For the third time in the last six months, books have been the target of Red-tagging by certain peripheral government agencies. The latest is the move last week by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) stopping the publication of three books and the distribution of two more for allegedly being “subversive” and for promoting “antigovernment ideologies.” In March, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) was blamed for the spray-painting of anticommunist slogans
To see Leila de Lima’s case as independent [from its political context] ... is to turn a blind eye to what’s been happening in the country ... To see our freedoms as unrelated to hers is to invite the absurdity and the violence to continue.” I wrote the above words in November 2019 to mark the 1,000 days that former senator Leila de Lima has been in jail on allegations of drug trafficking. Alas, 1,000 days later, Leila de Lima is still in jail, and I could easily have written the exact same lines. Two thousand days—almost six years—is a very long
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