Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Volume 3,  Number 21              June 29 - July 5, 2003            Quezon City, Philippines


 





Outstanding, insightful, honest coverage...

 

Join the Bulatlat.com mailing list!

Powered by groups.yahoo.com

News at a glance 

Church, consumers unite vs. high power rates
 
Consumers up in arms over high power rates have found an ally in the Catholic Church as they jointly spearheaded nationwide protests on June 26 with a lights-out activity and the praying of the Holy Rosary’s Mysteries of Light.

In separate statements, the People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates (Power) and the National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice and Peace (Nassa) said the protests underscored the people’s demand for the scrapping of the Purchased Power Adjustment and the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira).

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed the Epira on June 26, 2001 and has since legalized the PPA and the ongoing unbundling of rates charged by utility firms like Meralco.

Nassa, the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, explained that “President Arroyo pledged in her 2001 State of the Nation Address to bring down electricity rates but her idea of doing this is through the implementation of the Epira. She admitted its flaws when she immediately called for amendments. In the absence of necessary amendments, she launched palliative tactics reducing PPA cost.”

“GMA’s Epira is the Black Book of Evil Magic used by Meralco and other firms to fool and oppress consumers,” said Power spokesperson Lolita Donato. “GMA should be held liable for the devastating effects of the Epira which she endorsed and signed and her refusal to abolish the anti-people and immoral PPA.”

* * *

50 Nestle workers, supporters hurt in dispersal

CABUYAO, Laguna –Fifty strikers and sympathizers were seriously injured when about 300 policemen and security guards dispersed their protest picket at Nestle plant in Cabuyao, Laguna, June 23.

The workers were protesting the management’s refusal to implement the  Supreme Court decision instructing the former to go back to the negotiating table regarding the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). 

Most of the victims sustained severe head wounds and broken limbs.

On the injured, 24 were brought to the hospital. Christopher Oliquino, a sympathizer who suffered two hard hits on his head, had to be transferred to Philippine General Hospital in Manila later that night due to continuous bleeding and vomiting.

The violent dispersal started at around 3 p.m. at gates 1 and 2 of the Nestle factory. Matrix Security Guards, the Regional Special Action Force and local police beat the workers with truncheons spiked with hacksaw edges and threw stones against the demonstrators. Nestle used fire trucks to help in the violent dispersal. 

* * *

OFWs condemn arrest of Pinoys in Japan

More than 50 Filipinos in Japan have been arrested since June 17 by immigration authorities in an alleged effort to flush out undocumented Filipino migrants in Japan.
 
In a news release, Ramon Bultron, managing director of Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), reported that  even without the legal papers, police raided private apartments and workplaces and arrested Filipino nationals. In Sakae, rounding up of Filipinos occurred with the media broadcasting the whole spectacle.

APMM chided Philippine officials in Japan for not acting immediately on the matter. The group said that the arbitrary arrests did not even prompt the Philippine Embassy to defend the OFWs ‘whose right to due process had been grossly violated.’

Bultron said that migrant groups and non-government organizations in Japan have demanded the Philippine Embassy and Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila to immediately release the names of arrested OFWs. 

* * *

Soldiers, militiamen tagged in another case of summary execution

Lupon, Davao Oriental-- The death of three fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) and a 21-year-old female medical trainee on June 4 in Davao Oriental was not a result  of  an encounter but of summary execution, a fact finding mission revealed last week.

Citing its own investigation, human rights alliance Karapatan said the NPA fighters were already hors de combat (or injured) when they were finished off by soldiers of the 4th Special Force under the 8th SF Battalion. They were shot in the chest at close range by soldiers armed with M16s, Karapatan said.

Residents who first arrived at the scene of the incident testified that Ruby Jean Custodio, 21, Nerio Diosio, 33, Rodrigo Ungayo, 42 and Ruben Tanoy, 34,bore several bullet wounds in their chests and other parts of the body.

Two of the alled NPA members, Diosio and Tanoy, were still wrapped in their malong (printed blanket)when their bodies were discovered by residents at around 6 a.m. the next day.

Residents said the blood oozing from Custodio’s body was still fresh when they arrived two hours past her death. Karapatan said had Custodio been afforded proper medical attention due prisoners of war, she would have survived the ordeal.

Karapatan is demanding investigation of the elements responsible for the war crimes namely Sgt. Lubon, and the Cafgu militiamen identified as Pepe Interlison, Romulo “Molong” Gesta, Doming Orias, Jun Oano, a certain Pagong and a CVO identified as Tamlang, all from Libudon detachment, a few kilometers from the scene of incident.

* * *

CPLA-AFP integration means more tribal wars, Cordillera front leader says

BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera People’s Democratic Front, the regional affiliate of the National Democratic Front in the Cordillera, last week warned the integration of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) into the Armed Forces will lead to more tribal wars.

In a statement written in Iloko, CPDF spokesperson Simon “Ka Filiw” Naogsan warned that once CPLA forces are integrated into the AFP, the CPLA can increasingly “lord over the tribes in the Cordillera.” Supplied with arms and ammunition, he said, the CPLA will use these “for criminal purposes such as robbery, holdup, marijuana planting, and drug syndicates.” He also warned that the CPLA will use its arms to grab lands and territories as they did in Betwagan, a village in Bontoc, Mt. Province.

All these will lead to more tribal wars and the disruption of the economic life of communities, the CPDF spokesperson added.

At the same time, Ka Filiw explained, the AFP will have more excuses “to further militarize the Cordillera which will lead to more human rights violations.”

Naogsan was an engineer and progressive congressional candidate who joined the New People’s Army more than a decade ago.

CPLA was founded in the late 1980s by Fr. Conrado Balweg who bolted the New People’s Army. Balweg has since been executed by the NPA in Cordillera. Bulatlat.com / Nordis

Back to top


We want to know what you think of this article.