QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Despite its high Gross Domestic Product in recent years, the Philippines has remained a backward nation. Poverty numbers didn’t change although wealth disparity has worsened especially between the rural and the urban. It’s clear that the GDP is an inaccurate and inadequate measure of the real state of the economy.…
Day: January 20, 2014
Blood rush over bloodbaths | Still killing and dying for Hacienda Luisita
Twenty seven years ago on January 22, 1987, 10,000-15,000 marching farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita and land reform advocates were met with bullets as they bravely wagered for land, labor, and life. This fatal encounter, now known as the Mendiola Massacre, between farmworkers and the state is a scandalous event that instantly killed 13 protesters, the same event that made a premature break with the new regime’s professed democratic restoration after the dark years of Martial Law.
Lupa
GUNITA NG SALITA Ni ROLAND TOLENTINO Bulatlat.com Lupa Ang pinakamadugong salita sa wikang Filipino ay lupa. Marami ang namatay sa ngalan nito, kahit pa marami ang nabuhay dahil sa karanasan sa lupa—sino ang meron o wala nito? Lupa ang pumapaimbalot sa balat ng komunidad, bayan, probinsya, bansa at planeta. Ito ay hindi lamang geo-politikal na…
Land rights for the poor in post-Yolanda recovery
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Among the myriad problems that must be addressed in the national and international efforts to hasten recovery from the devastation left by typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — and to do it right — an important aspect should be included: land rights for the poor. This suggestion…
Dirty power players
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld Before Christmas last year, the Manila Electric Company or Meralco, the Philippines’ largest distributor of electrical power with a franchise for 22 cities and 89 municipalities, including the whole of the National Capital Region, tried to pull a fast one over its more than five million consumers. It announced…
What police reform?
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld “The explosion in violence and drug-trafficking related crime… over the past decade has exposed some ugly truths about the nation’s public security institutions. Municipal and state police regularly lack sufficient resources and often rely on outdated equipment. Amongst the lowest paid public servants in the country, police…