NEWS AT A GLANCE
GMA mum on OFW
sentenced to death
Migrante Youth, the
youth arm of the alliance Migrante International, criticized last June 9
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s silence on the issue of Rey Cortez,
the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, as
well as the reported 50 Filipino children imprisoned there.
"It appears that
President Arroyo is too busy defending herself and her family from
controversies such as their involvement in the multi-million peso jueteng
payola,” the group said in a statement.
Migrante Youth and
Migrante International have been helping the Cortez family in pressuring
the government to exhaust all diplomatic means in saving Rey Cortez’s
life. They also marked the 10th Migrant Workers’ Day on June 7
as an "International Day of Action for Rey and all other OFWs jailed and
on death row."
There are 2,856
Filipinos languishing in 56 prisons worldwide and 13 of them are on death
row. Four imprisoned Filipinos were executed last March. Aside from this,
the group also revealed the 50 Filipino children in Saudi jails that
desperately need help from the government. Bulatlat
* * *
Series of pickets for
power rates hike
Anakpawis and other
organizations affiliated with the alliance People Opposed to Warrantless
Electricity Rates (Power) staged a "rain-or-shine picket-rally" on June 9
at the Meralco main branch in
Ortigas Avenue to protest the
P0.1467 ($0.0027) per kWh rate increase proposed by the Manila Electric
Company (Meralco).
A picket protest was
first held in front of the Meralco
EDSA-Kamuning Road branch in Quezon
City on June 6 as the "initial salvo in a coming storm of protests.”
Anakpawis Secretary-General Cherry Clemente said that “the rate
hike is based on the questionable and unjustified need of the firm for
more profits to fund its expansion projects.”
The alliance
announced that the Energy Regulatory Building (ERC) will be next venue for
their picket.
“We will be lobbying
and picketing at their complex as an advocate and watchdog, because the
ERC has had a notorious record of issuing illegal decisions favoring
Meralco's interests over that of its consumers," said Clemente.
Bulatlat
* * *
Japan bank anti-poor,
anti-Filipino
People’s
organizations in the Southern Tagalog declared the financial lending
institution Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as anti-poor
and anti-Filipino, during a protest last June 9 at the bank’s office in
Makati.
Hundreds of farmers,
workers, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk, urban poor and the youth, led by
the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Timog Katagalugan (Bayan Southern Tagalog)
and the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK,
or Association of Farmers Groups in Southern Tagalog), condemned JBIC for
its Project Calabarzon (PC).
PC, according to Bayan-ST, is a grandiose development blueprint
crafted by former President Ferdinand Marcos in the early 1980s with the
help of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and was formally
launched in October 1990 under President Aquino.
Kasama-TK chair Guillermo Bautista said that PC was to blame for
massive land-grabbing and dislocation of farmers in their region. He cited
the Harbor Town Project in Hacienda Looc, Nasugbu, Batangas, which covers
8,650 hectares of rich agricultural lands and spring hills and mountains
beneficial to more than 10,000 farmers and fisherfolk, was allegedly
grabbed by Fil-Estate Properties Incorporated (FEPI) of the Sobrepeña
family and by Manila Southcoast Development Corporation (MSDC) of the Sy
family. Bulatlat
* * *
Church-led mission
harassed, priests detained
Karapatan-Central
Visayas (CV) reported last June 7 that the church-led relief and medical
mission was harassed and detained on June 6 by suspected elements of the
34th Infantry Battalion based in Paranas, Western Samar.
Among the 70 participants in the mission who were detained were Fr. Calvin
Bugho, OFM, Fr. Bob Caday, Rev. Steve Berdin, Dr. Oliver Gimenez and
lawyer Noemi Truya of the Cebu-based Inter-Faith Movement for Justice and
Peace (IFMJP).
The relief and
medical mission was initiated by the IFMJP in coordination with the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Calbayog after Bishop Jose Palma issued a pastoral
letter castigating Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan for "instigating a reign of
terror gripping the island of Samar."
Meanwhile, the group also reported that Bolontoy Mabag, a barangay
councilor in Antol was abducted by suspected soldiers on June 6 in Brgy.
Polangi, Calbiga, Western Samar. Bulatlat
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