Hacienda Luisita continues to be a battle ground, albeit unarmed, between residents and government troops. Since March 10, three companies of soldiers have been deployed here while angry people and village officials have been trying to drive them away by sheer grit and numbers.
A former member of the Yellow Army and supervisor of Hacienda Luisita who admitted to being one of campaigners for the Stock Distribution Option in 1989 tell how he did so -- and why they are going against it today.
Before the coffin bearing the remains of Tarlac City Councilor Abel Ladera, the ninth Hacienda Luisita martyr, was buried, it was opened for his family and barriomates one last time. It took however almost an hour before the people could finish their goodbye: young ones took pictures of him with their cellular phones; the older ones patted the coffin, with whispers of “Salamat po, salamat po” (thank you, thank you) while a woman asked with a break in her voice, “Bakit ka nila pinatay, wala na kaming kasama.” (Why did they kill you, we no longer have someone to help us.)
From his humble beginnings as a sugar worker, City Councilor Abelardo R. Ladera emerged as one of the few successful local political figures who openly stood against the Cojuangco-Aquino dynasty in Tarlac. Ladera was gunned down at high noon of March 3 making him Tarlac’s first local official assassinated in the post-dictator era.
The violence in Sulu the past weeks, which was punctuated by the series of bombings in three key cities on Feb. 14, indicate that the objectives of the 1996 peace agreement are far from achieved. By Carlos H. Conde Bulatlat.com MANILA – Nearly a decade ago, the...
The Macapagal-Arroyo government is reportedly deeply involved in defense talks with U.S. and Japanese defense officials that would pave the way for the transfer of U.S. forces from Okinawa to the Philippines for a long-term stay and the increased role of Japanese...
Coming at a time when the Filipino poor experience the most trying times of economic hardship, taxing them 20 percent more can be considered a crime. BY BULATLAT.COM The 20 percent increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT), passed on third reading by the House early...
Eighty-six Subanen and peasant families have until the last day of February to leave their homes and ancestral land or face eviction by a Canadian-owned mining firm. According to the Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), Toronto Ventures...
A land use plan which contains the comprehensive land conversion of the entire Hacienda Luisita into a commercial and industrial complex will likely force more than 5,000 plantation workers out of their jobs. The LUP includes President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s...
Sa Ngalan ng Tubo is action-packed and is never dragging. The music is at one time stirring and at another, solemn. Truly, the film portrays a history unfolding – and the strikers as the makers of history.
Photo by Dabet Castañeda The barbed wire did not always surround this church, which is located inside the Cojuangco/Aquino-owned Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. It was erected there just before the strike staged Nov. 6 by plantation and milling workers demanding land...
By Andy Sullivan Reuters Washington - Flag-draped coffins and jeering anti-war protesters competed with pomp and circumstance on Thursday at the inauguration of President Bush along the snow-dusted, barricaded streets of central Washington. As the president's...
By BOB HERBERT NYTimes Watching the inaugural ceremonies yesterday reminded me of the scenes near the end of "The Godfather" in which a solemn occasion (a baptism in the movie) is interspersed with a series of spectacularly violent murders. Even as President Bush...
7 of 10 farmers are landless Seven out of 10 farmers in Southern Tagalog (a region south of Manila) are landless. Peter “Tata Pido” Gonzales, spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK, a farmers’ alliance in the...
BY BULATLAT “The government should recognize the fact that there is insurgency because of social injustice and the inequitable distribution of economic resources in the country. It can only be solved by providing the poor long-term economic security,” said Jazmin...
Aside from hunting in the forest, the Ilamag gather honey from wild bees called in their native Kankanaey language as iyokan, alig, lukutan. By Belinda P. Ngiwas Northern Dispatch Posted by Bulatlat.com QUIRINO, Ilocos Sur - The Ilamag - indigenous people of Lamag...
Power consumers face new power rates increases this year. For power consumers, there is no relief from the spate of rate hikes they had to put up with last year, for that matter, for decades. BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com After greetings of “Happy new...
Union workers of Hacienda Luisita have accused the Cojuangco family– owners of the plantation and sugar mill in Tarlac – and armed authorities as being behind the series of physical harassment against strikers. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat.com Union workers of...
Photo by Jun Resureccion Bulatlat.com Dark clouds hovering above a lone tree and a dirt road with coarse grass on both sides picture a field of tranquillity. An unlikely calm, this, as a lone tricycle negotiates the road that leads to Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac...
Tarlac journalists receive death threats Two local journalists who covered the bloody dispersal of the Hacienda Luisita strike in Tarlac province (120 kms. from Manila) last Nov. 16, have been receiving death threats. In a statement dated Jan. 12, the Tarlac...
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