On August 20, 2021, the Urban Transformation Working Group (UTWG), composed of some member-NGOs of the Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), kicked off its series of learning sessions that aim to deepen the understanding of climate change and the transformative power of cities by the staff members of…
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We often think of the criminal justice system as a way by which society protects the well-being of its members against those who might do them harm. But what about those accused of wrongdoing? Should the criminal justice system also safeguard their well-being and protect them from being harmed? Among…
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Guiding his readers on how to find hope amid the deep crisis the world has been facing because of the pandemic, Pope Francis, in his book “Let Us Dream,” gives a vision of what needs to change beyond the individual: “God asks us to dare to create something new. We…
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Who asked for a white sand beach in Manila Bay? Definitely not the 15,000 or so families languishing in poverty, hunger, and joblessness in Baseco, the biggest coastal informal settlement in Manila. Of course, the truckloads of crushed dolomite boulders that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) allowed…
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Market 3, a densely populated community on a small block of land inside the Navotas Fish Port, is no stranger to tragedies, like the fire that swept through the homes of more than 700 families before the day broke on Oct. 18. When I visited the area to hand to…
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Watch out! The train is coming!” yelled the crowd of urban poor clustered around the railroad tracks by the España station. It was Holy Week and seven cross-bearers were kneeling on the tracks to protest government policies threatening their already precarious existence. They scrambled to get out of the train’s…
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JJCICSI joined the annual “Kalbaryo ng Maralita (Calvary of the Poor)” staged on Holy Tuesday, April 11, by various urban poor groups with their partner NGOs, the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) and Community Organizers Multiversity (COM). Led by urban poor community members carrying crosses representing the issue adversely affecting the sector, thousands of participants marched from Plaza Miranda to the…
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“Paano na ang Pasko? Pinatay na ang tatay ko (What will Christmas be like? My father has been killed),” said one placard at the “Panunuluyan ng Maralitang Tagalungsod,” an annual tradition of urban poor groups reenacting the search of Mary and Joseph for a place where Jesus might be born.…
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Who’s not touching some grass?
The people’s organizations our institute has been working with for various advocacies—from reforming government’s housing policies and programs to opposing the killings and senseless violence in the anti-illegal drug war—are throwing their support behind Vice President Leni Robredo. Even before she announced her decision to seek the country’s highest post,…