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Welcome to the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project website
Developed by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in partnership with national media development and support organizations, the Project platforms and promotes human rights coverage in the Philippine media and aims to root better awareness of and adherence to human rights in society for the benefit and protection of all. READ MORE
It is not only in the classroom where one could learn. Alternative education has helped the poor, the old and the jobless to read and write. LEO ESCLANDA
Alternative Education: The Poor’s Way Out of Illiteracy
by Claire Delfin
M
ANILA -- In the heat of summer, Marcie Omilan (not her real name)
wipes away the thick beads of sweat that run down her face as she
stands in class, reciting the alphabet. She has been in class for more
than a year, and running through the alphabet is easy. But she is not
six years old: she is 64. READ MORE
Worn-out chairs and books, plus the muddy and winding roads, give children in the mountains a hard time to stay in school. MARIA CONGEE GOMEZ
Food Today or Education for Tomorrow? A Mountain School Story
by Maria Congee S. Gomez
S
HARIFF KABUNSUAN -- Bliugan Primary School is as basic and isolated as they come: the wooden school house was built in 1960 with the help of Teduray elders. Pupils aged between seven and 14 come from as far afield as Ranao Tenge, four kilometers away, whereas their older siblings are forced to trek to Ranao Elementary School six kilometers from Bliugan. READ MORE
The Human Rights Council recognized the Philippines in protecting rights of children among others, but human rights groups disagree. LEO ESCLANDA
Philippine Govt Working Hard to Prop up Human Rights Image
by Jose A. Torres, Jr.
M
ANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine government, under attack by rights groups for its poor record in defending and protecting human rights, has been busy these past months propping up its image in the international community. READ MORE
Filipinos at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration office in Manila show pictures of their relatives working abroad. There are 8.2 million Filipino migrants now, mostly working in the Middle East. JES AZNAR
Exploited Overseas and Missed At Home: The Filipino Migrant Worker
by Sophia Ann Torres
T
he role of more than eight million Filipino migrant workers often takes center stage when their remittances hit a record high: they reached USD 14.4 billion in 2007. READ MORE
It's back to school for these students in a Quezon City school. But in a year or two, some of them would most likely drop out due to poverty. JES AZNAR
Young, Poor and Unschooled
by Perla Aragon-Choudhury
Q
UEZON CITY -- Pepe, 12, is busy helping his mother package loose garlic cloves for sale. "Before I go to school," he says," I put the cloves in plastic packs and staple them onto strips of cardboard. And when I get back home, I walk with my mother to the stores around Tandang Sora." READ MORE
A young boy walks past a mosque in downtown Jolo in Sulu. The mayor recently declared the town as 'peace zone' to cure its image of conflict and lawlessness. JES AZNAR
‘Fighting’ for Hearts, Minds…and Independence in Sulu
by Vincent Sawabi
"I
know the Government sometimes forgets us, but Malacanang (the Presidential Palace) cannot give up Sulu easily because we are an asset to them,” so said Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin, referring to his island’s bountiful fishing grounds and supplies of exotic fruits. He was speaking in late May as the United Tausug Citizens for the Sultanate of Sulu organized a fifth straight rally through the town demanding a return to the past when the island was part of an independent Muslim state. READ MORE
New Peoples Army (NPA) guerillas celebrate the 39th Founding Anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on December 26 last year in the jungles of Surigao del Sur. KEITH BACONGCO / AKP Images
Suspect 'Ana': The Story of an NPA Guerilla's Ex-Wife
by Bong S. Sarmiento
L
ess than 100 metres from a police detachment at the so-called barangay Cannery Site in Polomolok Town is the sari-sari (general merchandise) store owned by Luzviminda Mosquera.The owner of the shop, which lies deep in a warren-like neighborhood of narrow alleys, is known as Inday, a petite 41-year-old, single mother of two teenage girls.In early March, Mosquera was not seen managing her small store - little more than a room facing toward the main road and attached to the roughly built concrete house of her parents. READ MORE
Human trafficking: Victims' families are part of the problem- and the solution
by Bong Sarmiento
(Editor's Note: This story has alreadybeen republished by GMANews.Tv, the online news portal of the GMA Network, and the independent weekly Philippine Graphic. We welcome republication of all material: Stories canbe freely republished with proper attribution to the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.)
