The UP Internet Freedom Network (UP INTERNET) is an alliance of students and volunteers based in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) advocating for internet freedom.
Statement of Solidarity with the Fight Chat Control Movement
The UP Internet Freedom Network stands in unwavering solidarity with the Fight Chat Control movement in resisting any measures that would weaken end-to-end encryption and compromise the privacy, security, and dignity of all people.
The proposed Chat Control measures in Europe are not isolated threats. Around the world, we have seen how expanded surveillance powers are justified under the guise of safety, only to be turned against the very citizens they claim to protect. In the Philippines, we know this story all too well.
The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 dramatically widened the state’s surveillance capabilities, enabling prolonged monitoring, warrantless arrests, and the tagging of activists, journalists, and human rights defenders as “terrorists.” The government has used these powers against environmental advocates, union leaders, indigenous rights defenders, and student activists. What begins as an “exceptional” power becomes a normalized tool for repression.
We have also witnessed the weaponization of cyber libel laws and the use of digital harassment against citizens who criticize those in power, from journalists facing multiple court cases to ordinary Filipinos, such as a public school teacher who was criminally charged for posting a meme about then President Duterte. These examples show that surveillance and weakened privacy protections are not abstract concerns. They are lived realities that silence dissent and leave chilling effects in democratic discourse.
Recent measures have further tightened the state’s ability to track and monitor citizens. The SIM Registration Act forces the registration of personal identities to mobile numbers, removing the ability to communicate anonymously and placing ordinary citizens at greater risk of profiling and harassment. The proposed social media registration law would extend this surveillance to online platforms, requiring users to link their real identities to their accounts. Both laws create massive databases that could be abused for political persecution, data exploitation, and targeted attacks.
Compelled scanning and backdoors in encryption would magnify these dangers. Encrypted channels are lifelines for whistleblowers exposing corruption, survivors of abuse seeking help, LGBTQ+ individuals finding safe communities, and human rights defenders coordinating under threat. Weakening encryption strips away these safe spaces, leaving vulnerable groups exposed to targeting, harassment, and violence.
We reject the framing that privacy and safety are opposing goals. In reality, strong encryption is safety, especially for those most at risk. Breaking encryption does not only endanger personal data. It erodes trust, undermines democratic rights, and concentrates power in the hands of those who have historically abused it.
The UP Internet Freedom Network calls on policymakers both in Europe and in the Philippines to recognize that secure, private communications are non-negotiable. We urge the rejection of any law or policy, whether Chat Control in the EU, anti-encryption proposals at home, the SIM Registration Act, or social media registration proposals, that would give states or corporations unchecked access to our private conversations.
We echo the Fight Chat Control movement’s call: Privacy is a right, not a privilege. Encryption is essential to that right. From Manila to Madrid, we must stand united to keep our conversations, our communities, and our democracy safe.##
References:
[1] Castro, C. (2025, August 1). The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025 – here's everything we know. TechRadar. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from techradar.com/computing/cyber‑security/the‑eu‑could‑be‑scanning‑your‑chats‑by‑october‑2025‑heres‑everything‑we‑know
[2] Fight Chat Control. (2025). Fight Chat Control [Official Website]. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
I was not yet born when the ILOVEYOU virus spread across the globe. This virus is a testament to the human experience: that of struggle and of the yearning for change. Onel de Guzman struggled to change the digital world for those who could not afford to participate in it, and the ILOVEYOU: 25th Anniversary, broadcasted on Manila Community Radio and Bethlehem-based Radio Alhara, was able to commemorate such a significant event.
It was difficult to completely put myself in the shoes of those who were interviewed for the radio show. I have not worked as an employee for technology-related industries, nor have I ever lived in Palestine. However, there are times in the show where I shared the doubts and worries mentioned about the progress of technology and its role in our lives. As someone who will be entering the labor force after graduation, doubts about job security are realistic worries that society has to change to ensure that human welfare would not be sidelined.
One section of the interviews talks about these technological advancements as tools for a better future. Look at the Palestine case as reported by Miriyam Aouragh, a researcher who has been studying the Palestinian cyberspace. She has also been active in campaigning for Pro-Palestinian causes. Palestinians and pro-Palestine activists, however, have to actively fight against disinformation and censorship from pro-Israel groups. Given how heavily funded and dominated the internet is by the pro-Israel movement and social media giants, advocates for the liberation of Palestine have to actively push back against this oppression.
Several sections of the show, on the other hand, present technological development as a tool to suppress democratic discussions and threaten human welfare, especially in the workplaces of technology-related industries. Mary Ann Castillo, a member of the Nexperia Workers’ Union, has reported that the industry suffers from poor working conditions and undervalued wages. There have also been accounts of spying on employees; the same materials these workers have been producing have been used against them in the form of intrusive and invasive surveillance technologies. Renso Bajala, a member of the BPO Industry Employees Network Workers’ Union (BIEN), reports insufficient job security, hazardous work environments, and inadequate compensation for business process outsourcing (BPO) workers. He also mentions the threat of artificial intelligence to people’s employment in the BPO industry.
This struggle between humans and technology has also brought attention to other societal issues that are worth investigating. Joanne Cesario, a filmmaker and organizer heading the Women’s Affairs Department for Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), together with filmmaker Che Tagyamon, are working on a full-length film titled LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs that is inspired by the virus. Cesario highlights how technological advancements often serve to reinforce monopolistic and capitalist structures, which depend on these innovations to expand their influence and control. Furthermore, she also notes that the tech industry and trade union movement are currently both male-dominated spaces, and that this experience is similar for them in the filmmaking industry. The problems that arise from this are systemic, however, and cannot be attributed to some individual’s behavior, but rather the culture in which these people participate.
From a first listen, I would describe Silv-o as a “UK underground experimental electronic music” artist. I got to witness Silv-o’s Sun to Sun (2025) during the first part of the DJ set, which can be found in T.I.G. COMPILATION, Vol. 03 on Spotify. This set reminded me of a lot of electronic music artists, mostly those from the UK scene, such as Iglooghost, Aphex Twin, and Thom Yorke. Silv-o’s set takes the theme home by presenting a soundscape that reflects the coexistence of humans and technological development. This set is an act of embracing technology and using it to make something as transformative as music.
NUH PEACE, the DJ for the next set, provided some hard-hitting tracks fit for the rave scene. From a radio listener perspective, it would be unfaithful to experience their set without having friends and acquaintances close by to enjoy it with you. You get to hear some club track classics remixed with some Asian influences, which I assume are from Thai culture. For some parts, the set resembled some Filipino Budots tracks, which sparked my interest at the time. Though I resonated more with Silv-o’s DJ set, I feel that NUH PEACE’s set imparted feelings of nostalgia and detachment, two prominent themes I experience as we develop and use more technology. Both sets are fantastic sonic breaks from the previous discussions, but they also illustrate the dual nature of technology—how it can be a force for creativity and connection, or for alienation and control, depending on how it is developed and used.
What struck me the most during the entire radio show was during Kiat Kiat Project’s (composed of Arianna Mercado and Yuji de Torres) interview session, where Arianna Mercado commented on their 2018 project, How to Prevent Hair Loss. She mentioned that perhaps people fell for the virus because people were wired to look for human connection and intimacy. Technological advancement, I feel, has pushed people further away from each other, with some feeling more detached with the world, not just in employment, but also in social circles.
Another perspective to consider is Ian Aragoza’s (Computer Professionals Union) thoughts on what Onel de Guzman has released; that he was a frustrated undergraduate student and used his frustration to develop a product that disrupted the status quo he was so displeased with. With the release of the ILOVEYOU virus, there has been a call-to-action for systems that support people like Onel de Guzman; people who were criticizing the sustainability of the digital world for those who could not afford to participate in it.
What if the ILOVEYOU virus wasn’t simply an act of struggle, but also a reflection of a deeper human need for connection—one that made itself more known just as the internet was beginning to reshape how we relate to one another?
LISTEN TO THE MIX HERE.
******
Sylvaen Paras is a member of the UP Jammers’ Club and a music enthusiast who enjoys listening to a semi-wide range of music, from electronic dance music to rock. He previously led last year’s Fête de la Musique Indie Stage (2024) team, which is an international event that celebrates the art of music and composition. Other than music, he’s also passionate about using Linux and free and open source software (FOSS) alternatives whenever possible.
This text is a collaboration between UP Jammers’ Club and UP Internet Freedom Network, on the occasion of the upcoming Fête de la Musique, and the 25th anniversary of the ILOVEYOU virus.
UP Internet Freedom Network endorses Kabataan Partylist for this 2025 Midterm Elections
Aligned with its founding principles of protecting privacy to democratize the cyberspace, UP INTERNET endorses Kabataan Partylist given their track record and commitment to forwarding the interests of the Filipino youth.
