The Philippine public health system is on the brink of death, with the government spending less than a peso for the health of every Filipino each day while up to 50 percent of the national budget is automatically earmarked as payment for onerous debts. Result:...
The Hacienda Luisita strike, which paved the way for the revocation of the stock distribution option in the hacienda, is set to end this week. But both the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) and United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) deem the strike as...
Power rates are expected to increase this December not only due to the value-added tax but also the government’s approval of the National Power Corporation’s application to increase power rates. At this point, even business leaders and power companies have...
Residents of an impoverished area are still deprived of steady water supply even if they regularly pay the rates imposed by the water company. While they initially welcomed their mayor’s support, they lament the inaction on the part of the water company and the...
The demise of Philippine-made shoes is a result of decades of government neglect and intensified by just a few years of aggressive liberalization under the World Trade Organization. By JP Andaquig IBON Features Shoemaking has always been the bread and butter of...
An anti-globalization alliance says the government’s fiscal crisis is all the more exacerbated because the government radically reworked the 1994 tariff rates on imported commodities, leading to a loss of P1 trillion in revenues. BY BULATLAT RESIST, the Philippine...
Is there a difference between retirement and retrenchment? Analyzing government policies on the rationalization of the bureaucracy, it appears that government officials want to encourage as much as 50% of the 1.4-million workforce to retire while at the same time...
A few days before Health Secretary Francisco Duque visited the Bicol Medical Center (BMC) last Nov. 8, the hospital underwent repair and refurbishing - but only its frontage, some hallways and the garden near the auditorium where Duque dialogued with hospital...
Participants to an interfaith forum held Dec. 8 decried the continuing violations of human rights. The forum was held just a few days after yet another killing of an activist, which led them to project that “state atrocities” will continue in 2006. By Jhong dela...
Before soldiers violently dispersed the rally commemorating human rights in Tarlac, they told the marchers that they were soldiers under Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, chief of the army’s 7th Infantry Division, and “they have the license to kill.” BY ABNER BOLOS SAN...
From Jan to Nov 2005 First of two parts With almost 100,000 victims of human rights violations, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration proves to have no mercy on political forces calling for the ouster of an illegitimate presidency. With nowhere to go for redress, the...
Second of two parts Justice remains elusive for the almost 100,000 human rights victims. Since the victims have nowhere else to go, two people’s initiatives to ferret out the truth on the issues hounding the president were organized this year. BY DABET CASTAÑEDA...
Siyuan Tundag, an Ata-Manobo, has seen the worst as her people struggled to keep capitalist intruders out of their ancestral land. But she remains a steadfast Lumad and a voice of her tribe’s tribulations. By Cheryll D. Fiel TALAINGOD, the Philippines --- Treks...
The Catholic Church and the Davao City government are waging a fierce battle against each other over contraception. Women like Hazel Baraw get caught in the crossfire. By Germelina A. Lacorte DAVAO CITY -- Life for Hazel Baraw, 28, hardly changed after she got...
How the new value-added tax law adds to the suffering of Davao’s women and mothers. By Grace Uddin DAVAO CITY – Ever since her husband, a house painter, started getting fewer clients last year, Miranda, a 41-year-old mother of one, started working as a bet taker in...
The series of violent incidents in Diwalwal last October - a huge fire, a gas poisoning, and a cave-in - could be part of the plot by vested-interest groups to drive small-scale miners out of Mount Diwalwal. By Daisy C. Gonzales DIWALWAL, the Philippines -- Alma...
As a struggling lesbian writer, where shall I find a literary mother? By Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz Northern Dispatch A lesbian who does not reinvent the world is a lesbian in the process of disappearing. -- Nicole Brossard The silence surrounding the lesbian in...
The streets of Davao still seethe with the indignation of the thousands of Nenas, Lydas, Indays and Juanas who, decades before, had given birth to one of the country's most active and determined women's movement. By Cheryll D. Fiel DAVAO CITY -- A boy who must have...
How do you tackle a problem as serious and complex as the various crises afflicting the Philippine environment? Environmental historian Prof. Rowena Boquiren proposes a simple and creative solution: for everyone who has come to learn the true state of the...
Ang Kasalukuyang Panulaang Makabayan sa Panahon ng Krisis at Rebolusyon Ang halaga ng tula ay sinusukat sa sugpungan ng rebolusyong pangkultura at sistemang malakolonyal at malapyudal, ng rebolusyong pangkultura at digmang bayan, ng rebolusyong pangkultura at...
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