Dukot (Desaparecidos), a film about the worsening human-rights situation in the Philippines, will have its premiere showing on November 17, 2009, at the UP Film Institute, University of the Philippines-Diliman.
Month: October 2009
Benjie Oliveros | Estrada’s Presidential Bid Another Philippine Aberration
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Analysis Bulatlat.com MANILA — He has been hinting it ever since he made himself visible again by embarking on provincial sorties. Thus, when former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada announced, at the end of a 30-minute speech, that he would run for president again, nobody was surprised. Every one was expecting it even…
Sidebar: Responses to ILO High-Level Mission
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA — In their concluding press briefing early this month, the high-level mission from the International Labor Organization expressed appreciation for the “full cooperation and extensive information provided to it” by the Philippine government, its agencies and the workers’ and employers’ organizations. Now, the battle between the “contradictory statements concerning violence…
In Proposals, ILO Puts Burden of Respecting Workers’ Rights on Arroyo Regime
By MARYA SALAMAT
A high-level team of the UN’s International Labor Organization has proposed, among others, trainings and “continuing education” for the Philippine police, military, the judiciary and the labor department on how to respect union rights and uphold labor laws.
Sidebar: Responses to ILO High-Level Mission
Mrs. Burgos talks about Jonas on BBC
Mrs. Edita Burgos, mother of abducted peasant organizer Jonas Burgos, left for the United Kingdom last week to attend a forum organized by Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines-United Kingdom (CHRP-UK), Amnesty International-UK and the British trade union group Unison, which aims to highlight the problem of enforced disappearances in the Philippines.
Class and Ondoy: The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Ideological Distortions
By GILL H. BOEHRINGER
By seeking to convince its readers that the effects of Ondoy were “felt equally by rich and poor” and that it was a “great equalizer,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the most influential newspaper in the Philippines, was attempting to bolster the view that the Filipino class system had nothing to do with the disaster, and that the lives of all Filipinos are shaped by the same forces of nature, even by fate or by God.
Labor and Human-Rights Center in Cebu Under Surveillance
MACTAN, Cebu – Since September, burly men — some sporting military-style haircut — have been keeping watch, taking pictures and videos of people going to and from a workers’ center being run by the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) here. Volunteers of the CTUHR reported that at all times, up to this…
Reyes, Nograles, Mikey on oil price hike: All bark, no bite
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Congressman Mikey Arroyo seemed to have their roles down pat by now. When the big three oil companies raised oil prices yet again this Oct. 20, despite the disaster-wracked times and despite charges of persistent overpricing thrown their way, these three government officials just continued their role – speak like they want to change the situation but allow the oil companies to have their own profitable way in the end.
Regime’s Counter-Insurgency Campaign Drives Mindanao Lumads Homeless
By CHERYLL D. FIEL
Like the Moro in many parts of Mindanao, evacuation has become a way of life for the Lumads . They would rather sleep in schools, at village halls or town gymnasiums than stay in their villages and bear the brunt of military operations.
Back in Their Homes, Manobos of Surigao Face Another Threat
Barely a month after the Manobos went back to their homes in Lianga, the soldiers are back again, recruiting them to the Task Force Gantangan, a paramilitary group to fight the government’s war against the insurgents.
The Mansaka and Their Golden Guitar
In one of their stories of long ago, the Mansaka, an indigenous tribe from the provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, once possessed a golden guitar, which they played when they sang their songs of longing, aspirations and victory.