G
ENERAL SANTOS CITY—Sheila, Valerie and Bridget (not their real names) hail from poor families here and have set their sights to as far as Manila, Brunei and Japan for jobs as domestic helpers to support their families back home.
eneath the grimy belly of a bridge somewhere in the north of Metro Manila, a family of five huddles together for a dinner of pag-pag rice and soy sauce. Pag-pag refers to food scavenged from garbage heaps, washed and re-cooked. The family’s shanty that also functioned as an eatery for jeepney drivers, built on the side of a road in Quezon City, had just been demolished by a sidewalk clearing team from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). It was the third time in as many years that the family had lost home and livelihood. READ MORE
UN report rejects government's claim that the killings are a result of internal purge of communist rebels.KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images
Constricting democracy: Government response to political killings in perspective
by H. Marcos C. Mordeno
N
ot since the Martial Law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos has there been an upsurge in the killings of Left-wing activists whose organizations are labeled by the military and police to be fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). As such, members and leaders of these groups have become fair game to a counterinsurgency program that appears to have erased the line between armed struggle and legal dissent. READ MORE
Indigenous peoples continue
their struggle for land and self-determination by Ryan D. Rosauro
I
LIGAN CITY, Northern Mindanao -- Gathered in a clearing near a river, some 300 people of Higaonon ancestry listened to the admonition of a balyan (tribal priest), while their hands held a rattan rope. The reprimand finished with a prayer to Magbabaja (God) and their ancestors, seeking an end to long running enmity between individuals and families in the communities. READ MORE
A human rights activist protests the killing of George Vigo in June 2006. Vigo and wife Macel, both journalists, were shot dead in Kidapawan City. KEITH BACONGCO/ AKP Images
Extrajudicial killings and human rights violations: Marcos regime’s legacy persists
by Carlos H. Conde
T
The extrajudicial killings of political activists, journalists, and the violation of the Filipinos’ human rights that are commonplace today, are a grim residue of the Marcos dictatorship. It was during martial law under then President Ferdinand Marcos—from 1972 up to his ouster in 1986—that the political justification and practical methods for torture, murder and instigating mayhem which are employed today were first developed.
Human rights groups are agreed that then as now the Philippine military and police are the top perpetrators of these abuses. READ MORE
A human rights group protests against the Human Security Act. ALAN DAVIS
The Human Security Act and Journalism
by Danilo Arana Arao
T
he Human Security Act only came into force over the summer and yet already various national and international groups have denounced the law and called for its repeal. Why so? Why is the law not being given the chance to work? This paper seeks to analyze the weaknesses of the HSA as written and how it directly affects the practice of journalism. READ MORE
A military official talks on fresh government attacks against communist rebels in Surigao del Sur. KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images
War is on human rights, not on insurgency or terrorism
by Nonoy Espina
I
n war, truth is the first casualty.
(Aeschylus [525 BC - 456 BC])
It is unfortunate that Aeschylus’s words still ring true today as they did in the 5th century BC. For when truth becomes a casualty of strife, can anything remain sacrosanct?
The Philippines may not be technically at war. But for almost 40 years now, it has been home to one of the most tenacious insurgencies in Asia, that waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army. There, too, are the secessionist campaigns waged by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, albeit muted now because of the ongoing peace process with government, the Moro National Liberation Front before it, and the Abu Sayyaf extremist group. READ MORE
Lumad mother and child in Davao city.KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images
Women’s rights in the Philippines Today
by Olivia H. Tripon
I
t has taken many years of campaigning and education, but finally there is widespread legal recognition that women are humans too. We are no longer viewed as freaks of nature or imperfect creatures as St. Augustine once believed: We are not the evil temptress or wanton harlots that needed chastity belt: Not war booties or commodities bought and sold along with cattle and horses: Not witches to be burned at the stake. READ MORE
Human Rights Updates
PROJECT NEWS
Southern Luzon Training on Rights held June 26
Fifteen journalists from print, radio, television and online media in Southern Luzon participated in the introductory workshop on reporting human rights of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project on June 26. READ MORE
Manila Editors Discuss Media’s Role and Performance in Reporting Human Rights
Eleven print, online, and broadcast editors and officials of national
media organizations were brought together in Quezon City on June 24 to
discuss human rights coverage in Philippine journalism.READ MORE
Extra Judicial Killings - Moving Beyond the Numbers' Game
Whenever the subject of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings (EJK) arises in the media, the issue always seems to boil down to a clear and seemingly irrevocable dispute over how many victims we are actually talking about. READ MORE
The Project and media's role in human rights reporting discussed on ANC June 19
The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project led a discussion on human
rights in the Philippines in a live studio program on the 24-hour ABS
CBN News Channel (ANC). READ MORE
Kidnapping of ABS CBN crew: a case of gauging risks for a story
Any blog on the June 8 Sulu kidnapping of the ABS CBN news team and
their ‘fixer’ Professor Octavio Dinampo has to begin with a wish for
the safe and speedy release of the remaining captives. At the back of
many media professionals is the sense of, ‘there but for the grace of
God...’ READ MORE
Still missing
Edita Burgos, mother of missing
activist Jonas, writes a blog on her family's year-long search for him. READ ON AND COMMENT.
