Macapagal-Arroyo pressed to intervene in Malaysia

A Party-list House representative appealed Jan. 28 to Congress to urge President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to exert all diplomatic efforts to press the Malaysian government in extending its Jan. 31 deadline for the deportation of alleged illegal migrants including some 170,000 Filipinos.

Anakpawis (toiling masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran also denounced Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo for his inaction on the imminent deportation of Filipino workers.

Aside from the deportation threat, the Malaysian government has said it will prosecute all arrested undocumented migrants on pain of imprisonment and caning.

In 2001, hundreds of Filipinos were herded like cattle into ships and repatriated to the Philippines. At least six Filipino children were among those who died. Bulatlat

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Hacienda Looc bombing a prelude to Luisita-like carnage?

The secretary general of Anakpawis party-list has accused government authorities of using military force to harass farmers of Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas who are opposed to the Harbor Town project of the Manila South Coast Development Corporation (MSDC).

The incident, said secretary general Cherry Clemente in a Jan. 24 statement, “smacks of the same brazen violence and illegality shown in the tragic massacre of the Hacienda Luisita strikers last November.

Osmundo Bautista, a leader of the farmers group Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwasak sa Kalupaan sa Hacienda Looc (Umalpas-Ka), and several others were injured when MSDC, the LRTK Construction, and the 310 Construction reportedly used dynamites to level the land owned by the Hacienda Looc's farmers. 

Demolitions started after the MSDC's incursions into the 8,650-hectare Hacienda Looc, south of Metro Manila, which had been marked for land redistribution to its resident-farmers. The MSDC is going ahead with its controversial eco-tourism project which is expected to displace thousands of farmer families. The case is pending at the Supreme Court. Bulatlat

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8 of 10 Filipinos thumb down water rate hike

Eight out of 10 Filipinos think that the rate hike implemented starting this month by Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Manila Water Company Inc. is unreasonable, according to the latest survey by Ibon Foundation.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS-RO) allowed private concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water to increase tariffs by 52 percent and 16 percent, respectively. From P19.92 per cubic meter in 2004, the average tariff of Maynilad is now P30.19, while Manila Water raised its average tariff from last year's P13.99 to P16.17.

Asked if the water rate increase of Maynilad and Manila Water is reasonable, 83.47 percent of the 1,313 respondents said no. Only 3.2 percent said yes while 13.33 percent said they don't know. Bulatlat

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Soldiers, cops real threat to Luisita strike - KMP

The militant peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) demanded Jan. 28 the withdrawl of all policemen deployed in the strike-bound Hacienda Luisita sugar estate. The pullout, KMP secretary general Danilo Ramos said, would create the conducive atmosphere for resuming negotiations between the Cojuangco-Aquinos and the strikers.

In a dialogue with Philippine National Police Chief Director General Edgardo Aglipay in Camp Crame, Quezon City, Ramos said that labeling the strike being maintained by thousands of unionized farm workers and milling laborers at Hacienda Luisita as a national security matter "a pretext to justify their increasing presence in the estate."

The real threat, the peasant leader said, is the military and the police. "Wasn’t they who massacred seven strikers last Nov. 16?," he said.

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Environment chief breaks word

The Alyansa ng mga Mamamayang Nagkakaisa sa Hilagang Quezon (ALMANA-HQ), an alliance of organizations of the typhoon victims in Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon province, denounced Environment Secretary Mike Defensor Jan. 26 for breaking his own directive allowing typhoon victims to use logs that were swept down by landslides in rebuilding their homes and rehabilitating their province from the devastation caused by late last year's typhoons.

Many of the logs and trees uprooted during the typhoons have disappeared and no lumber has been given to the thousands of victims, ALMANA leaders said. 

ALMANA-HQ spokesperson Meling Rotaquio said only a few moneyed individuals with power saws were able to take advantage of the Defensor’s order. Most of the logs have been taken over by the DENR-authorized sawmills and storage sites in Real, Mauban and Atimonan, he added. Bulatlat

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