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By RONALYN V. OLEA
The solidarity mission went to Pantabangan to document the conditions of the Igorot community who are being displaced from the land they have been tilling. The team did not expect that they would experience what the Igorots have to put up with in their struggle for land.
Sidebar: For two Igorot women, a constant struggle to survive
MANILA -- On days like this when I can’t make heads or tails of which story to write first and my fingers are starting to hurt from pounding the keyboard, I think that I would really, really enjoy being a showbiz writer.
So who are the real heroes of Edsa? The workers, the urban poor, the farmers, the members of the basic sectors who flooded the streets in the waning days of the Marcos dictatorship and demanded that Marcos step down.
In these times of inhumanity, the thin line between being a journalist and an activist is blurred even more. I know in my heart that I owe no one an apology.
I support the peace talks because I believe that the armed conflict in the country can only begin to be resolved if the two sides, the two governments of the GPH and the NDFP, sit and talk and come up with solutions to the problems that precisely resulted in the conflict.
A new era in Philippine football has dawned and I was there to witness it.
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.
I thought, at first, that it was a mere coincidence that I get to hear similar wishes over and over again from families of OFWs in distress. But in the three years that I have been writing issues concerning migrants and OFs, it never fails.
Imagine the quandary he’s in: His own mother was catapulted to the presidency via Edsa 1, the culmination of two decades of struggle of the Filipino people against the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. He should at the least salute the Egyptian people for their courage and unity in fighting the Mubarak dictatorship.
I must admit that after reading the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s headline “Filipino of the Year: Aquino Rocks,” my initial reaction was, “What the f—k?!” But I told myself to read the story first. The country’s leading newspaper might just surprise me.
The recent protests in Tunisia and Egypt have shown that social media can be a driving force for social and political change.
There had been reports of human-rights violations committed by soldiers on residents of some villages in Jones, one of Isabela’s towns. The mission’s objective was to document these violations, distribute relief goods and provide medical services to the residents of Dicamay village.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK | The Pinaglabanan residents did not need my tears. They needed help. And if reporting about their struggles and exposing what they had to go through could help, why would I deny it to them?
Yesterday on the long ride to work, I happened to sit next to a female lay preacher. She didn’t sound like she wanted to scare us; it was not even a warning of a grim and terrible nature; she sounded, in fact, concerned. She was reminding us. She said that it was always best to be prepared, to be always ready to speak to God when we meet Him of a life well lived and meaningful.
As a journalist who has been covering the Morong 43 from the day of their arrest, I know that the five, like the rest of the 43 health workers, are victims of torture and ill-treatment.
Abuses by mining companies are not new in the Philippines. Destructive mining have, for decades and in tandem with wanton logging and the equally destructive building of dams, destroyed and poisoned whole communities. Mining companies have been shortchanging these communities. Worse, these firms have been using the police, the military and paramilitary units as their security guards, leading to human-rights abuses such as those suffered by the Ifugaos in Nueva Vizcaya.
Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Information Office is hoodwinking the public when he says that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado is ordering the transfer of the 43 health workers collectively known as the Morong 43 to a Philippine National Police (PNP) facility, even as they have supposedly communicated their desire to remain at the military's Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, where they are now detained. He is trying to make the AFP and its chief of staff appear more magnanimous than they actually are.
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Something happened during the National Interfaith Mission for Peace and Justice visit to the massacre site in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao, last January 23 that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. As an “embedded” Bulatlat correspondent in the mission from Cotabato City, I, along with my Kodao and Pinoy Weekly colleagues, had no inkling that something was wrong when we started out that day.
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