by PhilRights Staff
Welcome to HR Insights, a weekly roundup of human rights news in the Philippines. This week…
Online harassment and trolling of female journalists has become normal
Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and The Times of India editor Sagarika Ghose share their stories of trolling and online harassment with Al Jazeera. Watch full video here.
Ressa, known for her critical coverage on the Duterte administration’s so-called, shares that the Internet has already been weaponized and whenever she’s attacked, her confidence with herself and her profession is impacted. Ghose, meanwhile, shares that she has already experienced severe gender abuse online because of her liberal and secular views.
International Safety Institute director Hannah Storm cited International Women’s Media Foundation’s recent study saying that 30% of women journalists in the world have considered leaving their profession and 40% have stopped writing about certain stories as a result of these different facets of harassment against female journalists.
5 PDEA agents killed, 2 injured in an ambush in Lanao del Sur
Unidentified gunmen killed five agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and hurt two others in an ambush in Kapai town, Lanao del Sur, October 5, Rappler reported.
Based on the report, the PDEA agents were on board a van on their way to Marawi City when the unidentified assailants fired at them.
The incident is still under investigation but PDEA said that it might be connected to their arrest operations of big-time drug suspects in the area.
Martial law lessened violence in ARMM but deadly conflicts remain
Asia for International Alert Philippines (AIAP)’s 2018 Conflict Alert report shows that President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao helped lessen violence in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Rappler’s reported that the restricted access to firearms under martial law has discouraged armed groups from bringing out their weapons. ()
Meanwhile, ABS-CBN News pointed out that the same report also found that while violence was lessened, the region still recorded an “unprecedented” number of deaths last year. “More than half of the 2,260 fatalities were listed in Lanao del Sur, whose capital city of Marawi came under siege from ISIS terrorists last year.”
MUST WATCH: Dissecting the Trabaho Bill
Philippine Ecozones Association (Philea) President Chito Zaldarriaga provides comprehensive insights about the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-Quality Opportunities, also known as Trabaho bill, in a Rappler Talk segment.
According to the Department of Finance, Trabaho bill aims to lower corporate income taxes down to 20% and modernize incentives given to companies. However, several business groups, including PEA, have already expressed their fears about the bill as it may “scare away investors, ironically, and led to job losses.”
