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Text and photos by JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
It is important not to compromise their principles, the two “senatoriables” from the progressie sector said. Since one of their platforms is good governance, part of it is holding public officials -- either past or present -- accountable. This includes achieving justice for the victims of human-rights violations under the Marcos dictatorship.
By MARYA SALAMAT
The commemoration of the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women (VAW) in the Philippines got a piercing highlight in the Ampatuan massacre that occurred two days before the anti-VAW's day last week. “What happened in Maguindanao underscored the vulnerability of women amid fierce struggles as in an electoral struggle,” Gabriela partylist representative and aspiring senator Liza Maza said.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
The impunity in recent political killings in the Philippines could have emboldened the Ampatuan clan to commit the massacre. If the perpetrators of more than a thousand extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of political activists could walk scot-free, perhaps, they thought, they could get away with killing less than a hundred people.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“The MILF has no presence there, the place is near the checkpoints of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu), and is also near the Army station,” says the MILF’s Mohagher Iqbal. “So how could they accuse the MILF of having a hand in the massacre?”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Makabayan is a coalition of eight progressive party-list groups. Ocampo and Maza are running for Senate under Makabayan.
By CHERYLL D. FIEL
“The Ampatuan massacre goes beyond the issue of freedom of the press and of expression and strikes at the very foundations of democracy. This incident not only erases all doubts about the Philippines being the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, outside of Iraq, it could very well place the country on the map as a candidate for a failed democracy.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Three big partylist groups have questioned the Comelec's efficiency, fairness, accuracy and capacity to respect, uphold and promote the law, particularly that of the partylist system and in allowing representation for the marginalized.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Lawmakers who went to the Middle East recently expressed shock at the plight of the Filipino domestic workers there. They urged the government to promptly ban the deployment of domestic workers or “household service workers.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Unlike other post-martial law administrations that used assumption of jurisdictions (AJ) mostly to quell already ongoing strikes, the Arroyo regime has used these orders not only to quell ongoing strikes but also to make sure workers cannot strike at all. As a result, fewer strikes have been recorded, allowing Arroyo to claim that “industrial peace” is improving. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Malacañang is threatening to reimpose an oil price control if oil companies will not follow the conditions outlined by Mrs. Arroyo. Government, however, has given up the high ground with its lifting of EO 839 and continued adherence to the discredited deregulation policy.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Many of those who watched the recent premiere of the movie “Dukot” got out of the theater teary-eyed – and enlightened about the atrocious human-rights situation in the Philippines.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
The Commission on Elections has reaffirmed its decision delisting the Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) as a party-list group. But Migrante says it will not surrender, promising to take the case to the Supreme Court.
By XANDRA BISENIO
Through the stock distribution option such as the one in Hacienda Luisita, the essence of land reform has been distorted to benefit landowners, denying the farmers of actual land redistribution.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Human-rights advocate welcome the signing into law of Republic Act 9745, which penalizes acts of torture in the Philippines. The challenge now, they say, is for the Arroyo administration to effectively implement it, given its sordid human-rights record.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The Asia Foundation, a “charity group” founded and funded by the CIA that represents American political and economic interests in Asia, is now part of a group that would help facilitate the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Through the generations, many of the Filipinos in Hawaii attained their dreams of greener pastures, and other Filipinos continue to go there in search of more decent opportunities. Their dreams, however, have been crumbling in the face of the financial crisis, which hit the US in 2008. They have not been spared from the effects of the crisis.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno said the “assumption of jurisdiction” order issued by the labor secretary has been abused and has been used in many instances to break up strikes, often violently, as what happened in Hacienda Luisita in 2004.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Despite its limitations, the oil-price caps have irked Big Business and their think tanks and they have been lobbying to have it lifted. Fearing EO 839 could set a dangerous precedent to its business, Shell even filed a case in court against Arroyo’s order. But consumers and critics say that if Arroyo is really sincere in protecting consumers, she should use her power to have the Oil Deregulation Law repealed.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
To a certain degree, Executive Order 839 questioned the lies long peddled by the oil companies and staunch defenders of neoliberalism about neoliberal free market economics. If left unchallenged, EO 839 could become a precedent in policy making: that the government, in the name of public good and welfare, could take decisive action against abusive corporations.
In a historic convention of urban poor, peasant and labor leaders, Anakpawis, the largest partylist of marginalized sectors in the Philippines, tagged the issues of land distribution and still unresolved massacre of striking workers in Luisita as “flagship social justice problems” that presidentiables should seriously address now.
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