By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA – Lower texts rate now and sanction non-complying telecommunication firms. This was the demand of the progressive party list group Bayan Muna as its members held a protest in front of the offices of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) early this week. The group decried what it said…
Category: Other Stories
Fisherfolk push for oil subsidies as fishing costs shoot up
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA – Small fisherfolk in several coastal towns of Cavite expressed their support to the oil and production subsidy proposed by the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and Anakpawis party list. Last week, some 150 fisherfolk and coastal village leaders, including parish priests…
Environmentalists call for climate justice as COP 17 appears doomed to failure
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA – Leleng Zarsuela, 73, shook with rage when she spoke of the urban poor Filipinos’ indignation at the injustices buried within the issue of climate change. “We, the urban poor, are always blamed for flooding,” she said as an example, “when the real group to blame comes from those few…
Pinoy Gay in US Killed; ProGay to march vs discrimination, for more AIDS funds
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Homophobia is alive and killing people. A gay Filipino hairdresser in Seattle, the United States was robbed, beaten into a coma last November 15 as he walked home. The 58-year old Danny Vega died last Sunday, and this has ignited outrage from the Filipino lesbian, gay, bisexual…
Women human rights defenders rally for justice
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com MANILA – She has been waiting for years but justice still remains elusive. Erlinda Cadapan, mother of the missing UP student Sherlyn Cadapan who has been missing since June 26, 2006, would never tire in her quest for justice. On International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, mothers, including Cadapan…
DAR, Luisita farmworkers disagree on issue of compensation
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – The farm workers of the Hacienda Luisita and officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) do not see eye-to-eye with regard the implementation of a recent Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court recently issued a decision ordering the distribution of 4,916 hectares of land to the original…
Promoting Philippines as attraction for divorcees slammed
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA — “The Department of Tourism is treading on dangerous waters. Marketing the Philippines as a destination for divorcees is practically synonymous to marketing the Philippines as a destination for sex tourists.” This was the stand made by Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Luz Ilagan after reports came out that…
Urban poor in Quezon City remain vigilant over demolition threats
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Urban poor residents living along BIR road in Quezon City remain vigilant after a recent demolition threat in their community. “We were informed that a demolition team would arrive in our community (last Nov. 28) to demolish the so-called illegal structures. But what surprised us was the…
Morong 43 pushes court to act on their case against Arroyo
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – Health workers who sued former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for human rights violations are dismayed at what they described as the slow pace of the local court handling the case. Six of the Morong 43, or the 43 health workers arrested on February 6, 2010 and detained for ten…
No to special treatment for Arroyo – Makabayan
By INA ALLECOR. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA – Members of the Makabayan bloc of progressive party-list groups in the House of Representatives are circulating a draft resolution against special treatment for ex-president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Arroyo has been charged with electoral sabotage and the police and judicial authorities are currently in a quandary as…
Investigate Owwa for missing P21 million – Migrants group
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com Next time overseas Filipino workers complain that they are not benefitting from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), they will know at least one reason why: their contributions might have been pocketed by corrupt officials. The OFW group Migrante International has called attention to a recent report of the…