NEWS AT A GLANCE
7 of 10 farmers are landless
Seven out of 10
farmers in Southern Tagalog (a region south of Manila) are landless. Peter
“Tata Pido” Gonzales, spokesperson of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng
Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK, a farmers’ alliance in the
region) said Jan. 21that the unprecedented increase in the number of
farmers who do not own any land is due to the increasing land monopoly
through wide-scale conversion of productive agricultural lands and coastal
areas. This reveals the fact that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP) is a farce, he said.
Gonzales also
disputed recent findings by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) where the
number of families that experienced a day without food declined in the
last quarter of 2004. Based on Kasama-TK research, he said, the condition
of farmers in the region has worsened since the implementation of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade under the World Trade Organization
ten years back.
* * *
Malacañang is
misleading the public on media killings -- NUJP
The National Union of
Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) last week took exception to Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye’s downplaying of a report by the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on the media killings in the Philippines.
Bunye called the IFJ
report “misleading,” saying majority of cases involving the killing of
journalists have been solved by the Philippine National Police’s (PNP)
Special Task Force.
In a statement, NUJP
secretary general Carlos Conde said: “There's no truth to his assertion
that ‘majority’ of these murders have been solved – if we use the
universal definition of ‘solved’ as justice having served, i.e. a court
conviction of a suspect…Indeed, it mocks the victims and their families.”
Bunye apparently
based his statement on the PNP’s definition of "solved." For the PNP’s
part, a case is solved if a suspect has been identified, even without an
arrest.
Granting for the sake
of argument that all the journalist killings since 1986, including the 13
last year, are "solved" by the government, “it does not erase the fact
that these horrendous murders happened in the first place,” Conde said.
* * *
ADB, government
partners in corruption -- Anakpawis
Anakpawis (toiling masses) Representative Crispin Beltran said Jan. 20
that the results of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) study, "Improving the
Investment Climate of the Philippines," which listed the Philippines as
the most corrupt country in the world was not surprising. Beltran quickly
added, however, that the motives of the ADB in releasing the study were
“tainted and definitely self-serving."
Beltran, who is also
a labor leader, said that the ADB’s motive is not to help the Philippine
government to clean up its act but to goad it to speed up the passage of
the tax bills and impose more laws favorable for foreign investors and
their big local counterparts to allegedly extract more profits at the
smallest possible capital outlay.
"Corruption in
inherent and endemic in the Philippine government precisely because of the
clout and influence of multilateral finance agencies the likes of the ADB
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over public officials up to the
executive levels," he said.
He added that the ADB, as one of the proponents of globalization, is also
government’s partner in graft and corruption.
* * *
Militant farmers sue
MWSS, other agencies
The Manila Waterworks
and Sewerage System (MWSS) and other government agencies are now the
subject of a complaint filed by militant farmers groups at the Ombudsman
Jan. 19 for the illegal demolition of more than 200 houses in Macabud,
Rodriguez, Rizal.
The farmers groups,
the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and its provincial chapters in
Rizal, also included as respondents the Manila Water Company, the national
police, the defense department, the Bantay Kalikasan Foundation, Inc. and
others.
KMP spokesperson
Willy Marbella accused the MWSS of violating not only the inter-agency
memorandum of agreement of 2001, but also the human rights of the farmers
in Macabud village. The police and the security guards continue to harass
these families, he said.
Nestor Jose,
Kasama-Rizal spokesperson, also accused the Lopezes of professing that
they are for the environment but whose business “is detrimental to the
lives of us peasants, who are the natural caretakers of the land. The
Lopezes (owners of ABS-CBN and other corporations) reportedly plan to
convert the village into a park.
* * *
Beltran slams DoLE on
P125 wage hike bill
Anakpawis (toiling
masses) Representative Crispin Beltran scored anew Jan.19 the Department
of Labor and Employment (DoLE) and Labor Assistant Secretary Ernesto
Bitonio for warning Congress against legislating a P125 across-the-board
wage increase.
"Instead of batting
for wage increases and supporting the well-justified demand of workers for
immediate economic relief, the DoLE does nothing but parrot the claims of
big business," he said.
Beltran called Bitonio and the DoLE's offer to provide Congress with
supposed "necessary information needed for drafting a new wage measure" as
“hypocrisy.” He said even government the data show that workers need a
wage increase, and a P125 increase is the smallest possible amount they
should be given to help them cope with the econ crisis.
“Workers'
productivity continues to increase as employers and business exploit their
manpower to the hilt; but workers continue to be given slave wages in
return for their labor,” he said.
Anakpawis’ P125 wage hike bill which is now up for second reading and
interpellation in Congress.
The cost of living
for a family of six in the National Capital Region (NCR) is around P602.31
or P498.04 on the average nationwide while the prevailing daily nominal
minimum wage is only P280 for non-agricultural workers and P213 for
agricultural workers.
Using 1994 prices as
the base year, Beltran said the real value of P280 in the NCR is only
P152.17.
Bulatlat
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