This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. IV, No. 51, January 23 - 29, 2005
NEWS AT A GLANCE
7 of 10 farmers are landless
Seven out of 10 farmers in
Southern Tagalog (a region south of Manila) are landless. Peter “Tata Pido”
Gonzales, spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Magbubukid sa Timog
Katagalugan (Kasama-TK, a farmers’ alliance in the region) said Jan. 21that the
unprecedented increase in the number of farmers who do not own any land is due
to the increasing land monopoly through wide-scale conversion of productive
agricultural lands and coastal areas. This reveals the fact that the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a farce, he said. Gonzales also disputed
recent findings by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) where the number of
families that experienced a day without food declined in the last quarter of
2004. Based on Kasama-TK research, he said, the condition of farmers in the
region has worsened since the implementation of the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade under the World Trade Organization ten years back. * * * Malacañang is misleading the
public on media killings -- NUJP The National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) last week took exception to Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye’s downplaying of a report by the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on the media killings in the Philippines. Bunye called the IFJ report
“misleading,” saying majority of cases involving the killing of journalists have
been solved by the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Task Force. In a statement, NUJP
secretary general Carlos Conde said: “There's no truth to his assertion that
‘majority’ of these murders have been solved – if we use the universal
definition of ‘solved’ as justice having served, i.e. a court conviction of a
suspect…Indeed, it mocks the victims and their families.” Bunye apparently based his
statement on the PNP’s definition of "solved." For the PNP’s part, a case is
solved if a suspect has been identified, even without an arrest. Granting for the sake of
argument that all the journalist killings since 1986, including the 13 last
year, are "solved" by the government, “it does not erase the fact that these
horrendous murders happened in the first place,” Conde said. * * * ADB, government partners in
corruption -- Anakpawis Beltran, who is also a
labor leader, said that the ADB’s motive is not to help the Philippine
government to clean up its act but to goad it to speed up the passage of the tax
bills and impose more laws favorable for foreign investors and their big local
counterparts to allegedly extract more profits at the smallest possible capital
outlay. "Corruption in inherent and
endemic in the Philippine government precisely because of the clout and
influence of multilateral finance agencies the likes of the ADB and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) over public officials up to the executive
levels," he said. * * * Militant farmers sue MWSS,
other agencies The Manila Waterworks and
Sewerage System (MWSS) and other government agencies are now the subject of a
complaint filed by militant farmers groups at the Ombudsman Jan. 19 for the
illegal demolition of more than 200 houses in Macabud, Rodriguez, Rizal. The farmers groups, the
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and its provincial chapters in Rizal,
also included as respondents the Manila Water Company, the national police, the
defense department, the Bantay Kalikasan Foundation, Inc. and others. KMP spokesperson Willy
Marbella accused the MWSS of violating not only the inter-agency memorandum of
agreement of 2001, but also the human rights of the farmers in Macabud village.
The police and the security guards continue to harass these families, he said. Nestor Jose, Kasama-Rizal
spokesperson, also accused the Lopezes of professing that they are for the
environment but whose business “is detrimental to the lives of us peasants, who
are the natural caretakers of the land. The Lopezes (owners of ABS-CBN and other
corporations) reportedly plan to convert the village into a park. * * * Beltran slams DoLE on P125
wage hike bill Anakpawis (toiling masses)
Representative Crispin Beltran scored anew Jan.19 the Department of Labor and
Employment (DoLE) and Labor Assistant Secretary Ernesto Bitonio for warning
Congress against legislating a P125 across-the-board wage increase. "Instead of batting for
wage increases and supporting the well-justified demand of workers for immediate
economic relief, the DoLE does nothing but parrot the claims of big business,"
he said. “Workers' productivity
continues to increase as employers and business exploit their manpower to the
hilt; but workers continue to be given slave wages in return for their labor,”
he said. The cost of living for a
family of six in the National Capital Region (NCR) is around P602.31 or P498.04
on the average nationwide while the prevailing daily nominal minimum wage is
only P280 for non-agricultural workers and P213 for agricultural workers. Using 1994 prices as the
base year, Beltran said the real value of P280 in the NCR is only P152.17. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Anakpawis (toiling masses) Representative Crispin Beltran said Jan. 20 that the
results of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) study, "Improving the Investment
Climate of the Philippines," which listed the Philippines as the most corrupt
country in the world was not surprising. Beltran quickly added, however, that
the motives of the ADB in releasing the study were “tainted and definitely
self-serving."
He added that the ADB, as one of the proponents of globalization, is also
government’s partner in graft and corruption.
Beltran called Bitonio and the DoLE's offer to provide Congress with supposed
"necessary information needed for drafting a new wage measure" as “hypocrisy.”
He said even government the data show that workers need a wage increase, and a
P125 increase is the smallest possible amount they should be given to help them
cope with the econ crisis.
Anakpawis’ P125 wage hike bill which is now up for second reading and
interpellation in Congress.