By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Today marks the 41st year when then President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law and imposed a dictatorship to perpetuate himself in power. In 1986 a peaceful popular uprising ended his despotic rule. Marcos’ 14-year dictatorship ruthlessly repressed or tried to repress all those…
Category: Commentary
Ominous
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of civilians in Zamboanga City in the wake of the eruption of hostilities between armed Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) forces under Chairman Nur Misuari and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) looms as a dark…
Who is afraid of a Freedom of Information law?
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat Perspective A stronger push for the enactment into law of the Freedom of Information bill is a logical next step in the campaign against the pork barrel system, in particular, and against corruption, in general. In order to catch corrupt officials red-handed or, to put in a positive light, to have…
Anti-Americanism, anyone?
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com I believe in America. This is the famous opening line of the Hollywood film The Godfather. Incidentally, I share the same sentiment and I’d like to believe that most of my activist friends have a similar high regard for what America stands for. So why are we called anti-Americans? First,…
GDP growth downside
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star That the gross domestic product grew by 7.5% in the second quarter of 2013 the fourth consecutive quarterly GDP growth rate at 7% may continue to elate the Aquino administration. It gushingly parlays the international rating agencies’ reference to the Philippines as, next to…
Besieged
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Filipinos are under siege. Not by an external enemy, but by the enemy within. Everyone is under threat, but among the most frequently targeted are journalists and media workers, who, since 1986, have found their community increasingly at risk. The Aquino administration’s predecessor still holds the record…
There should be no let-up in the campaign against the pork barrel
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat Perspective | Bulatlat.com Photos of the Napoles family with two top officials of the Aquino government have been circulating in social media sites. One photo showed Senate President Franklin Drilon and wife with the Napoles couple. Another showed President Benigno Aquino III with Janet Lim-Napoles’s daughter Jean. Senate President Drilon angrily…
Public space and resistance
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com When Third Word dictators are ousted, many people celebrate the emergence of a democratic space in society. After years of repression, there is suddenly a micro explosion of multiple freedoms in the streets, in schools, in workplaces, and in the press. Interestingly, it proves that public space is not inherently…
Beware of the IRP framework agreement
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star The continuing, if not permanent, presence of hundreds of American troops in Mindanao and other parts of the country since 2002 purportedly in accord with the Visiting Forces Agreement has been a raging controversy, with several questionable acts and activities by the “visiting” foreign…
Hacienda Luisita — ‘Daang baluktot’
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The saga of the more than half a century of struggle by the farm workers of the vast Hacienda Luisita to own and benefit from the piece of land they have been tilling has been shaped and, to a significant extent decided, by the political fortunes of its owners,…
Open sesame
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Over 90 countries have one. Albania has one, and so has Zimbabwe — a freedom of information act, although known by different names. Albania has a Law no. 8503, which has recognized the right to information on official documents since 1999. Zimbabwe has the Access to Information…