Labor Groups Push Anew for Wage Hike Amid Rising Prices
By MARYA SALAMAT
From 2001 to 2009, profits in the Philippines increased by 552 percent but the average basic pay from 2001 increased by only 31 percent. -- Ibon Foundation
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By MARYA SALAMAT
From 2001 to 2009, profits in the Philippines increased by 552 percent but the average basic pay from 2001 increased by only 31 percent. -- Ibon Foundation

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“The armed conflict is deeply rooted in extreme poverty and social injustice suffered by the Filipino people and should be addressed by concrete measures A just and lasting peace cannot be achieved through abstract and empty peace rhetoric.” –Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano
My sister and I usually go to the public market at least twice a month to buy vegetables and fish. While I knew that prices of goods have increased, I did not realize how steep the increases had been.
An Inauspicious Start to a New Year
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
A new poverty index that reconfigured the method of determining the extent of poverty in the Philippines has been criticized as deceptive and can be exploited by the government to declare that life has become better under the Aquino administration, critics said the other day.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
The fare for public utility jeepneys, toll fees of the South and North Luzon Expressways, and water rates have increased, and soon to be followed by an increase in the fare of the MRT and LRT train lines. These are accompanied by weekly increases in the pump prices of oil.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Rep. Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers Party-List said the Aquino administration’s move to implement universal kindergarten education was a welcome move as it would help reduce the huge number of dropouts in the early elementary grades. But he also expressed reservations the policy of the Department of Education to hire kindergarten teachers as contractuals.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
For all its claims of trying to make society better and healthier by providing it with quality medicines, milk and other products, Wyeth-Pfizer Philippines is making its own workers ill because of its countless anti-labor acts.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Many hospitals are charging new nurses fees in exchange for work, training and experience, which are required for nursing jobs abroad. This offshoot of the government’s exploitative labor-export policy needs to stop, according to the Gabriela Women’s Party.
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