Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume III, Number 50 January 25 - 31, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
NEWS AT A GLANCE Court
denies mother’s plea for sick child Zenaida
Llesis, the 46-year old political detainee who gave birth to a girl at the
Bukidnon Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center last year, went on
hunger strike last Jan. 20. Llesis, who has been detained since Aug. 2002 for
being an New People's Army (NPA) suspect, took the move after the lower court barred her from
accompanying her ill baby for treatment at the Philippine Children’s Medical
Center in Manila. Instead,
the court last Dec. 6 instructed the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) to bring the baby - who still depends on her mother’s milk
- to Manila. The
10-month old baby Gabriela was diagnosed to have a hole in her heart and a tumor
in her liver when she was still 14 days old. SELDA,
an alliance of former political prisoners, revealed that Zenaida is one of the
310 political prisoners in the country who “continue to suffer mental and
physical torture at the hands of their captors and are denied their basic
rights.” She is also one of three nursing mothers and 12 other women political
prisoners held by the Macapagal-Arroyo government. *
* * NDFP,
GRP to resume formal talks The
negotiating panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)
and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), chaired by Silvestre
Bello III and Luis Jalandoni respectively,
declared in a Jan. 20 joint statement that they will resume formal peace
negotiations in February. No
venue has been set, however. Informal talks have been ongoing since October last
year in Oslo, Norway. The
joint statement contained seven main points of agreement including the issue
of “terrorist” listing and the indemnification of victims of human rights
violations under the Marcos dictatorship. *
* * Migrante
demands probe of M/V Rocknes tragedy in Norway Migrante
International, an alliance of overseas Filipino workers groups, has asked the
Philippine government in a Jan. 22 statement to hold an independent and
comprehensive investigation after the M/V Rocknes capsized last Jan. 19,
entrapping 16 of the 24 Filipino seafarers on board. Citing
records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA), Migrante said
there had been 420 seafarers who died at sea from September 2002 to September
2003 alone. The international group’s secretary general, Maita Santiago, denounced the provisions as “greater injustice to migrants and their families committed by their own Philippine government.” Santiago added that in the case of MV Rocknes, “relatives and seafarers can do nothing in terms of pursuing them (MV Rocknes owners) for additional damages” if the owners were found liable for negligence. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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