable why we were caught flat-footed. Most, if not all, of the handlers of these trolls and influencers used to be our colleagues,” Deveza said.

He said these former community journalists who have “sold their skill sets to the highest bidder” should not only be made to account, but also be called out at every outset in their disinformation attempts.

For his part, Gallardo said community journalists should get back their bearings as the source of vetted and corroborated information in any medium.

“Even if there are new platforms, journalism has not changed. I refuse to believe that the discipline of every newsroom across the country can be defeated by these grammar and truth-challenged influencers,” he said.

“Community journalists must be at the forefront in the fight against disinformation,” Gallardo added. – Rappler.com

Cong Corrales and Francis Allan Angelo are Aries Rufo Journalism fellows.

Last of 2 parts

AT A GLANCE

• Drug-related killings continue under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. but obtaining official numbers from the government remains difficult.
• In a response to Rappler’s freedom of information request, the Philippine National Police said “seven (7) people [were] killed for illegal drugs from June 2022″ to April 2023. But the Dahas project monitored at least 100 killed in anti-illegal drug operations as of May 31, 2023, while then-PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. in November 2022 said that 46 people were already killed by police.
• While the violence de-escalated under Marcos, political scientist Sol Iglesias said the administration’s biggest complicity is institutionalizing impunity by continuing to shield the crimes committed under Duterte.

MANILA, Philippines – Silence was golden for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when it came to the bloody legacy of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte – at least for the most part of the 2022 presidential campaign and the eventual first few months of his presidency. 

The second Marcos president, after all, benefited from the political power of the foul-mouthed former Davao City mayor who ordered the slaughter of thousands of Filipinos in the name of his anti-illegal drugs campaign. He also ran, and won, with then-presidential daughter Sara Duterte as his vice president. 

But in May 2023, in an event thousands of kilometers away from the Philippines, Marcos acknowledged the killings during the Duterte administration. Speaking before the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he said that a “focus on enforcement” resulted in “abuses by certain elements in the government.” 

It was the most explicit statement Marcos has made on the widespread killings committed during Duterte’s war on drugs, even as he refused to assess the campaign’s entirety. In previous instances, like in September 2022, he had only talked about taking on a different approach because enforcement “only gets you so far.”

In contrast, Marcos’ Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. said during the early days of the administration that the “war against drugs will be as intensive as before on the basis of my oath as a public official in accordance with the Constitution.”

Almost one year into the Marcos administration, how does the situation compare to the violence under Duterte? There are different ways to look into this. First is to assess the landscape using data. 

There have been no consistent data releases under the Marcos administration covering drug-related killings, unlike during his predecessor’s time when the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) publicly uploaded numbers online, specifically through the #RealNumbersPH platform on Facebook.

It is because of this “transparency” that we know that police claimed to have killed at least 6,252 people during anti-illegal drug operations between July 2022 and May 31, 2022. The death toll is estimated to rise to between 27,000 to 30,000 if victims of extrajudicial killings are included, according to independent monitoring by human rights groups.

Getting official government data on drug-related killings under Marcos has so far been difficult. The numbers provided by the PNP in the scant times that requests were successful are also significantly lower than those documented by other groups. 

Rappler has submitted two freedom of information (FOI) requests to the PNP for the number of individuals killed in anti-illegal drug operations. The PNP responded to the April 27 request on May 2. The information provided was in the form of a powerpoint presentation created by the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, the unit that leads the anti-illegal drug efforts of the national police. 

The file contained only specific cases of “drug personalities [who] died in police operations (DIPO)” and killed from January 2022 to April 2023. Subtracting the number of those killed before Marcos took office, the PNP presentation shows only two incidents.

Rappler again submitted another FOI request on May 5, this time to PDEA. But the agency referred our request to PNP, which responded on May 9 with a similar powerpoint presentation. 

This time, however, the last slide included plain text that said “seven (7) people killed for illegal drugs from June 2022 to present.” PNP DEG, in a response to a separate email, reiterated the same number. 

Rappler reached out to the PNP’s Public Information Office through both email and a text message to spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo on Tuesday, June 6, to confirm this information. We have yet to receive a response as of publication. 

If we go by the “seven people killed for illegal drugs,” this death toll is lower than what was provided by the same agency in November 2022. In a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, then-PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said that 46 people were killed in anti-illegal drug operations – 32 killed by police and 14 by PDEA agents.

This number is also significantly lower than the death toll monitored by Dahas, a project of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Third World Studies Center. 

From July 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023, at least 100 people were killed by state agents in anti-illegal drug operations alone. The number rises to 132 to include victims killed not in anti-illegal drug operations but later found to have links to illegal drugs.  

This is part of a bigger death toll of at least 309 drug-related killings within the same period, to include those killed by non-state agents and unidentified perpetrators, based on the project’s monitoring. At least 134 killings were committed from January 1 to May 31, 2023 alone, with 60 carried out by state agents.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was also able to document and investigate 13 cases of killings in government operations. The constitutional body mandated to probe state abuses, however, clarified that this number does not “reflect the total number of alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings” it is investigating, and that CHR regional offices may have more numbers. 

Human rights lawyer Catherine Lopez, research and policy development coordinator at Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), said the lack of transparency and withholding of information appears to be a “tactic” of the Marcos administration. 

By not releasing data consistently, it’s as if the government is taking on an “out of sight, out of mind” approach where continued killings are not discussed. 

“It’s our right to have these records so why does it seem like we have to beg for them to release these information that we have a right to access in the first place?” she told Rappler. “That’s not acceptable.” 

As an organization, IDEALS has helped document cases of drug war killings under Duterte. Lopez said that there’s not much difference between the two administrations when it comes to challenges faced by families in obtaining documents and reports related to their slain loved ones. 

Marcos’ crime of impunity

Based on the numbers, it is safe to say that there’s a de-escalation of killings. The situation during the first year of Marcos is not as violent as Duterte’s who, by his 6th month in office in January 2017, already saw more than 2,500 deaths in police operations alone.

Still, the killings continue despite rhetoric from Marcos that he will try a less violent approach, unlike his predecessor. In the poorest communities in Metro Manila, families that Rappler spoke with reported not much change. There are still people killed by the police, but they’ve noticed that significantly more are being killed by unidentified individuals. 

Families who have lost loved ones during Duterte’s reign of violence continue to fear that they will lose more under Marcos. And these are on top of existing harassment and intimidation they experience as they try to seek justice. 

Carlos Conde, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), tagged the disconnect between Marcos’ statements and the situation on the ground as a “political balancing act” as he tries to appease the international community. These include foreign governments that Duterte has demonized, if not outright insulted, during his term as president. 

“Marcos is doing the barests of bare minimums, because Duterte set the bar so low,” Conde said. “My sense is that the low-level violence serves a purpose within the police, but it is not outrageous enough to put Marcos on the spot.” 

But at the same time, he believes that Marcos will probably not make a “dramatic turn” by either ending the drug war nor even launching a genuine investigation into the killings. 

Is it because Marcos is as hungry for blood as Duterte, the man accused of expanding nationwide the operations and style of the notorious Davao Death Squad (DDS) that killed thousands in his turf, Davao City? Probably not. 

If Marcos has his way, Conde said, he probably would want the violence to stop “because the drug war is not his fight.”

“His main motivation is to rehabilitate the Marcos name and for them to keep their riches, but he doesn’t want to offend Duterte and his base, which Marcos still counts on for support,” Conde said, adding that it’s best to watch out for what happens “nearer to the 2028 elections.” 

Marcos, however, is not at all blameless and is not just caught between a rock and a hard place. 

Sol Iglesias, assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said that the biggest issue here is impunity that continues to be promoted under the Marcos administration. 

While there is decreased violence, Marcos is still liable for not ensuring justice for the thousands of victims of Duterte’s war on drugs. 

