Marlowe Sarabia

Reflection Paper: PINTIG Advocacy Forum

The PINTIG Advocacy Forum made me aware of the latest information we need to know in the

areas of Health, Justice, Poverty, and Education. I was deeply moved especially by the plenary talk of

Atty. Chel Diokno where he discussed the 3 aspects of Justice which are Accountability, Transparency,

and Empowerment. The aspect of Empowerment struck me the most because as our government fights

this Pandemic, it seems like instead of Empowering the marginalized, the government instead was

focused on silencing the masses through the passage of the Anti-Terror Law. The government also

shows lesser and lesser Accountability as it fails to give the transparency to people. With the alleged

corruption of Phil Health, direct attack to Press Freedom, I agree to Atty. Chel that our government

moves in the opposite direction of where it’s supposed to move. As Atty Chel also stated, I also can’t

understand the priorities of our government as they focus on non-Covid related issues instead of

focusing on our Healthcare and Empowerment of people. The other speakers also emphasized the issue

of extrajudicial killings. The main resource that the government is using in battling different issues is

violence. The identity of Filipino people as “magalang” and “makatao” are not anymore existing in our

Government. It’s also what I’ve observed not just in Government but in some of our citizens as the

“Cancel Culture” emerges. In the issue of Academic Freeze, I agree to Br. Armin Luistro, FSC that instead

of freezing the Academic Year, why not make actions to provide more resources to students instead of

impeding with the right to education of some students who could afford it.