To many Filipinos in the southern Philippines, Sabah represents salvation. Beckoned by the vast palm-oil plantations in the Malaysian state, they go there in droves seeking employment that they could not find in their homeland. Once there, however, many of them are confronted with the reality of neglect and abuse that is far brutal than the one they had left behind.
By IBON FOUNDATION Posted by Bulatlat.com MANILA — The January to May 2009 fiscal deficit of the national government that reached an alarming P123.2 billion ($2.5 billion) signifies that the country is on the verge of a renewed fiscal crisis. Among others this underscores the need to revisit the country’s debt policy to a maximum…
Iggy Rodriguez, whose body of work reflects the social realities he wants to change as an activist, considers the award an opportunity to introduce people to the mass movement. Artists, he said, should “create for the people” and they should remain conscious that their “real arena is not the closed galleries but the streets, among…
To some, Susan Fernandez was an educator. To her children, she was a loving mother. To the many who have known her since the 1970s, she was a singer and a patriot, rendering songs that reflected the people’s yearnings.
Ka Wilson was a dropout from a poor family in Tarlac. But that did not stop him from becoming one of the most intelligent and passionate leaders of the progressive labor movement in the Philippines. Not even his sickness, to which he succumbed this week at the age of 55, prevented him from pursuing the Filipino workers’ struggle that he waged all his life.
There are signs that Dennis Rodinas was tortured, his wife says. The military asserts that he was a leader of the NPA in Western Mindanao and that an “explosive component” was found on him. His family says the charges are fabricated.
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Church Worker Missing After Being Arrested By Police and Turned Over to Military
Dennis Rodinas, a lay worker of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, was subjected to “custodial debriefing” at a military camp in Misamis Occidental and has not been heard from. His family is concerned that he may end up the latest victim of human-rights atrocities in the Philippines.
Protesters Demand End of Arroyo Regime
The Office of the Solicitor General told the Court of Appeals that the abduction and torture of Melissa Roxas are nothing but mere fabrications to embarrass the government. Her recent press conference in Los Angeles, it says, was part of the plot. The victim’s lawyers and supporters, however, say the government is just trying to evade responsibility.
The crimes and other atrocities stemming from the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya are directly instigated by the so-called “war on terror,” which the Bush regime exported to and imposed on the Philippines. The Obama government is faced with the challenge of stopping the war begun by its predecessor – a war that has caused countless human-rights violations in the Philippines and its other “fronts.”
The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant symbolized the corruption and excesses of the Marcos dictatorship. The Arroyo administration is now trying to revive it. But those who participated in the 1985 “welgang bayan” that helped shut down the plant are reviving the passion and spirit of that landmark protest to oppose the present regime’s plan.