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By BENJIE OLIVEROS
If there would be no major deviation from the same policy directions the Aquino administration is pursuing, no amount of claims of change would hold when tested on the realities of worsening poverty, social inequities, and injustices.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“We call on the Filipino people to help us prosecute Palparan for the crimes he did to our children and to other victims of enforced disappearances.” – Mrs. Concepcion Empeño, mother of missing UP student Karen.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
In his veto message on the 2011 national budget, President Aquino said the P5 billion calamity fund should be mainly used by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) for “actual calamities”and not for “preparation of relocation sites/facilities, and training personnel engaged in direct disaster.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“He [Palparan] should be imprisoned immediately, along with GMA, Abalos, all of them who are shameless. They all should spend Christmas in jail.” – Mrs. Concepcion Empeño
By RONALYN V. OLEA
In a resolution released Dec. 15, a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel found probable cause to file charges against retired Major General Jovito Palparan and his men for the abduction of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, and farmer Manuel Merino.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Being a social worker, an activist, a mother forced by circumstance to work as a domestic helper overseas, and an organizer shaped Connie Bragas-Regalado into being an effective advocate and leader for migrants' rights.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
In the 17 years that the Philippines has been a member of the World Trade Organization, from being a net importer of rice, it became a net exporter as production fell considerably and land grabbing became rampant. Now, even vegetables are being heavily imported and soon imported fish products would flood the country, all in the name of the WTO.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Glendyhl Malabanan, Karapatan-ST secretary general, said farmer Guillermo Castillo is the 65th victim of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino administration.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL and JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
“This flagship program of Aquino is just a palliative measure. People don't need dole-outs. What they really need is a permanent job.” – Gloria Arellano, president of Kadamay
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Already there are 356 political detainees in the country, with 78 of them having been arrested on the orders of the Aquino administration’s armed and judicial forces. Almost half or 35 of them are women. Also 153 women have already fallen victim to extrajudicial killings since 2001, with six of them killed under the watch of the Benigno Aquino III administration.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO and RONALYN V. OLEA
“We need to hold him accountable for the long list of anti-people rulings he supported to favor his patron Macapagal-Arroyo... But with this move we hope that the next Chief Justice would be truly independent and decide cases for the genuine interest of the people. We do not want an Arroyo court to be replaced by an Aquino court.” – Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Based on evidence presented before it, the Tribunal found the defendant agrochemical TNCs “responsible for gross, widespread and systematic violations of the right to health and life, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as of civil and political rights, and women and children’s rights.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“The Cuban Revolution has dignified its people, ensuring all basic human rights, like the right to food security, free access to health and education services, as well as to the culture, sport and other fundamental rights.” - Cuban Ambassador Juan Carlos Arencibia Corrales
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“No amount of political manipulation or attempt to project himself as a protagonist in the quest for justice against Arroyo could dispel the truth that he (President Aquino) continues the latter's legacy of state terror through Oplan Bayanihan.” – Roneo Clamor, secretary general of Karapatan
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) was a landmark agreement unique in the history of civil wars worldwide. But 13 years hence, its implementation has barely passed through the first stage and the peace talks continue to flounder.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“I would tell them [soldiers] ‘We are not armed. This is not a war. This is just a rally.’ They would say, ‘Legal and underground, you’re the same. You are all NPA [New People’s Army],’” said human rights worker Ma. Josephine Dy
Sidebar: Military turns wrath on farmers, activists in Eastern Visayas
By RONALYN V. OLEA and ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) has documented one case of a child’s death due to indiscriminate firing, 12 cases of frustrated killings, eight cases of illegal arrest and detention, five cases of torture, one case of abduction and numerous cases of attacks on schools.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
While weak from the effects of the hunger strike, political prisoner Ericson Acosta relates how he adjusted to life in prison, the difficulties being faced by his co-inmates who come from families of peasants and workers, and the struggles of political prisoners under an administration that remains deaf , mute, and blind to their situation.
Sidebar: Heavily-armed soldiers guard jail of political prisoner
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
"No Filipino goes out of the country with a death wish. Our 12 million overseas Filipino workers were compelled to leave the country to seek so-called greener pastures abroad in the absence of jobs, livelihood and decent living conditions in the Philippines." – Garry Martinez, Migrante International
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
According to the Center for Women’s Resources, from October 2010 to October the prices of many, if not all, commodities increased substantially.
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