All posts filed under: Human Rights

[Academic]: Potential of mHealth for adolescents in India, South Africa, and the Philippines

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The past four months, our group for our Media in Practice module worked with Content Consultants to research on the feasibility of using mHealth for sexual, menstrual, and reproductive health in India, South Africa, and the Philippines. India and South Africa were chosen by our client and we were asked to research on one more country. Coming from the Philippines and knowing the need for SRH education in the country, we did the same research for the Philippines. We conducted secondary data research, interviews, and a survey for each country. Here is a video on the background of each country (this video was made by my group mate, Hikaru Matsumoto): Here is an executive summary of the findings: This report was made by Alice Clarke, Phionah Katushabe, Hikaru Matsumoto, and Renee Karunungan. Download the Executive Summary in PDF format.      

On the current martial law in Mindanao

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When I was in 7th grade studying in a very conservative Catholic school, I clearly remember one of my teachers telling our class, “Martial Law is good, it disciplines people. I would love to have Martial Law again to instil discipline in Filipinos.” I remember getting home that day and telling my parents the same. I remember getting a scolding from my parents who gave me a lecture on why Martial Law, especially because they were there to fight against the dictatorship of Marcos. But I was lucky, because not everyone would have people to correct these wrong views. Not everyone would have parents who are socially aware, when teachers fail to teach history lessons, or vice versa. Why am I saying this? Because in this whole discourse about the current imposition of Martial Law in Mindanao, the president himself said that he would be like Marcos. A statement, which, without any creative interpretation, means exactly what it is — an abuse of power. But what is scary, what is concerning, is the fact that …

To forget is not to heal

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Written by Jovic Yee, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (I was interviewed by the writer on the meaning of martial law for millennials) (Last of two parts) Despite the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ grave human rights violations and plunder of the government coffers, some Filipinos who lived under his administration pine for the days when he ruled the Philippines with an iron fist. Experts attribute this phenomenon to a false sense of security and prosperity that the dictatorship’s propaganda machine churned out at the time, or to frustration over the government’s failure to foster a more equitable society three decades after the fall of Marcos. For millennial Renee Karunungan, one of the 10 outstanding Filipino students in 2011, any accommodation to the Marcos family “will take away a part of our history that needs to be remembered.” “It will invalidate the suffering and pain many Filipinos went through for freedom. And in the longer term, we are bound to repeat our history …. To forget is not to heal. To forget is to allow the …

Millennials are ‘victims,’ too

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article is written by Jovic Yee, originally published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (I was interviewed by the writer on the meaning of martial law for millennials) (First of two parts) DON’T blame the millennials for people’s seeming indifference when it comes to the atrocities committed during martial law, a historian, a political analyst and two millennials cautioned on what appears to be historical amnesia that almost got another Marcos elected into high office in the May elections. Millennials—people born from the 1980s onward—are “victims” themselves of the systemic failure of society to impart the lessons of one of the country’s darkest eras, said historian Ricardo Jose, director of the University of the Philippines’ Third World Studies Center. The roots of this seeming apathy and lapsed memory on martial law can, in fact, be traced to 1986, shortly after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family were booted out of Malacañang, when then President Corazon Aquino opted to stress unity over keeping score, Jose said. In an effort to rebuild the republic torn apart by …

Sorrowful Mysteries

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*artwork by JB Casacop “Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13) “Kill them all.” (Duterte 5.5.2015) “Thou shalt not kill.” (Deuteronomy 5:17) “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself.” (Duterte 7.1.2016 ) 56. 128. We count them now, bodies, like leaves that fall silently at night. 265. 331.   We find them in the morning, strewn on the road, gun shot wounds, a pool of blood, hands tied, a sign that says, “Pusher ako. Huwag tularan.” 465. 564. We can only imagine: a scream that did not leave the throat, a run that culminated in a single step. 603. 730. We clean them up. We wait for another day. In the name of peace and order! In the name of a safe, crime-free, drug-free, developed Philippines! In the name of the president, the almighty savior! Amen! They revere him like they revere the saints and the Poon. His motorcade went through the streets of Manila. They waited like it was the second coming. They scrambled to get close, to touch him, tried …