Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume 3, Number 15 May 18 - 24, 2003 Quezon City, Philippines |
News
at a glance Militants
oppose Charter change * * * Shoemart
workers decry sexual harassment In
attempts to diperse their picketline, company security guards sexually harass
Shoemart (SM) employees, militant women’s alliance Gabriela disclosed over the
weekend. In last week’s dispersal at SM branch in Cubao, Quezon City the guards rubbed the breasts of a worker, Gabriela deputy secretary general Emmi de Jesus said. De
Jesus said the harassment aims to dampen the morale of SM workers who have been
on strike for almost two months. In
two consecutive attempts to disperse the picketline in Cubao, three were hurt,
including the 10-year-old son of one of the workers.
Another worker lost his wallet and other valuables when he was reportedly
mauled by the guards. The striking workers – most of them casuals – are demanding better pay and job security as the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) reached a deadlock. *
* * Students
oppose plan to delay schoolyear The National Union
of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) yesterday opposed proposals to move the
opening of classes from June to September saying there is no compelling reason
for the change right now. Raymond Palatino,
NUSP national president, said "We stand behind the announcement of Health
Secretary Dayrit that the threat of SARS has already been contained in the
country. There is now no urgent reason why we should postpone the opening of
classes." Palatino described
the proposal as "insensitive and ignorant to the peculiar conditions of the
country." "June is the opening of classes in the Philippines not because of some flimsy desire to have summer vacations but the agricultural economy prevailing in the country warrants the tapping of the youth to help in harvest season during summer,” the NUSP leader said. “This may not be obvious to our leaders but it is during summer and harvest time that Filipino families earn much needed income to pay for the tuition of their children." * * * Reds
denounce "terrorist" tag on MILF The
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) last week denounced U.S. Ambassador
Francis Ricciardone and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes for pushing that the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) be declared “terrorist” by the U.S.
government. "Ricciardone
has once again come out with another of his unabashed interventionist utterances
and schemes, and the chief U.S. puppet in the AFP (Reyes) is drooling for
it," said Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, spokesperson of the CPP.
Rosal also took note of the fact that many Filipinos, including in the Senate,
raised vehement opposition to such proposal. "Upon
U.S.’ prodding, the Macapagal-Arroyo government had even before already
intensified its military campaigns of suppression in violation of GRP-MILF
ceasefire agreements in order to scuttle the peace talks and lay the ground for
the deployment of U.S. troops in wider areas of Mindanao," Rosal said. Reacting
to military claims of a so-called NPA-MILF-MNLF-ASG alliance, Rosal also said
the NDF-MILF alliance had long been know to the public. "The AFP's current
fiction that the NPA and MILF are in league with the Abu Sayyaf only reveals
their desperation in wanting to tarnish the integrity of both the CPP-NPA-NDF
and the MILF-BMIAF." "What
actually exists and what has been exposed over and over again is the utterly
despicable AFP-Abu Sayyaf alliance," Rosal said. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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