NEWS AT A
GLANCE
Beltran asks ex-budget secretary
to reveal Arroyo’s
foreign PR, lobby groups spending
Anakpawis (toiling masses)
Rep. Crispin Beltran said Sept. 15 that former Budget Secretary Emilia
Boncodin should “be summoned (by Congress) to reveal all her knowledge”
regarding reports that the Arroyo administration spent almost P100 million
for U.S. lobbyists
and public relations consultants from September 2001 to October 2003.
Beltran recalled that none
of these expenses came up in the budget deliberations in connection with
the Office of the President and its adjunct agencies.
Referring to media reports,
the militant congressman cited the $1.2 million (P66 million) paid to
Burson-Marsteller PR firm for promoting investments and travel to the
Philippines and developing a "public relations program including media
relations and research,” and $154,056 (P8.2 million) paid to Rhoads-Weber
Shandwick for assisting the Philippine Embassy in Washington and its
defense attaché in meetings with "members of legislative branch
communities in regard to matters related to Asia-Pacific security issues
and military cooperation."
Together with Anakpawis Rep.
Rafael Mariano, Beltran filed House Resolution 945 calling for an inquiry
into the Philippine government’s $900,000 contract with U.S.-based firm
Venable LLP to lobby for the charter change agenda.
“All
the while Macapagal-Arroyo has been demanding that the Filipino people
scrimp and save, exhorting them to do their share in solving the economic
crisis yet now it’s again being exposed that she herself has been wasting
public funds on mere PR management and relations,” said Beltran.
Bulatlat
* * *
Labor center condemns
shooting of strikers
Kilusang Mayo Uno
(May First Movement) last week condemned the alleged shooting of strikers
at the Schneider Packaging Company in
Caloocan
City on Sept. 13. One worker was killed while six others were wounded.
KMU reported that the
aside from the alleged strafing of the strikers who were preparing for a
symposium that same day, the company’s guards also shouted at the workers
with invectives words while pushing them outside the gate. The workers
struck for higher wages, benefits from the Social Security System (SSS),
and a stop to the “arbitrary” lay offs.
The company’s owner,
Filipina Mandap, ordered the guards to fire at the strikers, with threats
that they will be laid off if they failed to follow her order, KMU also
said.
KMU’s secretary general Joel Maglunsod called on the Department of Labor
and Employment (DoLE) to investigate the violence and file charges against
the perpetrators. Bulatlat
* * *
Party-list congressman
says charter change lobby deal ‘treasonous, impeachable’
”It’s treason, a high crime and an impeachable offense,” said Bayan Muna
Rep. Teddy Casiño Sept. 15 in reaction to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's
blessings on the lobbying deal secretly signed by National Security
Adviser Norberto Gonzales and the U.S. firm Venable LLC.
Casiño said the agreement is yet another clear basis for Arroyo's
immediate removal from office.
"It is treason to even try to sell the Constitution and constitutional
changes to any alien power, especially the U.S. which has strategic
interests in exploiting our economy, natural resources and patrimony,"
said the representative from Bayan Muna.
Casiño stressed that the Constitution, as the highest written law of the
land, should be spared from any foreign interference to preserve the
national security, dignity and integrity. Bulatlat
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