Dom Ybera
Silence in the Courts: The Quiet Erasure of Marcos Accountability
Dom Ybera | September 20, 2026On 21 September 2026, the country marks the 54th anniversary of Presidential Proclamation 1081 – the day Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. placed the Philippines under martial law and began fourteen years of a regime remembered for plunder as much as for repression. Twelve days earlier, on 09 September, court documents that the Supreme Court had […]
When “Counter-Terrorism” Becomes a Weapon Against Civil Society
Dom Ybera | September 15, 2026When “Counter-Terrorism” Becomes a Weapon Against Civil Society: FATF, Financing Laws, and New Legal Threats in the Philippines This article traces how an international financial-compliance regime became a domestic tool of repression in the Philippines, and how new legislation pushed through Congress threatens to expand that tool considerably. A Community Organization Frozen OutFor years, the […]
The soil remembers, reflections on peace and loss in Toboso
Dom Ybera | June 4, 2026I arrived in Toboso expecting to join an International Fact-Finding and Solidarity Mission (IFSM). I did not expect the land itself to feel like a testimony. Negros is beautiful in a way that almost feels cruel. The hills stretch endlessly in green. The air feels lighter than in the city. Trees sway quietly in farmlands […]
The Ayuda Trap: Why Survival is Not a Solution
Dom Ybera | May 7, 2026People already know how it goes. There’s a list. You line up, sometimes before sunrise. If your name is there, you receive a temporary reprieve. If it isn’t, you go home to navigate the impossible alone. A few days later, the relief is gone. But the problem remains. The cost of living is rising: food, […]
Beyond Flowers and Greetings: The Militant Heart of International Working Women’s Day
Dom Ybera | March 10, 2026Every year on March 8, we are reminded that International Working Women’s Day was never meant to be a day of passive greetings or gift-giving. It was born in the streets, fueled by the fire of organized struggle against systems that profit from our labor and our silence. In the early twentieth century, women workers—those […]
Why ASEAN Must Center Care and People’s Rights in Innovation
Dom Ybera | August 28, 2025On 21-22 August 2025, the ASEAN Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Sustainability was held in Thailand, convened by the ASEAN Secretariat with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). It gathered governments, civil society, business, academe, and regional bodies to explore how Southeast Asia can advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable […]
Not Just Surviving: Communities Resisting Disaster and Repression
Dom Ybera | July 27, 2025The country observes National Resilience Month this July—under the banner of readiness and recovery. Government agencies are rolling out awareness campaigns, conducting simulation drills, and showcasing disaster preparedness programs. But in the Philippines’ most vulnerable and disaster-prone areas—where typhoons, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, poverty, and armed conflict converge—these gestures ring hollow for many. “For communities […]