In the Southern Tagalog region, workers were given a minuscule increase in their minimum daily wage. What proves to be worse is that only a small segment can avail of the already miniscule increase, since those outside the so-called extended metropolitan area will be getting less. By DENNIS ESPADA Bulatlat.com CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – A…
Month: June 2005
Currents of Unrest at Compostela’s Big Banana Plantations
Labor contractualization and other new schemes in Compostela Valley’s large banana plantations are agitating both farmworkers and small growers for wage increase and union rights. By Gilbert Pacificar Bulatlat Mindanao Bureau Bulatlat.com Compostela Valley Province – The woes of plantation workers in this top banana-producing province in Mindanao are mounting as big plantation corporations are…
Oust-Gloria Call Mounts
For allegedly stealing the 2004 elections, the 14th President of the Philippines faces mounting calls for her resignation. An increasing number of groups and individuals believe there is only one penalty for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s crime of electoral fraud – her ouster. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat.com President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s credibility has been recently blemished by the…
In the Heart of Barlig
Photo by Ace Alegre / Bulatlat Bulatlat.com An old farmer in Kadaklan village, in the heart of Barlig, Mountain Province (about 13 hours ride north of Manila) arranges his rice harvest. He is preparing for the next planting season. The seeds he plants on his payao (rice paddy) are of the native highland variety, which…
Govt’s New Statistical Trick Hides Job Losses
The government will happily announce drastically lower unemployment rates this June. But this is only because it changed the way it counts the country’s jobless, causing them to statistically disappear. BY SANDRA NICOLAS Bulatlat.com The Arroyo administration has a miserable employment record. Despite economic growth that it proudly trumpets, unemployment has been inexorably rising since…
Mine Workers Defy Return-to-Work Order
Can the striking workers at the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) be blamed for defying the labor department’s order for them to return to work? They have been on strike since June 2 and despite the Benguet provincial government’s intervention, the resolution seems unlikely in the near future as both labor and management stick to…
99 Soldiers Killed in NPA Offensives in 4 Months
30 arms confiscated in Abra province The revolutionary armed group New People’s Army (NPA), in various statements, claims to have killed and wounded as many as 118 government troops and carted off at least 44 high-powered rifles in a series of offensives nationwide the past four months. BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com The New People’s…
17 Years Old and Getting Worse
By Jasper Almirante/ Bulatlat Bulatlat.com On the 17th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Filipino farmers remain plagued by landlessness, as land use conversion favoring multinational agri-business giants chews into the little food security that the country still enjoys. Instead of addressing the ages-old maladies of landlessness and hunger, 17 years of the…
Bigger Tuition Hikes Greet School Opening
The Commission on Higher Education’s (CHEd) recent claim about a tuition increase freeze this year is turning out to be mainly for public consumption. As schools opened last week, more colleges had actually applied for tuition hike and, to top it all, this year’s tuition increases were higher compared to previous years. By Carl Marc…
Bolivia: revolutionary crisis reaches its peak
By Jorge Martin From AxisofLogic.com Bulatlat.com On Tuesday, May 31 a series of marches and demonstrations with people numbering in the tens of thousands surrounded the Bolivian Parliament. On the third week of protests, demonstrations and roadblocks, as many as 100,000 workers, miners, peasants, the people of El Alto, and teachers, etc. vented their anger…
Miners, farmers, city poor join for general strike
By Leslie Feinberg From AxisofLogic.com June 2, 2005 Issue The specter of Che Guevara—assassinated in the Bolivian jungle by the CIA four decades ago—is alive in the streets of La Paz. Bolivian workers and peasants, more than 60 percent of whom are Indi genous, are shutting down the country and battling riot police in the…