In particular, 1st nominee Renee Co has consistently denounced the SIM Registration Act during her term as UP Student Regent. She was one of many who mobilized student organizations and concerned individuals to push the #JunkSIMReg (formerly #BlockSIMCardReg#VetoSIMCardReg) campaign to its initial victories as it was vetoed under Duterte's term. 3rd nominee Jpeg Garcia is also a human rights worker and survivor of the very Anti-Terrorism Act that brought UPLB students/alumni together to establish UP INTERNET in their indignation of the said law.
In endorsing the Kabataan Partylist, we reiterate our very own Electoral Privacy Agenda:
Protect our right to privacy.
- Junk the SIM Registration Act.
- Repeal policies (e.g. Anti-Terrorism Act) and halt projects (Safe Philippines smart CCTV network) that enable mass surveillance on the Filipino people.
- Hold telecommunication companies and government agencies accountable for the frequent data breaches and unauthorized transactions.
Uphold free expression and democracy on the Internet.
- Decriminalize cyberlibel under the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which has been used to repeatedly silence dissent.
- Reject any attempt to criminalize anonymity and the use of encryption tools.
- Investigate and shut down POGOs that have been exposed as troll farms that deliberately spread disinformation.
UP INTERNET believes that the state and those running for office should end repression, surveillance, and attacks on democracy in the digital realm. We must listen and actively work with community leaders, privacy advocates, human rights workers in our genuine interest to protect privacy and towards internet freedom. We invite aspiring legislators to heed this call, and more importantly invite voters to carry these calls before, during, and beyond the elections.#
Read more on the OSR's position on SIM Registration under Renee Co's term:
Kabataan Partylist Southern Tagalog also expressed their support for the campaign against SIM Registration: https://www.facebook.com/KabataanST/posts/pfbid02pfszQmYSEWtFJmS7kTfX5Xzuz3MXw7oV4a1mWsKjKP1WKFdGaB2fupuge1Zuhh9Jl
Official Statement of the UP Internet Freedom Network on International Working Women's Day 2025
As we commemorate International Working Women's Day this March 8, the UP Internet Freedom Network firmly stands in unwavering solidarity with Filipino women, honoring their immense contributions and relentlessly advocating for their rights and dignity across both physical and digital spheres. Today, the Philippines continues to confront critical challenges such as technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TfGBV), online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), emphasizing the need for raised community consciousness and efforts against escalating privacy violations.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence persists as a profound threat, disproportionately harming Filipino women and girls. Alarmingly, a 2020 study by Plan International revealed that 68% of young Filipino women aged 15-24 experienced online harassment—especially on social media—with 79% aware of peers who received online threats of sexual violence (Cortez, 2020). Additionally, data from the Foundation for Media Alternatives (2020) highlights the severe impact on young women, with 60.66% of victims aged 18-30 and a disturbing 42.62% under the age of 18.
Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children remains an abhorrent, widespread crisis that requires immediate intervention. Recent studies reveal a shocking scale, estimating nearly half a million Filipino children—approximately 1 in every 100—have been trafficked for the production of child sexual exploitation material, including live-streamed abuse (IJM, 2022). While rescue operations have yielded successes, the Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Center reported a concerning 27% decline in rescued victims from 163 in 2022 to 119 in 2023, indicating persistent threats despite notable progress (Philstar, 2024). The economic dimensions of OSAEC are equally staggering, with the Anti-Money Laundering Council identifying 182,729 suspicious transactions linked to OSAEC between 2019 and 2022, totaling approximately PHP 1.56 billion (AMLC, 2022).
In the face of these alarming trends, proactive legislative responses have proven crucial. The advocacy efforts of Gabriela Women’s Party led to the landmark passage of Republic Act No. 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children Law, effective July 29, 2022. Representative Arlene Brosas rightly recognized this law as a major milestone in strengthening prosecution of offenders and extending comprehensive support to survivors of digital exploitation (Quismorio, 2022). More recently, in March 2024, Gabriela Women's Party reiterated its steadfast commitment by initiating a congressional inquiry into rising incidents of TfGBV and OSAEC, spotlighting the urgency of confronting evolving digital threats targeting women and children (Cruz, 2024).
Privacy violations further compound the vulnerabilities faced by Filipino women and children online. Data breaches and identity theft incidents, as highlighted by the National Privacy Commission (2023), have significantly increased exposure to risks such as cyberstalking, grooming, harassment, and exploitation. These threats underscore the critical need for comprehensive data protection policies and rigorous enforcement of existing privacy laws to effectively safeguard vulnerable groups from digital abuse and exploitation.
The UP Internet Freedom Network remains resolutely committed to championing digital rights through proactive legislative advocacy, grassroots education, and multi-sectoral collaborations. We fully endorse Gabriela Women's Party’s ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing legal protections and call upon authorities to rigorously implement existing laws. Through targeted workshops, public awareness campaigns, and strategic partnerships, we strive to equip communities with essential knowledge and tools to effectively combat digital violence.
On International Working Women's Day, we passionately reaffirm our dedication to transforming the internet into a space that empowers rather than exploits, respects rather than harms, and elevates rather than endangers. Together, let us boldly shape a digital future anchored in safety, dignity, and genuine respect for the rights and well-being of all Filipino women and children.
References:
Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). (2022). Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines Report. Retrieved from https://www.amlc.gov.ph/images/PDFs/Main/Online%20Sexual%20Abuse%20and%20Exploitation%20of%20Children%20in%20the%20Philippines.pdf
Cruz, M. (2024, March 11). Gabriela solon seeks House inquiry on online sexual abuse vs. minors. Manila Standard. https://manilastandard.net/?p=314425071
Cortez, G. (2020, October 11). Nationwide Round-up: 10/11/20 - Plan International Survey on Online Harassment in the Philippines. BusinessWorld. Retrieved from https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2020/10/11/322062/nationwide-round-up-10-11-20/
Foundation for Media Alternatives. (2020). #HijaAko and What the Current Data Map on Online Gender-Based Violence in the Philippines is Telling Us. Retrieved from https://fma.ph/hijaako-and-what-the-current-data-map-on-online-gender-based-violence-in-the-philippines-is-telling-us/
International Justice Mission (IJM). (2022). 1 in 100 Children Sexually Exploited in Livestreams, New Abuse Images & Videos in the Philippines Last Year Driven by Foreign Demand. Retrieved from https://www.ijm.org/news/1-in-100-children-sexually-exploited-livestreams-new-abuse-images-videos-philippines-last-year-driven-by-foreign-demand
National Privacy Commission. (2023, October 7). NPC takes firm stand, unwavering commitment to protect data privacy rights in wake of PhilHealth data breach. Retrieved from https://privacy.gov.ph/npc-takes-firm-stand-unwavering-commitment-to-protect-data-privacy-rights-in-wake-of-philhealth-data-breach/
Quismorio, E. (2022, August 3). Anti-OSAEC bill now a law; 'a huge win' for child rights champions, says Gabriela. Manila Bulletin. Retrived from https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/03/anti-osaec-bill-now-a-law-a-huge-win-for-child-rights-champions-says-gabriela/
Tupas, E. (2024, February 4). PNP: Online Child Sex Abuse Victims Drop 27 Percent. Philstar. Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/nation/2024/02/04/2330860/pnp-online-child-sex-abuse-victims-drop-27-percent
Karapatan sa pribasiya, ipaglaban! Ibasura ang SIM Registration Law!
Una itong pinalabas bilang flyer o polyeto sa UPLB noong Pebrero 2025. English translation coming soon.
Ang SIM Registration Law ay ang unang prayoridad na batas ni Pres. Marcos Jr. Isinabatas ito sa unang taon pa lamang ng kanyang panunukulan. Diumano ay para ito sa pagsugpo sa lumalaganap na text scams at cybercrimes. Higit dalawang taon matapos ipatupad ang batas, ipinanawagan ng Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) at National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) ang muling pagre-review sa epektibidad ng SIM Registration sa pagkontra sa krimen at muling ipinasisiyasat ang integridad ng mga database nito.
Sa kabila ng ipinangako ng batas na makakapigil ito ng paglaganap ng text scams at cybercrimes, wala itong naidulot na totoong proteksyon. Sa bisa ng batas ay mahigit 10.8 milyong numero ang blinacklist at 2.3 SIM cards ang na-deactivate noong 2024, pero nasaan ang sinasabing seguridad? Nagpatuloy lang ang pagdami ng panloloko gamit ang mobile technology. Ang malalaking sindikato ay patuloy na nakakahanap ng paraan upang lampasan ang batas, gamit ang spoofing techniques, VoIP services, at iba pang teknolohiya. Kung epektibo ito, bakit hindi natin nakikita ang pagbaba ng krimen? Ayon kay DICT Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy, ginagamit ng mga scammer ang international gateway services at encrypted messaging platforms (hal. Whatsapp, Viber, Telegram atbp.) na hindi nangangailangan ng rehistradong SIM.
