Lawmakers urged to call for ‘humanitarian truce’ in Gaza

Makabayan bloc House members ACT Rep. France Castro (second from left), Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas (third from left), and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel (fourth from left) want their colleagues to call for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. (INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — Makabayan legislators over the weekend urged their colleagues at the House of Representatives to call for a stop to Israel’s aggression, which has harmed innocent civilians and endangered overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), maintaining that the Philippines erred in abstaining from the United Nations resolution seeking a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro, Gabriela women’s party list Rep. Arlene Brosas, and Kabataan party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel filed a resolution over the weekend seeking the lower chamber’s “condemnation of Israel’s indiscriminate attacks, violence and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

In their House resolution, the lawmakers encouraged their colleagues to call for an “immediate humanitarian truce for the protection of civilians and upholding of legal and humanitarian obligations in Gaza.”

PH abstention

The Makabayan bloc members cited an Oct. 27 UN resolution adopted by a large majority of member states for a sustained truce between Israeli defense forces and Hamas and for a continuous provision of vital supplies and services for trapped civilians.

They noted that the Philippines was the only Southeast Asian country that abstained from voting for the UN resolution.

“To demonstrate its commitment to international human rights law and international humanitarian law, it is imperative for the Philippine government to join the strong condemnation of the violations and aggression of the Israeli government that have killed, injured and caused [immeasurable] suffering for the Palestinian people,” the lawmakers said.

Castro said: “We in the Makabayan bloc support the call for an immediate humanitarian truce for Israel to stop its indiscriminate attacks on civilians because it also endangers our OFWs. We hope that the House leadership would also support our position and also call for peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.”

Meanwhile, the controversial remarks of Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Teodoro Locsin Jr. on the Israel-Hamas conflict have drawn strong condemnation from the provincial governments of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the Moro National Liberation Front.

A disbarment case was also filed in the Supreme Court by a Muslim civic group, One Bangsamoro Movement Inc., led by Maulana Balangi, accusing Locsin of promoting Islamophobia and hate speech.

Locsin had posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Palestinian children should be killed” because they “might grow to become as gullible as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel.” Locsin deleted his post on Oct. 22 and issued an apology.