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By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
"What use do I have for school if we lose our home? My parents work as vendors in Makati, I attend school in the nearby high school. If we lose our house, we will be forced to live on the streets. I'm here because I want to help defend our community. We're poor, but we have dignity. They can't just drive us out like we're wild animals," said Jeffrey, 17.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Despite evidences and eyewitnesses, the accused killers of Olalia and Alay-ay, thirteen known members of RAM, have so far evaded arrest by invoking the amnesty granted them after their failed coups.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
How can one summarize the life of a man who has done so much for the people?
Statements
Letter to RTC
Bakit nga ba Abugado ng Bayan, at Abugado ng Abugado ng Bayan si RTC?
NDFP mourns the passing away of Atty. Romeo T. Capulong
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“The poor are still poor, exploited and oppressed. Today, social justice remains elusive, and the culture of impunity prevails, like it was under martial law.” – Karapatan
Sidebar: Aquino urged to indemnify victims, free all political prisoners
By MARYA SALAMAT
Labor groups slammed the Aquino government’s two tiered wage system saying that it would effect wage cuts, prompt massive layoffs and contractualization, and legalize violations against the minimum wage law.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Genesis Ambason, 23 years old, a member of Banwaon tribe and the secretary general of Tagdumahan, the Lumad organization in San Luis, Agusan del Sur was just resting on their way to a nearby village when fired upon by soldiers. His body was later found bearing signs of torture.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Press freedom advocates said the new law could also be used to justify the shutdown of websites that are critical to the government without the necessity of a court warrant and in keeping with the Marcosian tradition of curtailing the freedoms of expression and opinion.
By MARYA SALAMAT
“They [big corporations] have, for years, raked in profits by pressing down workers’ wages and pushing back the hard-earned gains of the country’s labor movement. They have been able to widen the disparity between the affluent minority and the poor and hungry majority in the country – a situation that violates the principles of social justice.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
"The challenge is for us to truly see, closely analyze and scrutinize the current situation in the Philippines, the state of human rights, the corruption of those in power and the poverty of the Filipino people. We remember martial law and the sacrifices fighting it entailed… Forty-years after, we affirm it's greatest lesson: to serve the people in all ways possible." – Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Bayan
By BULATLAT STAFF
To most of us, the dark years of Martial Law is already a distant memory; to the youth of today, it is but a page in history. However, we must revisit both the horrors and the lessons of the past, lest we forget, because that which oppressed us before still haunts us today.
Through their lenses: Documenting the people’s struggle since martial law
Two unlikely photojournalists and activists have observed and documented how, over decades since martial law, ‘the issues remain the same, only the details have changed and worsened.’ (Click here to read more)
Youth activists of martial law years share tales of courage
‘Nothing has changed... The same problems plague our country and it's only getting worse.’
(Click here to read more)
Trining Herrera and her memories of the urban poor struggle under martial law
She was arrested several times and was heavily tortured. But what pains her the most is the fact that the struggle of the urban poor for decent housing is still as true today as it was during martial law. (Click here to read more)
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“The charges are baseless but with the slow judicial system, the military has made it a point that we languish in jail for long.”
Sidebar: Camp Bagong Diwa, one of the most restrictive jails in the country
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Forty years after martial law, it is anomalous and anachronistic to have political prisoners languishing in different jails all over the country.” – National Union of People’s Lawyers
By MARYA SALAMAT
The janitors credit their reinstatement to the workers’ unity and determined struggle.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
In a show of commitment not only to their clients but to the cause of human rights, lawyers and law students from the National Union of People’s Lawyers will hold a sympathy fast to press for the release of all political prisoners.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Last Friday, USS Hawaii, a Virginia class submarine, docked at Subic Bay in what the US embassy in Manila described as another “routine port call and goodwill visit”. It followed the USS Frank Cable, the 'warship that fixes warships,' which docked in Subic since September 3.
By MARYA SALAMAT
“Not only is the Aquino government refusing to approve a significant wage hike, it is also implementing new policies that further press down workers’ wages.” – KMU
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Aside from coming out with its program of action for the protection of children, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines announced that it will establish a Special Office for the Protection of Children to strengthen its mechanisms on monitoring and defending the rights of Filipino children.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“I almost cried out of anger. It pains me to see that Osorio [Staff Sgt. Edgardo Osorio] and the others have not yet been punished for what they did.”– Wilfredo Ramos, who was hogtied along with his father, the two UP students and farmer Manuel Merino.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
To further its advocacy for genuine change, the Makabayan Coalition will try to send one of its own to the Senate in 2013.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Issues regarding the valuation of the land, the verification of beneficiaries, the previous sale of parcels of land and the claim of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation still stand in the way of the actual distribution of the land of Hacienda Luisita to the farmworkers; and the farmworkers fear what would happen when these issues reach the Sereno-led Supreme Court.
Sidebar: Luisita farmworkers determined to fight for their land
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