“When a successive government continues to shield the crimes or potential crimes of the previous administration, that’s already institutionalizing impunity,” she said. “That is the biggest complicity of the Marcos administration [and] it’s something that we just simply can’t ignore because the subsequent president has a duty to the victims.” 

The Marcos government may have taken steps to cleanse the ranks of the PNP, including those alleged to have links to illegal drugs, but it is yet to hold accountable cops, including Duterte himself, who killed, or allowed the killing of, individuals. 

Only a few have been convicted in drug war-related killings, including the police involved in the deaths of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman. 

If Marcos was serious about giving justice, his administration would have launched a “massive expansion of investigations” and also would not oppose developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is presently investigating possible crimes against humanity committed under Duterte.

“We should be very skeptical and wary of [Marcos’] rhetoric and sort of positioning itself as very different from the violence of Duterte because all the underlying root causes of the violence and facilitating factors of the violence are being aided and abetted by the Marcos administration,” Iglesias said. 

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Under Marcos, can Duterte be held accountable for drug war killings?

Moving forward

As the strategy of Marcos’ anti-illegal drug campaign remains vague at the very least, it is important that there will be no let-up in the monitoring of drug-related killings. 

Continuity requires dedication not just from one group, but a consolidation of efforts across civil society organizations and the media. But what’s more important, according to Lopez of IDEALS, is giving adequate support to monitoring done by communities themselves, especially in the face of intense intimidation from state agents. 

Many human rights groups Rappler spoke with over the years count members of communities as always the first ones to record and report incidents of killings that are happening around them.

“Give [groups] visibility because visibility can secure them,” Lopez said. “Help them be more physically and psychologically secure, they can move freer if they know there’s support from the people.” 

While documentation contributes to history, she cautioned that it unfortunately cannot measure the extent of the damage done. While the death toll is heavily reported on, the impact on children and future generations, including the normalization of violence, has yet to be fully seen.

“What kind of generation is now growing? We are creating a generation of people who are numb to the violence, who think that this is normal,” she said. 

As the human rights situation should be monitored under Marcos, the quest for justice for the thousands killed under Duterte continues. All eyes are on the International Criminal Court as it is expected to decide on the appeal lodged by the Philippine government against the resumption of the probe into the drug war killings. 

As the public awaits the next ICC developments, other steps taken should also ensure that the impunity under Marcos and Duterte are not swept under the rug in the face of renewed or invigorated international relations. 

One of the biggest examples of this is the upcoming expiration of the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), or trade perks enjoyed by the Philippines from the European Union. At the center of this scheme is the obligation to uphold human rights standards. Groups both here and abroad are calling on the EU Commission to not renew the Philippines’ status. 

While there is still no solid indication about the fate of the country’s trade perks with the EU, there are signs that foreign governments are pleased with Marcos. 

“More than castigating Marcos for not doing much as far as human rights is concerned, we should call out the international community for being content with tokenistic approaches, for doing so little and being happy with it,” HRW’s Conde said. 

Ultimately, Duterte’s violent policies and disregard for human rights make it easier for future administrations to unleash their own brand of terror in the Philippines. According to political scientist Iglesias, failing to address the impact of Duterte will just make the cycle go on forever.

“Without the genuine restoration of respect for human rights, including in the form of justice for victims, the risk in our country is that the bloody six years could happen again, whether or not under the Marcos administration, but maybe in the future,” she said. – Rappler.com 

Informed sources indicated that the appeals chamber of the ICC may come out with a decision in the next two to three months on whether the Prosecutor’s investigation into the estimated 27,000 killings in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war and the Davao Death Squad is valid.

If the appeals chamber decides in favor of the Philippine government, the prosecutor has to close its investigation. If the decision goes against the government, the prosecutor may start to request for an arrest warrant if it finds sufficient grounds to do so.

It was the Philippine government that filed an appeal, and whatever the decision is will be final, at least for this issue. “The appeals chamber is the highest chamber at the ICC, so there is no appeal of the decision of the appeals chamber,” ICC Spokesperson Fadi el Abdallah told Rappler in an interview at the court on June 8.

But if, for example, the government loses this round, “it would not preclude them from providing material in the future that could warrant [another] deferral,” Maria Elena Vignoli, senior counsel of the Human Rights Watch international justice program, told Rappler.

This ping-pong on legal processes may be the same complicated process as in the Philippines’ local system, except that the ICC has one fundamental limitation: it does not have police powers.

Even if arrest warrants are issued, the matter of who will make the arrest is a big problem. South Africa, an ICC member country, has now given immunity to Russian president Vladimir Putin when he goes there this August for the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin over child deportation in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

ICC’s El Abdallah said immunity is a usual diplomatic custom for all visiting heads of state, and that “there is a clear framework in the ICC Rome Statute that allows for these types of matters to be dealt with.”

The ICC’s track record in enforcing warrants, however, is not cause for optimism. If a suspect is not arrested, no trial will happen.

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Prospects for the Philippines

Prospects for the Philippines are both good and bad. Good because former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who opened the investigation, was bogged down by sanctions from Donald Trump before, and that was seen to have affected the pace of action in the Philippine case.

Karim Khan, the new prosecutor, has been moving quicker than his predecessor and has appointed deputy prosecutors to help speed up the process. In just one year, Khan has managed to both reopen the investigation into the Philippines and convince the appeals chamber not to suspend the process while waiting for its decision.

But the reality is that the Office of the Prosecutor has a limited budget, funded only by voluntary contributions from state parties. It also has its hands full on its special Ukraine investigation.

“We cannot put all the hope for justice in an international court that’s under-resourced and that’s right now preoccupied with what its principals and donors want it to be preoccupied with,” said Ruben Carranza, a Filipino international justice lawyer, at a forum by 1Sambayan on May 4.

“We were worried just slightly. But movement is better than no movement at all,” Kristina Conti, lawyer for a group of drug war widows and an ICC accredited assistant counsel, told Rappler in a Zoom interview from Manila on June 10.

The complicated treaty

A special feature of the ICC is complementarity. It means that it will not intervene if it is convinced that the Philippines’ own justice system is able and willing to do the investigation. 

Prosecutor Khan has been insisting that  the Philippine government has not given substantial proof of a working justice system. The other consideration for complementarity is “same person, same conduct” test, meaning, the national investigation must be looking at the same person and substantially the same conduct being investigated by the ICC. If the government passes the test, the ICC need not proceed as state investigations are given more primacy.

Colombia, for example, is a model of complementarity because its creation of its own peace tribunals convinced the ICC prosecutor to close the investigation.

Sarah Bafadhel, the British external counsel hired by the Philippine Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), has expertise on complementarity.

Among others, the appeal argues that the complementarity tests apply only to concrete cases, and not the Philippine situation at the investigation level. Beyond that, the appeal argues that the justice system is working.

That claim, however, is disputed heavily by the local human rights community. For one, the proof submitted to the ICC includes proceedings that are not directly related to the drug war. There is also little movement in the investigation of the Davao Death Squad.

“At least for the purposes of the appeal, the argument is that yes, they are not criminal proceedings, but they lead to, or allow for investigation and identification of potential perpetrators, potential victims and potential witnesses,” Bafadhel told Rappler in an interview from The Hague on June 9.

“For the victims, if you ask them, who do you want prosecuted? Common among the names is Rodrigo Duterte, and none of these proceedings, civil and criminal, lead up to the name of Duterte and even Bato,” Conti said. Bato is Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, Duterte’s former police chief and the architect of the drug war.

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In defense of the ICC

The ICC also suffers from a sustained disinformation campaign, mostly from its reputation of not being able to punish Western leaders. When Bensouda opened the investigation, a report on Dutch portal Justiceinfo.net on her role in the Gambian regime got traffic from the Philippines, and was distributed by Duterte bloggers to discredit the prosecution.