Philippine human rights national strategy out-of-date and upside down
Visiting the website of the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recently, I clicked on the Philippine pages
and being a big fan of education and strategies, decided to take a look
at what is billed there as the ‘National action plan/strategy for human
rights education.’ READ MORE
Reporting Poverty: Training for Print, Radio and TV Reporters held in Lanao Norte on May 29
The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project held a one-day training seminar on reporting rural poverty in Tubod, Lanao del Norte, Mindanao on May 29. A total of 25 journalists from print, radio and television outlets from Iligan and Ozamiz cities focused on ways to improve local coverage and awareness of poverty issues. READ MORE
Central Luzon Human Rights Training held on April 29
More than two dozen print, radio and TV journalists joined in a one-day introductory session on reporting human rights in Pampanga on April 29. The project heard that up until then, reporters in Central Luzon imagined the issue of ‘human rights’ to be limited to the killing and disappearances of journalists and political activists. READ MORE
Giving Voice to the Victims - A Project Roundtable,
Zamboanga, Mindanao,
April 28
Survivors from the Feb. 4 attack on Maimbung, Sulu, in Southern
Philippines, which left eight civilians including a four-year-old girl
dead, spoke at the The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
roundtable on “Media, Civil Society, Human Rights & Peace” held in
Zamboanga, Mindanao on April 28. READ MORE
Was the Philippine Government's recent report to the UN Human Rights
Council 'outstanding' as some claim or 'one-sided' as others say? Read
it here and decide yourself.
Boys in an urban poor community in Manila share the day's meal of rice and vegetables as others look on. Poor Filipinos continue to hurt from the rising prices of rice and other basic goods. LEO ESCLANDA
North Luzon Training held on April 2
A one day project training session on understanding and improving human rights reporting was held in Baguio, City in Northen Luzon on April 2. The event drew a group of 25 local editors, journalists and media students. Follow up sessions focusing on practical reporting ideas, responses and basic international humanitarian law and human rights agreements will be held in the coming months as part of efforts to build a national human rights reporting association. The training came as the Philippine government prepares to report back its compliance to UN Human Rights treaties in Geneva. CLICK HERE TO CHECK ON OTHER PHRRP TRAININGS
Rural Poverty Reporting Training in CotabatoCity
held February 11
The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project has launched its training
on rural poverty reporting with a workshop in Cotabato City involving
the Mayor’s Office and a local NGO. The practical workshop,
co-organized by the Project’s partner National Union of Journalists of
the Philippines (NUJP), follows a media sharing and human rights
training session held there in November. Three other media sharing and
human rights training sessions were recently held in Bacolod (January
19). General Santos City (February 2) and Davao (February 9). READ MORE
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project launched
More than 60 representatives of about 40 human rights organizations, government agencies, media groups and international organizations gathered at the launch of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project on January 18 at the UP Balay Kalinaw in Diliman, Quezon City. READ MORE
Partners’ Statement of Principles
International Human Rights Day,
10 December 2007
Summary executions, extra-judicial killings. Arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, harassment and disappearances - this was the reality of the Philippines under martial law. But this is also the Philippines 2007.
Three decades on and the issue of human rights, then as now, still awaits more attention from journalists, some of whom wittingly or unwittingly aid the violation of basic human rights through their reportage.
"An exciting and potentially very useful initiative."
Philip Alston
UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
"The human rights reporting project has awakened me as a young journalist to the significant role media can play."
Jungie Canto DXDD Ozamiz City
"Congratulations! Very informative, easy to navigate and visually appealing. We'll certainly use it as a reference and we'll promote it to our networks."
More than 60 representatives of about 40 human rights organizations, government agencies, media groups and international organizations gathered at the launch of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project on January 18 at the UP Balay Kalinaw in Diliman, Quezon City. 
