If defenders of human rights are the ones being attacked by state security forces, can a country still boast of being under a democracy? Since 2001 until March this year, human rights group Karapatan revealed that 420 human rights defenders have been killed and 66 have been forcibly disappeared. BY CHARMAINE P. LIRIO AND RONALYN…
Day: May 9, 2009
Waiting for His Homecoming
Being alone is a fate worse than death. Yes, a day of not seeing someone may be a torturing experience, but one wonders aloud, how does it feel not to see a loved one for a year, not knowing where to find the person you’re missing, and all that’s left are memories of what used…
A Critique of the Economic Resiliency Plan: Why Arroyo’s P330-Billion ‘Stimulus’ Package Will Not Solve Joblessness
BY ARNOLD PADILLA Contributor Bulatlat Part 2 of a two-part series As Filipino workers marked Labor Day last May 1, about 400 from their ranks are being displaced daily as fallout of the global economic crisis. By the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) own reckoning, the global crisis has already displaced almost 50,400 workers…
Coping with the Loss of a Journalist Parent
Some children of slain journalists still do not understand why their father or mother was killed. Others have come to accept the situation and have learned to be proud of what their parents did. BY RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat Dennis Rev Vigo, 15, seems to be like any ordinary teenager. A closer look, however, reveals…
Police Exonerates Military in Murder of Rebelyn; NPA Punishes Perpetrators
As the Philippine National Police (PNP) exonerated the military from the murder of Rebelyn Pitao, the New People’s Army (NPA) carried out what it calls ‘revolutionary’ punishment against four alleged perpetrators. BY RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat The Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Task Force Rebelyn recently exonerated the military from the abduction and killing of Rebelyn…
To PROTECT San Mateo from the Landfill
Environmental degradation and health risks are what residents of San Mateo would have to face on a daily basis once garbage trucks start dumping trash from nearby cities in the landfill at Barangay Guinayang, San Mateo, Rizal. BY GLAIZA MAY G. MUZONES AND JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat Environmental degradation and health risks are what…
NewlyProclaimed Solon Holds Office in Peasant Camp-Out
Right now, Anakpawis Rep. Joel Maglunsod’s office is not the usual air-conditioned one that can be found inside one of the buildings at the House of Representatives compound. Rather, it consists of a bamboo desk, made for him by farmers who also have carpentry skills, in a corner of a makeshift tent. On his desk…
Renato Constantino, Revisited: Reflections on the Nationalist Paradigm in the Era of Failed Neoliberalism
The 90th birth anniversary, and 10th death anniversary this year of the nationalist scholar and former colleague, the late Professor Renato Constantino, is being commemorated amidst perhaps the most serious global crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and at a time of a great imperial disorder. Events are showing that the…
The ADB: Asia’s ‘Debt Bank’
This article reviews how the Asian Development Bank has resulted in the indebtedness and underdevelopment of countries in the Asia-Pacific region. BY IBON FEATURES Posted by Bulatlat In a two-day people’s opinion tribunal held in Bali, Indonesia on May 2 and 3, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was charged by civil society groups and grassroots…
Arroyo’s Reward Fund to ‘Solve’ Political Slays Shows Desperation
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s move to put up a P25-million reward fund to solve political killings has been criticized as a “desperate attempt” of her regime to show that she is doing something to address the problem. BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW Northern Dispatch Posted by Bulatlat BAGUIO CITY (246 kms north of Manila) – President Gloria…
Political Killings Linked to Arroyo’s Order to End Insurgency
In his follow-up report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Prof. Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said the Philippine government has not eliminated extrajudicial killings from its counterinsurgency operations.