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An international peasant workshop billed “Global Landgrabbing, Genuine Land Reform and Human Rights” concluded that lands in underdeveloped countries are being grabbed, at an alarming rate, by multinational corporations to maximize profits, thereby displacing thousands of communities and denying peasants their right to the land they till.
“Aquino’s grandiose claims of economic growth based on cherry-picked economic indicators fail to hide the economic indicators that matter to ordinary Filipinos. Landlessness is growing; unemployment is rising; wages are being depressed; prices are soaring; and social services are decaying as they become more scarce,” Elmer Labog, chairman of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
The Aquino administration’s policies are no different from those that have been increasingly implemented over the last three decades and that have resulted in today's grossly distorted and unequal economy
“The Filipino workers and people are fed up and are protesting against the rising prices and intensifying demolitions. The context is rock-bottom wages and chronic unemployment. That is the real state of the nation.” – Kilusang Mayo Uno
They gather to discuss their experiences and exchange “strategies that work” in upholding their freedom to organize, “amid intensified labor exploitation on a global scale.”
For various consumer groups, it is not a question of amending the agreement but scrapping it altogether.
“We will be filing the appropriate charges against the perpetrators, as well as top officials for their complicity and tolerance of these abuses. Labor Sec. Rosalinda Baldoz has a lot of explaining to do.”
Agham Rd residents barricade against impending demolition of their homes
“The court is convinced that the field testing of BT Talong is not a purely scientific activity which belongs within the province of scientists alone… those who are affected by the field testing must be consulted and must be engaged in the process of this kind of risky activity.”– Zelda Soriano, counsel for the petitioners
One government employee was dismissed and the others were deprived of the salary increase that is due to them under the Salary Standardization Law 3.
“The Aquino government has kept on trying to implement this fare hike but has failed to actually implement one. It knows how badly this will affect the public and how this will make the public really angry at the government.”
“Siguro nasa 20 percent pa tayo (ng recovery), malaki pa masyado (ang hahabulin) lalo na sa agriculture.” — Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy
Chibo Tan of the National Federation of Labor Unions said the situation of the city government’s job order and contract of service workers only reflect the system of the current dispensation which implements contractualization, a scheme that does not protect their right to security of tenure.
The players in the cacao industry have targeted to produce one Million metric tons of cacao by 2014. Currently, the target falls short with the country producing only 20,000 MT out of the 130,000 to 150,000 MT target. The country needs to plant cacao to about 130,000 hectares to reach the target.
This year, private water concessionaires are up for ‘rate rebasing,’ meaning they would substantially increase water rates to pass on the costs of their planned projects, some of which would not be implemented but will be charged to consumers anyway. This is aside from the usual rate increases.
Read also: Metro Manila experience: Poor water service, unjustified rate hike petition
“Aquino is so desperate in selling his illusion of economic growth that he even resorts to absurd excuses just to cover up the worsening hunger and poverty that he has brought upon us workers and the Filipino people.” – KMU
“We are now on the road to recovering the environment we have lost,” claimed the DENR. While progressive groups say, “With the forests being converted into plantations and logging permitted by the government, the area has been denuded up to a point wherein a mere rain shower could cause a catastrophic landslide.”
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