By Alexander Martin Remollino History for you was never a mere calendar of events. Your pen was a million megaphones, loudspeaker upon loudspeaker, for the chorus of voices silenced by official histories. And now, the last page of your life is writ. But your annals...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Catholic priest Fr. Joe Dizon, convener of the anti-fraud and election monitoring group Kontra Daya, raised hell earlier this week over the Commission on Elections's (Comelec) accreditation of a partylist group that is, by its own declaration, a project initiated by an official of the Arroyo administration and a prominent ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“With the long history of fraud and manipulation involving the Comelec and other government agencies to favor the incumbent regime, the concerns about the automated elections are serious and require action. We have to be ready to mobilize in huge numbers, should there be a failure of elections. We cannot let Mrs. Arroyo take advantage of that situation to perpetuate herself in power."
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com MANILA—When Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake last Jan. 12, there were already around 400 Cuban doctors and other health workers working all over the country, present in 227 of Haiti’s 237 communes. “Our...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“The First Quarter Storm of 1970 caught the attention of the people on a national and international scale. It inspired the youth and working people in the provincial capitals and cities to rise up and carry out protest actions against US imperialism and the local reactionaries and demand national liberation and democracy.”
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“The general public, in a more sustained manner, now demands concrete economic platforms of governance from these candidate. Past elections have been about personality, machinery, and other non-issues.”
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
As the curtain was beginning to fall on 2009, the on-and-off peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) resumed in Kuala Lumpur, with both parties agreeing to begin talks on the drafting of a Comprehensive Peace Compact that would resolve the Moro question. The year, however, drew to a close without any far-reaching movement in the GRP-MILF peace process.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
In this Q&A, Esmael Mangudadatu, vice mayor of Buluan town, Maguindanao, talks about the Ampatuan massacre and how the Ampatuans ruled the province. "They made business out of the votes. They extorted money out of the senatorial candidates who were campaigning in Maguindanao by selling votes to them," he said. He also wished that there would be no whitewash in the case against them.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO The Ampatuans' rise to the peak of political power was in no small part due to their ties with the military. In a most ironic twist, the military proposed the extension of martial law in Maguindanao until the 2010 elections purportedly to teach the Ampatuans “how to run peaceful and credible elections.”
A former chief of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), who is also one of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's most trusted men, is one of the directors of a big mining company that operates in a number of provinces, among them Bukidnon, which is one of the provinces where several indigenous-peoples' communities are suffering under a reign of terror perpetrated by the military and paramilitary groups.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
As foreign mining investments continue to encroach into Lumad lands in Northern Mindanao, the military, through its Oplan Bantay Laya, intensifies its campaign to stifle local opposition to these companies. A fact-finding mission found that so far this year, 13 Lumads have been summarily executed while more were tortured and harassed by soldiers and fellow Lumads co-opted by the military.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com Sa rurok ng ating kabataan, Lipos ng pag-irog at sigla Ikinulong tayo nang malaon Sa masikip at nakalulunod Na bartolina ng diktadura Kung saan pagong ang panahon Wari'y wala na tayong pag-asang Makalaya sa pintuang bakal...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“The MILF has no presence there, the place is near the checkpoints of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu), and is also near the Army station,” says the MILF’s Mohagher Iqbal. “So how could they accuse the MILF of having a hand in the massacre?”
Filipinos migrated in waves to Hawaii beginning in the very first years of the 20th century, when the island was a newly annexed territory of the US. Hawaii’s economy then was dominated by the owners of big sugar plantations. By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Migrant...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The Asia Foundation, a “charity group” founded and funded by the CIA that represents American political and economic interests in Asia, is now part of a group that would help facilitate the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Through the generations, many of the Filipinos in Hawaii attained their dreams of greener pastures, and other Filipinos continue to go there in search of more decent opportunities. Their dreams, however, have been crumbling in the face of the financial crisis, which hit the US in 2008. They have not been spared from the effects of the crisis.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The ex-farm workers of Hacienda Luisita had been reaping the fruits of their labor through a “cultivation campaign” that allowed them to plant what they needed and supported their livelihood. But the plantation has decreed that they should stop what they’re doing and leave. Unfazed, the farmers are bracing for another tough fight ahead.
In June this year, the number of hungry people throughout the globe reached 1 billion, or a sixth of the world’s population, according to the FAO. This was a considerable leap from 963 million a year ago. By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com MANILA -- In the...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The construction of dams has always been opposed because of their destructive effects on whole communities. Several anti-dam leaders have been killed as a result. The recent devastation by the dams of Luzon proved that they were right all along.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com MANILA -- The recent onslaughts of storms Ondoy and Pepeng in the Philippines have drawn attention not only to the general lack of disaster preparedness in the country but also to how the government’s so-called calamity...
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