NEWS AT A GLANCE

Bayan Muna solon scores Muslim member’s abduction

Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador held the military liable for the Nov. 13 abduction of Abdul Rahman Camili, a Muslim Bayan Muna member in Davao. The activist solon also condemned military authorities who tagged Camili as one of the suspects in the March 4, 2003, Davao Domestic Airport bombing.

In a statement dated Nov. 20, Virador said the government and the military, together with their US counterparts, want to project the southern region in the international news as a terrorist haven to justify the joint US-RP military exercises in the country.

“The government remains chiefly liable for the negative image of Mindanao in the international community and this fact is extremely unacceptable because this puts into harm’s way the lives of people, particularly our Muslim brothers,” Virador said. 

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Warning: Further Marcopper mine tailings dam collapse

Leaders and representatives of non-government organizations and some local government officials in Marinduque (an island in central Philippines 171 kms from Manila) criticized Nov. 19 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) report of possible instabilities of major Marcopper dam structures and the statement that this will not lead to the rehabilitation of the province, as well as their long-going claims for justice. The USGS found “potential instabilities” on four Marcopper dams which its report stated pose significant threat to inhabitants and the ecosystems in Marinduque.

Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC) Executive Director Frances Quimpo criticized the USGS study for being “inconclusive,” “inconsistent,” “unimplementable,” and “exonerates Marcopper.”

“While the USGS cannot discount the imminent perils of the defective and overflowing dams irresponsibly left unchecked and unremediated by Marcopper and Placer Dome, Marinduqueños cannot collectively heave a sigh of relief with the USGS study falling short of expectations for a long awaited rehabilitation of Marinduque,” said Quimpo.

Quimpo added that the study "absolves Marcopper and Placer Dome even as it leaves a lot more to be desired out of a study that projects itself to be comprehensive when it is not. It simply passes the buck to the government, which is not only ill-equipped to accomplish any of USGS’s technical recommendations but is equally liable for leaving Marcopper and Placer Dome scot-free, despite their culpability.”

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Arroyo blacklists California professors, students

Professors and students confronted Nov. 16 the Philippine Consul General in San Francisco, California about a blacklist, which bars individuals from attending an awards ceremony for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for an honorary Doctorate to be conferred from the University of San Francisco (USF).

In a meeting at San Francisco State University (SFSU) Nov. 15, professors, students and community members met to discuss individuals' being denied tickets and the dire implications of a blacklist. Prof. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, Prof. Dawn Mabalon, and Dan Begonia, three well-known academics and community advocates, who are faculty at SFSU, were among those blacklisted. Members present from the SFSU Associated Student Body vowed to pursue a student body resolution against the blacklist.

"She's doing political profiling, just like Marcos did during martial law. She wants to silence any perceived voices of opposition. The irony is, people on the blacklist may not all be categorically ‘against her.’ So she's damaging her own reputation. It reveals to the American public the dark side of Arroyo---a side of her well known in the Philippines, but not so well known here," said Jay Mendoza, a Community Scholar at the University of San Francisco (USF), and the National Coordinator of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON).

The Philippine Consulate denied there was a blacklist. The denial came amidst two scheduled protests during Arroyo's San Francisco visit, growing community concern about Arroyo's “bleak” track record of human rights violations and a letter and fax drive to the president of the University of San Francisco, Father Stephen A. Privett, to reconsider conferring an honorary doctorate to the “martial law-like” president.

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EcoZone exports soar, workers’ conditions plunge - Pamantik 

Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik) scored Nov. 17 the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) after it boasted increase in exports in economic zones, while workers’ condition plunge deep into crisis. 

Despite reports of increase in export earnings by the economic zones, the group said that ecozone workers still face many problems and issues such as low wages, contractualization scheme, and oppressive policies such as the “No Union, No Strike” policy. 

Pamantik secretary-general Luz Baculo scored Wage Order No. 9 which grants workers in Growth Corridor Areas only a daily minimum wage of P232 compared to P237 for previously considered Extended Metropolitan Area.

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No honor being APEC anti-terror chair -- Representative Maza

Gabriela Women's Partylist Rep.Liza Maza said Nov. 15 there is no honor for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo being the APEC chair for its anti-terror body.

"Full and unconditional support to the US' war on terror is subverting the Filipino people's aspirations for peace and respect for the self determination of peoples," Maza said.

Maza cited Angelito Nayan and Roberto Tarongoy who have been abducted in Afghanistan and Iraq because the Philippines "has aided and abetted the US government in its crimes against the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq."

Maza also warned of more open repressive rule in the following months. "After ensuring the passage of her 'economic' agenda in the House of Representatives, political repression intensifies, as the Arroyo government expects more protests from the people."

She cited the "no-permit, no rally policy" and the violent dispersals of farm workers in Hcienda Luisita as examples of political repression.

Bulatlat

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