National Federation of Small Fisherfolk Organizations in the Philippines
“Militant fishers are ready to brave not only the heavy rain but also the 15,000 police forces to be deployed against the anti-Duterte protesters on Monday. Why would we be even afraid of the Philippine cops when it’s already Chinese forces we have been facing in our fishing grounds on a regular fishing basis?” Bobby Roldan, a fisherman in Zambales and PAMALAKAYA’s vice chairperson for Luzon said in a statement issued ahead of the SONA.
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“Many horrible things could still happen in the country within the remaining year of Mr. Duterte. He could create conditions that would pave the way for his term extension. Or he could unleash more brutal crackdown against dissenters and political rivals to tighten his grip from power. So much for a Duterte regime that starves and kills Filipinos. We seek for his immediate removal in Malacanang,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
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“On top of Mr. Duterte’s traditional partners in crimes which are the police and military forces, he also wants to legally equip civilians with a deadly and fatal tool. We’ve already seen this with the bloody war on drugs and campaign of terror against democratic activists and progressive organizations. It is meant to justify and put legal blanket to the killing spree and human rights abuses of the Duterte government under the guise of fighting criminality,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
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“Mr. Duterte is being censored with China’s vaccine diplomacy and false promises of economic investments at the expense of our fishing rights and national sovereignty. His stark kowtowing to China is a betrayal to the national interest and the constitution that he has sworn to uphold,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
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“The Duterte administration’s pandemic response is bungling and inadequate that the key measures to contain the virus have yet to be systematically carried out. There is still no free massive testing and vaccination, and public health care system remains bankrupt. The overwhelming increase of COVID-19 cases in NCR and neighboring provinces has been dealt with the usual military solution which is tested and proved to be a grand failure,” Fernando Hicap, PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson said in a statement.
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“Mr. Duterte is undeniably the present-day Humabon because of his outright kowtowing to China. Filipino fishers, on the other hand, are the valiant men of Lapulapu for braving the threat of Chinese harassment to exercise fishing rights in our traditional fishing grounds,” Pedro Gonzales, PAMALAKAYA Vice Chair emeritus said in a statement on Tuesday.
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