When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her next SoNA, she will no doubt count among her administration’s accomplishments the increase in employment rate from last year to this year. But the government’s own figures show that there was not much gainful employment generated in the past year. BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO LABOR WATCH Bulatlat Vol. VII,…
Day: July 14, 2007
Terrorists in Disguise
Beware! The guy pestering you to buy dibidi or the vendor you approached in looking for a nice combination of 12 movies which includes your favourites may well be a terrorist in disguise. That is, if the claims of an American expert Jeffrey Williams, a former a special agent with the United States Air Force…
Legal Battles
Recent legal victories of well-known Left personalities such as Anakpawis representative and former chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Kilusang Mayo Uno, Crispin Beltran, as well as Prof. Jose Maria Sison, founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines and currently chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front in peace talks with…
Arroyo Likely to Impose New Taxes to Avert Fiscal Crisis
Only the government’s sale of its stake in PLDT saved it from a whopping P67.8 billion ($1,481,967,213) deficit during the first five months of 2007, P4.8 billion ($104,918,032) higher than the official deficit target of P63 billion ($1,377,049,180) for the whole of 2007. Thus, the International Monetary Fund and other credit rating agencies have already…
Patchwork Programs: Account of the Designated Failure of STFAP
Nanay Fe was shocked when she saw the cost of tuition of her daughter Karina at the “University of the People.” And even if she was exempted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue from paying an income tax because her annual income is a mere P46, 000 ($1,005), her daughter was placed in Bracket C…
Land Row in Mindanao University Heats up, Guards Shoot at Farmers
A land dispute between the administration of the Central Mindanao University and its 200 farmer-tenants almost resulted in a massacre last June 22. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Bulatlat Vol VII, No. 23 July 15-21 For defending the land her family has cultivated for more than two decades, 33-year old Noralyn Galan almost lost…
No Room to Spare
The glaring discrepancy between the number of students coming from the provinces and the capacity of in-campus dorms already presents a long-standing problem of insufficient student housing in the University of the Philippines. A host of other factors aggravate its already pitiable state today. BY GLENN DIAZ Philippine Collegian Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VII, No.…
Sison Hits ‘Hostile Reactions’ to Ruling Delisting Him from EU ‘Terrorist’ List
NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison criticized what he described as the “concerted hostile reactions” of the Dutch and Arroyo governments to the July 11 verdict of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI) in Luxembourg annulling the May 29 decision of the Council of the European Union to retain him in its “terrorist”…