Kung gayon, para saan pa ang pinahigpit na batas para sa SIM registration? Malinaw na hindi ito epektibo sa mga cybercriminals. Sa pagkolekta ng sensitibong datos para makapagrehistro ng SIM card, inilagay lamang nito sa mas bulnerableng sitwasyon ang mamamayan. Ito ay isang malaking banta sa ating pribasiya at karapatang pantao. Pinapatunayan sa dalawang taong pag-iral ng SIM registration hindi lamang ang patuloy na pagdami kundi ang pagiging mas presiso at mas targeted pa na mga cyber-attacks.
Higit na nagagamit ngayon ng masasamang loob ang datos sa SIM registration na konektado sa ating valid IDs, e-wallets, mobile banking, at social media. Pinagtatahi-tahi nito ang mga impormasyong nakakapaglagay sa atin sa bulnerableng pusisyon, lalo tuwing may data breach. Ipinapakita nitong hindi lamang bulnerable ang ating datos sa mga kriminal kundi pati mga korporasyon at ahensya ng gobyerno na nais tayong subaybayan at kontrolin. Hindi ito proteksyon, kundi isang anyo ng malawakang surveillance! Isa itong pagsikil sa ating karapatan sa malayang pakikipagtalastasan at paggamit ng digital space.
Lalo pang nagiging delikado ang batas na ito sa nalalapit na halalan. Sa ilalim ng SIM Card Registration Law, nagkakaroon ng mas malaking pagkakataon ang mga nasa kapangyarihan upang gamitin ang mga nakalap na impormasyon sa political profiling at voter manipulation. Hindi malayong magamit ang rehistradong data upang magpadala ng propaganda, disimpormasyon, at pananakot sa mga botante. Mas lumalaki rin ang posibilidad ng mass surveillance upang mapatahimik ang mga kritiko at progresibong grupo na tumututol sa kasalukuyang administrasyon. Sa halip na tiyakin ang malinis at patas na eleksyon, lalong nagiging madali para sa mga tiwaling opisyal na gamitin ang teknolohiya upang manipulahin ang boto at supilin ang oposisyon.
Dahil dito, muling nananawagan ang UP Internet Freedom Network sa lahat na magkaisa at tumindig para sa ating karapatan sa pribasiya! Ipanawagan natin ang pagbasura ng SIM Card Registration Law. Napatunayan nang hindi ito epektibo laban sa cybercrime kundi lalo lamang nagbibigay panganib sa sambayanang Pilipino.
Hindi tayo papayag na gawing legal ang pagnanakaw sa ating impormasyon, pagmamanipula, at digital na pagmamanman. Panahon na upang ipaglaban ang tunay na seguridad—hindi sa pamamagitan ng mapanupil na batas, kundi sa pagpapalakas ng cybersecurity, digital literacy, at matamang pagrespeto sa pribasiya at karapatan ng mamamayan.
Official Statement of the UP Internet Freedom Network on the recent reports of unauthorized transactions on GCash published earlier today, November 10, 2024 on our social media accounts.
GCash users across the nation reported unauthorized transactions from their accounts, resulting in tens of thousands of pesos lost in several (and nearly simultaneous) transactions. The attackers behind this seem to have bypassed the need for an OTP or any form of verification from the user.
The DICT's concern of whether it is a result of phishing or a breach shows how narrow they view this issue. Should we really wait for attacks such as this to affect millions at once before taking action to protect our privacy?
This is not just an isolated incident like GCash claims, but one of the many symptoms of the faulty and intrusive SIM Registration Act. The Filipino people were and remain on edge after continuous waves of scam texts/calls and data breaches of several government agencies upon implementation of SIM Registration last year.
It is a disservice both by the GCash and the DICT to only give advice to the public on securing our individual accounts. GCash should take accountability not only for the money lost, but the failure to secure the privacy of its users.
The Filipino people deserve to know if this issue is linked to the SIM Registration Act. As long as our data remains vulnerable under evidently ineffective policy, attacks such as the GCash incident will continue if not worsen.
Aside from changing your passwords and avoiding suspicious links, the UP Internet Freedom Network enjoins everyone to fight for our right to privacy: hold GCash accountable and junk the SIM Registration Act!#
UP INTERNET opposes the SIM Card Registration Act, calls for people's action to defend privacy
Last December, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the SIM Card Registration Act, the most brazen attack on Filipinos’ right to privacy and freedom of expression online. This February, the two versions of the bill have been consolidated by the bicameral conference. It now awaits Duterte’s signature, or lapses into law if not vetoed before March 4.
UP INTERNET deems the SIM Card Registration Act as the most dangerous threat to internet freedom in Philippine history, being the final piece to legalize cyber-surveillance nationwide. Through the association of legal identities with SIM cards, it constrains the ability of the public to remain anonymous online. The added provisions on enforcing a real-name policy for social media further compounds the situation.
The policy effectively compromises freedom of expression as it increases the difficulty of remaining anonymous online. By associating internet connections with legal identities, the right to privacy is abrogated. These premises give those in power unprecedented access to private information as well as effective control over discourse online. Under the characteristically repressive administrations of the Philippines, this type of government access and control becomes a weapon to stifle righteous opposition against tyranny. There is no true democracy if the people are not given their right to privacy and freedom of expression, only totalitarian control of those with access to our data.
Not only this, similar policies across the globe were shown to be useless against crime despite lawmakers claiming otherwise. It may in fact lead to higher cases of smartphone and more importantly, identity theft. In Mexico, their version of the law was repealed just three years after it was passed. In July 2020, the government of Laos commenced its nationwide sim registration program. Residents who failed to register will not be able to communicate with other users and connect to the internet. Despite the country’s extension of registration, the policy would only make the internet less accessible to millions with no IDs and those in remote and rural areas.
Finally, the policy will hand over our data to the Philippine government, an entity notoriously lacking in information security measures. Not only is the SIM Card Registration Act repressive and undemocratic, it is also inutile and anti-poor.
The harmful bill is now in its final stage before becoming state policy. UP INTERNET calls on the Filipino people to defend our right to privacy and join the fight to free the internet. We must act now and do everything in our power to foil the passage of this bill.#
UP INTERNET Founding President selected as finalist for innovation award
The 2021 CIVICUS Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Awards has selected UP Internet Freedom Network (UP INTERNET) Founding President Mac Andre Arboleda as a finalist among 350 People Power Initiatives from over 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Carribean, and the Pacific. According to their website, the 2021 Innovation Awards is a celebration of the International Civil Society Week 2020-2021, and will recognise seven individuals, groups or organisations that stand out for their innovative work building people power in support of human rights and social justice for everyone.
Arboleda is the only Philippine representative, and joins the Top 31 People Power Initiatives under the category “Promoting and protecting digital civic space” for his work in leading the UP Internet Freedom Network and the Artists for Digital Rights Network. He joins Chequeado (Chile), Shaasan (Nepal), Constitutional Rights Awareness and Liberty Initiative (Nigeria), amandla.mobi (South Africa), and Hashtag Generation (Sri Lanka) in the same category.
In 2020, Arboleda became the Founding President of the UP Internet Freedom Network, an alliance of students and volunteers based in the University of the Philippines Los Baños focused on digital rights advocacy. This organization was conceived remotely, where he served as President until July 2021. During his term, he helped establish the Artists for Digital Rights Network together with civil society actors from the Philippines and Indonesia after receiving support from the Innovation for Change-East Asia and Doublethink Lab.
Other categories in the 2021 Innovation Awards include: building and sustaining social justice movements; creating positive narratives for people powerl democratising governance systems and processes; enhancing diversity and inclusion through artivism; resourcing youth-led groups and movements; and sustaining people power through self- and community care. View the final results of the Innovation Awards on their website: https://civicus.org/icsw/innovation-zone-2021/#/
The Artists for Digital Rights Network (A4DRN) announces participants for Artists for inaugural Artists for Digital Rights Program
The Artists for Digital Rights Network (A4DRN) is hosting the Artists for Digital Rights Program 2021, a program that invites artists from the Philippines and Indonesia to undergo workshops on disinformation and produce an output that surfaces the complexities of disinformation in their local contexts.
