By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com Learning from the impact of typhoon Ondoy, which hit the country hard two years ago, President Benigno Aquino III, upon assuming the presidency, sacked the chief of Pagasa, the country’s weather bureau, and declared a “zero casualty policy” in the government’s response to natural calamities. When relatively mild storms hit the…
Month: September 2011
Luis V. Teodoro | Cowards and SOBs
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld THE “American official” President Benigno Aquino III quoted in his speech at the University of Fordham in New York as complaining that “the problem with the Philippines is that it has 40 million cowards and one SOB (son of a bitch) ” was most probably the outspoken…
Satur C. Ocampo | Wrong post-martial law decisions still hound us
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last Wednesday in New York, President Aquino made two statements, both related to the martial law dictatorship that Ferdinand Marcos imposed on our nation 39 years ago that very day and ended with his ouster in February 1986. One was this remark during an…
Carol Pagaduan-Araullo | Protests are good
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The protracted global economic depression is sending the economies of even advanced capitalist countries such as the United States and members of the European Union on a tailspin. Despite fits of financial convulsions due to the bursting of economic bubbles and now EU countries threatening to default on their…
Drivers ask gov’t to level its smoke-belching ordinance with Philippine reality
By ALDWIN QUITASOL Northern Dispatch BAGUIO CITY – The Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide-Metro Baguio chapter (Piston-MB) requests the city council to revise its implementation of clean air ordinance. Piston-MB president Carlito Wayas clarified that they are not against the Clean Air Act or the city’s clean air ordinance. What they…
Groups hold activities vs environmental destruction
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com The environment is struggling for survival, and it cannot heal its wounds without our help. This was the message delivered by various environmental activist groups as they held a series of activities to call attention to the worsening destruction of the environment brought about by the irresponsible corporate activities…
Land converted for biofuels, farmers in Misamis Or harassed
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com As the debate on biofuels and whether or not it is an effective alternative source of energy to mitigate the impact of climate change continues to rage, the effect of converting thousands of hectares into biofuel plantations is already being felt. Agrarian reform advocates and patriotic scientist and environmental…
Malacañang should stop VAT on toll in wake of Typhoon Pedring
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com After typhoon Pedring hit the country hard comes the Aquino government’s imposition of a 12 percent value-added tax on toll fees. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) is demanding anew that Malacañang drops all its plans to impose the VAT on toll fees, saying that the public is still reeling…
PAL workers intensify protest actions
By MARYA SALAMAT
By October 1, regular PAL workers are under threat of being locked out of PAL, as the Lucio Tan Group of companies would start its outsourcing plan in earnest.
Farmers fear Aquino selling out to foreign firms
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“These land lease schemes have turned farmers into mere low wage-earning agricultural workers instead of being empowered owner-cultivators.” – Randall Echanis, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
‘Palparan should go to jail, not to Congress’
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – “He is so shameless!” This was the reaction of Concepcion Empeño, mother of missing activist Karen Empeño on Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.’s recent announcement about his plan to run for a partylist seat in 2013. Palparan, then commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army,…