Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 26 August 3 - 9, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
NEWS AT A GLANCE GMA,
Reyes told to step down The
call by the Moro-Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) for the president’s
resignation on July 28 came on the heels of the July 27 failed mutiny and over
what it said were her administration’s crimes against the Moro-Christian
communities in southern Philippines. Amirah
Lidasan, MCPA secretary general, said that the recent military uprising is proof
of the Macapagal-Arroyo government's "bloodied hands in the worsening
strife in Mindanao and the deaths of many innocent Moro civilians." MCPA cited the Armed Forces’ siege of Lanao which killed 60 and displaced 25,200; the state of lawlessness in Davao where 200 Muslim men were suspected as Al-Qaeda terrorists; military offensives in Pikit, North Cotabato that forced the evuation of 400,000 villagers and caused the death of 61 children; the Basilan crackdown which displaced 79,000 and arrested 200; state of lawlessness in Basilan which resulted in the evacuation of 70 families and destruction of 53 houses. *
* * Survey
says 52% women won’t vote for GMA in 2004
Majority
of women in Metro Manila believe that they will not vote for President Macapagal-Arroyo
if she runs for the presidency in the May 2004 elections, a recent survey
conducted by the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) revealed. The
survey, held July 3-10, asked 1,435 registered women voters if they would vote
for Macapgal-Arroyo if she decides to run for president in 2004. Fifty-two
percent of the respondents said “no” and expressed dissatisfaction over her
performance as president. “The
respondents said that President Arroyo did not make any significant difference
with her predecessors. They said that poverty worsened and their lives are still
miserable - less job opportunities, high prices of commodities, and less food on
the table,” CWR executive director Gert Ranjo-Libang said in a press statement
last week. The
survey also showed that 22 percent of the respondents will just decide on whom
to vote during the election period and their decision will depend on who will be
the incumbent president’s opponents.
Only 17 percent declared that they would vote for her.
Six percent did not give any comment. The
respondents, who included professionals, salaried and own-account workers,
housewives and students were chosen randomly from 30 barangays of the major
cities in the National Capital Region with highest registered female voters,
namely Quezon City, Manila, Pasig, Caloocan, and Valenzuela.
CWR said their survey has a margin of error of + or – 3 percent and a confidence level of 97 percent. *
* * Martial
Law victims demand justice,
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