Justin Umali would like you to think that he is not the corniest person in the room. A full-time activist from Southern Tagalog, he writes stories highlighting local and sectoral issues and community struggles. His hobbies include sending drafts at 2 a.m. and drinking too much coffee.
Justin Umali would like you to think that he is not the corniest person in the room. A full-time activist from Southern Tagalog, he writes stories highlighting local and sectoral issues and community struggles. His hobbies include sending drafts at 2 a.m. and drinking too much coffee.
“It’s disheartening that while workers are uniting to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, towards just compensation, and against widespread lay-offs, NTF-ELCAC is hard at work oppressing workers’ rights.”
“They are using the crisis to worsen the workers’ condition and exploit them, knowing that they have nowhere else to turn to.”
“Instead of providing aid especially to vulnerable communities, the soldiers of the 85th IB are overtly sowing terror through militarization.”
Wawa 1 is one of the “Direct Impact Areas” affected by Bacoor’s “Green and Blue Network” reclamation program, which will cover a 320-hectare space aimed at “attract[ing] economic development” in the city. Specifically, Wawa 1 is the proposed site of a “river walk” which will threaten to displace the residents in the area.
Gloria Tomalon, in her capacity as chair of KATRIBO MO, was instrumental in opposing attempts by five mining companies to operate in the Andap Valley complex. The five companies were the Romualdez-owned Benguet Corp., Abacus Coal Exploration and Development Corp., the Chinese-owned Great Wall Mining and Power Corp., ASK Mining and Exploration Corp., and Coal Black Mining Corp.
COVID-19 has laid bare the class contradictions in Philippine society. Not only has it exposed the private sector for what it is – a profiteering class of capitalists, but it has also exposed the government and its institutions for what they are – tools of the same profiteering class to ensure that they can continue profiting.
The delegation arrived in San Pablo after conducting a short program in nearby Santa Cruz, Laguna to have lunch when at least eight uniformed policemen and a police mobile approached the delegation and demanded to see their drivers’ licenses and registration.
“Even members of their mercenary force like Ime, an indigenous Dumagat and an active Cafgu, experience harassment. For P4,500, the Army gets to step on indigenous people’s rights and dignity.”
But Paray was a wounded animal lashing out against the world that hurt him. This is the difference between a worker fighting against injustice and one fighting for their class. Alchie Paray is at once every single Filipino caught in the same situation, but at the same time, he is a reminder that we must all organize ourselves against the system that allows this exploitation to manifest.
“It is not the government – who belittled the impact of Honda Cars’ closure – but the strength of workers’ unity that is key in achieving a better separation package in order to start again.”
“The capitalists at Honda backstabbed the workers whose livelihoods are on the line. It’s clear that they’re sidestepping and twisting the law in order to serve their own interests.”
Since March 2019, the 85th IBPA has been involved in human rights violations against coconut farmers in Quezon. Farmers in Macalelon and Lopez towns have been forced to evacuate due to continuing harassment and accusations of being supporters of the New People’s Army.
Because what Parlade is doing is taking a page from Palparan’s, and Marcos’, and ultimately, the CIA’s playbook. He thinks that barbarity will result in fear, and thus compliance. He thinks that the way to curb legitimate dissent is by becoming an aswang; a murderer in the night, and desecrator of the flesh.
The human rights group stated that “no legal documents were processed to authenticate the identities of the two remains,” and that they were only positively identified as Pinza and Candor upon exhuming.
“If their claims that they were killed in an encounter were true, then why can't they show the body to the family? Why are they so adamant in insisting that they have already buried the two while claiming they are still unidentified?” asked Karapatan in a statement.
“We are disappointed and angry at the military, who not only took Jay-ar’s life, but also blatantly violates the rights of the family by performing delaying tactics and depriving them of the right to claim their relative’s remains.”
Villar and Marcos’ position in Philippine society echoes back to Marie Antoinette’s – a landed pseudo-aristocracy whose power stems from their stranglehold of economic production. These compradors and landlords have differ little from the old nobles of feudal societies.
What this is, in simple terms, is disaster capitalism: the commodification of crisis in order to generate greater profits. What others would call “supply and demand” is actually sellers preying on fear, anxiety, and sometimes even safety in order to generate...
Gabriela Women’s Party called out the action, reminding BPO firms that the current ash fall is “an occupational safety and health issue.” GWP cited Republic Act 11058, or the Occupational Safety and Health Law, which states that workers have right of refusal to work without threat or reprisal if an imminent danger exists in the workplace.
Currently, evacuation efforts are underway in the towns of Talisay, Balete, and San Nicolas, Batangas, while flights to and from NAIA have been temporarily put on hold. About 8,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate so far.
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