Nangalisan, Tuba, Benguet is frequented by visitors due to its natural hot springs the locals call Asin. There are at least five hot spring resorts in the area. Asin is more or less 18 kilometers from Baguio City. Since the roads had been cemented, the area is now merely a 30-minute drive from the city.…
Month: April 2008
Queues for NFA Rice Keep Getting Longer
As the price of commercial rice grains increase three times a week, people endure lining up for NFA rice under the scorching sun just to buy their daily supply of the Filipinos’ staple food. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19,2008 Tricia, a 23-yrear-old mother of three, lined-up to buy rice at…
Militant Groups Call for Price Control, Policy Reforms to Solve Price Spikes
The militant group Bayan rejected calls from government to give emergency powers to President Arroyo but recognizes the need for the government to control the prices of commodities. This call was echoed by the women’s group GABRIELA who called the current situation of run-away increases in the prices of food and other basic commodities as…
Bush: ‘I Was Aware’ of Harsh Tactics
President Bush says he knew his top national security advisors discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday. BY JAN CRAWFORD GREENBERG, HOWARD L. ROSENBERG AND ARIANE DE VOGUE ABC News/Truthout ALTERNATIVE READER Posted by…
Obsession over Fiscal Balance Behind Gov’t Proposal to Increase NFA Prices
“This is another situation of the administration being more concerned about impressing creditors than addressing the deteriorating welfare of the country’s poorest,” said Sonny Africa, head of research of IBON Foundation. BY IBON FOUNDATION Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19, 2008 The government’s obsession with balancing the budget to satisfy its creditors…
GMA Neglects Veterans, Says Death March Survivor
A 91 year-old veteran recalls the horrors of war and laments the insensitivity of the current administration to the plight of veterans. BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW Northern Dispatch Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19, 2008 BAGUIO CITY (246 kms from Manila) – While veterans of World War II (WWII) in this highland…
The Right to Resistance
The struggle will continue as long as oppression continues. We greet these movements. Your life is also our life, your pain is also our pain, your joy is also our joy, your losses are also our losses, and your victory we will celebrate. BY PATRICK MAC MANUS Denmark ALTERNATIVE READER Posted by Bulatlat Vol. VIII,…
Reps of Aid Donor Countries, 13 Others Question RP Rights Record in Geneva
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Bulatlat Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19, 2008 Representatives of 17 countries – including four of the country’s main aid donors – raised questions on the Philippine government’s human rights record in Geneva, Switzerland on April 11 as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who also chairs the Presidential Human…
As UN’s Universal Periodic Review Draws Near: Kin of Victims, Rights Groups Debunk RP Gov’t Report
“The Philippine National Report is significant not for what it says but for what it does not say. It is a selective, one-sided, self-serving account of the Philippine government’s so-called achievements and best practices in fulfilling its human rights obligations. It is a brazen attempt to hide the truth and evade accountability for the Arroyo…
JPEPA Faces Tough Constitutional Issues as Senate Vote Nears
Ratifying the JPEPA at its present unconstitutional form creates the risk that the Philippines will be subjected to legal disputes in international courts and face liability for damages. Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, for instance, the Philippines could not invoke unconstitutionality as legal defense for non-performance of its JPEPA obligations. BY…
NDF Slams Ermita’s Appointment as Head of Rights Team in UN
“What business does a notorious human rights violator, the chief butcher of Arroyo, have speaking on human rights and to the UNHRC no less?” said Fidel Agcaoili, head of the Human Rights Monitoring Committee of the NDFP, in reaction to the appointment of Eduardo Ermita as head of the government delegation to the United Human…