Selected by a jury composed of advocacy workers from the Philippines and Indonesia, the following artists working across different disciplines such as video, photography, performance, creative writing, computer science, and architecture, will be presenting their work in an artistic publication and roundtable discussion to launch at the end of July. The program was made possible after receiving seed-funding from Doublethink Lab (DTL) and Innovation for Change-East Asia (IC4-EA).
Sofia Tantono (Indonesia)
Sofia Tantono is a writer whose works have been published in Anak Sastra, Yuwana Zine (Issues 2 and 3) and Klandestin. Besides literature, her interests span politics and various humanities disciplines from sociology to theology. When not writing, she can be found reading, browsing the internet and keeping herself updated on the news. She can be found on Instagram @sofias.writing and her blog https://sofiatantono.wordpress.com/. For her project, Sofia Tantono will be presenting a short story titled "Our Favourite Liar", which will explore disinformation as a socio-cultural phenomenon in Indonesia through three epochs in the country's landscape: Suharto's New Order, the year before the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election and the COVID-19 pandemic. She aims to illustrate how disinformation that benefits powerful groups often festers in an Indonesian civil society distrustful of the government when said disinformation comes from sources purportedly not of large institutions.
Gabriel Brioso (Philippines)
Gabriel Brioso is an interaction designer, visual artist and architect based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He graduated Cum Laude in De La Salle - College of St. Benilde's (DLS-CSB) BS-Architecture program in 2017. His work operates on the central theme of exploring the intersections of art, architecture, craft, and design. He has been involved in several noteworthy exhibitions during the past years including The Oxymoron of Patterns in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (2015), The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale (2018), and the Authenticity Zero Collective in the Gateway Gallery in Cubao (2019). He has collaborated with DLS-CSB's Center for Campus Art (CCA) on several exhibitions including The Oxymoron of Patterns (2016), Architecture=Durable (2016), and Naichayu (2017). Gabriel Brioso’s project is a digital AR object: “The Disinformation Interface” which aims to probe the allure of the social media experience in parallel with the underlying withdrawn disinformation structures that operate within it.
Marian Hukom (Philippines)
Marian Hukom is a Manila-based visual artist. A graphic designer by profession and illustrator by craft, she loves making and publishing her own comics. Her books usually range from neon autobiographies, fantasy, slice of life, and also advocacy driven content. Once an avid gig and convention goer, Marian is now a homebody doodling the night away. As a virgo workaholic, she keeps busy with her organizations, multiple hobbies, and ongoing books. Marian Hukom will be working on an autobiographical comic "Screen time", depicting her own experience with disinformation. With screens flowing as vertical narrative panels, it aims to show a POV of this experience and it's journey.
Kiki Febriyanti (Indonesia)
Kiki Febriyanti is an artist and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Kiki holds a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Indonesian Literature, she also completed John Darling Fellowship 2015 “Visual anthropology” at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and had held artist residency at the International Center of Graphic Arts MGLC in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2019. Recently her video work took part in the Every Woman Biennial London 2021 exhibition. Her works are focusing on the topics of gender, human rights, and culture. Kiki will be working on her project "Click Bite" which explores the instant consumption habits of people on the internet that cause cyber-bullying.
Waki Salvador (Philippines)
Waki creates experimental work through the different mediums he chances upon - digital, traditional, film, music, and code. He blends these together to create noisy and brash art. Currently, he is focusing on creating net-based installations that explore disruptive aesthetics and themes. Visit him on social media @urlcompost. Waki is working on his project "Constructed Misdirection", a website that visualizes the descent into the rabbit hole of links being clicked due to disinformation.
Adrian Mulya (Indonesia)
Adrian Mulya is an independent photographer based in Jakarta. A self-taught photographer who explores humanity through pictures. He published Winners of Life (2016), a photobook of Indonesia women who survived the 1965 genocide. He also worked on a collective memory project about his Chinese Indonesian identity So Far, So Close. Adrian Mulya will work on a project called “Serabutan”, exploring the work conditions of people in the gig economy era. The project starts with exploring how the media is glorifying the merger of 2 tech companies Gojek and Tokopedia, contrasting it with the lived experiences of the drivers
Mariah Reodica (Philippines)
Mariah Reodica is a filmmaker, writer, media archivist, and musician based in Manila, Philippines. Her background as a musician–not formally trained, but ouido,–reflects in her practices of filmmaking and writing. She was awarded the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism at the 2019 Ateneo Art Awards, and currently maintains the column Platforms in The Philippine Star’s Arts and Culture section. She has been an artist-in-residence at Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2018); Load na Dito Projects (2020); WSK (2019); and Larga Artist Residency, Silay City (2019). Reodica is affiliated with the COCONET Digital Rights Network and Imagine a Feminist Internet-SEA. Her band The Buildings recently released their second album on Japan-based label Call and Response Records. Mariah Reodica will be working on a written artistic response to the transmission of ideas and conversations via online spaces, taking the internet as more than an abstract appendage to reality, but a public space in itself.
Alfred Marasigan (Philippines)
Heavily inspired by emotional geography, slow television, and magic realism, Alfred Marasigan conducts serendipitous research and transmedial practices in real time. Guided by time as storage, the moment as artwork, and self-evidence as knowledge, he orchestrates live collaborative ensembles of audiences, histories, actions, materialities, agents, and phenomena ultimately as ongoing efforts to create spaces for various makeshift, convoluted, and anachronistic Filipino queer narratives, among them his own. Marasigan graduated in 2019 with an MA in Contemporary Art from UiT Arctic University of Norway's Kunstakademiet i Tromsø and is a Norwegian Council of the Arts Grantee for Newly Graduated Artists. Currently based in Manila, he is now a faculty member of Ateneo de Manila University’s Fine Arts Department for 6 years. Alfred will work on his project, The B.A.O.A.N.G Directory. The B.A.O.A.N.G (Bertud, Agimat, Orasyon, Albularyo, Nyoroscope, at Gayuma) Directory is a live, developing database of pages dedicated to alternative medicine, folk belief, and contemporary spirituality in the Philippines. Drawing from the garlic (bawang in Tagalog and bawang putih in Indonesian) as method, it ultimately seeks to remap the potential roots of cultural resistance to standard counter-disinformation strategies and present time-tested yet left-field approaches to online truth-seeking epistemologies.
Christina Lopez (Philippines)
Christina Lopez is a 25 year old visual artist based in Manila. Her contemporary art practice ranges from the traditional sense of image production to methods more involvedwith new media. She is interested in the capacity of art to present alternative possibilities; to theorise, to test certain boundaries that are currently in place. There is specific intent to explore power, including its relations, structure, and implications. Recently, she has been producing work that utilizes paranoia as a tool for divination, one that navigates through the obfuscation omnipresent in the production and dissemination of new technologies. The forms she chooses to represent these concepts often involve digital-physical fusion, reflecting that the virtual is inseparable from material realities. By grasping at what is seen and unseen progress is viewed as something that is neither good nor evil, and arguments are presented with commitment to what the future could be. Her work can be found inside and outside of privatised spaces and institutions. She has exhibited in Hong Kong,UK, and the Philippines. She shares her ongoing project: “I will be working on a new iteration of my previous work titled “Portraits (Proxies)”, with a renewed focus on the delineation between humans, trolls, and automata. I am particularly interested in how one can decide and establish what is real from that which is not real in terms of identity and being, and whether or not this delineation should exist in the first place. The work will still make use of StyleGAN generated portraiture, and alongside I will work with a text generation GAN to create ‘profiles’.”
Mirjam Dalire (Philippines)
Mirjam Dalire is a multidisciplinary artist based in Negros Oriental, Philippines. She works with photography, internet-based installation, video, sound, and painting. Mirjam often uses virtual spaces as a staging point for confrontations with her immediate environment, employing satire and humor in her process. Mirjam Dalire will be working on her work, “Death of NoSTrAdAmUs_420” which she will be revisiting “The End by NoSTrAdAmUs_420” a video work on conspiracy theories that she made in 2019. In this new project she will be exploring developing local online hoaxes, two years after The End was released.
*UP Internet Freedom Network President Mac Andre Arboleda is the Project Lead of the Artists for Digital Rights Network
[OPEN CALL] Artists For Digital Rights 2021 Program
Open Call for Artists 18 years old and above living in the Philippines and Indonesia!
We're looking for artists working with any medium (visual art, photography, performance, text, curation, video, film, sound art/music, etc.) who are interested in advocating for digital rights, willing to undergo workshops on disinformation, and can present an artistic output tackling disinformation that will be published in an online publication.
Application period starts June 5, 2021, and ends June 13, 2021 (11:59PM, UTC+08:00). Results of the application will be emailed on June 15, 2021.
