By RONALYN OLEA
A youth activist who was tortured for 10 days by people he believed to be soldiers has belied claims by the military that he is a rebel returnee and that his abduction had been staged. His lawyer thinks the military is experimenting with the case of Noriel Rodriguez.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO Bulatlat.com MANILA—When Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake last Jan. 12, there were already around 400 Cuban doctors and other health workers working all over the country, present in 227 of Haiti’s 237 communes. “Our solidarity with Haiti did not begin after the earthquake,” said Enna Valdes, Cuba’s newly-designated…
By MARYA SALAMAT
Concerns are being raised that the automated elections system (AES), which is supposed to be used in the coming elections in May, is vulnerable to cheating and that the Commission on Elections has been so inept in the preparations.
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
A group of sugar workers in Negros island was shocked to learn that the price of sugar in some parts of the country has reached a high of P60 per kilo amid news of an apparent crisis on the supply of the commodity.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
Whoever becomes the next president will have to run a government that is almost P5 trillion deep in debt and with a budget deficit of P300 billion or more. Thus, whatever promises about providing for the basic needs of the people especially the poor are empty rhetoric unless candidates disclose how they intend to address the worsening fiscal situation.
By LYN RAMO Bulatlat.com TANAY, Rizal — As expected on a Monday, little Dumagat schoolchildren hurriedly prepared and left their homes to grab a better seat in school. They did not head for the Nayon Elementary School, though, because “the teacher is not yet there.” Instead, they filled the one-room community center which was built…
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
For the farmers, peasants and indigenous peoples of Southern Mindanao, the past several years had been a period of great danger and violence as big mining companies encroach into ancestral and agricultural land, using the military to drive them away. Many peasant and Lumad leaders who opposed these projects have ended up dead and tortured.
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
“The First Quarter Storm of 1970 caught the attention of the people on a national and international scale. It inspired the youth and working people in the provincial capitals and cities to rise up and carry out protest actions against US imperialism and the local reactionaries and demand national liberation and democracy.”
Slideshow: Images of 2009