By RONALYN V. OLEA
“As long as the Aquino government continues with the same policies that have perpetuated the backward, labor-intensive and low-yielding domestic agriculture, rice-self sufficiency will not be realized.” – Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“The budget for OFW services is only 0.43 percent of the debt-servicing budget; three precent of the military budget, 14 percent of PPP funds, and 1.9 percent of the presidential un-programmed funds or the President’s pork barrel.” – Migrante International
By MARYA SALAMAT
“It is well within the capacity of the Big Three oil companies to implement a significant rollback as their profits have steadily increased in recent years. It is simply revolting for us poor people to see the Big Three’s profits soar as oil prices rise unabated while we suffer from poverty and hunger.” – KMU
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“It is not for the DFA to raise an alert level and declare that there is a directive for ‘voluntary repatriation.’ What should our OFWs do? Who should they call? Where should they go?” – Migrante International
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Artists from the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, Australia and Thailand defended Cruz and said the campaign of vilification against Cruz was unjust.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Hacienda Luisita farm workers cannot be fooled by the SC’s legal semantics. The SC order pretends to be democratic when, in fact, it is anti-democratic.” – Danilo Ramos, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“It is the farmers, without any meaningful support from the government, who principally worked for a bountiful harvest. Even the so-called budget for irrigation cannot be claimed as government support because we’re the ones paying the exorbitant irrigation fees. Now, because the the government is giving measly funds for the national rice and corn program, we seriously doubt that high harvest yields can continue.” – KMP
By MARYA SALAMAT
In a study of the proposed 2012 health budget conducted by the Coalition for Health Budget Increase (CHBI), it found out that the increases in the health budget only “define the Aquino Health Agenda of privatization and commercialization of public health care which will further jeopardize the health of the people.”
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
The Philippine embassy in Dubai should coordinate with local authorities and work for the speedy release of OFW inmates and their children on humanitarian grounds.
By MARYA SALAMAT
August 9 is the international day of the world’s indigenous peoples, but the “occasion is a grim one as human rights violations and ancestral landgrabbing are rampant.” – Piya Macliing Malayao, KAMP.
Sidebar: Indigenous peoples’ groups decry use of IPRA and NCIP for development aggression
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Fidel Agcaoili, member of the NDFP peace panel and chairman of its Human Rights Committee, told Bulatlat.com that they already proposed a date for the next round of talks to be held in Oslo, Norway and are now waiting for the response from the GPH panel.