By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star June 8, 2011 marked 10 years of implementation of the controversial Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which then President Arroyo railroaded into approval by the 11th Congress and promptly signed. This law has systematically hastened the transfer of control over power generation and…
Category: Opinion
Luis V. Teodoro | Oxymoron country
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld “MILITARY intelligence” is the preferred oxymoron — the contradiction in terms most favored — by activists, human rights workers, and some academics. But that martial law classic may yet yield to these more recent gems, courtesy of the Bureau of Corrections: “living-out prisoner,” and the even more…
Satur C. Ocampo | Fil-Ams: ‘President Noynoy, take charge!’
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In the past several weeks thousands of families of informal settlers in the National Capital Region have had their houses or communities demolished or threatened to be demolished by the government and private business interests. In some instances, the demolitions were attended by violence…
Satur C. Ocampo | From dream to nightmare
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In the past several weeks thousands of families of informal settlers in the National Capital Region have had their houses or communities demolished or threatened to be demolished by the government and private business interests. In some instances, the demolitions were attended by violence…
Luis V. Teodoro | Forbidden fruit
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld THANKS TO some priests and bishops of the Catholic Church, and with considerable help from the media, the debate on the consolidated Reproductive Health bill (House Bill 4244) pending in the House of Representatives is turning into a murky exercise that’s spreading more disinformation than enlightenment. The…
Sarah Raymundo | Ideological lessons on the struggle over wages
For Ka Bel, for all that he was and for all that we can be because of him By SARAH RAYMUNDO Bulatlat.com The latest P22 increase in workers’ Cost of Living Allowance in the National Capital Region (NCR) is yet another attack on labor. After a two-year pause on wage hikes, allegedly due to the…
Luis V. Teodoro | Casualties of failure
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld MEDIA ADVOCACY and journalists’ groups marked World Press Freedom Day last May 3 after a year (May 3, 2010- May 2, 2011) of continuing violence against the media. Iraq and Afghanistan, where they faced the usual perils of being caught in the crossfire between warring groups, and…
Satur C. Ocampo | A lament, so soon
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star “Cases of extrajudicial killings need to be solved, not just identify the perpetrators but have them captured and sent to jail.” This was Noynoy Aquino’s statement in a meeting with European Union ambassadors just a few weeks before being elected president last year. One…
Satur C. Ocampo | Palparan’s comeuppance
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Remember Jovito Palparan Jr., the notorious Philippine Army officer tagged by militant political activists as “The Butcher”? In 2007 the Melo Commission recommended Palparan’s investigation for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations. Instead, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally presented him as a…
CenPEG | Right to know should prevail in automated election
By the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) A major victim in this electoral exercise is the people’s right to know. By consistently imposing rigid guidelines and restrictions to “make available the source code for independent review,” the Comelec is actually obstructing the exercise of the citizens’ right to know that would have ensured…
“The People’s Interests Come First”
By ANTONIO ZUMEL I WAS BORN to Antonio Zumel and Basilisa (Bessie) de Leon in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte on Aug. 10, 1932. My father was a lawyer while my mother used to be a schoolteacher. I am the second of their six children — three boys and three girls. My father had a relatively…