NEWS AT A GLANCE

Two Bayan Muna-Leyte coordinators abducted

Just a week after the killing of two Bayan Muna leaders in Mindoro, two of its coordinators in Leyte province were abducted by alleged elements of the Military Intelligence Group of the Philippine Army.

According to the Eastrern Visayas chapter of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), Jacqueline Paguntalan, 26, and Rolando Fortaleza, 28, were in Brgy. Kilim, Baybay, Leyte last Feb. 21 when abducted.

The two were having a snack at a resort along the highway of Brgy. Kilim when seven armed men reportedly forced them to get inside the van. Witnesses said the abductors, allegedly all from the MIG, used a black Delica van, with covered plate number.

Karapatan obtained the details of the abduction from one of the companions of the victims who managed to escape from captivity, as well as from some fishermen, the resort’s owner and its guests, who witnessed the abduction.

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Ka Roger condemns U.S.' blackmailing of MILF 

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal condemned the United States in a statement dated Feb. 27 for blackmailing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) into surrendering to the government.

The communist leader said the U.S. is trying to pressure the MILF into signing a peace deal with the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

Rosal said that U.S. offered to give $30 million in aid to Mindanao once a GRP-MILF peace treaty is signed.  He likened this to the alleged blackmailing of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) during the recent round of formal negotiations held in Oslo, Norway last Feb. 10-14.

"The U.S. said it would remove its 'terrorist' tag on CPP-NPA-NDF only if the latter would submit to the puppet government in the peace talks,” Rosal said. “In the same vein but from another direction, the U.S. is threatening to apply the tag on MILF and declare it as its enemy should it not yield to the puppet government in separate peace talks."

"All this smacks of outright interventionism and blatant blackmailing," he said. “The U.S. is doing this with the servile complicity of the Arroyo government.”

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Filipino nurses in Canada press for full accreditation and reciprocity

Over 80 practicing and non-practicing Filipino nurses and supporters gathered at a dinner-forum organized by the Filipino Nurses Support Group (FNSG) last week in Canada. Participating nurses who migrated to Canada shared the challenges they experienced under the theme “Filipino nurses unite towards full accreditation and reciprocity.”

The group attributed the massive Filipino migration to other countries to the “worsening conditions of poverty, unemployment and chronic political and economic crises in the Philippines.”

Since 1993, when the nursing profession was removed from Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration occupational points list, the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) became the only viable option for foreign-trained nurses to enter the country.

FNSG said that this program is “an underclass of cheap immigrant labor in Canada” where Filipino nurses as skilled professionals work as low-wage nannies, domestic workers and 24-hour home support workers for rich Canadian families.

Also present at the dinner forum were Hon. Hedy Fry, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with special emphasis on Foreign Credentials, and Debra McPherson, president of the B.C. Nurses' Union.   

After hearing the nurses’ stories, Fry promised to continue to work with her colleagues in the Canadian Parliament to raise awareness and address the urgent issues raised by FNSG. McPherson, on the other hand, expressed her commitment to coordinate with FNSG in advancing the overall situation of practicing and non-practicing nurses in B.C.  

  Bulatlat.com

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