“You are certainly dealing with people that have some kind of power, and it means you are upsetting some people just by existing and conducting your job. It is totally unacceptable to put out fake news about an institution seeking justice, and at the same time, it seems to me it is unavoidable in our current work,” said El Abdallah.

The ICC is also seen as a potential political tool in the power play of the fragile alliance between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Marcos government, after all, is engaging to an extent with the court in this appeal process. Marcos also sometimes gives interviews where he drops criticisms here and there on the abuses in Duterte’s drug war.

“The ICC is a politicized court and this is politics in the international level,” said Carranza in the 1Sambayan forum.

In the same forum, Filipino judge Raul Pangalangan, who retired as an ICC judge in May 2021, said: “We don’t have a police to carry out our orders, but historically, we have found ways to carry out our jurisdiction even without that.”

Drug war victims are always cautioned against high hopes on a process as convoluted as the ICC, but Conti said: “At the moment, it is the most viable option; in fact, it seems it is the only viable option.” – Rappler.com

This reporting was supported by the Journalists For Justice

Is it Andres Bonifacio, with his bold battle cry amid the pealing of church bells? Perhaps Emilio Aguinaldo, who steered the fledgling republic in its first imperfect years? Or maybe Jose Rizal, who sooner laid down his life than forsook his country?

There are stories of men storming across bridges and barricades. There are others of men dying for their country. But there is also one of a hero who, through sheer brilliance, first forced the world to gaze upon a Filipino as their equal: Juan Luna. 

“We were starting to see ourselves as a people, not just through the lens of our colonizers. And here was a man who had undeniable genius,” Jei Ente, assistant curator at the Ayala Museum, told Rappler.

“Regardless of what they can say about the ‘race’ of the Filipinos, here was Juan Luna debunking all of it: what the capacity and the capabilities of Filipinos, of the ‘brown man,’ were. Here he was, standing above all of his European contemporaries.” 

This is the story of Philippine independence from an artist’s eyes, retold on the 125th birth date of the nation. And it starts with the homecoming of Luna’s long-lost masterpiece.

‘Holy grail of Philippine art’

Sometimes, we need a reminder to remember our past. This time, it came in the form of a cultural treasure rediscovered after disappearing more than a 130 years ago. 

The holy grail of Philippine art, they called it. The find of the century. Ineffable. A true sight to behold. And yet, this all came short of unraveling the mythical air behind Juan Luna’s missing masterpiece: Hymen, oh Hyménée!

The quest to find it is remarkable on its own, but that is a separate story to tell. It has since been reopened to the public in an exhibition titled “Splendor: Juan Luna, Painter as Hero” at the Ayala Museum on Monday, June 12.

The painting, feared to have been destroyed during the revolution, is hailed by many art collectors as the “holy grail of Philippine art” – due to both Luna’s brilliance and the air of mystery surrounding the piece.

By the time he had painted Hymen, oh Hyménée!, Luna had already made a name for himself. Five years back, he had won gold and international acclaim with Spoliarium. But it was this piece, which won bronze in the 1889 Paris World’s Fair, that cemented his status as a master painter.

The artwork, which depicts what looks to be a Roman wedding feast, is splendid, celebratory, and full of hope. But staring at it, one might struggle with seeing themselves in the work. We don’t see a typical Filipino scene in the painting, which is thoroughly Western in its style. 

“It’s so foreign, even if it’s Juan Luna. He has a lot of foreign or European-inspired works. But when we know the story of this painting, we know the story of his time,” said Ente, who was part of the team that set up the painting’s exhibit in Ayala Museum.

Luna worked on the painting while deep in the throes of love, during his honeymoon trip with his wife, Paz Pardo de Tavera, daughter of the Grand Inquisitor of Spain. 

Some experts believed that it may have been a gift to Paz. The imagery too might mirror the artist’s own wedding to his wife – one that, at first, drew heated disapproval due to their different social status and so-called “races.”

“In the context of ancient Rome, where only Roman citizens were allowed to marry, marriage was a significant rite of passage that solidified one’s status as a full citizen with all the associated rights and privileges. This rite was particularly significant for Luna, since he came from a society where race prevented marrying into a higher class,” explained Kenneth Esguerra, senior curator of the Ayala Museum in a documentary.

“By marrying Paz, Luna transcended social barriers and overcame colonial limitations. He was able to bridge the social divide and become a global citizen,” he added.

And it was this sense of overcoming “colonial limitations” that remained a constant theme of Luna’s life as a painter in Spain at a time of great racial divides.

(READ: ‘Holy grail’: Juan Luna’s lost masterpiece revealed after 132 years)

‘Luna, the painter as hero’

Juan Luna hailed from the sleepy town of Badoc, Ilocos Norte – or, as the Spanish called it, the “wrong part of the island of Luzon.” 

Traveling to Manila and then Madrid, Luna studied under art school after art school, winning recognition but never quite finding the teacher he needed. But he would soon find his mentor in Alejo Vera, who painted historical scenes to perfection. And it showed in the works that set up Luna’s meteoric rise to the top of the European art scene. 

The year was 1881, and Luna was just 24 years old when he painted The Death of Cleopatra. The work, depicting the Egyptian queen moments after death, garnered Luna his first major award, a silver medal in the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes.

But it would be in the next Spanish national exhibition that Luna would cement his name – and awaken the Filipino consciousness. 

In 1884, Luna unveiled Spoliarium, winning a gold medal and beating out other Spanish artists. In dark, harsh hues, the painting depicted dying Roman gladiators being stripped of their spoils, their weapons, their armor. In an unlit corner, a woman weeps over a body.

In the same exhibition, Filipino painter Félix Hidalgo also won a silver medal for his Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho, which showed Christian female slaves being unclothed and eyed by Roman men.

But Luna didn’t speak of anything political or patriotic when he won as a Filipino artist – or in the terminology of the time, an “artist from the Philippine islands.” Neither did Hidalgo.

It was Rizal who invoked the power within these paintings, the messages that lay just beneath the brushstrokes. 

In a congratulatory toast to Luna and Hidalgo, Rizal spoke with eloquence and boldness, saying that the two paintings embodied “the essence of our social, moral and political life: humanity in severe ordeal, humanity unredeemed, reason and idealism in open struggle with prejudice, fanaticism, and injustice.”

“Genius has no country, genius bursts forth everywhere, genius is like light and air, the patrimony of all: cosmopolitan as space, as life and God,” Rizal said of Luna.

Luna never quite became as vocal with his political views as the likes of Jose Rizal or Marcelo H. del Pilar. He never took up a rifle in defense of the nation, unlike his fiery brother Antonio. But he had always allied himself with the members of the Propaganda Movement. In 1899, under Aguinaldo’s government, Luna served as a member of delegations that worked on the diplomatic recognition of the Philippines.

‘He gave them something to believe in’

In many ways, the triumph of Luna over his Spanish contemporaries became a turning point in how Filipinos perceived themselves.

“You can tie it to the whole story of how Juan Luna was part of that list of important people who really gave us the courage and the belief that this fight is actually worth fighting for – for this nation, for this representation, this self-erudition, self-acknowledgement,” Ente said.

When we study our history and how we became a nation, we look at our military history. We study the battles. We remember the people who died. Who shot this captain? Who won the battle in this province or sea?

While plenty of important battles were fought for Philippine independence, perhaps an equally important detail is where this sense of peoplehood first came from.

“But what makes these men go through these battles? It has to be a belief. There has to be something that they should have believed in – something intangible, something inner, like a reality that happens inside before it can manifest externally through bravery, through martyrdom.”

The revolution would follow soon after Luna had first stirred a whole nation’s sense of pride. Seven years after Hymen, oh Hyménée! brought the talent of the Philippines to the world, the first gunshots of independence rang out.

“For generations and for centuries, as a colonized people, we were taught we were of this level and we were subjugated. But for a painter – for a Filipino – to break through a very elite and very closed-off world, such as the world of fine arts, that must have meant something to his peers, who were also starting to feel that we should be recognized with our own voice,” Ente said. 

