By: Izzy Cheung, staff writer

On October 17, SFU Harbour Centre set the stage for “Defending Human Rights: Resistance Against the Growing Fascism in the Philippines,” an event that explained the political and economic climate of the Philippines. Headlining the event was a talk by Attorney Neri Colmenares, whose official titles include “vice-president of confederation of lawyers in Asia Pacific (COLAP), the national adviser of the national union of people’s lawyers (NUPL) and a Council member of the IBA Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI).” 

This event was hosted by Sulong UBC, in partnership with the SFU department of geography, SFU department of global Asia, SFU David Lam Centre, and SFU Filipino students association. 

Colmenares began his talk by introducing a term he calls “geographical injustice,” which shows how committing a specific act in two different countries may yield different results. To prove this, he used the example of using cannabis. Cannabis usage is legal in Canada, but if an individual in the Philippines is caught using it, they could be killed. The difference between what people can and can’t do is thus dictated by the government inside a country’s borders. In a 2016 press conferences with the president of the Philippines, he was quoted as saying “But if you would smoke [cannabis] like a cigarette, I will not allow it ever. It remains to be a prohibited item and there’s always a threat of being arrested, or if you choose to fight the law enforcement agency, you die.” However, Amnesty International opposes the death threat as “in clear violation of international law and standards.” The borders of where one lives should not justify the violation of human rights. 

Next, Colmenares went on to highlight // Highlighting statistics of the Filipino economy, specifically rates of unemployment (4.3%) and inflation (5.4%). He noted how the instability of this economy has contributed to the “forcible eviction of Filipinos” from the Philippines due to “political repression, instability, and economic conditions.” Because of the unstable economy and political scene, many Filipinos will flee the Philippines in favour of finding stability in other countries such as Canada. 

“Filipinos sacrificed leaving their family and their country and their friends because their family needs to survive,” Colmenares said. “That is why many Canadian youth are asking, ‘Maybe I should go back to the Philippines and find out what forced my parents or grandparents to leave the country decades ago.’” 

The instability in the country, Colmenares informed, is due to those who hold power. He noted that during the current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first year in office, it was discovered that there were “61 [cases of extrajudicial killings] and eight cases of enforced disappearance.” Moreover, during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s tenure, the president could claim “presidential immunity” and have any and all charges against him dropped as long as they were filed in the Philippines.  

“Human rights transcends politics,” Colmenares argued. “You have to condemn human rights violations.” 

As a way of healing the growing instability in the Philippines, Colmenares outlined some possible solutions. First, he argued that developing the countryside and “distribut[ing] lands to the farmers” would help them contribute to the economy. Colmenares “propose[s] industrialization” for the country’s economy. He urged that the Philippines is poor because they “do not produce what [they] need [but] produce what other countries need” such as clothing, produce, and other materials.  

After Colmenares’ talk, there was a brief break that included cultural performances put on by Isa Carlin, Kai Fenix, and one of the event’s hosts, Lovely Ranges. The three of them performed poems that spoke to the bittersweet experience of immigration, the beauty of the motherland, and the oppression that comes with imperialism. Following the poems was a performance of two songs delivered by Miguel Maravilla, a first generation Filipino immigrant and self-taught musician. 

“Because you trust, therefore you hope, and because you hope, therefore you struggle,” Colmenares said. “Thank you so much for being concerned with the conditions [in the Philippines] and not forgetting the Filipino people, because we in the Philippines continue to consider you all as part of the Filipino people — part of our struggle and part of our hope.”