Press Release July 4, 2009 The National Telecommunications Commission must “do more” than extend the expiry of prepaid load to decisively end the issue of “vanishing prepaid load” that is bedeviling the country’s more than 70 million mobile phone subscribers. In a press conference, consumer advocacy group TXTPower.org Inc. (TXTPower) said that “the absurdly short…
Day: July 4, 2009
Abducted Peasant Activist Found Detained in Camp Crame Without Charges
Obito Marquez, 31, a peasant activist from Occidental Mindoro, was taken just outside his house in Taguig City on June 21 by four armed men in civilian clothes. A search by relatives and colleagues led to the Philippine police headquarters. His lawyer said Marquez was tortured, blindfolded and handcuffed for four days, refused access to legal counsel, and interrogated.
A Proud Day for Gays in the North
By JOAN GARCIA Bulatlat BAGUIO CITY — As onlookers watched, the members of Baguio Pride Network marched along Session Road on June 28 to commemorate the Stonewall riots and to call for an end to homophobia and discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Stonewall riots were a series of demonstrations…
Gay Love and Faith: In Search of a Non-Discriminating Church
By LYN V. RAMO Northern Dispatch Posted by Bulatlat BAGUIO CITY — It is never too late to join the priesthood for someone who wanted to pursue changes in the Church. At 41, Myke Sotero is pursuing his yearning to serve the Church as a priest. His former colleagues and friends thought he was not…
Support the Heroic Struggle of Adivasis in Lalgarh, India
By the International League of Peoples’ Struggle Democratic Space Posted by (Bulatlat.com) Over the past week, thousands of Indian police and paramilitary forces have descended on Lalgarh, West Bengal to crush the just struggle of the adivasis (tribal people). Progressive people around the world must raise our voices to help break the reign of military…
Spending $102 Billion a Year on 800 Worldwide Military Bases Is Bankrupting the Country
By CHALMERS JOHNSON Tomdispatch.com /Alternet International Posted by (Bulatlat.com) The following is an introduction from Tom Engelhardt: Along with postcards of cowboys riding jackalopes and giant berries on flatcars, there’s a brand new entry in the American gigantism sweepstakes: an embassy complex to be built in Islamabad, Pakistan, for — if you assume the normal…
January-May Deficit Shows Philippines on Verge of Renewed Fiscal Crisis
By IBON FOUNDATION Posted by Bulatlat.com MANILA — The January to May 2009 fiscal deficit of the national government that reached an alarming P123.2 billion ($2.5 billion) signifies that the country is on the verge of a renewed fiscal crisis. Among others this underscores the need to revisit the country’s debt policy to a maximum…
Economy Loses 467,000 Jobs in June; Unemploymenht Edges Up to 9.5 Percent
By DEAN BAKER Truthout/Perspective International Posted by (Bulatlat.com) Unemployment among men is near its all-time high. The economy shed another 467,000 jobs in June, as the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent. The rise in unemployment would have been higher, except 155,000 people left the workforce, pushing down the employed percentage of the population…
Activist Artist One of CCP’s ‘Thirteen Artists’ Awardees
Iggy Rodriguez, whose body of work reflects the social realities he wants to change as an activist, considers the award an opportunity to introduce people to the mass movement. Artists, he said, should “create for the people” and they should remain conscious that their “real arena is not the closed galleries but the streets, among…
Obama, Medvedev, and the Demise of Nuclear Deterrence
By TAD DALEY and KEVIN MARTIN Truthout/Perspective International Posted by (Bulatlat.com) If our thousands of nuclear weapons actually do serve to deter, then why should we be concerned about a nuclear North Korea or a nuclear Iran? If they do not serve to deter, then why retain them at all? When South Korean President Lee…
Martial Law?
Martial Law? The recent bombing at the Office of the Ombudsman and the discovery of two unexploded bombs at the compound of the Department of Agriculture and the One Burgundy Plaza along Katipunan Avenue raise once again the specter of martial law. (By Flon Faurillo)