“He gave them something to believe in.” – Rappler.com

“The media is a food chain which would fall apart without local newspapers.” – John Oliver

Social media is a double-edged sword that could spell success or failure, or force a community news organization to make a turn for the worse.

News houses in Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro agree that social media, especially Facebook, helped their respective operations, particularly in distribution and widening their audience.

According to the 2022 Digital News Report (DNR) of Reuters Institute, online news consumption in the Philippines has been growing on various social media platforms.

In a country report written by veteran journalist and UP professor Yvonne Chua, television is still the most popular medium in the Philippines, but the latest report showed a “steady growth of online news consumption including heavy news use on a range of social platforms.”

“Facebook remains the most widely used (73% for news weekly) but the biggest leap comes from TikTok, used by mere 2% for news in 2020 and now by 15%. News organisations correspondingly moved into the platform, especially in time for the elections. Besides being the largest radio and television network, GMA Network is now the country’s largest news creator on TikTok, which it also partnered with for an election campaign series. Other brands that have attracted a loyal following are ABS-CBN, News5, The Philippine Star, Manila Bulletin, DZRH, and Rappler,” the report said.

May Ortega, news director of Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo of the Manila Broadcasting Corporation, observed the exponential growth of their Facebook audience from around 20,000 in 2009 to the current 1.1 million followers and 904,000 likes – in a span of 14 years.

Quick adjustments

Ortega said a nephew in Canada suggested that their station should have its own Facebook account for added avenue to more listeners, especially Ilonggos abroad. They converted the Facebook account into a page in 2013 to acquire a bigger audience. 

“The transition to social media is very palpable. We have no other choice but to embrace this shift,” Ortega said.

Embracing means turning broadcast journalism, at least in Iloilo, on its head. Ortega said their function is now a combination of print and TV.

“Before, all we had to do was talk, now we have to learn how to write in Hiligaynon, dabble in graphics, and master the operation of all types of cameras because of the demands of multimedia operations. It’s a steep learning curve for most of us,” she added.

Daily Guardian publisher Lawrence Clark Fernandez said it was imperative for the paper to improve its website and Facebook account to keep up with audience preference. From a mere 15,000 followers in 2021, the paper’s Facebook page now has more than 328,000 followers and 247,000 likes.

From 2021 and 2023, social media accounts accounted for 30%-45% of Daily Guardian’s reader traffic on its official website.

Sean Rafio, social media and online reporter for Daily Guardian, observed that while social media is partly responsible for growing traffic to the official website, news stories posted on the Facebook page get lower traction compared to posts about entertainment personalities and celebrities, pet stories, and funny experiences of netizens.

“Apart from website materials, Daily Guardian also realized the importance of content creation on just about anything that is of interest to the readers. Videos always get the most traction among our native content, while human interest and entertainment stories get a chunk of reactions and shares,” Fernandez added.

Facebook audience preferences

Posts on calamities and stories on corruption also take the fancy of Facebook audiences. One example is the controversial P680-million Ungka flyover which remains unused because of its sinking foundations. Apart from its structural woes, the flyover was also the subject of online ridicule via memes due to flooding after just a few hours of rain.

Seeing the potential for engagement and a way to keep the issue relevant to their audience, Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo initiated a search for the best flyover flooding meme. The contest may have poked fun at the flyover and gained more followers on their part, but Ortega said, it was also one way of keeping the issue alive in the minds of their audience given the gravity of the controversy.

“It was a way of hitting two birds with one stone for us. It was meant to engage the audience not just for the metrics, but also to provide another lens of looking at the issue,” she added.

The flyover flooding meme contest ran from May 2 to May 14, 2023, and expanded Aksyon Radyo’s Facebook page reach to more than 2.07 million.

Glenda Tayona, editor of Iloilo-based Panay News, said it is important for news organizations to strategize on content creation and engagement.

“We observed that videos tend to get more traction on Facebook, that is why we always hold Facebook live coverages of major news events. Breaking news and human-interest stories are also effective in acquiring audience engagement,” Tayona said.

One of the more recent videos that gained significant traction for Panay News is the one that shows a violent altercation in a barangay benefit dance in the town of Tigbauan, Iloilo on March 19. It gained more than 1 million views, 9,200 reactions, and 1,100 comments.

The live coverage of the protest rally at the sinking Ungka flyover in Pavia town on May 23 also garnered more than 4,100 views.

Daily Guardian’s top video post was that of former Ilongga beauty queen Rabiya Mateo answering the preliminary interview for the Miss Universe-Philippines pageant in 2020. It garnered 3.2 million views, 141,000 reactions, and 2,000 comments 

Added income? 

Despite the attacks and challenges, news organizations in Iloilo remain focused on taking advantage of potential benefits from social media.

With its growing online audience, Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo has now begun monetizing its online content, particularly videos, since December 2022.

Based on their monitoring, its Facebook page earned an average of US$150 to $200 per month from December 2022 to March 2023, which then increased to $300 in April 2023.

Ortega said they noticed ad postings on their Facebook video materials which generated income for the station. While the earning is not that significant compared to their traditional advertising revenues, Ortega said the prospects look bright for the station.

“Videos are now generating income from our social media account, but it’s just a small fraction of our overall revenue stream. We still rely on the usual advertising materials. But the growing audience is a good add-on to our marketing strategies to keep us afloat,” she added.

Contrary to the notion that technology will somehow whittle down newsroom manpower, Ortega said their current operations require more digital natives, folks who have the skills to produce materials and navigate the current information environment.

“We need people who are skilled in graphics and those who know how to write for a specific kind of audience. There are certain materials that are optimized for a certain platform. For example, Instagram is more image-based, while TikTok is a venue for short videos. All these we must learn from scratch for most of us,” Ortega said.

Annaliza Amontos-Reyes, program director of dxCC-RMN Cagayan de Oro said that although they have also joined the social media bandwagon, they have yet to monetize their social media accounts.

“Our presence on social media platforms are mainly just for exposure to our clients (ads) and wider reach of audience,” she said. They still do not have staff who will focus on their social media platforms, but they are currently hiring.

Another major challenge is how to balance the desire to get more online traction with the primary work of journalists – to inform and educate the audience.

“We are still journalists at the end of the day and that is our main purpose and reason for being. We must not lose sight of that reality. Along that line, we also have to strictly comply with the community standards of these online platforms or we risk losing our page and audience,” Ortega said.

Knowing, reaching audiences

Apart from hiring a content creator-cum-manager, Daily Guardian also partnered with IT and marketing firm PROMETHEUS, which was founded by Lcid Crescent Fernandez, brother of the paper’s publisher Lawrence Clark Fernandez.

PROMETHEUS has been helping in the technical aspects of content creation and community engagement such as documentary production, podcasts, and videos. Their current project is a documentary on the Ungka flyover which has become a viral issue for Ilonggo netizens.

Daryl Lasafin, head of operations of Iloilo-based IT firm Dame Digital and former news editor of Panay News, said community engagement and exploitation of platforms other than Facebook and Twitter are essential for community news organizations to cope and survive.

Lasafin said there are other ways to grow the audience with different demands and inclinations.

“Instagram audiences have their own demands from content creators. TikTok is also a different animal altogether. Apart from social media, news companies can also try email newsletters that curate audience-specific materials,” he added.

Lasafin said it is vital for community news organizations to know their audience and their preferences to optimize content creation and engagement. He also cautioned that while online platforms are effective ways of distributing the news, these are also competitors of news organizations.

“Facebook is also our competitor. News organizations use the platform for free and Facebook is most likely to push content where it earns. That’s one reality that news organizations must be aware of,” he added.

While social media presents opportunities for growth in community journalism both as a business and public service, it could also be a landmine or rabbit hole that exposes journalists to health and safety risks.

