By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com If US military presence overseas is about ensuring peace and stability, why did it invade Afghanistan and Iraq, and why is it now provoking Iran? If the US is really serious about pushing for human rights and democracy, why is it...
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com It has now hit the headlines, the US is negotiating with the Aquino government for an increase in its military presence in the country through more frequent joint military exercises and other military cooperation activities, and an...
The "war on terror" policy pursued by the past Macapagal-Arroyo administration should be declared as good as dead and should be abandoned by the incumbent President. That policy was based hook, line, and sinker on former U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr.'s neo-conservative theory linking Iraq to the 9/11 bombings. Now, an Iraqi defector who was the primary source of so-called intelligence reports that were used to make a case for Bush's Operation Iraqi Freedom has confessed that he made the whole story up. (By Center for People Empowerment in Governance / bulatlat.com)
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Analysis Bulatlat.com President Benigno Aquino III has barely reached his 80 days in office and so may issues have already shaped his administration. The Hacienda Luisita land dispute and the Philippine Airlines labor issue have shown how the...
By GERMELINA LACORTE / Davao Today
Cardeno’s unexplained death while working for the US troops in February and the death of the Philippine Army officer a month later have renewed calls among militant groups to junk the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the US and the Philippines.
Members of the women’s groups Gabriela and Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) picketed the U.S. Embassy in Manila Nov. 5 to condemn the rape of a 22-year-old Filipina in Subic, Zambales (138 kms. north of Manila) by six U.S. Marine servicemen on Nov. 1. They demanded the...
The record of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the U.S. government reveals that she will not likely support any legal action against five U.S. Marines who are accused of gang-raping a Filipino woman on Nov. 1. By...
This poem was written by Gelacio Guillermo in 1998 in the heat of the debates on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Written in Filipino, this creates scenarios if the VFA were approved, a decision that the Philippine Senate eventually did in 1999. The recent case...
The chances that justice will come for the 22-year-old Filipina who has accused six US soldiers of raping her last November 1 inside the former US base in Subic, Olongapo City is no better than previous cases of rape and even homicide that were lodged against...
By Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares COUNSELS FOR THE DEFENSE OF LIBERTIES (CODAL) Posted by Bulatlat.com Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be committing a culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution if she allows the United States to continue exercising absolute...
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye’s statement last week calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s opponents and critics to refrain from making a political issue out of the Subic rape case misses the whole point — that the rape of a Filipina by visiting U.S. troops...
A new witness to the alleged rape by six U.S. marines of a 22-year old Filipina has emerged. In an exclusive interview with Bulatlat, the witness narrated how an “almost naked woman” from a Starex van was dumped almost in front of her on that fateful night of...
The passage of the anti-terror bill is expected to spur more economic and military aid for the Arroyo government, in exchange for deepening its involvement in the U.S.-led "War on Terror" and protecting America's economic stake in the Philippines, independent...
By RONALYN V. OLEA
On Jan. 30, Gregan Cardeño went home happy that he had finally found a job. He had just signed a contract with a security agency that posted him as an interpreter for the American troops in Cotabato City. He ended up in Marawi where, inside a US barracks, he supposedly hanged himself. His family, however, is convinced that he had been murdered, probably even abused.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
The Supreme Court’s (SC) recent resolution upholding with finality the constitutionality of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) sends a wrong message to victims of US atrocities, warned a Mindanao coalition.
News Release March 3, 2010 The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the Junk VFA Movement today warned that controversies will continue to hound the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement despite the final ruling of the Supreme Court upholding its...
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The Ilocos Region, particularly the two Ilocos provinces, is the main focus of a “humanitarian assistance” operation and this year’s upcoming Balikatan military exercises between US and Philippine troops.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The recent deaths of two US soldiers in Sulu have also strengthened calls for the abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the Philippines and the United States.
Sergeant 1st Class Christopher D. Shaw (left) and Staff Sergeant Jack M. Martin III were the two American Special Forces soldiers who were killed in Jolo on Sept. 29, when their Humvee struck a land mine believed planted by the Abu Sayyaf. Their deaths have renewed...
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Analysis Bulatlat.com MANILA -- Amid the depressing devastation caused by typhoon Ondoy, the frantic relief efforts, and the Arroyo government’s disappointing display of its inability to act swiftly and decisively to help save Filipinos in...
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