The Artists for Digital Rights Network (A4DRN) is a cross-regional community in Southeast Asia which aims to address the problem of information disorder (disinformation, misinformation and mal-information) through collaboration and creativity. We specifically want to address the lack of in-depth awareness on disinformation and collaborative work among artists to tackle this, while also providing work opportunities for them. Through a collaborative artistic publication focusing on disinformation, we want to surface the complexity of disinformation in local contexts (Philippines and Indonesia) and solidify an artists’ alliance centered on digital rights advocacy.
The A4DRN was formed from the Doublethink Lab (DTL) and Innovation for Change East Asia (I4C-EA) workshops and seed grant funding. Through this initiative, we hope to achieve the following objectives:
1. To form a cross-regional alliance of artists starting with the Philippines and Indonesia;
2. To give disinformation training and mentorship opportunities for artists;
3. To create a platform for the cross-regional alliance to communicate and collaborate in addressing disinformation and digital rights issues;
4. To collaborate on an artistic publication that will compile works by artists in the Philippines and Indonesia responding to disinformation; and
5. To share the experiences of artists participants in disinformation training, collaboration, and alliance-building through online events.
A total of ten (10) participating artists will be selected for this program and will undergo a one-day workshop on disinformation as well as how to respond to disinformation through art (tentatively scheduled on June 29, Saturday). They will also be tasked to submit an artwork tackling disinformation (Deadline: July 17, 2021) that will be published in an online publication set to launch at the end of July. We encourage artists with existing projects related to disinformation to apply.
Artists who successfully complete the program will be invited to a round table where they will discuss their participation and work in the publication. We offer a $300 honorarium for artists as part of their participation, in addition to a network and online platform for potential collaborations and resources on disinformation and digital rights.
Participants will be selected by the core team composed of advocacy workers from the Philippines and Indonesia based on their body of work, interest in digital rights and disinformation, and their commitment to this program. Please note that due to limitations, the entire program will be in English.
For inquiries, send an email to Mac Andre Arboleda at [email protected].
APPLICATION LINK: https://bit.ly/A4DRP2021
Mortality in modalities: the demise of access to education and our freedoms
Note: This statement was published on March 15 to commemorate the eighth year anniversary of the death of UP Manila student Kristel Tejada, which resulted from the forced leave of absence (FLOA) imposed by the then UP Manila administration over her non-payment of school fees. The statement also glossed on the Bloody Sunday massacre of nine activists in the CALABARZON region on March 7.
A lot has changed, eight years since the passing of then-UP Manila freshman student Kristel Tejada.
Tertiary public education, after decades of government lobbying, protests, and strikes, was finally given government subsidy in 2017. However, massive hurdles to quality and accessible education remain. Aside from school fees, strict yet lacking health restrictions have been imposed by the Philippine government, leaving learning institutions in the dark and has since hastily and vigorously adopted new modalities for learning.
Quality education, which is crucial in achieving internet freedom, then remains an afterthought. Both the gaping holes of our education system and the inutile and fascist governance of the Duterte administration are seen in the same week that we mark a year of varying degrees of government lockdowns and restrictions in the country.
Due to a clear lack of urgency and abject failure from the national government to contain the contagion and adopt scientific, timely, and inclusive policies as the pandemic raged, we are sadly worse off than we began: with half a million more COVID-19 cases, thousands more dead, and a shrinking, debt-laden economy.
Struggles have persisted with the remote learning set-up. Factors such as distance, high overhead costs to purchase necessary technology for learning, added utility costs, and the plain non-allocation of necessary funds for public schools have overburdened the already-disheveled public school system. Private schooling remains costly, even with work-from-home setups. Even without utilizing majority of school facilities, most private schools have not lowered school fees. The mostly-online setup of "new normal" classes, combined with prolonged periods of isolation and uncertainty, have also generated digitally-induced woe.
The state of Philippine Internet infrastructure remains overburdened, costly, and inefficient. While available cheap tech is unable to carry the very heavy memory and disk load of conventional online learning programs, Philippine internet has also remained to have one of the most expensive internet access fees and low-quality internet access in Southeast Asia. Barrier upon barrier is being stacked upon struggling youth and their families that still hope to get a high return of investment from years of education.
As education secretary Leonor Briones put it, "Learning must continue, education must continue". But with the barriers to education only getting higher and thicker, Philippine democracy and the prospects for internet freedom only becoming murkier than it ever was, there is no doubt that any chance of learning is paid with a steep price. We, in UPLB, have learned that painfully, as we lost two of our fellow Iskos due to the hardships of the remote learning set-up last year.
The Duterte administration, meanwhile, has only implemented measures further constricting democratic spaces, online and offline. The controversial and highly-repressive Anti-Terror Law, while still being challenged in the Supreme Court, remains a powerful tool of repression against defenders of democracy. It also remains to be a threat to internet freedom; enabling the use of a wide range of surveillance measures against those the law deems "terrorists" -- or simply, those that would be arbitrarily listed by the Anti-Terrorism Council.
The government has orchestrated the threats, intimidation, and mass arrests of activists, relief volunteers, and quarantine violators; and has since justified its doctrine of murder through vacuous reasons. now through the boogeyman of counterinsurgency. As we commemorate our fellow Iskos' and Iska's lives cut abruptly, we also condemn the killing of nine activists and rights defenders on March 7, named Bloody Sunday. They were revered as champions of human rights inside and outside their local communities.
We believe that the Bloody Sunday deaths, which were in the hands of state forces; and the deaths of thousands more either due to the bungled COVID-19 response, a heavily-taxing education system, and unreachable social services, show a government only angered about legitimate dissent while churning out its own illusion of progress -- covering the massive, bloody backdrop in its wake.
In the burgeoning dismissal of the government not only with our Internet rights and freedoms, but also with how access to education and other basic services are getting farther from reach, our call for justice continues; for Kristel, for our fellow Iskos, and now for the victims of Bloody Sunday and this fascist regime.
Like the modalities of remote learning, the restrictive lockdown measures and the slow, paltry support for the Filipino people push them to a deeper crisis, and the hardships and death that this crisis generates. Therefore, the circumstances that ended their lives persist until now -- the reasons for the erasure of the lives and the dreams of the youth.
HIGHLIGHTS: An Open Discussion on Copyright issues in the Time of Remote Learning
Written by Julianne Afable
The current shift from traditional learning set up to online channels has posed challenges not only to student’s access but also to instructors’ capability in delivering lessons in an online mode of teaching. Issues of access to resources, competencies, and most importantly copyright laws were highlighted in the open discussion organized by the UP Internet Freedom Network last April 23, 2021. The UP Internet Freedom Network invited educators to talk about their experiences in creating course packs amidst lack of resources and copyright issues in the context of commercialized and colonial type of education in the country.
Ms. Julienne Urrea, basic education instructor who teaches English subjects at the UP Rural High School discussed the challenges faced by basic education instructors in the shift to online learning. She shared personal experience and meaningful conversations with her colleagues on navigating the new platform in a basic education institution that even before the pandemic had been making do with limited resources available to students and instructors.
Urrea talked about the grueling task of producing course packs sighting that teaching and creating instructional materials are two different competencies and the way that teachers were made to come up with learning materials with very limited time and resources have been barriers to delivering lessons to students in basic education who have very different needs compared to college and graduate students. Furthermore, she discussed how the current orientation of the Philippine education system of being commercialized and colonial has been exposed by how content on Filipino subjects are limited on open education resources in contrast with resources on English and grammar, revealing the value placed on marketable skills in a third world country.
Mr. Jethro Daryl Pugal, the second speaker in the open discussion, is an instructor in the Philosophy Division in UP Los Baños. He gave light on the strategies that their division came up with in order to navigate existing fair use policies, eventually concluding that laws and policies that are currently in place do not exist in the favor of academic pursuits. He emphasized that democratizing institutions and education platforms would place information to the hands of those who can use them.
Third speaker Mr. Kennedy Limbo, a registered Engineer who is currently an instructor in Far Eastern University-Institute of Technology highlighted the difficulty of finding resources for a bio-engineering class, a relatively young discipline that he is teaching. Copyright laws, according to Limbo are limiting further access to resources. Coming from a private university, he notes that they surprisingly encounter the same problems public educational institutions have. Given the current situation of Philippine education where we are far from the 1:1 student to book ratio, we could just imagine how far worse the situation is in local universities in far flung areas of the country when even UP and FEU are having these problems, Limbo added.
A free, accessible, and quality education for all
Student reactors Rich Adriel de Guzman from the National Union of Students in the Philippines – Southern Tagalog and Benjie Gallero, College of Arts and Sciences Student Council (CAS SC) Chairperson shared their insights from the speakers’ discussion. As a council leader who receives concerns of students on difficulties of online learning, Benjie said that it was refreshing to know the concerns of professors. For Rich, who represents an organization working for student concerns in Southern Tagalog, he stressed how the undemocratic academe set up limits students’ access to learning materials for holistic learning. He reiterated that those in other State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in the country should have equal opportunities with UP and other private learning institutions. With the rise of community based efforts like community pantries, he added that community libraries should also be considered because like food, the general Filipino masses also need access to information.
