As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) marks its 59th year in 2026, its relevance remains disputable. Its guiding principles—mutual respect, noninterference, peaceful dispute settlement, and renunciation of force—are noteworthy from a nation-state perspective but ultimately self-absorbed. They suffer from an absence of any reference to how Asean relates to the peoples of its...
Tag: human rights
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Duterte loses ICC appeal, remains in detention in The Hague
The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Wednesday that the court had jurisdiction over the case against former president Rodrigo Duterte, keeping him in detention in the Netherlands and bringing him closer to a possible trial for crimes against humanity for his brutal war on drugs in the Philippines. The ICC...
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Thoughts on the standees of Rodrigo Duterte and Leila de Lima
When I first saw the Duterte standees, I almost cried laughing. Even funnier is how his supporters have made different versions of “Tatay Digs”—such as the thin and flimsy one, faded under the sun, in front of their supposed pobre residence in Davao City; the one at the head of a table somewhere in the...
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Rights groups denounce arrest of Cordillera labor leader
BAGUIO CITY—Police arrested labor leader and folk musician Michael “Mike” Cabangon at his home in Baguio City on Dec. 27 on a charge of terrorism financing, according to the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA). Cabangon, spokesperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Cordillera and an advocate for workers’ and transport rights, was served a warrant...
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16 years on, the Maguindanao massacre continues to provide lessons to campus journalists
PILI, CAMARINES SUR—Journalism student Jevan Dex Miranda was a child when the inconceivable happened: bodies unearthed by a backhoe, families grieving while searching for their loved ones, and headlines marking the Philippines as the setting of the deadliest single attack on journalists in world history. Miranda was among the students, human rights advocates and media...
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Ex-police intelligence officer is convicted in Duterte-era drug war killing
Nearly a decade after the deed, a police intelligence officer in then President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has been convicted of homicide for the death of a drug suspect in Baguio City in July 2016. It is only the fifth known conviction related to Duterte’s “war on drugs” that has resulted in the extrajudicial killing (EJK)...
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In search of the missing and to disrupt the status quo, one film at a time
“On April 28, 2007, 36-year-old Jonas Burgos was having lunch in a mall in Quezon City when six armed men and a woman, who identified themselves as police, forcibly took him, dragging him like a pig and forcing him into a vehicle. As he was being abducted, witnesses reported him shouting, ‘Aktibista lang po ako...
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Garma says Duterte phoned her after her testimony on drug war’s ‘reward system’
Former president Rodrigo Duterte phoned retired police colonel Royina Garma after she testified two weeks ago at a hearing of the House of Representatives’ quad committee that killings were enforced in his “war on drugs” in exchange for rewards. Garma made the admission under questioning by Alliance of Concerned Teachers partylist Rep. France Castro during...
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‘Gatilyo: Tatlong Dula ng Pag-alala’ is ‘tokhang’ revisited
The period from June 2016 to June 2022 will always be considered among the darkest days in contemporary Philippine history. According to government figures, at least 6,252 persons were felled during the “war on drugs,” but human rights organizations put the number between 12,000 and 30,000. Small wonder that “tokhang” (or when cops knock on...
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Pia Wurtzbach urges ‘allies’ to help fight for LGBTQIA+ rights
Pia Wurtzbach has been a staunch ally of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and others) community since her much-celebrated journey into pageantry. And nine years after she was crowned Miss Universe in 2015, the actress and global influencer is still advocating its cause. In welcoming Pride Month this June, Wurtzbach gallantly...