Kartilya: There can be no peace without Human Rights

CARP vs. GARB

Posted by Ronnie Clarion On February - 2009

Land distribution to landless Filipino farmers is a preset of provision under Art. XIII Sec.4 of the 1987 Constitution. Prior to this provision, former Pres. Corazon Aquino mounted the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which was later enacted through the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) or RA 6657 on June 10, 1988. However, the program had been excoriated for its failure to completely distribute lands to the beneficiaries within its target completion timeframe of 10 years. It was later extended for another 10 years yet the struggle for genuine agrarian reform continues.

Ang Kartilya ng Katipunan

Posted by Christian Espinoza On June - 12 - 2010

The Revolution of the Katipunan may well have been thwarted by American imperialism at the turn of the 20th century, but it is noteworthy to declare that our people, who at that time were only beginning to form the concept of nationhood, were more than able to organize a revolutionary force that would liberate the entire islands from their Spanish colonizers.

Noynoy Aquino Inaugural Speech

Posted by Kartilya On June - 30 - 2010

Ang pagtayo ko rito ngayon ay patunay na kayo ang aking tunay na lakas. Hindi ko inakala na darating tayo sa puntong ito, na ako’y manunumpa sa harap ninyo bilang inyong Pangulo. Hindi ko pinangarap maging tagapagtaguyod ng pag-asa at tagapagmana ng mga suliranin ng ating bayan.

Subjugating the Philippine System of Education

Posted by Christian Lloyd Espinoza On Oct - 2009

The transformation and reorientation of the current rotten system of education in the country is not possible without the development of a critical consciousness that reflects and acts upon the existing social (dis)order. Any meaningful change in our basic curriculum must be liberative of the docility that has long infringed our mentality, dissolving what little nationalist ideal there is left in the heart of every Filipino youth.

There can be no peace without Human Rights

Posted by Kartilya On 1:09 AM

There is no arguing that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one great achievement of the human race. Grievously, though, beyond the declaration signed by noble men and women 61 years ago, the peoples of the world have yet to attain their rights in its truest sense.

By peoples of the world we mean those among us who toil and whose lives have always remained bonded to wage-slavery, and those who for all their lives have fed the world with their produce but had never had enough on their tables to feed their own. These are the same people, who have incessantly been robbed of their fundamental human rights—politically, economically, socially, and culturally—by the same people who are supposed to be protecting their rights and those that have nothing more in mind but to be at the top.

It is lamentable enough that while the Philippines is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the country right now holds a staggering record of human rights violations in all of its history. And to treat it with nonchalance is more than just lamentable—it is downright abominable!

The Commission on Human Rights is commendable in being consistent to its mandate. However, the people have more than just political rights to claim. The most rampant in all violations of human rights in the country today are not the summary killings and political suppressions but the deprivation of the people of their economic rights.

A survey in October 2009 by IBON Foundation revealed that more than half (71.4%) of Filipino families consider themselves poor and that 57% does not have an income enough to meet daily needs. Amid threats to food security, more than 1.5 million hectares of land have been developed for agri-business since 2005, and the government has also approved another 3 million hectares for foreign agricultural corporations. The indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands are probably next.

It may all sound quite good for the country’s progress but the public must know the fact that these corporations will not be producing high value crops to feed the Filipino people.

Needless to say, the rice fields and coconut farms that have been converted to banana and palm oil plantations have not only reduced our staple crop production but have also reduced our land-owning small farmers into being mere farm-laborers—again, bonded to wage-slavery.

The general trend is that while farmlands are being turned into commercial and industrial zones, more and more of our peasants lose their lands and become workers. And just how much will they be earning? As 57% of Filipino families said: not enough to feed a family of five not to mention the children’s education.

Now let us ponder upon Article 25 (Sec.1) of the UDHR: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

And so we come to the issue of attaining peace in our society. As may well be obvious, not too many in our country have the opportunity to get an education let alone secure a job. With 4.2 million Filipinos unemployed and about 17.4 million underemployed or working under subhuman conditions, we can very well expect a high probability of anti-social activities that range from petty crimes to major felonies. And how did this government deal with the matter? Creating 1.5 million poor and even non-earning, insecure, part-time works (not jobs since a job by definition has with it a security of tenure), and further contractualization (read: lay-off policy).

It is beyond the understanding of a normal person why this government would spend billions in arms and munitions to suppress its own people who have risen up in arms when it can opt to spend the same in resolving two of the fundamental reasons for the uprisings: job security and landlessness.

As long as these two basic human rights are not addressed and upheld, peace is something which this land might not see. The people may have failed in some of their responsibilities to the society. But that is exactly one of the main reasons why societies need their governments for.