Residents were unprepared for a disaster of such scale in a town that had gained headway in reducing flooding and in sprucing itself up. But as some of them point out, everything in Marikina had been so good that they never thought it could be this bad. By MARYA...
By MARYA SALAMAT (Bulatlat.com) Manila – After thousands of North Harbor workers and residents protested in Mendiola last Sept. 15, glowing promises of abundant jobs in soon to become privately-run North Harbor came out in ads and news in the papers. But instead of...
By MARYA SALAMAT
Since 2001 when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency, the trade union movement, like other peoples movement in the Philippines, has been experiencing violations of their rights as humans and as workers in a level never before seen in our country’s post-Martial Law politics, the Kilusang Mayo Uno said. The group welcomes the first International Labor Organization-High-Level Mission to the Philippines this month.
By MARYA SALAMAT
As Rachel Tiongson battles the powerful Chavit Singson, women leaders are castigating the Arroyo regime for shirking its responsibilities to uphold the law. They urge the president to “severely sanction” Singson for brutally beating up – at one point by using a tiger whip – the mother of his five children.
By MARYA SALAMAT
“It is the experience of every nation that wherever there is a concentration of American soldiers for a prolonged period of time, exploitation and abuse of the local people ensued,” said Emmi de Jesus, secretary-general of Gabriela, the women’s group.
MANILA -- Apart from the threat of massive retrenchment, global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s buyout of rival Wyeth would also result in higher drug prices as the giant firm would further control the drug industry. This was the contention of Wyeth workers and the...
By MARYA SALAMAT
The massive layoffs in the Philippines brought about by the global financial crisis and the increasing appetite of companies for more profit have exposed yet again the Arroyo regime’s sympathy not for workers but for capitalists. And instead of ensuring that workers’ rights are protected, the Department of Labor and Employment has become an even more willing tool by companies to satisfy their greed.
Workers hold a picket on Wednesday to call attention to the growing number of those who lost their jobs and livelihood due to the global financial crisis. The workers, who marched to the labor department in Intramuros and later to Mendiola, are members of a...
By MARYA SALAMAT
Hundreds of workers at Wyeth, the pharmaceutical giant, have been holding protest pickets to seek guarantees for their jobs and the survival of their 50-year-old union as the company sets to merge with Pfizer.
The living conditions of the Lumad in the evacuation center make them, especially the infants and children, vulnerable to illnesses resulting from lack of food, water and facilities for sanitation. "Their daily lives, work and schools have sadly become “collateral damage to the Arroyo’s counterinsurgency campaign," says Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan.
Even if seriously implemented, the Cheaper Medicines Law would still fail to bring down the prices of medicines because it did not break “the monopoly control of transnational corporations on all aspects” of the drug industry. This monopoly is the main reason why drug prices in the Philippines are among the highest in Asia.
Behind the massive outpouring of mourners for Cory Aquino and the reliving of People Power is the fervent desire among Filipinos to have “that good feeling again.”
Ordinary Filipinos – the perennially jobless, out-of-school teenagers, recently retrenched factory workers, vegetable vendors, proud homosexuals, among others – braved the heavy rain on the day of the Sona to let it be known that they have had enough of Gloria.
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA -- Even for lowly jobs, Filipino are required to submit proofs of clean bill of health to show that they are fit. What more for the job of president of the Philippines? In a press conference Saturday, leaders of organizations of...
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA -- In a cooking demo that elicited chuckles from market-goers and participating activists themselves, the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWaPa) showed Wednesday in front of Nepa-Q Market on Edsa, in Cubao, Quezon City, to cook Gloria...
By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA -- “Support Con-Ass. Cha-Cha is good for you. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a good president. Send it to 20 of your friends and within two days, you will lose all of your friends,” said a text joke read by lawyer Remigio Saladero...
“Our transport strike is a success.” Thus said the Task Force July 13, a transport group coalition, at the conclusion of the day-long strike it led in selected Metro Manila routes and regions outside the capital on Monday. Through the strike, they said, they were able to register their protest against the overpricing of petroleum products by the oil companies, particularly the so-called Big Three, and their connivance with the Arroyo regime. View the slideshow
Transport Strike a Success, Say Groups
Since the Arroyo regime expanded the value-added tax on oil and since the implementation of the oil-deregulation law, most jeepney drivers have to work long hours, often up to 14 hours a day. If they don’t, whatever money they earn for the day will only further enrich the oil companies -- and they go home penniless. Think about this the next time you are tempted to curse jeepney drivers for being uncouth, discourteous and undisciplined, as the government is wont to depict them.
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