NEWS AT A GLANCE

Woman detainee ordered to shoulder baby’s hospitalization 

Zenaida Llesis, a political detainee at the Bukidnon Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in southern Philippines, was finally allowed to bring her ill daughter for treatment at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Manila – but at her own expense.

After instructing the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) last Dec. 6 to bring baby Gabriela - who still depends on her mother’s milk - to Manila for treatment, Branch 8 of the Regional Trial Court in Malaybalay, Bukidnon on Jan. 27 revised its decision. The ruling ordered Zenaida — who went on hunger strike last Jan. 20 in protest of the first ruling — to pay for all the expenses, including her police escorts.

The 10-month old baby Gabriela has been diagnosed as having a hole in her heart and a tumor in her liver when she was still 14 days old.

Nanette Miranda-Tampico, deputy secretary-general of Gabriela, a national alliance of women’s organizations, said that it is the government’s responsibility to shoulder their expenses.

The group also called for Zenaida’s release, as a government confidence-building measure in its talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

SELDA, an alliance of former political prisoners, said Zenaida is one of three nursing mothers and 12 women political prisoners in the country. There are at present 310 political prisoners in the country.

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Cordillera group urges DENR to effect SC decision on mining  

The Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) in northern Philippines has urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) last Feb. 2 to immediately implement the Jan. 29 Supreme Court decision declaring major provisions of the Mining Act of 1995 (R.A. 7942) unconstitutional.

The alliance said that the high court ruling is a big blow against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, especially after her issuance of Executive Order 270. The order was meant to pave the way for the unhampered implementation of the Mining Act of 1995.

CPA also said that the president and the DENR “should immediately revoke and cancel all approved and pending Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAAs), review and cancel all approved and pending Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSAs) and Exploration Permit Application (EXPAs) in the context of seriously respecting indigenous peoples’ rights and welfare, environmental protection and genuine development.”

It named mining giants Benguet Corporation, Lepanto Mining Company and Philex Mining Company be made accountable for several decades of adverse impacts of their commercial mining operations to the people and the environment and the violation of the rights and welfare of workers. 

The alliance also called for the rejection of the FTAA application of Newmont Mining, a U.S. mining company, with a total land area of 77,549 hectares affecting Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet and Ilocos; the cancellation and review of pending MPSA and EXPA applications affecting a total land area of 433,377 hectares; and the scrapping of nine approved MPSA in Abra and Benguet with a total land area of more than 13,000 hectares.

CPA vowed to pursue the campaign to totally scrap the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and E.O. 270.

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SWS survey is GMA’s election propaganda

Anakpawis party chairperson and no.1 nominee Crispin Beltran questioned the veracity of the Social Weather Station’s recent survey that said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the “best economic manager among the presidential candidates.”

The labor leader said that results are favorable to Macapagal-Arroyo “because a pro-GMA group probably commissioned the survey:” The survey results showed 33 percent for the president; 23 percent for Raul Roco; 21 percent for Fernando Poe Jr.; 15 percent for Panfilo Lacson; and 15 percent for both Eddie Villanueva and Eddie Gil.

“Ms Macapagal, for all her supposed academic achievements and educational attainments has done nothing to improve the economy but instead exacerbated the crisis,” Beltran said. “The SWS survey awarding President Arroyo a halo for supposedly being economist par excellence is nothing but political propaganda.”

Bulatlat.com

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