This was more evident between 2016 and 2022, the years of the confrontational Duterte administration compounded by the pandemic and the divisive 2022 presidential elections. (To be concluded) – Rappler.com

NEXT: Part 2 | Social media breeds, spreads contempt of community journalists

Francis Allan Angelo and Cong Corrales are Aries Rufo Journalism fellows.

MANILA, Philippines – Death knocked on almost every door in one densely populated northern Metro Manila community in Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines. 

Carmen*, a woman in her senior years, watched with fear as her neighbors were routinely gunned down by police during anti-illegal drug operations. She joined in the grieving as people she’d known for years were found bloodied and lifeless in dark streets, killers never to be identified. 

Men were killed inside their homes, in front of their families, at their most vulnerable, in the name of the government’s war on drugs that also took the lives of thousands of Filipinos elsewhere in the country. 

In between devastating news of deaths, Carmen prayed her loved ones would be spared from the violence that had become almost a part of her community’s daily life. Please not my family, she often uttered under her breath as signs of another police operation became visible at night. 

By May 31, 2022, a month before Duterte’s presidential term ended, at least 6,252 people were killed in police operations alone. The death toll has been estimated to be between 27,000 to 30,000 if victims of extrajudicial killings are included. 

Duterte left Malacañang on June 30, 2022. He was succeeded by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the dictator’s son who had never made his stand on Duterte’s war on drugs explicit. Carmen, who voted for Marcos, thought the worst was over. 

In August 2022, violence again reared its ugly head and this time, it hit Carmen’s home. Her worst fears became reality barely two months into the Marcos presidency. 

Rolly, her 21-year-old adopted son, was found dead far from the family home. His lifeless body was floating in a creek, surrounded by trash and wild plants, like thousands of other Filipino victims during Duterte’s term.

“Akala ko kapag nagbago na ang ating presidente, magbabago na ang lahat,” she told Rappler in an interview on Tuesday, June 6.  “Akala namin matatapos na ang lahat, pero mauulit lang rin pala ang dating nangyari na patayan nang patayan, pati na ang anak ko ay nadamay pa.” 

(We thought everything would change, but the repeated killings of before would just recur. Even my child was not spared.) 

‘Why kill my son?’

Carmen was not at home when she heard the news. She was outside Metro Manila, far away from her family, when she got the message that Rolly had been killed. Carmen was surprised, then felt the unmistakable pang of grief mixed with anger. The next time she saw her adopted son, he was already in a casket. 

Carmen desperately wanted to know why Rolly was killed. 

He was last seen alive when he joined some friends for a drinking session, according to news that reached the family. Carmen said he didn’t drink, so he probably went for the company. He went missing before turning up dead some hours later. 

“Hindi ko naman akalain na magiging biktima siya kasi wala naman siyang bisyo, wala naman siyang kaaway, wala siyang ginagawang masama,” Carmen said. “Akala ko nakaligtas na kami sa gulo ni Duterte.”

(I never expected for him to be a victim because he has no vices, he doesn’t have enemies, he’s not doing anything wrong. I thought we were already safe from the violence that happened under Duterte.) 

There were rumors that the killers targeted his friends who may have had criminal links, and he was collateral damage. Rolly was supposedly just in the wrong place at the wrong time. These all whirled in the head of his adoptive mother who was already drowning in despair.

But these remain speculation until now. The police, according to Carmen, never offered assistance. Nor did they investigate the incident. They did not present any information from their own probe, not even a suspect. 

What confused Carmen and her family, however, was how fast the police got to know everything about Rolly. They immediately knew who he was, where he worked, and where he lived. 

It reminded her of how the police operated under Duterte, when everything felt like clockwork each time someone was killed. A lifeless body would end up somewhere, the police would arrive and identify the victim, inform the family, and let the incident fade into obscurity. 

Does she think that the police killed Rolly? Carmen is firm that she doesn’t have any reason to believe otherwise. But she knows coming out in public with that allegation can endanger not just her life, but also her family’s. 

By the end of August 2022, the month Rolly was killed, there were already at least 74 victims of drug-related killings, including those killed by state agents and unidentified individuals, according to monitoring by Dahas, a project of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Third World Studies Center. 

“Natatakot na ako talaga kaya kabado ako kapag nakakakita ako ngayon ng pulis, parang nagkaroon na nga rin ako ng phobia at trauma sa kanila,” Carmen said. (I’m now really scared that’s why I get nervous now whenever I see the police, and I feel as if I’ve developed a phobia and trauma.)

Losing a breadwinner

Rolly was not Carmen’s biological son, but she treated him as her own since he was a baby. Carmen had him baptized, gave him a roof over his head, sent him to school, and made sure his needs were met even if she was also struggling financially. 

Carmen never fell short in making Rolly feel he was her own son. She recalled spending early mornings with him on their daily walks to school, and the joy they both felt seeing each other again after classes were done for the day. 

Their closeness growing up did not fade as years went by. In fact, Carmen believes there were many indications that prove they remained strong together as a family. 

As Carmen grew older, she relied more and more on Rolly. In turn, he never made his adoptive mother feel like she was a burden. He took on the role of breadwinner, supporting his loved ones with little money he earned as a pedicab driver.

Rolly worked nights, plying the streets of the poorest communities for passengers ending their long work days. He slept mostly during the day, but always made sure his presence was felt at home through some way.

“Kapag dadating siya, may dala siyang ulam, may dalang bigas, may dalang pera,” she recalled. “Kung anu-anong inuuwi niya para sa amin kasi alam niya na kailangan namin talaga.” 

(Whenever he arrived, he brought home food, rice, and money. He brings home various things for us because he knew we really needed them.) 

Age caught up with Carmen in recent years, and she started having health issues that required expensive maintenance medicines and hospital trips for regular checkups. 

When Rolly was still alive, he’d make sure Carmen didn’t miss taking her medicine. He would often find ways to get the money by working more hours. But now that he’s gone, Carmen has no choice but to still work long hours even if she’s already old and frail. 

“Pinatay nila iyong tumutulong sa akin sa gastusin, sa pambili ko ng gamot at iba pang pangangailangan, nawala na, walang awa nilang pinatay, ang sakit-sakit,” she said. 

(They killed my son who helped me with finances, who helped me with the money for my medicine and other needs. They killed him mercilessly. It’s really painful.) 

Carmen needs P1,000 ($18) every two weeks for her medicine and additional money for hospital visits, on top of the daily household expenses. She tries to raise the amount by selling various merchandise on a small pushcart under the intense heat of the sun. 

She starts selling at 10 in the morning and ends by early evening. Sometimes she sells enough, but more often than not she’d haul home unsold wares, praying that tomorrow’s sales would be better. 

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End killings for the sake of children

Carmen’s experience mirrors the experience of thousands of other families left behind by Duterte’s drug war victims, who were mostly male breadwinners. Their deaths forced widows and children deeper into poverty, aside from traumatizing generations by making violence an everyday reality. 

Marcos has been trying to distance himself from his murderous predecessor who used the presidential pulpit to order the slaughter of his own countrymen, and whose drug war is now under investigation at the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity.

In September 2022, Marcos said that his focus would be more on prevention and rehabilitation than law enforcement, which he admitted, “only gets you so far.” In early May 2023, he said that Duterte’s war on drugs resulted in “abuses by certain elements in the government.”

But while they did not reach Duterte levels of violence, drug-related killings still continued during the first year of Marcos in office. Dahas monitored at least 309 drug-related killings from July 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023. 

At least 175 occurred during the first six months of the Marcos presidency, higher than the death toll of 149 in the last six months of Duterte. 

The continuing violence is felt more on the ground, where families continue to fear for their lives. Widows whose husbands were killed under Duterte remain scared for their sons. Strangers still lurk in the shadows. People still refuse to peek outside their homes when a commotion happens at night. 

