International Campaign in
the Philippines
Stop the Killing, End the Duterte Regime's Attacks on Negros Island
On April 25, the Toronto Committee for
Human Rights
in the Philippines and the International Coalition for
Human Rights in the Philippines in Canada (ICHRP-Canada) hosted an online event to bring
to light the struggle of the people in the Philippines in
general, and Negros Island in particular, against the violence of
the Duterte regime. Negros is second only to
Mindanao in terms of military presence and perpetration of
violence against the people by the U.S.-backed Duterte regime.
Negros, the fourth largest island in the Philippines, is the most
important sugar producing region in the country and a critical
region in the people's struggle, led by the Communist Party of the
Philippines and the New People's Army, to liberate their
country from the clutches of U.S. imperialism and foreign
domination, as well as the local rich and landlords.
Clarizza Singson, Secretary General of the National
Alliance for
Human Rights in the Philippines and a leading activist in a number of
other organizations, including the North Negros Alliance of Human
Rights Advocates, was the main presenter. Due to her work in
defence of people's rights in the Philippines, Clarizza is subject
to state surveillance and she and her family have had their lives
threatened by the state. These threats are taken very
seriously as a number of her colleagues have been
executed by paramilitary forces. She is currently in Canada to speak
about the critical situation on Negros.
 She explained
that Negros is the sugar bowl of the Philippines,
with 90 per cent of the population engaged in sugar production. Of 28
sugar mills in the Philippines, 12 are in Negros. More than half of the
Philippines' 750,000 sugar workers live in Negros and more than half of all Philippines' sugar is produced there.
The entry of the Philippines into the World Trade
Organization
in the mid-1990s and the Structural Adjustment Program
introduced as a result had dire consequences for the sugar
workers and the industry. Foreign sugar
began to be imported into the islands, which drove down wages and
working conditions. Sugar workers in Negros
earn less than half the minimum wage level recognized by the
government. Ninety-five per cent of the work is done based on a
piecework system and workers, as individual contractors, are forced
to hire their children and other family members to meet the quotas needed to
subsist. The piecework system and the low wages
reinforce the use of child labour. Poverty and hunger haunt
a majority of people in Negros every single day.
During the off-season, sugar workers have to go to
the city to earn
some income -- in construction, as domestics or in similar fields -- where they live
on
the margins of society.
In Negros, and elsewhere in the Philippines, the
Communist
Party of the Philippines and New People's Army have introduced
what is called "Bungkalan" as part of their land reform campaign.
After the sugar harvest, the peasants take possession of the land
to grow their own food. Those who work the land earn work points,
their share in the bounty of their own labour. On Negros more
than 200 Bungkalan have been established and it has shaken the
exploitative feudal hacienda system on the island. The Philippine
state, headed by Duterte, which represents the hacienderos and
warlords, has unleashed fascist violence -- so-called counter-insurgency programs patterned on U.S. counter-insurgency
programs -- to crush the people's resistance.
Several
massacres by Duterte forces have been documented by rights
organizations, including the Sagay Massacre on October 20,
2018 when nine people were killed. Secretary General Ben Ramos of
the National Union of People's Lawyers of the Philippines was killed
November 6, 2018, as they were preparing legal campaigns seeking
justice for the Sagay Massacre. Ninety-nine political
prisoners currently remain in detention.
 Negros has been
under a State of Emergency since
November
22, 2018 and "A National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed
Conflict" was established in December 2018. This has increased the
number of extra-judicial killings and state violence. Negros had the highest number of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines
in the first year of the State of Emergency with eighty-seven
people brutally murdered.
At the same time, the military has conducted an
organized
campaign to raid the offices of Bayan and other people's defence
organizations in order to disrupt these
organizations' work to defend the legal rights of the people.
A massive disinformation campaign of fake
surrenders and
confessions is also carried out against the people's forces in
order to disorganize and disrupt their growing strength. The
ongoing military presence and occupation of Negros and other
islands force people to flee their homes in the wake of threats,
intimidation and judicial killings. Homes of suspected New
People's Army supporters are razed to the ground as part of the
fascist violence and terror against the people.
Despite the
ongoing terror and violence and every effort by the U.S.-backed
Duterte regime to subvert their struggle, the Philippine people's
movement for self-determination and liberation in Negros and
other islands continues to grow. TML
Weekly
calls on everyone to support the
important work of the International Coalition for Human Rights in
the Philippines in Canada and step up support for the heroic
Philippine people's struggle for emancipation, self-determination,
independence and peace.
Action against killings on Negros Island held in Washington, DC, April
10, 2019.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 16 - May 9, 2020
Article Link:
International Campaign in
the Philippines: Stop the Killing, End the Duterte Regime's Attacks on Negros Island
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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