For six years, the U.S. Congress stood by mutely or actively approved as President Bush's team cooked the books to justify war, drew the nation's electronic spies into illegal wiretapping and turned intelligence agents and uniformed soldiers into torturers at...

UN Rights Envoy Suspects CIA of Guantanamo Torture A United Nations investigator said on Thursday he strongly suspected the CIA of using torture on terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, suggesting many were not being prosecuted to keep the abuse from emerging at...

With Cheaper Medicine Bill, Still No Access to Low-Cost Essential Medicine BY KILOSBAYAN PARA SA KALUSUGAN DEMOCRATIC SPACE Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 45, December 16-22, 2007 The 14th Congress is wrapping up legislative measures on CHEAPER MEDICINE with the...

Because of the inaction of the Arroyo government, the burden being caused by the oil price increases is being borne by the driver who has already lost almost half of his/her income, and the consuming public who had to cope with the corresponding increases in the...

It is not the fault of the Jonas Burgoses of this world that they have gone missing. It is not their fault that they have taken active participation in changing our society, and got in trouble. It is not their fault that they are branded "rebels." Ma, to paraphrase...

Finally signed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on November 15 this year, the Shelter Code is supposed to address the growing homelessness in the city. Non-government organizations consider the new ordinance a triumph. But what does this new law promise a city, where an...

Anna is a first year student in UP Diliman (UPD). She is among the first batch of students affected by the approved 300 percent tuition and other fee increases (TFI). Her first semester alone cost her family P17,000 ($413.22 at an exchange rate of $1=P41.14) for 15...

Two years ago, I participated in a basic masses integration (BMI) program that aims to facilitate our integration with and support for workers in their fight for just wage increase and benefits. The goal of our BMI now was to check up on how the workers are two...

A communist leader last week said the government’s P500-million ($12.15-million at an exchange rate of $1:P41.14 as of Dec. 14) amnesty fund supposedly to be released before the year ends will only be a source of corruption. BY ACE ALEGRE Contributed to Bulatlat...

BY IBON FOUNDATION Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 45, December 16-22, 2007 The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) this week claimed that the country's rich-poor gap was narrowing, citing the thinning ratio between the incomes of the top 30 percent and...

These women may come from different roots and from various fields but all of them have shown exemplary commitment to the service of the people. They are true gems of the Filipino people. BY EMILY VITAL Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 45, December 16-22, 2007 Fourteen women...

The new secretary-general of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), the first indigenous person to be elected to the position, vows to support the campaigns of indigenous peoples nationwide against large-scale mining. BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW...

The international community has again called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to decisively put a stop to the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country, with the call registered recently by Japanese organizations. BY AT BENGWAYAN...

“There is no other reason for (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s) wanting to revive the (Anti-Subversion Law) except to consolidate more authoritarian powers in her hands,” said Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. BY NOEL SALES BARCELONA Contributed to Bulatlat HUMAN...

The series of oil price hikes this year, numbering to as much as 16, has compounded the burden of Filipinos as the cost of basic necessities has become too steep for their pockets. For the families of drivers of public utility vehicle (PUV), the strain to make both...

Examinees of the Civil Engineering Board Exam will file a TRO at the appellate court once the PRC rules unfavorably on their “no retake” petition. By dabet Castaneda Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 45, December 16-22, 2007 Civil Engineering aspirants who took the licensure...

There's no letting up. Before the Christmas break, various groups gathered together in an interfaith rally, Dec. 14 at the Roxas Blvd in Manila and reiterated calls for Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign. BY EMILY VITAL Bulatlat Vol. VII, No. 45, December...

The Nov. 29 takeover of the Peninsula Hotel led by detained military rebels sharpens a continuing trend to resolve the current political crisis through extra-constitutional means. A new twist to this piece de resistance is the fact that prominent political and...

It is not enough to commemorate International Human Rights Day and remember the transgressions of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration on our hard-fought for rights. We should also be relentless in the struggle against the impunity of the Macapagal-Arroyo...

Evacuees, students, health workers, and relatives of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) were one in condemning the human rights record of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. BY REYNA MAE TABBADA Bulatlat HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Vol. VII, No. 44, December 9-15, 2007...