While it is a definitely a glimmer of hope in these bleak times to see the bayanihan of communities looking out for each other’s needs through solidarity efforts and mutual aid initiatives such as community pantries, they are nonetheless a damning indictment of the Duterte government’s criminal negligence of people’s rights and welfare — of its glaring failure to uphold the State’s duty such as providing aid to households and communities hard-hit by the crisis.

Human rights alliance Karapatan supported the call of families and friends of political prisoners for the government to enact a clear plan and schedule of the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines for Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs).

Human rights alliance Karapatan contended that the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s (AMLC) order to freeze the assets, bank accounts, and properties of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran Center in Davao City for allegations of terrorist financing is “based on flat-out lies,” as the group slammed the Duterte government for “brazenly targeting and persecuting church workers and religious institutions, which have only been working tirelessly to help those in need.”

Amid the surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, State forces “continue to terrorize the Filipino people without letup,” human rights watchdog Karapatan said, as the group condemned the recent killings of Negrense activist Jesus Pason Jr. and Camarines Sur barangay captain Elmer Casabuena, as well as the arrest of peasant leader Oscar Balonga in Bohol.

The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency’s (NICA) “utterly baseless and dangerous red-tagging” of the Senate employees’ union presents a “clear urgency for the Senate to pass measures to define and penalize red-tagging, and to protect unionists, activists, and human rights defenders from such threats and deadly rhetoric — especially from government officials.”