Carmen wants justice for her adopted son, but she fears it is too unattainable, given how things are going. Rolly’s death, after all, was just the beginning of another chain of nightmares in their community. The continuing deaths blurred the line between Duterte and Marcos. 

“Gusto lang namin ng hustisya at katahimikan kasi kung patuloy ang mga patayan, isipin ‘nyo naman ang mga bata na maliliit pa, na sumisibol pa,” she said. “Anong klaseng buhay iyan na puro patayan na lang ang nasa paligid, lalaki sila na mulat sa ganitong gulo, kung hindi sila mismo ang pinapatay,” Carmen added. 

(We just want justice and peace of mind because if these killings continue, just think about how this affects young children, who are only beginning to make sense of the world. What kind of a life is that, where killings happen around you – they’ll grow up in a world thinking this is normal, or worse, they’ll end up being killed themselves.) (To be concluded) – Rappler.com

NEXT: PART 2 | More killings, no justice: Navigating continued impunity from Duterte to Marcos

The first step is to listen to the songs of the birds – that should help locate them. When done multiple times – in your backyard, on campus grounds, in the mountains on the off chance you find yourself hiking – bird-watching can reveal certain quirky preferences and behaviors, like courtship dances and favorite perches.

Eventually, a hobbyist can invest in a pair of binoculars, learn to be more eagle-eyed when spotting birds, and identify them just through their sounds and calls.

“It’s both like a mindless and mindful activity,” described Jelaine Gan, a raptor biologist and instructor from the Institute of Biology at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

It’s a good antidote for today’s culture of doom scrolling.

It forces you to disconnect and to just reconnect with nature.

Jelaine Gan, ON BIRD-WATCHING

Finding sparks

Gan was introduced to bird-watching in high school when she joined a guided tour organized by the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park.

Before that, growing up, Gan took 40 lovebirds under her wing. Her interest in these creatures was primarily motivated by their visual appeal and charm.

But Gan quickly realized what was wrong with this kind of relationship when she started joining bird-watchers. Rather than cage them, it’s better to watch birds from afar, in the wild, because it is their natural habitat.

During her first guided tour, Gan saw a collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris). She considers this her “spark bird,” or the bird that started her love for bird-watching and all things avian.

The awe of spotting a collared kingfisher was sparked by Gan initially believing it lived only in other countries, not in the Philippines.

“Napaka-striking niya sa akin kasi noong time na ‘yun, noong unang bird-watching ko, hindi ko alam na may collared kingfisher dito sa Pilipinas.” (It was striking for me at the time because I didn’t know there were collared kingfishers in the Philippines.)

Indeed, an extensive list of birds awaits anyone who wants to take up this hobby.

“It’s addicting once you get started,” Gan said in a mix of Filipino and English. “There’s a challenge to it because, in the Philippines, we have over 700 species of birds. And a lot of them are endemic.”

According to the WBCP, as of 2022, the country is home to 245 endemic bird species. Endemic birds are those found only in certain regions of the Philippines.

Gateway to environmental advocacy

Eventually, Gan’s passion for birds would ignite a scholastic appreciation of nature and biology. Gan is now taking her doctorate degree at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, studying habitat fragmentation in Northern Luzon and how it affects migratory patterns.

Gan said bird-watching is a gateway for many to become environmental advocates.

Karen Ochavo, vice president of the WBCP, said this is because birds are reliable environmental indicators. Watching birds regularly helps create a database of the different species living in certain areas. This accounting also keeps track of the status of species threatened by extinction.

The WBCP regularly updates its checklist of birds in the Philippines with corresponding information, such as conservation status and range distributions or places where they can be found in the country.

The checklist has helped the government and other institutions’ conservation programs. Ochavo cited the example of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park when it was declared a Ramsar site in 2013 under the Ramsar Convention – an international treaty for the conservation and proper utilization of wetlands – partly due to the data amassed by bird-watchers.

“Before a wetland site is declared as a Ramsar site, it has to be backed up by data,” said Ochavo. “The area supports a certain percentage of [the] population of migratory birds…. And some of the data came from the club.”

A black market of birds

But the Philippines’ biodiversity is a double-edged sword.

Illegal wildlife trade has become a multibillion-dollar industry around the world. In the Philippines, illegal wildlife trade is valued at P50 billion ($889.91 million), according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank in 2019. Palawan, Aurora, and Cagayan are hot spots for bird poaching.

Some of the most traded birds from the Philippines are the blue-naped parrots (Tanygnathus lucionensis) and the Palawan hill mynahs (Gracula religiosa palawanensis). Brahminy kites (Haliastur indus) are hunted as juveniles, while Luzon lowland scops owls (Otus megalotis) are poached by hunters and sold on the street, the black market, and even online.

Online selling of birds gained ground during the pandemic, said Ochavo. Bird-watchers and advocates have had to resort to reporting groups and individuals selling birds through social media platforms, but Ochavo admitted this is not as sustainable as raising public awareness.

“It’s really hard online,” said Ochavo. “People can just remove their profiles and then create a new one.”

Environment Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga acknowledged the proliferation of “insidious” wildlife trade in the country and said the department needs all the help it can get.

“We need the support of the public in terms of reporting to us [about] illegal wildlife trade,” Loyzaga said after a tree-planting activity on Monday, June 5, at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, considered the country’s national rescue center. The park is home to rescued birds such as Girlie, the Philippine eagle caught in Bukidnon in 1982.

“We also need the support of both public and private [sectors] for the enhancement of this wildlife rescue center,” she added.

For 2023, the NAPWC has an allocated budget of P6.641 million ($118,204.09). The bulk of the fund came from the income generated by the park in 2022 from entrance fees, facility rentals, concessionaires, and parking fees.

Budget remains a big constraint to developing retrieval and rescue operations, the environment secretary said. “Every year, we have to battle for a budget.”

Start simple

The dream is to create and expand protected areas where wildlife can thrive peacefully.

“Hopefully, if we have enough support, we will have a space here also for Philippine marine and coastal environments,” Loyzaga said, referring to the Ninoy Aquino park. “So that in one area in the city, you can come and experience the whole of the country’s natural resources in terms of biodiversity.”

Because of rampant development and degradation of forests, birds are losing their homes. When remaining forests are splintered, this affects the welfare and movement of birds, said Gan.

“One issue is if it’s okay for birds to migrate and pass through areas of development,” she explained in a mix of Filipino and English. Restricted movement means restricted resources; Gan likened this situation to the pandemic experience of having to stay in one area.

This is why saving the Philippines’ protected areas is crucial in taking care of the birds that consider this country home.

Ochavo, who studied environmental science and has seen the improvement of the field through the years, is optimistic that the country will soon strike a balance between development and protection.

“It’s like a slow progression, but we’re getting there. So 10 years from now, hopefully, more protected areas, more sustainable development,” she said.

In the meantime, Ochavo encourages more people to try bird-watching as a first step toward what could be a lifelong passion and respect for nature.

“It’s something that can be done with friends or family. It’s a really accessible activity. It’s as simple as that,” she implored.

“Go bird-watching.” – Rappler.com

$1 = P56.19

• Two years since its commercial rollout, Dito has outperformed telco legacy giants Globe and Smart in several categories, including upload speed, signal availability, and overall experience.
• While Dito has started to disrupt the Philippines’ telco space, auditors have flagged its massive borrowings threatening its financial viability.
• Dito’s ties with China will continue to be an issue, especially during the Marcos administration and given its evolving relationship with Beijing.

MANILA, Philippines – When businessman Dennis Uy and China Telecom placed their bid to be the Philippines’ third “major” telecommunications player back on November 7, 2018, their representatives made sure to create a spectacle.

Their bidding documents were secured with blue ribbons and were packed in rose gold and black suitcases. The other bidders who showed up had theirs in sad balikbayan boxes. Their battery of lawyers and officials comprised of Filipino and Chinese nationals filled one side of the room.

