Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  To the honourable chair and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to appear before you this afternoon. Madam chair, it is with some reluctance but also great urgency that I have come from the other side of the globe to speak of the human rights situation in the

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  She was arrested. She is in jail, not in the regular jail, but in the custodial centre of the Philippine National Police. She is in complete seclusion, not allowed to socialize with other detainees there. We can visit on hours. You have to submit your name a week before, and th

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As I said, Senator De Lima was the chair of the human rights committee in the Senate. She had started an investigation into the killings, and the president charged her with being involved in the drug trade. She was previously the secretary of justice, and in fact was known to ha

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is his favourite type of thing. He's angry with the chair of the human rights commission, who is male, and calls him a fag. It is his most habitual thing, not just innuendos but real, outright slut-shaming.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As I had said, over the years we have been able to put up a very strong architecture of legal protection for human rights, including women's rights. You have the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act. Our humanitarian law in times of war is very strong on that. Our Magna Carta of Women also

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In the Philippines social media has been two-edged. I would have to say that the ones who weaponized it against human rights used it first. The trolling is terrible. The trolling is sexual. It threatens rape, the rape not just of you but of your children. It took a while but we r

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Bantay Bastos.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It would except that the president so far has called any international criticism part of the “yellow army”. Yes, international support would help, but also internally, when I say that we need resources, it means that we need to be able to have people who can do it full-time. We d

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In the network we are growing, which is determined to push back, we have not yet had the resources to even have someone to do this as full-time work. Our people are doing street action action and research.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Just—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In fact, that's why we're saying that the international arena for recourse is so important and that it not give up.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  He curses them. He has cursed the ICC prosecutor. He has cursed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. But you're out there; he cannot really harm you.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's important that you keep on going. It was very well appreciated at home when several parliaments....and I believe the chair was the one who sponsored the bill on Senator de Lima. We picked that up.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We picked that up. It gives us spirit. It gives us hope that people are not forgetting that we are getting darker and darker.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You know what happened to Rappler. Maria Ressa was recognized.