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NEWS AT A GLANCE
Tarlac journalists receive death threats
Two local journalists
who covered the bloody dispersal of the Hacienda Luisita strike in Tarlac
province (120 kms. from Manila) last Nov. 16, have been receiving death
threats.
In a statement dated
Jan. 12, the Tarlac chapter of the National Union of the Philippines (NUJP-Tarlac)
scored the incident, saying it is yet another attempt to “muzzle the
press.”
Len Espinosa, Manila
Times correspondent and NUJP-Tarlac secretary general, received a text
message saying "Pa2tayin Kta (I will kill you)" on Jan. 8. Since the
message was sent through the "businesscard" function of the mobile phone,
it did not carry the sender's mobile phone number.
Meanwhile, Paul
Gonzales, publisher and editor of the local paper Headline News,
also received a threatening "Ksnod kna” (You’re next) on the same
day. He continued to receive the threats the next two days. As these were
also sent as “businesscards,” no suspect can be immediately identified.
Espinosa and Gonzales
were the only two reporters present when the massacre of at least seven
strikers erupted.
Meanwhile, the two were at Camp
Macabulos, the provincial police headquarters, on Jan. 7, the day before
they received the threats, asking for the names of the police officers who
were relieved from post after the massacre.
The group condemned “in the strongest terms possible the cowardly acts of
these individuals who resort to violence (or the threat of violence) to
hold Truth hostage but take refuge in the safety of anonymity.”
* * *
GMA beso-beso
with Meldy irks militants
Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) secretary general Renato M.
Reyes, Jr. “feels sickened and nauseated” with the beso-beso (cheek
to cheek greeting) of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former First
Lady Imelda Marcos in Malacañang Jan. 13.
With Marcos’ visit in
Malacañang and former President Joseph Estrada’s surgery in Hong Kong
despite his ongoing trial for plunder charges, Reyes said it looks like
the government is making peace with the “enemies of EDSA 1 and EDSA 2.”
“The underlying
message in the meeting of Mrs. Marcos and Mrs. Arroyo is that crime,
sooner or later, eventually pays,” he said.
Reyes added that the
perception that Macapagal-Arroyo is compromising with Marcos and Estrada
puts to question her commitment to justice.
“That beso-beso
from one plunderer to another speaks volumes on what direction this
administration is headed for,” he said. “It is on the path of political
compromise and continuing denial of justice.”
* * *
Review of “odious”
loans sought
Bayan Muna Rep. Joel
Virador criticized Jan. 10 the reported plan of the government to borrow
P7 billion to cover the 2005 budgetary shortfall. The plan arose despite
the expected speedy deliberations to approve the proposed two-percent
increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) in the House of Representatives
supposedly for more revenues.
Virador said that the
loan would be used allegedly to gap operational deficits of the National
Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) and other Government Owned and Controlled
Corporations (GOCCs) “in a quagmire of debt owing to the huge perks of its
high-ranking officials and other indefensible loans these agencies
incurred in the past.”
He advised the Arroyo government to review and renegotiate all incurred
debts, including foreign ones, citing the United States’ repudiation of
some of its debts like those incurred from British financiers in building
railroad networks in the 1800’s. The Philippines has the largest public
debt in Asia with the Arroyo administration accumulating debts of P1.2
billion a day.
“Debt repudiation and
not another set of borrowings would be a highly preferable course of
action that should be seriously considered by the Arroyo administration to
put an end to the country’s chronic fiscal crisis,” he said.
Virador cited the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant with a $155,000 daily payment
despite not being able to generate a single watt of electricity and the
loans during the late President Ferdinand Marcos which were allegedly used
to finance his cronies’ business interests as “odious loans that should be
obviously repudiated.”
* * *
Ration of safe
drinking water urged
The Kilusang Mayo Uno
(KMU) urged the government and water companies Jan. 12 to give urgent
attention to the reported water contamination in various areas in Metro
Manila.
The water
contamination was caused by the recent flashfloods.
KMU secretary general
Joel Maglunsod recommended that Maynilad and Ayala-owned Manila Waters,
together with the DoH, ration for free safe drinking water to consumers
affected by the contamination to prevent the outbreak of contaminated
water-borne diseases such as cholera, amoebiasis and dysentery. Maglunsod
also said that health officials must give out advisories on water
sterilization and distillation, while making sure that sufficient medicine
are available in barangay health centers especially in urban poor
communities.
The labor group also
demanded Maynilad to give rebates to its residential customers affected by
the water contamination.
"We are not paying
the high cost of water services only to get murky and poisoned water from
our faucets,” said Maglunsod.
* * *
CPP demands release of
arrested Moros
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesperson Gregorio “Ka
Roger” Rosal called Jan. 11 for the immediate release of Moros arrested on
Jan. 7 in Manila. He called them "victims” of the Arroyo government and
Philippine National Police (PNP) in “a desperate publicity stunt."
According to the Philippine National Police (PNP), those arrested are
terrorists who planned to bomb the Quiapo religious procession last
Sunday.
Rosal, however, condemned the Arroyo administration for allegedly
"victimizing the Moro people" and "hyping-up the terror-scare in a
desperate publicity stunt to frighten the people."
Bulatlat
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