We live in a racist society, a racial formation called “the United States of America” where – and this is not news anymore at this late day – people of color suffer daily from racial, national, and class oppression. By E. SAN JUAN, Jr. Bulatlat.com “Yes, I feel like a criminal running away from a…
Category: Human Rights
Town Still Struggles with Terror
The horrifying past of Laak, a town in Compostela Valley, has come back to terrify villagers, no thanks to the state’s intensifying militarization in the countryside. By Cheryll Fiel Bulatlat.com LAAK, Compostela Valley — “Mura man kag taga-Laak!” (You act like you’re from Laak!) In this part of the country, people say this when they…
Hacienda Luisita: Poorly Paid Workers Lose Jobs — and Homes, Too
BULATLAT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT Farm workers of Hacienda Luisita dispute the claim by the Cojuangcos that SDO has been good for their thousands of farm workers. Farm workers say they have been losing their jobs, receiving pitiable pay and may lose their own homes, too. BY DABET CASTAÑDA Bulatlat.com (Second of two parts / Read the…
For Land and Wages: Half a Century of Peasant Struggle in Hacienda Luisita
BULATLAT INVESTIGATIVE REPORT The Versolas continue to support the strike, visiting the picket line to watch documentaries on the massacre, help in the kitchen chores or just exchange views with anyone. Mang Pering says that their forefathers’ struggle to finally own the land that is rightfully theirs rages on. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat.com (First of…
Living on the Edge: The Sacadas of Hacienda Luisita
After several minutes of searching in the shadows, we finally find them, with lights from their gas lamps flickering through sack-covered bunkhouses. They stay by the edge of the Cojuangcos’ sprawling sugar plantation in Tarlac, far from the estate’s factories and barrios.
Massacre Shooters Go Berserk in Luisita, Claim 8th Victim
Shots shattered the evening calm as a peasant leader, Marcelino Beltran, went out of his house to greet some “visitors.” The visitors pumped bullets into his body and he died two hours later – the eighth to fall following the Nov. 16 massacre of seven farmers at Hacienda Luisita.
The Hacienda Luisita Massacre: How It Happened
The violence that marred the strike of plantation and milling workers of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita on Nov. 16 was bound to happen and government authorities may have to account for it.
NPA Dies in Manila Prison
A New People’s Army rebel died Oct. 21 while detained at the Maximum Security Compound of the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa after suffering from severe diarrhea and mental disturbance. By DABET CASTAÑEDA Bulatlat.com A New People’s Army rebel died Oct. 21 while detained at the Maximum Security Compound of the National Bilibid Prison in…
Killing of Eastern Visayas Labor Leader Decried
The killing of labor leader Samuel Bandilla last Oct. 15 places at 20 the number of militant leaders slain in Eastern Visayas under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. By MAUREEN JAPZON Bulatlat.com TACLOBAN CITY – It was 10 p.m. last Oct. 15 when Samuel “Sammy” Bandilla was felled by assassins’ bullets in the vicinity of Barangay 65,…
Two Treasure Hunters Tortured, Killed
The victims were almost unrecognizable as they lay at the funeral parlor. Some of their fingers were cut off and those that were not had chipped-off nails. They also sustained broken bones in different parts of the body and stab wounds in the stomach. Their bodies were literally black and blue all over. By DABET…
GMA, A War Criminal – Int’l Court
An international tribunal found President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as guilty as U.S. President George W. Bush for committing crimes against humanity and the Iraqi people. By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com “Guilty!” This was the verdict of the International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI) on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as an accomplice of U.S. President George W. Bush’s…