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Special Report | Last of Three Parts Even in times of crisis and conflict, Alcadev, the nonformal school for tribal children in Surigao del Sur, carries on with its mission. Indeed, the recent militarization in Surigao that resulted in massive displacements of Lumad residents proved to be quite a learning experience for the students, if only it weren’t so traumatic.
Special Report | Second of Three Parts A significant impact of an Alcadev education is that it “bridges the knowledge between students and parents.” It thus helps the development of Lumad communities. But the military is suspicious, branding the school and what it does as communist, harassing not just the teachers and students but its foreign supporters and visitors as well.
Special Report | First of Three Parts A non-formal school in Surigao del Sur has shown how education serves as a tool to unite and develop Lumad communities. Now, amid the evacuation by Manobo villages triggered by the presence of soldiers, the school is being targeted by the military, claiming that it is an “NPA school.”
Even if seriously implemented, the Cheaper Medicines Law would still fail to bring down the prices of medicines because it did not break “the monopoly control of transnational corporations on all aspects” of the drug industry. This monopoly is the main reason why drug prices in the Philippines are among the highest in Asia.
While Cory Aquino restored democratic institutions and became a symbol of integrity in governance, her regime remained beholden, if not hostaged, by the military and Washington. This resulted in massive human-rights abuses that were even worse in terms of number of victims than those committed so far under the Arroyo regime.
The Left’s engagement with Cory had been both pleasant and acrimonious at certain stages. While they linked arms with her on a number of causes, there were also issues on which leftists found themselves at odds with the late president.
The Americans, like the Europeans, have an inventory of what they call “barriers” in the Philippine Constitution that they want the Arroyo regime to remove through constitutional amendments. Meanwhile, the Constitution will have to conform with the Jpepa, the Philippine-Japan agreement, not the other way around. (Second of two parts)
The political dimension of charter change has dominated the national agenda. But the constant driving force behind all the attempts since the last decade to modify the Constitution has been the external pressure coming mainly from the WTO, the US, the EU and Japan to create the sort of policy environment that will allow globalization to fully thrive in the Philippines. (First of two parts)
In a perfect world, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan never would have met. The atrocity that befell them, a most horrendous fate, never would have happened. And they never would have stood now as a testament to the rot that is eating away at the core of this country.
Tens of thousands of civilian contract workers from poverty-stricken countries -- among them Filipino Rey Torres (left) -- were hired to support the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. In case of injury or death, they are supposed to be covered by workers' compensation insurance financed by American taxpayers. But the program has failed to deliver medical care and other benefits.
Triumph, one of the world’s largest underwear makers, has been re-exporting its raw materials from the Philippines to other countries where labor cost is lower. Its workers are understandably worried. Worse, they have reason to believe that the company may end up becoming a runaway shop.
Among other provisions, the CARPER bill mandates that private agricultural lands – the type that the Arroyos and the Cojuangcos own – can only be distributed if the original CARP managed to distribute 90 percent of its target. But CARP, despite the two decades it had, only distributed less than half of it. It’s an impossible provision that only underscores what progressive farmers have been saying all along – that CARPER is bogus.
Steep increases in fines and penalties, imposed by the Arroyo regime to make up for its chronic revenue shortfalls, are hitting jeepney drivers particularly hard. As if that were not enough, buwayas (crododiles) masquerading as traffic enforcers in colorful uniforms lurk in the streets, waiting to pounce on them at every turn.
A law passed last year to bring down the prices of drugs and medicines has not delivered on its promise, according to consumer and health advocates. It failed to break the stranglehold of huge transnational drug companies on the Philippine market. It also squandered an opportunity to develop the local pharmaceutical industry.
Has the Visiting Forces Agreement served its avowed purpose? Or has it only reinforced the unequal alliance between the Philippines and the United States, a relationship so tilted in the Americans’ favor that to call the VFA an agreement -- with all the word’s connotation of equal rights, benefits and privileges -- would be a travesty?
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