It was quite obvious that Uy and China Telecom would win the coveted frequencies. After all, they were the only ones who were qualified.

Local players PT&T and Chavit Singson’s Sear Telecom did not stand a chance, as they failed to meet basic bidding requirements. Meanwhile, representatives of Mel Velarde’s NOW Telecom showed up, but eventually backed out just before bidding commenced.

Foreign companies like Korea Telecom, Telenor, and Mobiltel were expected to join the anticipated showdown, but were no-shows too. It was heavily speculated that they were spooked by Uy – former president Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign donor – being backed by Beijing’s state telecommunications company.

Uy and China Telecom’s consortium (eventually renamed Dito Telecom) used the congressional franchise of a little-known company called Mindanao Islamic Telephone (Mislatel) to make their bid valid. The terms of reference required companies to team up with a company that held a franchise and had a proven track record of operations. Mislatel held a franchise and was supposed to operate in Maguindanao way back in 2001, but held off commercial operations supposedly due to security concerns in the area.

Adding to the curious events surrounding Dito’s win was Duterte’s decision, just days after bidding ended, to replace Eliseo Rio, who at that time, led the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

The entry of a third telco player has long been anticipated by Filipinos who have been unhappy with the internet services offered by Globe and Smart.

But even before Dito could operate and compete with the telco duopoly, its unsurprising win without a clear rival, as well as its glaring political ties, continue to cast doubt over its capabilities.

Numbers, however, would reveal that it has started to disrupt the telco space that benefited consumers.

To an extent, Dito has found some success just over two years since its commercial operations. But auditors are keeping a close eye on whether the company can outpace its debt-driven growth.

Business circles are also watching Uy’s next business move, as he sells off assets and has not received the same red carpet treatment as during the Duterte administration.

Dito catching up

Since its commercial rollout in 2021, Dito has secured 14.9 million subscribers. This is, however, just 8.9% of the over 168 million total SIM cards nationwide. Globe dominates with 86.7 million (51.6%), while Smart has 66.3 million (39.4%).

While last in terms of market share, Dito has managed to keep up and even outperform competitors in some aspects of services. According to analytics company OpenSignal, Dito is better than Globe and Smart in terms of upload speed experience, availability, and consistent quality of service.

"It is Dito, not Globe, that is giving Smart reason for concern in the Download Speed Experience category, despite Smart having won this award outright for the past 12 reports in a row. In the October 2021 report Smart led Dito and Globe (which were tied for first place) by around 10Mbps – fast forward to the April 2023 report and Dito is only 2.6Mbps behind Smart," OpenSignal said in its latest report.

OpenSignal went on to say that Dito's entry has "significantly shifted" the balance of the Philippines' mobile experience.

It took decades for Smart and Globe to achieve such service and coverage, yet Dito was able to do so in two years with just P37.9 billion (around $67 million).

Dito chief administrative officer Adel Tamano offered perspective on the matter, noting that the bigger telco networks had legacy infrastructure to wind down whenever new technology emerged.

"Essentially, we don't have a legacy system. We started with fiber connections. We started with cloud-based services. Cumulatively, all of these technologies will bring down the cost of operations."

The government's common tower policy also helped Dito in its rollout. The measure allowed multiple telco companies to use the same towers instead of building separate infrastructure. This was beneficial for all telcos, but most especially for the new player which had to catch up.

Dito has plenty of room to grow. It must do so not just for profit, it is obliged to do so. Unlike Globe and Smart, Dito must fulfill its commitments it signed off on when it bid for the frequencies.

Financial viability

Korea Telecom and what could have been its local partner, Converge ICT, handed out press releases on bidding day, saying that the conditions imposed for the bid rendered the venture “commercially unviable.”

Meanwhile, Mobiltel cited “uncertainties” that would expose investors to risks. They also had issues with the selection process and foreign ownership restrictions.

So far, Dito is bleeding to the point of auditors questioning its ability to continue as a business.

The independent auditors of Dennis Uy’s Dito CME, the publicly-listed corporate vehicle of Dito, raised concerns about the company’s ability to make enough money to stay afloat for the foreseeable future, given its massive liabilities.

Punongbayan & Araullo Grant Thornton (P&A) underscored Dito CME’s liabilities in 2022, including exceeding its current assets by P196.6 billion, comprehensive losses reaching P25.6 billion, and capital deficiency hitting P27.9 billion, as conditions that indicate the “existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the ability of the Group to continue as a going concern.”

Must Read

Auditors raise concerns over Dennis Uy’s Dito 

In response to P&A’s concern, the group said that it continues to “heighten its commercial operations through targeted subscriber acquisition and promotional activities aimed at increasing revenue.”

“Also, the Group will continue to efficiently implement its network roll-out plan and cost-saving measures to improve the results of operations,” the audit report said.

Dito CME also intends to do various fundraising activities in 2023, including a follow-on offering to fund telco and digital business funding requirements.

Meanwhile, Dito is relying on bridge loan facilities with Chinese banks as several of its loans have matured. Last May 27, it announced that Bank of China and China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd. had extended it a $1.17-billion bridge facility.

“This bridge facility is to be repaid and absorbed via a $3.9-billion project finance long-term facility currently being finalized by DitoTel’s senior management, with target closing within the year,” Dito CME said in a stock exchange filing.

Responding to questions about Dito's financials, Tamano said that they do not expect profits until 2028.

"I think you're not looking at our numbers correctly. In terms of our network, in terms of our data centers, in terms of our offices, our personnel, etc. If you will spend P200 billion in less than three years, do you expect to earn that right away? Of course not. That's why I do have a problem when there are those who put forth the opinion that, oh, Dito is at risk because they're not earning money yet. We knew that from the onset. We're not going to earn money at the start," Tamano emphasized.

"And if you know anything about China, and the Chinese mentality, they do not think in terms of business cycles, they don't think in terms of years. They think in terms of decades and centuries. And so, to be very honest about it, the audit looks only at a snapshot of a year."

Challenges and strategies

Dito chief technology officer Rodolfo Santiago said that by 2027, they expect to have a positive cash flow, or when cash acquired exceeds cash spent. A positive net income is targeted by 2028.

To achieve these, Dito will have to not only outdo competitors, but will have to also overcome image issues and wait out technological limitations.

While its services have caught up with the latest technologies, not all can avail of them. Dito SIMs use VoLTE technology, which allows voice calls over an LTE connection instead of older, legacy voice networks. Older phones that don't use this can't accept Dito SIMs. Even iPhone users can't switch to Dito, at least for now.

This June, Dito is expected to launch its postpaid services. They hope to entice users to avail of "unique" phones from China Telecom, as well as other perks that some users may be willing to spend on.

"We do offer things that other telcos can no longer offer. I'll give you a very specific one: Vanity numbers. We still have a lot of numbers. So if there is a company that wants to have a specific type of number, we still have that," Tamano said.

Growing its market share will also be a challenge, considering that people may limit their SIMs due to the requirements of mandatory registration. A valid ID, a basic document that everyday Filipinos struggle to obtain, is required to register a SIM card.

Dito is aiming to grow its subscriber base from 14.9 million to 20 million, but officials don't have a direct answer if they will be able to hit that target.

"I think it's an industry concern, but I think there's also value in that. People will value their SIMs more because of the steps you had to go through to register one. The industry will have a better view how many active SIMs really are there," Tamano said.

Dito is part of Uy's embattled empire. From a buying spree fueled by debt during the Duterte administration, Uy is currently selling assets and has, so far, avoided a default domino. Dito, which, on several occasions, has been accused of being a spying risk, is the only one with a clear lifeline from Chinese lenders. – Rappler.com

Associate professor Ladylyn Lim-Mangada spoke to Rappler on Thursday, June 1, a day after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reported that Sagdullas was one of four New People’s Army (NPA) rebels slain during a May 28 clash with members of the 43rd Infantry Battalion in the hinterlands of Brgy. Mabini, Catarman, Northern Samar.