In the Philippine Internet Declaration on Internet Rights and Principles, it states that “everyone should have the right to access information on the Internet and be free from restrictions on access to knowledge. Copyright and patent regimes must not disproportionately restrict the capacity of the Internet to support public access to knowledge and culture. The State must ensure an enabling environment where linguistic, religious, and cultural diversity are encouraged as it enriches the development of society.” Additionally, “Everyone should have the knowledge and skills that enable them to use and shape the Internet. Everyone should have access to online resources, materials, and knowledge.”
Fair use policy restrictions according to the speakers created a chilling effect for instructors in distributing learning materials to their students especially during the period of preparation of course packs where the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) released a memorandum for guidelines on fair use policy and organized webinars to remind educators to adhere to copyright laws. This results to an atmosphere where instructors are left to debate themselves on whether a copyrighted enriching material should be distributed to students, shared Urrea.
In pushing for less restrictive copyright and broader access to resources and quality education, speakers stressed the need to go back to UP’s institutional responsibility and its transformative role in society to facilitate access to knowledge and free education. Limbo stressed the importance of being one in the campaign for increasing accessibility of resources and resisting commercialization which makes knowledge a commodity that further restricts the scientific community and the very people who need it most like farmers and the general masses. Aside from being a teaching university, UP is a research university, more than making research publicly available, let’s make our research publicly relevant, added Pugal.
Further reading:
UPLB profs share struggles of shifting to online learning
Limitations and Exceptions in Copyright Law for Educational Analysis: An Asia-Pacific Analysis
Limitations and Exceptions in Copyright Law for Educational Analysis: An Asia-Pacific Analysis
Fair use of copyrighted work
Copyright and Remote Learning in the Time of COVID-19
The military coup, Internet shutdowns in Myanmar: Q&A with Burmese university student
Written by Julianne Afable
Last February, news about the military coup in Myanmar followed by reports of internet shutdowns prompted public outrage both locally and internationally as this move sparks fear of the same restrictions on human rights and freedom of speech elsewhere. This series of events serve as a precautionary tale for people living in the Philippines given the all-out war being carried out by the Duterte regime on activists and human rights defenders and the recent events of political persecution as exhibited by killings and arrests during operations of AFP-PNP in CALABARZON in the ‘Bloody Sunday.’
On the morning of February 1, 2021, military group Tatmadaw deposed the current quasi-democratic ruling party National League for Democracy (NLD) in an early-morning raid that ended with the detainment of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political leaders. Days after, protesters stormed the streets of Myanmar’s biggest cities bearing anti-coup slogans. Eventually, teachers and government workers joined the protests using social media as means to share information with other protesters. The protesters’ use of the internet has prompted the military to order blocking Twitter and Instagram which eventually led to blackouts at a bigger scale.
Netblocks Internet Observatory, a London-based internet monitor working for digital rights, cybersecurity, and internet governance, has recorded real time network data of the decline of national connectivity in Myanmar over the period of military activities in the country. Until late February, internet shutdowns continued with shutdowns mostly being reported at night in between 1am and 9am blocking communication and leaving individuals uninformed about nighttime raids and crackdown on protesters.
A lot has changed since. Just three weeks ago, independent news outlet Myanmar Now reported the killing of at least 114 civilians by the military in one day. We interviewed Rin, a 20-year-old university student in Myanmar to give us more insight on #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar.
Please describe how your use of the internet has changed since the shutdowns started.
Rin: In the early morning of 1st February 2021, our means of telecommunications were cut-off until 12-1PM. Since our internet speed gradually slowed down, we have to use VPN to access Facebook and some websites and social media.
How did the internet shutdown affect your access to information?
Rin: As mentioned, we have to use VPN to get access to Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and some other platforms where we can share and get information. If we don’t use VPN, we cannot see Facebook or Twitter. Since Facebook is widely used in Myanmar, we share every information here. So when the clock ticks 1AM, we are put in the dark. We have to wait until the clock ticks at 9AM. Information flow is very important especially during this military coup. The way they handle this situation is very brutal. We need the world to know what they are doing. They dare use force and cruel methods even in the front of the media, what would they be doing to the people during the 8 hours of internet shutdown? (Posting a video takes at least 8-10 minutes now. Live videos get taken down midway. It takes a while for a photo or the newsfeed to load if the free VPN you are using is crowded.
How did you feel after the government shutdown the access to internet? What was the atmosphere within your groups?
Rin: I feel very angry, annoyed, and not pleased – a mixed feeling. We can never get used to this. This is a violation of human rights. Everyone feels the same way. We have been using the internet anytime we want - even when we woke up from sleep for a few minutes. Young adults are the ones who are not very pleased with this internet shutdown. They usually do their school projects, assignments, communicate with friends (local and international), play games, and many more. They cannot do it now. Especially those who are doing online classes and those who came back from abroad (Australia, US, UK, etc.) studies. Due to the time zone difference, they have been warned from school to finish the project and submit the form on time. (There’re also people being arrested during the internet shutdown for posting political stuff and doing CDM or Civil Disobedience Movement during this internet shutdown hours.)
Given the human rights situation in your country, what are the steps that you as an individual or a member of a group, plan on doing?
Rin: Since the coup, our rights have been taken away slowly. Internet, freedom of speech, our privacy are being violated. There are cases where they stop the car a girl was in and asked to give her phone to check whether she has posted political stuff on Facebook. She got away by showing her online shopping account. We could be detained in jail for a few days for that. Even now, University students who were just protesting peacefully were beaten and arrested. They are being detained for 3 days in the Insein Prison. But we are going to fight until we get what we all are fighting for. We are not scared even if they threaten to imprison us. Since they are illegal, all their laws shall not be obeyed.
I suppose you already know the situation here and that they are using real bullets. We are trying any possible ways to protect ourselves by making shields and barricades. Though those are not very effective, we can get some time to back away.
The interview was conducted in early March.
Further reading:
Duterte threatens to shut down Globe, Smart
Myanmar coup: military expands internet shutdown
#KeepItOn: As Yemen’s war goes online, internet shutdowns and censorship are hurting Yemenis
Over 100 Instances of Internet Shutdown in India in 2020, Says New Report
Remote Learning in the Time of Worsening Political Crisis: Q&A with UPLB students
Written by Mac Andre Arboleda and Benjie Gallero
It has been a month into the 2nd semester of the Academic Year 2020-2021, and the second semester of remote learning enforced by the University of the Philippines. If you, reader, can remember, the 2nd semester of AY 2019-2020 was halted in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown, and at the end of that semester, students were given either passing or deferred grades. The 1st semester of AY 2020-2021 was postponed, and in November, the UPLB University Council of Student Leaders called for a university-wide strike to end the semester in protest of the ongoing setup and in solidarity with fellow students and Filipinos who were affected by the super typhoon. All of this have been happening as the youth joined protests against the government’s failed response to the pandemic and the human rights violations under the Duterte administration.
Although the 2nd semester of AY 2020-2021 was similarly moved to start in March instead of January, students still expressed their concern about the readiness of teachers, the administration, and fellow students. As the Rise for Education-UPLB once again calls for academic ease and the Department of Health reports an all-time high in single-day deaths (401) and active cases (178, 351), we look back on our interviews with UPLB students Chelsea Sison (CHE) Clarice “Clang” Sumagaysay (CVM), Bianca “Bia” Arce (CAS), Theresa “Teri” Manalo (CAS), Aliyah “Iyane” Mata (CEAT), and Julianne Afable (GS) who shared their experience about their first week of classes. How far are we in our campaign for #NoStudentLeftBehind?
How would you describe your first week of classes?
Chelsea: As for the first week of classes, there’s not much to talk about since all we did in class was to orient ourselves as to how the semester would course through. However, overall, it was alright and overwhelming because the workload for the semester was given to us already and complete modules were disseminated. It also made me anxious since there were no advice from any of my professors days prior to the start of the classes and I didn’t have any assurance that an email regarding their class would reach me. I had to sit and wait all day for their emails, and I had to look for possible classmates as well to make sure that I was not left behind.
Clang: Since last semester, I’ve always been struggling to focus on doing my academics because of all the distractions this remote learning. I couldn’t go to the university library to study or at study cafes because of the pandemic. I don’t know how to snap out of the current trance I’m in.
