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The principal of a public school in a province in northern Luzon allegedly asked newly-hired teachers to pay P50,000 each.
The relocation site for urban poor families living along Road 10, North Harbor is right in the middle of a rice field. The houses are poorly constructed with no electricity, water supply; and there are no livelihood opportunities.
Against the 156 processed Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles, of which only 37 were registered, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples issued a total of 320 certifications allowing mining operations.
For the first time, the Aquino administration, which rode on the people’s disgust over the scandalous corruption under the previous Arroyo government to propel Benigno Aquino III – who was never remarkable during his stint in Congress – to Malacañang, is facing the people’s wrath over, of all things, corruption and the pork barrel system. This is the biggest challenge that the Aquino government, which claims it is trekking the daang matuwid, is facing. The broadness of the protest activity today is strikingly similar to that of Edsa 1, in which, ironically, his mother the late president Corazon Aquino was the icon of. Luneta, where the protest activity would be held today August 26, was also the site of Corazon Aquino’s Tagumpay ng Bayan (People’s Victory Rally) on February 16, 1986, where she launched a civil disobedience campaign to force the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to vacate Malacañang.
“Basically, the Palace only removed PDAF in name, but the money’s still there. Worse, it’s now under the president’s full discretion.” – Kabataan Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon
"Aquino remains obstinate on his own lump sum appropriations, which are far greater than the legislative pork barrel. "
“Why do the military insist that the reasons we are so determined to stop the foreign mining companies are the NPAs, who are supposedly pushing us to do so? Don’t we, lowly people, also have the right to unite to protect our lands?”
"They wanted the capitalists to come in to solve poverty, but experiences in other mining areas showed that Lumads were displaced instead when the capitalists took over."
Read 2nd part: Surviving Pablo, the Manobos’ story
Read 3rd and last part: Beyond military abuses: wresting control from Agusanon Manobos
“The P10-billion (US$ 228 m) pork barrel re-channeled to fake NGOs should have been used instead for an P8.3-billion restoration project for our country’s mangrove forest cover and almost four year’s worth of community-based disaster preparedness and response programs costing at least P2 billion.” – Kalikasan-PNE
“They keep saying that it is just there. And that it could be returned to the Development Bank of the Philippines. Why would they return it there and not to the Land Bank of the Philippines? And even if they return it, they still have accountabilities that they need to face.” – National Museum employee
“When we say pork barrel system, we're not just calling for the abolition of the PDAF, but the whole system of discretionary spending. This includes funds under the un-programmed funds, the special purposes fund, the presidential social fund, and other lump sum accounts that are under the Executive's direct discretion.” – Kabataan Party Rep. Terry Ridon
“Once again, the government will provide the infrastructure for the benefit of big guns in the coconut industry at the expense of small coconut farmers. It is totally revolting that P305 million of small coconut farmers money will be spent for the so-called agro-industrial estate project that will only benefit local and foreign agri-businesses.” – Willy Marbella, KMP
The Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) complained of the reduction of land being distributed, forcible signing of Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking, the unaffordable amortization, and the deployment of several Special Action Forces (SAF) and Special Weapons and Tactics units.
Toxicologist Dr. Romeo Quijano said no safety testing, which includes laboratory feeding studies, has been conducted before the field testing commenced. "Problems have yet to be resolved such as sub-chronic and chronic health effects or allergenicity and toxicity.
See also: Golden rice, not the solution to Vitamin A deficiency
“The terms are so broad that we can assume that US forces will have unlimited access and indefinite stay in the Philippines, alongside the opportunity of being granted effective control of certain PH facilities for the storage of equipment and weapons and billeting of troops. All that is basing even if they don’t admit to it.” – Renato Reyes, Bayan
See also: ‘Treachery, lies,’ slammed in Malacañang’s justifications for increased US troop presence
The “current practice and implementation of demolition of urban poor communities is gravely inhuman, unjust and oppressive in the eyes of God and civil society.” – Church People – Urban Poor Solidarity
While it is true that education has gotten the biggest allocation so far in the proposed 2014 national budget, it still does not comply with the constitutional mandate that education should get the biggest allotment nor does it meet the UN standard of six percent of the GDP. – Alliance of Concerned Teachers
The rate of prevalence of underweight children, with ages zero to five years old, remained unchanged at 20.2 percent in 2005 and 2011. The rate of prevalence of stunted growth increased from 33.1 percent in 2005 to 33.6 percent in 2011. The number of wasting children, also with ages zero to five, increased from 5.8 percent in 2005 to 7.3 percent in 2011.
The Social Security System is profitable. President Aquino even offered a “salute” to it for having increased its membership, its collections and its profitability. Why, workers ask, should it increase workers’ contributions?
"Unjust and immoral pass-on charges manifest the failure of the Concession Agreement between Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) and water concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water to provide affordable water rates to the consuming public." – Bayan Muna House Resolution No.39
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