The Malaya Movement is outraged by the guilty verdict on Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos of Rappler. We join the Filipino people and the rest of the international community in condemning this most recent attack against press freedom and democracy in the Philippines.

Last week, as the House of Representatives in the Philippines fast-tracked the approval of HB 6875, otherwise known as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, we in the Malaya Movement see this is as a cause for grave concern and an imminent threat to civil and democratic rights in the Philippines. Our main worries for the threat the bill poses lie in the overly broad definitions of “terrorism”, the specter of a police state, and the implications for Filipinos abroad.

In response to the relentless murdering of Black Americans at the hands of police officers or racist vigilantes, and to bring to attention the thousands of cases of murdered Black Americans that have yet to feel the warm light of justice, the Malaya Movement stands firmly in support of the popular uprising raging through cities big and small across the United States and abroad. We stand firmly alongside the Black community against state fascism here in our own neighborhoods.

Please join Malaya Movement along with ICHRP-US and Kabataan Alliance for a press conference on the Philippine Human Rights Act. There will be guest speakers from all across the US in support of this important new legislation to respond to the ongoing tyranny and grave human rights situation in the Philippines that are supported by US tax dollars.

The Malaya Movement stands in solidarity with ABSCBN, the journalists and its workers. echoes the demands to the NTC to rescind its “cease and desist” order. We hold Duterte, together with his minions, directly accountable for this recent attack on press freedom. We call on the Filipino people to defend press freedom and democracy against Duterte’s dictatorship.