Month: September 2005

The women’s alliance Gabriela this week condemned the rape of a 15-year-old girl from Bohol, central Philippines allegedly by a Scout Ranger based in Riverside, Bilar town, same province. Martina Visaya, Gabriela-Bohol chair, said government troops were involved in several rape cases in the province, citing the 15-year-old high school student from Carmen town as…

The man sits in his store at the public market in Davao City, southern Philippines surrounded by sacks, bags, and basketsful of charcoal. He hardly looks like the lucky entrepreneur who has made big money, but with prices of petroleum products hitting record highs in the world market and power rates continuing to soar, more…

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo drove her opponents to bring their case to Congress, where she said she is ready to face impeachment. Her apparent intention was to take the steam off the mounting protests in the streets. But the impeachment complaints – which charged her with bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of pubic trust, and culpable…

Recent moves to derail and sabotage the impeachment proceedings would only hasten the process of settling the issue of her administration’s legitimacy via the extra-constitutional means. These underhanded maneuverings can be easily seen as not only an infringement on the impeachment process but also an obstruction of justice. By Bobby Tuazon Bulatlat.com At the rate…

Juggling between reconciliation efforts and obvious attempts to kill the impeachment procedure in Congress, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is throwing all cautions into the wind to be able to cling to power. Is she gaining ground or losing it? BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat.com Political analysts, progressive congressmen and the spokesperson of a middle-force movement agree that…

Farmers’ group wary of reported SDO junking The militant peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), together with the Alyansa ng Manggagawang-Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA), Aug. 26 dared the Department of Land Reform (DLR) to show copy of any official decision regarding the scrapping of the stock distribution option (SDO). KMP secretary general Danilo…

Oil is fueling the genocide in Darfur at every level. This is the context in which Darfur must be understood – and, with it, the whole of Africa. The same Africa whose vast tapestry of indigenous cultures, wealth of forests and savannas was torn apart by three centuries of theft by European colonial powers –…

For months now, Lepanto mining company is locked in a protracted labor strike by its employees. But there’s another issue raised by university-based doctors and scientists on the firm’s mining operations. Their findings of water samples take from river systems where the company’s mine tailings are allegedly dumped showed very high cyanide, chromium and lead.…

Since the 1990s, some 130 countries around the world have revised, amended or adopted brand new constitutions to accommodate a framework for the sort of “market democracies” that open up domestic labor, economic sectors and natural resources for neo-colonial exploitation. By Sonny Africa IBON Features / August 2005 Posted by Bulatlat.com IBON Features– In the…