This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 18, June 12-18, 2005
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.” 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 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).
* * * 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. 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." © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
NEWS AT A
GLANCE
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.”
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.
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
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).
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