Bia: Personally, it's overwhelming and scary. As a person who started her freshie year online, it's scary to think how much I've learned from my prior courses. I felt like last semester didn't provide the quality learning that we needed. However, when it comes to load, I can say that some subjects improved and tried to lessen the load without compromising as much learning as possible.
Teri: I know from my previous semester that trying to adapt to online classes is really hard. Even so, for this semester I tried preparing for things to go smoothly according to plan. But it was still stressful for me. I didn’t hear from most of my professors until the day of our first meeting; some of them had trouble contacting us because they couldn’t access SAIS. I encountered internet issues during some of my lectures, both from my end and the lecturers’. And it’s difficult to try and shift my focus back to school when normal house things happen around me all the time and abnormal events happen outside. So it goes. Overall, I think it still overwhelmed me, like it did last time. My peers and I rely on each other to keep up.
Iyane: Overwhelming. Despite the demands forwarded by the councils to the admin, there are still heavy workloads and unreasonable deadlines. There may have been minimal adjustments, but considering the circumstances from various sectors, such as the students and academic employees, it is still not enough. A lot of students are still left behind.
Julianne: My first week of classes was a bit frustrating, as a new GS student, I had zero knowledge about how LMS work. Although the emails from ITC like tutorials and SAIS updates are very much appreciated, there were still some missing info that I had to figure out by myself. For instance, I (and some of my classmates) were on a different moodle site than what UPLB is supposed to be using so there was confusion between us and our prof. Aside from that, internet connectivity is also another frustration, since we have internet problems in the office, I had to attend my classes through broadband so there were instances where I was disconnected from the zoom class.
What are your expectations for the rest of the semester?
Chelsea: For this semester, I do not expect much. First, nothing much really changed. The delivery of materials is still similar from the previous semester. Although classes would say they “improved” it. The improvements were minimal, and it didn’t change the fact that there are still students in out university who are unable to afford this kind of learning setup. However, in an ideal world, I do expect that this semester would be better than the previous one and that students and faculty are more geared towards this kind of learning.
Clang: My expectations is that I hope the students and professors would come to a mutual agreement on how the classes should be conducted. Learning is a two-way relationship. There should be an avenue to talk about what is the most efficient way for the students to learn and for the professors to teach specially with the current set up we are in.
Bia: I expect nothing but understanding, leniency, and consideration from each other (admin-faculty-student). These should be the bases when it comes to implementing measures if need be. Also, I expect that our calls should be heeded by the admin in times of challenges and struggles.
Teri: Again, online classes, you can't really plan for these. You can prepare yourself mentally, organize your things, create a routine, only to see everything crumble in end. Planning helps, but it also leads to more frustration in this condition. Modules and requirements will only get harder as lessons get more complex. Some professors adjust for the sake of their students, which is really compassionate, but some do it in a way that sacrifices part of what could have been imparted, what could have been learned.
Iyane: I'm expecting that this sem will be more tiring than ever. However, I'm hoping that the profs are now well-adjusted; thus, they'll be conducting the virtual learning in a more manageable and systematic way wherein considering academic excellence and the student's well-being. The mental health of the students should be one of the top priorities during these times.
Julianne: Given the experiences I had in my first week, I expect that I will have to exert more effort this sem. I expect difficulty in internet connectivity and that I would have to spend more money on mobile data for our wireless broadband. I also expect that both profs and students will be able to address the challenges of the current set up based on their experience from the past semester.
How would you like to see the semester unfold for the next couple of months? In other words, for you, what is an "ideal" semester?
Chelsea: In an “ideal” semester, I look for students being able to learn and understand their modules well. That students are able to truly acquire knowledge and not just for the sake of accomplishing their requirements. However, though, as long as the possibility of students being left behind due to lack of access in materials is still eminent, I still firmly believe there would be no “ideal” semester in this kind of setup.
Clang: The ideal semester for me would be that no student should be left behind and that the professors are also being provided with the learning materials needed to conduct remote classes.
Bia: Personally, I don't see an ideal semester in this setup. Regardless, there'll be people struggling and challenged. However, for the next few months, I'd like to see the semester unfold in such a way that the admin, faculty, and students go hand-in-hand to make this setup bearable. I want to see actions that are constituent-oriented, as its constituents are greatly affected by whatever actions or plans are implemented for this semester.
Teri: In an online set-up, I would like to have open classrooms: no graded requirements but continuous discussions and complete access to all the class materials. This way, learning at a regular pace would still be an option, without leaving vulnerable students behind.
Iyane: First and foremost, an ideal semester would include minimal workloads, lenient deadlines, and utmost compassion. The course packs should be delivered to students on time, not two weeks after the class started. The said adjustment should not only be appealing to students but also to the faculty and staff. They must have timely salaries, labor rights, and funds for improvements of the academic facilities. We are in a pandemic, and the admin should have extraordinary measures. Free education is not limited to having a free tuition fee alone; it should be accessible to everyone. Learning should be fun and procreative, not frustrating.
Julianne: Despite the frustrations of the first week, I'm very grateful for my profs who understand the challenges faced by their students in the current set up. An ideal sem for me is a sem where both profs and students will be considerate with each other given that we all experience the same struggles especially with internet connectivity and transitioning to a set-up we were not really preparing for as no one predicted how long the pandemic would last.
Lessons from Hanap.Info: Q&A with Merwin Jacob Alinea
Written by Mac Andre Arboleda
Last Sept. 28, 2020, the UP Internet Freedom Network launched Hanap.info, a free, volunteer-run, Facebook Messenger-based search-service in commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information. Inspired by a pioneer initiative called Search Me Up (also based in the Philippines), we wanted to aid students and communities in Los Baños who did not have proper access to the Internet in accessing information online. After a couple of months (September 2020 to January 2021), we decided to halt Hanap.info to explore new and more innovative projects. In this blogpost, we talk about the experience of running Hanap.info with its Project Head, Merwin Jacob Alinea.
What were your expectations when you started this project?
Merwin Jacob Alinea: Our expectations on this project were quite low and indefinite because it was our first time to jumpstart this kind of service. We weren’t sure if lots of people would try Hanap.info but at the same time, we had a positive outlook because we were inspired by “Search Me Up” which received a lot of positive feedback and support. As the project continued, we saw the situation of the communities as they struggled in the remote learning set-up. We eventually expanded to cover communities in Bay, Laguna through their SK (Sangguniang Kabataan) in Dila through Project Karunungan.
How was the experience of managing volunteers?
Alinea: Initially, we scheduled different committees and volunteers to work in different days and hours. Since our volunteers are students who have their own class schedules, we only rely on their availability. We ensure proper communication with each other to help everyone with the queries we receive. If other volunteers are also free outside their scheduled commitment in Hanap.info, they also answer querier from time to time.
Tell us about the kinds of queries you received in Hanap.info. Who were its users?
Alinea: Most of the queries sent to us are specific questions about homework. In one instance, we were asked what happened to a specific character in a short story, which we assumed was for a class requirement. There were other queries that asked for definitions and explanations of concepts and terms. It’s probable that because of the remote learning setup, students were forced to answer their assignments with minimal to no guidance from their teachers or guardians.
How did you decide to let go of Hanap.info? What learnings did you take away from this project?
Alinea: We decided to prioritize other campaigns and activities of our organization since the project received very few queries per month. This has also compelled us to look into supporting more campaigns on internet access for all, and accessibility to resources like laptops and gadgets. Hanap.info is a small initiative that while it helps people access information, it does not address the root cause.
What do you think needs to be done so that local communities can have continued access to information?
Alinea: Communities must be given access to basic social services and technology, especially devices and internet connection. It is also important to know the situation in grassroots communities who are probably facing problems bigger than the lack of access to the internet and information.
Further reading:
As COVID-19 forces life to move online, who is left behind?
Four of 10 Filipino students lack distance learning tech
7 senators seek ‘immediate launch’ of limited face-to-face classes dry run
Facebook group becomes online market for videos exploiting children to fund distance learning needs
Philippines: The right to know – Freedom of information in the Supreme Court
Statement on the 35th Anniversary of the People Power Uprising
Today, we commemorate the EDSA People Power, a 3-day mass uprising on February 1986 that called for the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship. It was the high point after decades of the burgeoining protest movement that primarily put forward the people’s democratic rights and freedoms.
Thirty-five years later, we are in an eerily similar atmosphere to the Marcosian past. Poverty and unemployment has only skyrocketed. The government remains and has only been more dastardly and sneakily corrupt. Freedom and democracy is being stifled left and right, while memory and history is mangled on our very eyes.
While history books and accounts of the true violence of Marcos’ martial law is whitewashed by the supposed grandeur of those days, today’s motorcade of a car club for Sara Duterte, which some propose as “the new face of People Power”, poses a similar attack to the nation’s consciousness as the military’s relentless red-tagging spree and only seeks to cover widespread harassment and killings of activists and ordinary Filipinos across the country.
