Photo by Ace Alegre / Bulatlat Bulatlat.com No, this is not a baptism. The newlywed couple, caught by Bulatlat’s camera in Currimao, Ilocos Norte (464 kms north of Manila), have their heads washed by relatives with vinegar and rice straw. It is a traditional...
The mine workers’ strike at Lepanto’s Mankayan mines is on its third week but negotiations between company and the strikers on wage increases are on a deadlock. By Abi T. Bengwayan Northern Dispatch Bulatlat.com MANKAYAN, Benguet – Going on its third week of...
While crushing the insurgency is the immediate aim of a policy decision to use all means including torture, assassination, and the suppression of free expression, the opportunities for bureaucratic plunder the entry of foreign mining companies into the country...
As the Filipino people gear up for yet another campaign to oust a discredited President, not a few ordinary citizens have asked – what’s in store? Some opposition leaders have floated the chances of a simple resignation or a snap election while progressive blocs...
Angelina "Angie" Bisuña Ipong’s friends all say the same thing about her age. She does not look it. Not only is Angie a person so full of life but the wellness exercises that she religiously observes has made her unusually agile and energetic for her age. But life...
Aside from playing chess, playing the gong and dancing keep the strikers in high morale. Solidarity messages from individuals and groups visiting the picket lines further encourage the strikers to pursue their fight for higher wages and benefits. By Northern...
Malacañang resorted to statistical trickery to declare on June 15: “Unemployment rate drops to 8.3 percent.” But a closer look at the numbers shows that the jobs situation in the country is more dismal than ever. BY SANDRA NICOLAS Bulatlat.com There is, it seems,...
By Jasper Almirante/ Bulatlat Bulatlat.com President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempts at preempting an alleged destabilization plot by her political opponents have only put her in a position where she holds fort in a sand castle being battered by the waves....
“Tunggal dumawat tayo ti nayon a sweldo, ibaga da a bassit ti mapaspastrek a ganansiya ken maluglugi da pay” (Whenever we ask for just wage increases, the company tells us that it is not earning, that business is not good). Striking mine workers have all the more...
After stopping plantation and milling operations at Hacienda Luisita, cane workers and their families gear up for blocking the construction of one of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s flagship projects – a super expressway. By Abner Bolos Bulatlat.com The much-delayed...
Militarization heightens as Dole orders return-to-work A medical mission was prevented by the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) from delivering health services to the more than 1,000 striking workers and their families. This, however, proves to be the...
Wage hike legislation nears 6 years President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo faces a punishment worse than impeachment if she continues to ignore the demand of workers for a legislated wage increase in the minimum daily wage by P125 ($2.26). A party-list legislator argued...
In the Southern Tagalog region, workers were given a minuscule increase in their minimum daily wage. What proves to be worse is that only a small segment can avail of the already miniscule increase, since those outside the so-called extended metropolitan area will...
For allegedly stealing the 2004 elections, the 14th President of the Philippines faces mounting calls for her resignation. An increasing number of groups and individuals believe there is only one penalty for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s crime of electoral fraud – her...
Labor contractualization and other new schemes in Compostela Valley’s large banana plantations are agitating both farmworkers and small growers for wage increase and union rights. By Gilbert Pacificar Bulatlat Mindanao Bureau Bulatlat.com Compostela Valley Province...
Photo by Ace Alegre / Bulatlat Bulatlat.com An old farmer in Kadaklan village, in the heart of Barlig, Mountain Province (about 13 hours ride north of Manila) arranges his rice harvest. He is preparing for the next planting season. The seeds he plants on his payao...
The government will happily announce drastically lower unemployment rates this June. But this is only because it changed the way it counts the country’s jobless, causing them to statistically disappear. BY SANDRA NICOLAS Bulatlat.com The Arroyo administration has a...
Can the striking workers at the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) be blamed for defying the labor department’s order for them to return to work? They have been on strike since June 2 and despite the Benguet provincial government’s intervention, the...
By Jasper Almirante/ Bulatlat Bulatlat.com On the 17th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), Filipino farmers remain plagued by landlessness, as land use conversion favoring multinational agri-business giants chews into the little food...
The Commission on Higher Education’s (CHEd) recent claim about a tuition increase freeze this year is turning out to be mainly for public consumption. As schools opened last week, more colleges had actually applied for tuition hike and, to top it all, this year’s...
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