"Why do such human rights violations persist with impunity even under the Aquino administration?" – Fr. Rex Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
The Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) ended their first formal peace talks in six years with “guarded optimism and hope,” concluding today, February 22, six hard days of bargaining in this Norwegian capital.
Bulatlat correspondent Raymund Villanueva provides live updates of the closing ceremonies today, Feb. 21, of the peace negotiations in Oslo, Norway, between the Aquino government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Satur Ocampo laments the statements made by the AFP about the peace talks that were mostly disparaging or negative. He says there were designed to sabotage the peace process.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Since Aquino became president, he has not made any significant policy that would alleviate the conditions of OFWs. Instead, his administration has allowed anti-migrant policies to continue and even reduced the budget for legal assistance for OFWs.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Denial of their rightful claim to the land they have been tilling for generations, forcible eviction, killings, and harassments continue to plague the peasantry even after the Aquino administration replaced the much-hated Arroyo administration.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
The Aquino government, during its first six months in office, does not provide any indication that it is serious in addressing the problem of degradation of the environment and in mitigating the effects of climate change because it is leaning toward failed market-based solutions.
By MARYA SALAMAT
“Health is about people, not profits. The provision of health services should never be contingent on the patient’s ability to pay or the public hospital’s capacity to generate its own income. The provision of health services should be guaranteed by government to its people." –- Health Alliance for Democracy
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Advocates of the Moro people's struggle for self-determination say the Aquino administration must first render justice to the victims of human-rights violations during the Arroyo regime before it can talk peace.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
While more women are in the forefront of politics and the struggle to uphold women’s rights, still, there are many women whose rights are being violated, be it in their own communities, houses, and workplaces. Even the government violates the rights of women.
After suffering for nine years under the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Filipino people went out en masse to trash her candidates and reject what she represents when they voted last May 2010. When the result of the May 2010 elections was announced, a collective sigh of relief was felt throughout the country.
By LYN V. RAMO
During the press conference, the women thanked their supporters and the mass movement for their freedom. The questions from the journalists present ranged from what one supported described as inane (“Are you still mad at the military?”) to the curious (“What was it like being imprisoned for 10 months?”)
By RONALYN V. OLEA
and ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
BREAKING NEWS (Updated: 11:05 pm: Twenty-three female detainees have been released): Relatives and supporters of the political prisoners had been waiting for days for this moment to come, a week after President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered the dropping of charges against them. On Friday, they trooped to the court in Morong town in Rizal for the court’s release order and then, by nightfall, to Camp Bagong Diwa, where they waited for the authorities to free the detainees who had been jailed there for most of the past 10 months.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Egoy, the son of Dr. Merry Mia-Clamor, one of the "Morong 43" detainees, had hoped to see his mother watch him perform during his school's annual presentation. But despite an order from the president, Dr. Clamor and the others remain in jail as of this writing.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
"Aquino should promptly order a criminal investigation into the allegations of torture and ill-treatment in military custody," the New York-based Human Rights Watch said, reacting to President Aquino's order to drop charges against the Morong 43.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“We are happy but we are still angered. In the first place, the Morong 43 are innocent. They should not have been detained,” Ofelia Beltran-Balleta, mother of Jane Balleta, one of the Morong 43, said in an interview with Bulatlat.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
The announcement of Aquino is no less than a reaction to the highest form of protest by the Morong 43 and to the overwhelming support for their case," Roneo Clamor, husband of Dr. Merry Mia-Clamor, one of the 43, and acting secretary general of Karapatan, said.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“In my own little way, I will act [in support of you] without mentioning anything about the legal case. I am only coming from the sense that your dignity as humans should be respected. If human dignity is not respected, nothing else would be given value,” Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz told the male detainees during his visit at Camp Bagong Diwa.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO, MARYA SALAMAT and ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
After playing tough against the Luisita SDO during the first oral argument, the SC justices seemed to have "retreated" during the second hearing, forming a mediation panel for a "happy compromise." The peasants' desire for actual distribution of land, which the peasants say is no longer negotiable, should have been clear by now.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Doctors who have examined the Morong 43 in jail said the pregnant detainees would be giving birth soon and their detention raises the possibility of complications. The sick ones are also at risk of more danger, they said.
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