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By MARYA SALAMAT
Private and public sector workers from different labor groups held caravans and picket rallies to push for workers' rights to living wages and job security.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bus operators asked why the government cannot rid the roads of "colorum" buses, why it allowed the number of vehicles to bloat beyond the roads' capacity, why it targets public utility buses instead of the more numerous private vehicles.
By MARYA SALAMAT
‘Tis the Christmas season and anxious workers at Philippine Airlines are wondering if there is cause for hope that Aquino will reverse the airline’s mass layoffs and contractualization scheme, or is the president merely helping Lucio Tan to buy time, until the peak season -- and the optimum time for a workers’ strike -- is over?
“Philippines is not for sale!” This was the call of various progressive groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) as they stormed the Marriot Hotel in Manila Thursday, where the Infrastructure Philippines 2010 Summit was being held. The summit aims to boost the Aquino administartion's private-public partnership (PPP) program by giving incentives to potential foreign investors, who are willing to invest in infrastructure projects.
By IBON FEATURES
Experiences show PPPs did not guarantee savings for the government but even bloated the public debt. It can only get worse under the Aquino government's new schemes for more of PPPs.
By MARYA SALAMAT
President Benigno Aquino III boldly declared during his first State of the Nation Address that public-private partnerships would be the solution to the government's lack of funds and the need to develop the country's infrastructure. But at whose expense?
Public utility drivers in the Philippines lament the seeming lack of government support and regard for their sector, but the country’s statisticians at least seem to give them due credit.
For the bigger bus companies plying the provincial routes to and from the National Capital Region, safety appears important enough that their regular drivers and conductors are given periodic trainings on road and driving safety. The regularity ranges from monthly to quarterly to twice a year.
By MARYA SALAMAT
SPECIAL REPORT The public and government officials, among them President Aquino, always blame drivers each time a deadly bus accident happens. What they don’t know or chose to ignore is that bus drivers and conductors are working under severe conditions imposed by greedy operators and ignored by government regulators, thus allowing these mishaps to happen in the first place. Sidebar: For Provincial Buses, Physical Condition of Drivers -- and Their Buses -- Are Key to Safe Travel | More Motorcycles Mean More Mishaps
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Pointing to the public-private partnership in the development of the South Luzon Expressway as the culprit in the planned increase in toll fees, drivers' group Piston warned that the planned hike plus the imposition of VAT on toll fees would trigger price increases as transport costs would likewise jack up.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
The Water for the People Network is blaming the privatization of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems for the water shortages. It warns that the plans of the Aquino administration to fast track more privatization projects, through its planned public-private partnerships, would result in higher rates of basic utilities and services.
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