Exactly three months have passed since Anakpawis (toiling masses) Party List Rep. Crispin Beltran was arbitrarily detained by the Arroyo administration. And the nationwide and international protests over the progressive parliamentarian’s illegal and unconstitutional detention show no signs of abating. BY LISA ITO (Bulatlat.com) Nationwide Protests The Manila police, however, dispersed the rallyists even as…

Seven years after the concurrence by the Philippine Senate of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), critics reiterate the demand for the junking of the said agreement. They also hit the new RP-US accord which they say will further strengthen and widen the scope of US intervention in the Philippines. BY EMILY VITAL (Bulatlat.com) Seven years…

Peasants are usually depicted as a hardworking people, perpetually hunched over their crops, their limbs half-buried in mud. Under the scorching heat of the sun, or the lashings of the rain, they stay on, either protecting their crops, or harvesting. But who will protect this neglected sector when the powerful come to take their livelihood…

Fr. Felino Bugauisan, assistant parish priest of Rapu-Rapu and chair of Sagip-Isla (Save the island), a multi-sectoral organization opposed to mining operations in the island off Legazpi City in Albay, threatened to file charges against LGU officials who allegedly accepted P100,000 in exchange for their signature to the MoA with Lafayette Philippines, Inc BY AUBREY…

“Even as Filipinos now have reached the summit of Mt. Everest, the youth remained at the bottom under the administration of Arroyo. Education has become harder to reach and achieve,” says League of Filipino Students (LFS) High School chair Hiyas Garduce says of the Filipino youth’s current condition. BY ZOFIA LEAL (Bulatlat.com) Reynaldo and Roy…

Sitting on the front porch of his quarters at the Bonifacio Naval Station (BNS), retired Navy Capt. Julian Advincula watched from a video camera the tape that captured how members of the Philippine Marines forcibly evicted his neighbor-colleagues from their own quarters at high noon of May 20. “Tingnan mo yang ginawa nila,” he said.…

Two retired officers of the Philippine Navy said the eviction of retired Navy officers from the Bonifacio Naval Station would create another stir among the military. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA (Bulatlat.com) Two retired officers of the Philippine Navy said the eviction of retired Navy officers from the Bonifacio Naval Station in Taguig last May 20 would…