Read on Twitter
The proliferation of terror-tagging posters and issuance of protest bans days leading up to President Rodrigo Duterte's fifth State of the Nation Address are blatant acts of cowardice from a fascist and tyrannical regime trembling in fear in the face of people's mass resistance.
Banning protests under the guise of implementing quarantine measures and ramping up the government's rabid terrorist-tagging of activists, pathetic and desperate attempts to sow fear and deter people from joining the #SONAgKAISA mass actions all throughout the country on Monday.
The Duterte regime is shameless in using quarantine measures to crack down on dissent but we will not be deterred: we will join thousands in the streets for #SONAgKAISA on Monday, we will observe proper health protocols, and we will ring the people's demands louder than ever.
Last Thursday, July 23, posters tagging various progressive leaders and human rights defenders in the Southern Mindanao region, including Karapatan National Council member Jay Apiag, as wanted "terrorist recruiters" were spotted in several streets in Davao City.
Similar posters red-tagging human rights groups and civil society organizations have also been spotted in several areas in Quezon City.
In an advisory also dated Thursday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government reminded local government units to strictly comply with the July 21 Inter-Agency Task Force Resolution No. 57 on the prohibition of mass gatherings.
The Quezon City government has issued an advisory yesterday, July 24, on the non-processing and revocation of permits for public assemblies in compliance with the Inter-Agency Task Force resolution.
The issuances of these resolutions and advisories mere days before the State of the Nation Address already show their true intent of threatening and intimidating those who will join the #SONAgKAISA protests with arrests and dispersals.
We would like to remind the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police that the Inter-Agency Task Force resolutions and guidelines are not laws.
These resolutions are also not higher than the Constitution and they cannot be used to restrict the peaceful exercise of basic constitutional rights and civil liberties, including the right to freedom of assembly.
We strongly urge local government units throughout the country to assert and uphold people's rights than succumb to the whims of a wannabe dictator and his militarist minions like Eduardo Año.
Tagging dissenters and activists as "terrorists" or "pasaway" are mere tactics to deflect from the fact that the Duterte regime is now facing the strongest, broadest, and most unified resistance to his fascist rule, which he will parade in his fifth State of the Nation Address.
Unlike cowards like President Rodrigo Duterte, we will not be cowed; his intensified violation of people's rights—his militarist lockdown, ABS-CBN's closure, and the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act—are only emboldening more people to fight back against his tyrannical delusions.
On Monday, we will take to the streets to assert our rights and to expose the true state of the nation—a nation defying State terrorism and fascism. Tama na, sobra, #SONAgKAISA na!
FULL STATEMENT: https://www.karapatan.org/terror+tagging+protest+bans+ahead+of+sona+are+acts+of+cowardice+from+a+fascist+regime+fearing+mass+resistance
FULL STATEMENT: https://www.karapatan.org/terror+tagging+protest+bans+ahead+of+sona+are+acts+of+cowardice+from+a+fascist+regime+fearing+mass+resistance
