After studying the documents submitted by six progressive lawmakers and the Philippines’ justice secretary, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), has expressed concern over the political persecution of six party-list representatives. BY AUBREY MAKILAN Bulatlat.com After studying the documents submitted by the six progressive lawmakers and the justice secretary, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in a confidential decision,…
Category: Human Rights
UN Body Set to Hear Rights Complaints vs Arroyo
Rights watchdogs led by Karapatan are set to file complaints and reports with the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva next month. The complaints over the spate of political killings will ask Macapagal-Arroyo to account for the killings which have to date claimed the lives of 729 persons. By Bulatlat Bulatlat.com Just as the…
Nursing Test Scam Linked to Poor Education, Labor Export
Top nursing educators and former CHED authorities say that the recent nursing board exam leakage is just the tip of a bigger problem – the deterioration in the country’s nursing education and government’s export of nurses abroad. By Arthur L. Allad-iw Northern Dispatch Bulatlat.com BAGUIO CITY – “Why blame us on the mess attributable to…
Lack of Justice Sickens the Poor
“The poor should have a way to use the justice system for their benefit. The high price of pursuing justice makes the poor choose to evade it.” – FLAG lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno By Jhong dela Cruz Bulatlat.com The relatives of 21-year-old Jonas “Chukoy” Nucum and his brother, Tonton, could only gnash their teeth in…
Difficult Times for People’s Defenders
Facing risks to their personal safety amid the spate of political killings and forcible abductions, and confronting a Department of Justice, which violates the rule of law in order to protect the interests of the administration and prosecute its critics, makes work in defense of human rights more difficult for people’s organizations and their lawyers…
A Visit to Venezuela
“Government” here also means ordinary people, not an impersonal bureaucratic state, for indeed Chavez has many times called upon the historically-disenfranchised majority to take power into their own hands. By Delia D. Aguilar Bulatlat.com CARACAS, Venezuela – The trip to Venezuela marked the culmination of a college seminar in which I registered along with 16…
Baguio City, Cordillera Forest Balding Badly
Only 2 of 6 CAR provinces not bald, environment official says Pine forests in Baguio City and the rest of the Cordillera mountains have thinned at alarming levels as the environment department here rang a bell to everyone to reclaim its lost grandeur. BY ACE ALEGRE Bulatlat.com BAGUIO CITY – Pine forests in Baguio City…
Mining Firms Scramble for Lands in Central Luzon
Central Luzon region is attracting mining investors, with its rich deposits of asphalt, basalt, gold, silver, copper and zinc. Indigenous peoples, however, say the mining explorations are driving them out of their ancestral lands. BY JHONG DELA CRUZ Bulatlat.com Central Luzon is attracting mining investors with a total of 286 varied applications from local and…
Skepticism over GMA Pronouncements
Let us zero in specifically on the question of violations of civil and political rights under Mrs. Arroyo’s watch. Why is it that we know that this government is not to be believed when it says it will stop political killings? BY CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO BusinessWorld Bulatlat.com A week after Mrs. Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo’s State-of-the-Nation (SONA) wherein…
Janitors Protest Retrenchment from UP
Some 138 janitors fired by the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus are protesting their retrenchment. Some of them have worked in UP for as long as 16 years. BY EMILY VITAL Bulatlat.com Those who used to clean up the mess are now protesting how they were “swept out” of their jobs. Some 138…
Kalinga Mission Questions Police Sincerity in Solving Political Killings
Constancio “Chandu” Claver, a doctor in Kalinga for the past 25 years, accused the government and the military of masterminding the attack that killed his wife, Alice, and traumatized his seven-year-old daughter Cassandra. “We believe that the killers of my wife are death squads brought here by the military and the Arroyo regime to try…