Gabriela slammed the inclusion of huge amounts allotted to pork barrel funds and the Presidential Support Fund, as well as un-programmed funds, which, it said, could be used to perpetuate political patronage and corruption.
“We are very concerned as there are news that feed testing will start this year and that the harvest will be used in these feed experiments. In China, the people have protested against the feed trials on children, prompting proponents to compensate the affected families. We do not want our people, especially our children to be used in these experiments.” – Sikwal GMO
“It is not only an action against the destructive and exploitative black sand mining operation, but also a blow against individuals and officials who welcomed, imposed and supported the said mining ventures through sheer political force, threats, maneuverings and deceptions.” – Defend Ilocos
“The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce is trying to deceive workers with promises of a better employment situation when the truth is that the country has been pressing down wages for decades but unemployment still continues to grow.” – KMU
“His[Van Beersum] blacklisting is more a resounding indictment of the government and its claims to democracy than it is of his zealous yet moral outrage over issues that should make us and our society more fair and human.” — National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers
The organization of farm workers in Hacienda Luisita said the HLI management is engaged in a “grand collusion” with the DAR to derail if not sabotage the process to effectively stop the distribution of Luisita lands to farm worker beneficiaries by “orchestrating moves and actions detrimental to or grossly opposed to effective land distribution and justice driven land reform inside the Cojuangco-Aquino sugar estate.”
“In truth, any rewards system that pretends to set apart the ‘performing’ from the ‘non-performing’ falls flat in the face of the shortages that continue to be unmet by this administration.” – Alliance of Concerned Teachers
Sidebar story: Teachers question basis for determining, taxing incentives
“This political accommodation of environmental criminals speaks of rampant corruption in the bureaucracy. We sincerely hope this double standard was not bought for a low price of 1.034 billion pesos (US$ 23.8 million).” – Kalikasan PNE
Read also: Philex still needs to clean up, pay compensation – indigenous peoples
Four Agusanon Lumad, including two minors, were on their way to the local Comelec to register as first-time voters for the upcoming Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Council) and barangay elections when they were arrested, tortured and detained by members of paramilitary group Bagani forces.
“Even if the government manages to make the waterways as wide as one kilometer and as deep as 10 meters, if there is street-level flooding, everything would be useless.” – Geologist Ricarido Saturay
“When workers in Indonesia demand a wage hike, employers threaten them: ‘We would relocate to China.’ In China, employers threaten workers that they would relocate their factory to Vietnam. In Vietnam, employers threaten workers they would relocate to Cambodia. In Cambodia, employers threaten workers that they would relocate to Bangladesh.” – Asia Monitor Resource Center
See also: Indonesian workers battle high prices, low wages despite producing oil, registering growth rates
Asia-Pacific workers wage struggles to turn ‘formal’ rights into reality