The three others killed were identified by the military as Geraldine Teopinto alias Luz, the finance officer; Abigail Padula Baselga alias Moana, a medical officer; and Vicente Termo.

Sagdullas, who graduated with a degree in political science in 2017 from UP Tacloban, was Mangada’s student in several political courses and excelled in class, she said.

As a student leader, he consistently lent his voice to the poor, oppressed, and weak, she added.

Kind, eloquent

Sagdullas was “one of the kindest people I know,” his former classmate Ara Pacoma said.

“He was very helpful to his fellow students, a leader who always showed his willingness to lend a hand, and I never heard him complain even in the midst of so many daunting tasks as student council president.”

When asked by Rappler if he knew the student Sagdullas, a security guard of almost two decades at the said university recalled him as being polite and kind. The youth, he said, was a good public speaker and seemed untiring even in longer talks. 

Former student leaders who shared news of Sagdulla’s death mentioned his “eloquence” during council debates. They described him as having a “critical mind with a great talent for articulating points and arguments anchored on the best interest of the people.”

Kabataan party-list Representative Raoul Manuel on Twitter said, “Joshua was the chair of KASAMA sa UP (national alliance of UP student councils) when I served as Student Regent. Many students and people will remember Joshua not as a terrorist but as a defender and servant of the oppressed.”

Joining the NPA

After his graduation, the campus activist eventually became the Eastern Visayas secretary general of Bayan, the national militant coalition of sectoral organizations. He remained active in organizing youth groups.

Sagdullas was a regular user of Facebook, pushing statements of people’s organizations, and schedules of events. He combined condemnation of human rights violations and attacks on activists, and the Duterte government’s messy COVID-19 pandemic response, with lyrical notes on art, music, and authors he loved.

His social media presence abruptly stopped on June 8, 2020. 

Captain Jefferson Mariano, 8ID public affairs chief, said that year, Sagdullas joined the NPA as a full-time combatant.

He was among the combatants belonging to the NPA subregional guerrilla unit deployed in Northern Samar to reinforce the NPA front committee 2 dismantled by the military early 2023, said Mariano. 

He was a political officer, Mariano added. It was not clear where Sagdullas was operating before that.

A former comrade identified the bodies of the four rebels slain on May 28. Alias Kurati had surrendered on April 30, 2023, to officials of Barangay Santander, Bobon, Northern Samar after receiving serious injuries in a firefight that killed seven rebels.  

Turning point

Military officials blamed Asia’s longest communist insurgency and its “pointless ideology” for the death of a promising young man. 

The public information office of the Army’s 8th Infantry Division (8ID) quoted its commander Majr General Camilo Z. Ligayo as saying that Sagdulla “could have had a better future ahead and be an active partner of the government in nation-building, helping the people in the community if he had not been recruited with the terrorist group.”

But Bayan national secretary-general Renato Reyes told Rappler on June 1 that the government pushed Sagdullas to take up arms.

“The dire circumstances in the province, including the arrests and detention of activists, including many Bayan leaders, based on trumped-up charges, is what forced many to go underground and find other ways of resistance,” the activist leader said on June 1.

Rappler researched what was happening in Tacloban and other areas of Eastern Visayas in the last year before Sagdullas’ disappearance from legal activism. This is what we found:

June 7, 2020

A day before his last Facebook post, Sagdullas asks friends to report a fake account bearing his name and picture. It launched in April of that year. But it gets his attention only when a spate of fake accounts surface after the arrests of activists during a June 5 protest against the then-still-unpassed anti-terror bill.

Rappler on June 7 also reports on the trend, which started at the University of the Philippines  Cebu and then spread to other UP campuses. The newer fake accounts, however, are still blank when activists report these.

The fake account paints Sagdullas as a rabid supporter of then-president Rodrigo Duterte, who had ordered stepped-up anti-insurgency campaigns in the islands of Samar and Negros in the Visayas, and Bicol – for example, the fake Sagdullas justifying the killings of people violating the curfew imposed as part of the government’s COVID-19 lockdown.

In bad English, the post says people who feel threatened by Duterte’s shoot them dead order must be violators.

Why did this alarm the activist?

“He feared it was setting a trend for a murder that the state would then blame on the NPA, as there were hints of this new tactic,” says a former Eastern Visayas rights worker forced to leave the region for security reasons.

May 30, 2023

Sagdullas shares a call for justice for Secretary-General Carlito “Ka Karlets” Badion, an urban poor leader whose dead body was found on a highway in Ormoc City on May 28.

The news outfit Bulatlat reports that Badion, the long-time secretary general of Kadamay, was red-tagged and received death threats two days before his killing.

May 29, 2023

“Stop the killings!,” Sagdullas calls out as he shares a Manila Today report on the May 26 killing of  farmers’ leader Allan “Mano Boy” Aguilando, in Barangay New Rizal, Catarman, Northern Samar.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) says the 43rd Infantry Battalion claimed Aguilando died in an encounter.

A June 7 report by the National Democratic Front-Eastern Visayas says that “the allegations against him are baseless and the so-called recovered gun planted in the manner of Tokhang killings and other murders of peasants such as in Negros.”

KMP says Aguilando was the 251st farmer-victim of extrajudicial killing (EJK) under the Duterte administration.

May 27, 2003

The Army reports the abduction on May 27 of three “peacebuilders” by the NPA in Canvais village, Motiong, Samar.

The Army’s 87th Infantry Battalion claims Cosme Cabangunay and his sons Jevie and Jason were members of the Motiong Peacebuilders, a group of former rebels who joined the peace and development efforts of the government.

The NDF in the region denies the allegations. 

“We are aware that the Cabangunay men were earlier forced to ‘surrender’ by the 87th IB even though they were merely peacefully farming in their community. We fear for their lives and demand that the military immediately surface and release them,” says a statement by Fr. Santiago “Ka Sanny” Salas, then-spokesperson of the regional underground group.

April 12, 2020

Sagdullas shares a PressOne report of officials of Balangiga town in Eastern Samar denying the 8ID’s claim that NPA rebels had raided relief goods meant for the COVID-19 aid program. Even the local police deny the claim after conducting an investigation.

March 10, 2020

Sagdullas shares a Change.org petition announcement of a Quezon City event supporting community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who was arrested in Tacloban City, along with four human rights defenders on February 7, 2020 in Tacloban City.

Cumpio remains in jail three years after her arrest. He also defends Cumpio in a March 7 post.

December 19, 2019

Sagdullas posts that Northern Samar has experienced 11 cases of politically-motivated killings since then-president Duterte issued Memorandum Order 32 in November 2018 to halt the “state of lawlessness” in Bicol, Samar, Negros Island. 

November 27, 2019 

Sagdullas mentions the killing of  Commission on Elections (Comelec) employee and former community journalist Maureen Japzon.

Japzon, the founder of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Eastern Visayas chapter, was shot seven times by suspects on board motorcycles on October 15, 2019 near her workplace in McArthur, Leyte.

On the same day that Japzon was killed, the human rights group Karapatan says Renee Superior, a village councilor in Libungao, Kananga, Leyte was also reported killed. 

“Several other barangay officials have been targeted in the region for supporting campaigns against militarization,” says Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

November 22, 2019

Sagdullas posts the Bayan Eastern Visayas statement, challenging some local media that had signed a Manifesto of Commitment to Duterte’s Memo 32 and joined the military’s red-tagging efforts in statements, videos, and photo captions.

“Word usage includes ‘confirmed’, ‘known’ and other similar words as if to denote or deduce that the illegal tagging of our organizations as ‘mere legal fronts’ of the CPP-NPA-NDF is valid,” the statement says.  – Rappler.com