By RONALYN V. OLEA
Fidel Agcaoili said the National Democratic Front of the Philippines is now contemplating on inviting new GRP peace panel chair AlexPadilla to a one-on-one meeting in Hongkong to clarify whether the current Aquino government accepts the validity of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and can ensure the safe and trouble-free visit of the Jalandoni couple in Manila.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
After experiencing heavy deployment of AFP troops, the peasants of Hacienda Luisita are bracing for the entry of US troops who would be conducting ‘trainings’ inside the hacienda.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Many labor and partylist groups in the country view the labor department’s approval of PAL management’s outsourcing and retrenchment plan as a go-signal as well for an even more intensified contractualization of employment arrangements all over the country.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Under the plan approved by the Department of Labor and Employment, PAL would outsource the in-flight catering, call center reservations and airport services (passenger, cargo and ramp handling) departments to “third-party providers” , eVentus PLDT and Skylogistics, two of which, employees revealed are Lucio Tan dummies if not directly under his group’s Macro Asia.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Today, as the whole nation remembers the lives of the departed, we commemorate the missing. We light a candle not for their souls to rest in peace but to shed light on their way home. We offer flowers not because we believe they are no longer with us but because they are deeply missed,” Mary Guy “Ghay” Portajada, daughter of a missing labor leader, said.
By MARYA SALAMAT
President Benigno Aquino III boldly declared during his first State of the Nation Address that public-private partnerships would be the solution to the government’s lack of funds and the need to develop the country’s infrastructure. But at whose expense?
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
A minor’s refusal to join the CAFGU resulted in him being beaten up and threatened by soldiers. And he is not alone in his ordeal.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Leaders and representatives of commuters, drivers, workers, transport workers and transport operators including pier-based truckers and bus companies, an association of independent oil companies and a legal expert banded together to oppose the impending toll fee hike.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“They wasted two years of my life,” Lita Mahilum, a political prisoner who was in jail for two years before being cleared by the Court of Appeals of the charges filed against her by the military, said.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Big landowners in Negros Occidental have found another way to retain and re-concentrate the land in their hands: file criminal cases against peasants and farm workers.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“A glaring proof that Filipino women are still living in oppressive conditions – even though the country ranks high in gender-based indexes – is the increasing number of victims of violence against women, most notably, gang rape,” said Lana Linaban, secretary general of Gabriela.