Month: May 2018

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Excessive oil price hikes under deregulation worsen TRAIN impact

Looking at the local oil price movement from the start of the year up to May 15, the price adjustments in diesel may have been “excessive” by about P1.03 per liter and gasoline by P1.34 centavos per liter. This resulted in about P53.74 million additional collections every day from diesel and gasoline products for the oil companies. Of this amount, P6.45 million daily go to the Duterte government’s oil VAT collections (on top of its additional revenues from the TRAIN law’s oil excise taxes).

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Martial law victims start claiming compensation

Hundreds of Martial Law human rights violations victims trooped to the Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City Friday to start claiming their compensations. Following the release of the initial list of 4,000 eligible claimants by the Human Rights Victims Claims Board earlier this month, cheques are now being distributed to survivors of Martial Law…

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It’s not just about Sereno

The unprecedented removal through quo warranto proceedings of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno from her post isn’t only about her, or solely about the Supreme Court, the rule of law, the Constitution, or the Duterte regime and its autocratic pretensions. Even more crucially is it about the fate and future of the democratization process that…

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Angara on Duterte; Duterte on peace talks

Two weeks before he died unexpectedly last Sunday, Edgardo J. Angara, former president of the Senate and the University of the Philippines, who will be interred in his hometown Baler tomorrow, shared some food for thought about the qualities of a national leader and about President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Speaking at the National Defense College,…

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NDFP admonishes GRP on arrest of injured NPA leader, preemptive announcements

The NDFP said it views with great concern the arrest, saying the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) is under obligations to uphold their Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) under which hors de combat like Cañete should be afforded safeguards as regards to health, among other rights.

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