But dark forces in history do not only exist in the Philippines, but also in Myanmar, where the military junta has continued to shut down opposition figures and freedom-loving citizens; in India, where the Modi regime has lent deaf ears to the plight of farmers and their descent to abject poverty due to new farm laws; and elsewhere in the world.
The Internet is no stranger to these attempts of censorship and harassment. Discordant voices across the world are restricted access to a wider audience every single day.
Online, but more so offline, the uprising of millions in EDSA and in other major thoroughfares in the country three decades ago teaches us valuable lessons. Dark forces have never prevailed in the course of history, precisely because those that resist it are more perseverant, more committed, and more resolute to stop the further decline of rights and freedoms.
Therefore, we remain, more perseverant, more committed, and more resolute, not only in the pursuit of internet freedom, but also in the attainment of freedoms that would give justice and peace full view in society.
The Philippine Declaration on Internet Rights and Principles
(Crossposted from the Foundation for Media Alternatives)
Note: The UP Internet Freedom Network was not part of the drafting of The Philippine Declaration of Internet Rights and Principles. We decided to include this in our website so that more people can access The Declaration, from which we base the core principles of our organization.
On November 4, 2015, the Philippine Declaration on Internet Rights and Principles was launched after several months of collective drafting and consultations with civil society internet rights groups and the ICT policy community.
The initiative for the creation of the Declaration was launched during the Philippine Multi-stakeholder Forum on Internet Governance, Human Rights and Development organized by [the Foundation for Media Alternatives] on March 23, 2015. It was inspired by many similar initiatives of a global or national scope (e.g., Brazil). A drafting team, comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds, developed the content of the declaration.
FMA also conducted broad consultations in Metro Manila, Davao City, and Cebu City from August to October 2015 to solicit inputs on the initial draft. The draft declaration was also made available online for inputs and suggestions of those who could not join the face-to-face consultations.
The Declaration focused on ten areas:
Internet access for all
Democratizing the architecture of the internet
Freedom of expression and association
Right to privacy and protection of personal data
Gender equality
Openness and access to information, knowledge and culture
Socio-economic empowerment and innovation
Education and digital literacy
Liberty, safety and security on the Internet
Internet and ICTs for environmental sustainability.
The Declaration is a reflection of the dreams, hopes, and aspirations of Filipinos of what the Philippine Internet should be. It hopes to serve as a basis for public education, advocacy, networking and campaigns on ICT, human rights, and development.
As of end-2015, 23 organizations have signed the declaration with many more organizations expressing interest.
The Philippine Declaration on Internet Rights and Principles
Preamble
Recalling that the Philippines is a sovereign democratic state in Southeast Asia, an archipelago that has a diverse population of various cultures that speaks different languages and dialects and professes different beliefs and ideologies;
Recognizing the 1987 Philippine Constitution, and that the State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development and should value the dignity of each and every human person;
Recognizing that the Internet plays an important role in the lives of the peoples of the Philippines, affecting their social, political, cultural, and economic development;
Recognizing that the Internet is a global commons and a public resource that should further the public interest;
Asserting that governance of the Internet should be inclusive, democratic, and rights-based, and should encourage the widest possible participation, particularly from marginalized and vulnerable sectors;
Noting that while the Internet has provided a platform for the promotion of human rights and increased democratization in the country, it has nevertheless also been misused and abused at times, and that such misuse or abuse results in a widening of the social divide or increased oppression;
Affirming that all human rights that apply or are enjoyed offline, particularly those enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), should likewise also apply and be protected online;
Emphasizing the responsibility of the State to always respect, protect and fulfill human rights, as also the responsibility of the private sector including Internet intermediaries to respect the human rights of their users consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;
Herein declare:
1. Internet Access for All
Everyone has the right to affordable and quality access to the Internet. The State must narrow the digital divide in order to provide quality universal access and ensure an enabling environment for fair competition that will benefit all stakeholders and promote consumer protection. Consistent with the distributed nature of the Internet, community-owned and driven information infrastructure and networks should also be promoted as alternatives or complements to national-level infrastructure.
2. Democratizing the Architecture of the Internet
The Internet’s architecture, communication systems, and document and data formats shall be based on open standards that ensure complete interoperability, inclusion and equal opportunity for all.
Recognizing the fundamental distributed, decentralized and diverse nature of the internet, everyone shall have universal and open access to the Internet and its content, free from discriminatory prioritization, filtering or control for political or commercial purposes, while allowing for legitimate technical traffic management. The Internet should continue to evolve via open, permission-less innovation and the voluntary adoption of standards through inclusive multi-stakeholder processes, with due regard for the diversity of human abilities.
3. Freedom of Expression & Association
Everyone should have the right to freedom of expression, opinion, and association without interference online and offline. State and non-state actors should refrain from infringing upon the universal right to receive and impart information, opinions and ideas. Any restrictions on online activity should conform with necessary and proportionate principles.
Attempts to silence critical voices and censor social and political content or debate on the Internet should be stopped. Everyone should also be free to use the Internet to organize and form associations, and to engage in protests.
4. Right to Privacy & Protection of Personal Data
Everyone has a right to privacy on the Internet and the right to control how their personal data is collected, used, disclosed, retained, and disposed. Everyone should be able to communicate free from the threat of surveillance and interception. Targeted surveillance for the protection of public health and safety should always provide safeguards for human rights and be governed by transparent rules and oversight mechanisms.
Everyone should also have the right to communicate anonymously on the Internet and should be free to use encryption technology to ensure secure, private and anonymous communication.
5. Gender Equality
Everyone should have an equal right to learn about, access, define, use, and shape the Internet regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Efforts to increase access must recognize and redress existing gender inequalities. In particular, there must be full participation of women in all areas related to the development of the Internet to ensure gender equality.
Gender-based violence involving the use of technology is growing, and the harms and violations perpetrated through and with ICTs are in need of serious attention. There must be concrete programs and mechanisms to prevent violence in cyberspace by promoting human rights for all and harnessing the potential of ICTs to promote women’s empowerment. The Internet must promote diversity and social justice, and should be a transformative space to challenge and dismantle social injustice and patriarchy.
6. Openness and Access to Information, Knowledge, and Culture
Everyone should have the right to access information on the Internet and be free from restrictions on access to knowledge. Copyright and patent regimes must not disproportionately restrict the capacity of the Internet to support public access to knowledge and culture. The State must ensure an enabling environment where linguistic, religious, and cultural diversity are encouraged as it enriches the development of society. It should also promote the development of local content and the production and use of free, libre, and open source software (FLOSS).
7. Socio-Economic Empowerment and Innovation
Everyone should be free to use the Internet for socio-economic empowerment and innovation. Innovators should be encouraged to design, develop, and implement information and communication technologies that respect human rights and that contribute to socio-economic empowerment and sustainable development. The State shall also foster an enabling environment for the growth of innovators and start-ups.
8. Education and Digital Literacy
Everyone should have the knowledge and skills that enable them to use and shape the Internet. Everyone should have access to online resources, materials, and knowledge. Digital literacy is fundamental to children’s capacity to use the Internet competently and exercise their human rights. Digital literacy will facilitate more active, responsible, and productive citizen participation in political, social and economic spheres.
The State should promote open educational resources and enable open access to research and data, as well as the use of free and open source software.
9. Liberty, Safety, & Security on the Internet
Everyone has the right to liberty and security on the Internet. Security measures, devised and implemented in a consensual manner, must be consistent with international human rights laws and norms. Everyone has the right to enjoy secure connections to and on the Internet, including protection from malware and fraud, as well as services and protocols that threaten or impair the current technical functioning of the Internet. Digital security measures should be commensurate with the threats they seek to address, taking into consideration and relative to the benefits of the social, economic and democratic activity they seek to protect.
10. Internet and ICTs for Environmental Sustainability
Sustainable use of the Internet must be encouraged and enabled. E-waste should be minimized and recycled or otherwise disposed of in a manner that is protective of the environment. Sustainable use of the Internet that minimizes its impact on resources should be encouraged.
Signatories
8 Layer Technologies, Inc.
Baratillo.NetBlogwatch Philippines
Cebu Blogging Community
Cebu Youth Society Group
Dakila
Democracy.Net.Ph
Foundation for Media Alternatives
Galang Philippines
Gender and Development Advocates (GANDA) Filipinas
HROnline Philippines
Info Shop Marinduque
Initiatives for International Dialogue
Internet Society – Philippines
Kaisa _ Nagkakaisang Iskolar para sa Pamantasan at Sambayanan
