De Lima wants Senate probe into ‘senseless’ deaths of curfew violators
Apr 22, 2021 3:03 PM PHT
De Lima filed Proposed Senate Resolution (PSR) No. 703 on Thursday, April 22.
In filing PSR 703, De Lima wants the Senate to investigate the reported human rights abuses committed against curfew violators when the “NCR Plus” bubble – which includes Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and Cavite – were placed under ECQ for two weeks.
“These violations and senseless deaths are manifestations of clear abuse of power by government,” said the Duterte critic, who has been in detention for more than four years over what she described as trumped-up drug charges.
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO)
In apparent disappointment over its persistent red-tagging of community pantries, Senator Joel Villanueva on Wednesday, April 21, called on his colleagues in Congress to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Oh my! We should move to defund NTF-ELCAC in the next budget. Sayang lang pera ng taong bayan ♂️ Reallocate the current P19B budget for ayuda. Mas kailangan ito ng taumbayan kaysa sa mga ganitong kalokohan! #SupportCommunityPantry#SupportBayanihan#NoToRedTaggingpic.twitter.com/tVTXwYnxpp Joel Villanueva (@senatorjoelv) April 21, 2021
“Oh my! We should move to defund NTF-ELCAC in the next budget. Sayang lang pera ng taong bayan (They are only a waste of people’s money),” Villanueva said on Twitter Wednesday night, in reaction to NTF-ELCAC spokesman Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade’s statement in an interview that Ana Patricia Non, who initiated the Quezon City community pantry that has
Sen. Risa Hontiveros
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO)
Hontiveros said state agents’ “heavy-handed” tactics against community pantries are not just undemocratic but “they also punish Filipinos who are already suffering because of the pandemic and who desperately need the lifeline extended by these community pantries.”
“Bakit isusuplong ang tumutulong? Huwag naman nating patayin ang natitirang pag-asa ng ating mga kababayan. Pagtutulungan at pagdadamayan ang kailangan hindi karahasan o pananakot (Why report on those who are helping out? Let’s not kill whatever hope is left of our fellowmen. Teamwork and reciprocity is what we need not violence or intimidation),” Hontiveros said.
Senators want red-tagger NTF-ELCAC defunded: ‘Sayang pera ng taongbayan’
Apr 22, 2021 11:49 AM PHT
Some senators are considering the removal of the multi-billion peso budget of the government’s anti-communist insurgency task force after its persistent red-tagging of community pantries.
Senator Joel Villanueva tweeted late Wednesday night, April 21, that the P19.1-billion budget allocated this year for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Insurgency (NTF-ELCAC) is just going to waste after its spokesperson Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr, likened the community pantry organizers to Satan.
“Oh my! We should move to defund NTF-ELCAC in the next budget.
Sayang lang pera ng taong bayan (The people’s money is going to waste),” said Villanueva, who used a face palm emoji in his tweet about Parlade s statement.
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO)
They were Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Nancy Binay, Leila de Lima, Sherwin Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Grace Poe.
The senators also condemned the posts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on social media.
“The profiling of organizers must stop. It puts people’s lives in danger, knowing how notorious some police, military officers, and personnel are in red-tagging progressives and now civic-minded citizens who only want to do good for their fellow men and women,” they said.