What has the Department of Labor and Employment done about the health and safety violations that have resulted in more than 40 deaths and over 5,000 injuries in the three and a bit years Hanjin has been operating at Subic? What has happened to the Senate probe, which kicked off promisingly in early February amid a flurry of publicity about the then recent deaths at Hanjin?
“Our transport strike is a success.” Thus said the Task Force July 13, a transport group coalition, at the conclusion of the day-long strike it led in selected Metro Manila routes and regions outside the capital on Monday. Through the strike, they said, they were able to register their protest against the overpricing of petroleum products by the oil companies, particularly the so-called Big Three, and their connivance with the Arroyo regime. View the slideshow
Since the Arroyo regime expanded the value-added tax on oil and since the implementation of the oil-deregulation law, most jeepney drivers have to work long hours, often up to 14 hours a day. If they don’t, whatever money they earn for the day will only further enrich the oil companies — and they go home penniless. Think about this the next time you are tempted to curse jeepney drivers for being uncouth, discourteous and undisciplined, as the government is wont to depict them.
By Aldwin Quitasol Northern Dispatch Posted by (Bulatlat.com) BAGUIO CITY ? Members of Migrante International warned the Filipino people that the latest spate of bombings could be used by the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as bases to declare martial law and prolong Arroyo’s presidency. During the launching of a petition against Arroyo’s term…
Analysis Talk is rife that the Arroyo government would proclaim martial law, especially after the series of bombings that rocked several parts of the Philippines. However, the Arroyo regime sorely lacks the factors that enabled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos to successfully impose martial rule. The bottomline: if Arroyo declares martial law, she would be adding fuel to the fire of the people’ anger.
A farmer in Compostela Valley who last seen beaten and forcibly taken allegedly by soldiers on July 4 remains missing. Alvin Lopez, 25, a resident of Monkayo was hogtied and forced into a military vehicle during a military operation. Alvin’s mother, Erlinda, has filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights against the military’s 26th Infantry Battalion. Read the full story
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat.com MANILA – Students from all over the country are set to walk out of their classrooms tomorrow, July 10, to protest the moves by the Arroyo regime to amend the Constitution. The national walkout-protest against charter-change will be led by Kabataan Partylist and the Kabataan Kontra Cha-Cha and to…
While authorities dismiss the recent bombings in Quezon City, Jolo, Iligan City and Cotabato City as mere pre-Sona “noises,” critics, martial-law era activists and analysts believe that an Arroyo regime desperate enough to hold on to power is capable of anything, including using its iron fist on Filipinos.
MANILA — Formal peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) will resume in August this year, Luis Jalandoni, chairman of the NDFP negotiating panel announced Wednesday. The negotiations were stalled in 2004 after the Philippine government insisted on a final peace…
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO Bulatlat MANILA — State colleges and universities are a lifeline to Filipino families with meager income but whose students are eager to finish their education. The conventional wisdom is that these institutions are not as rapacious as their private counterparts in increasing tuition and other fees. In fact, state colleges…
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)