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By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
One would think that, with all the billions of dollars in remittances that it rakes in, the government would be concerned enough about the plight of distressed OFWs and ensure that those who want to escape from their abusive employers abroad can easily go back home to safety.
By MARYA SALAMAT
A high-level team of the UN’s International Labor Organization has proposed, among others, trainings and "continuing education" for the Philippine police, military, the judiciary and the labor department on how to respect union rights and uphold labor laws.
Sidebar: Responses to ILO High-Level Mission
By GILL H. BOEHRINGER
By seeking to convince its readers that the effects of Ondoy were “felt equally by rich and poor” and that it was a “great equalizer,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the most influential newspaper in the Philippines, was attempting to bolster the view that the Filipino class system had nothing to do with the disaster, and that the lives of all Filipinos are shaped by the same forces of nature, even by fate or by God.
By CHERYLL D. FIEL
Like the Moro in many parts of Mindanao, evacuation has become a way of life for the Lumads . They would rather sleep in schools, at village halls or town gymnasiums than stay in their villages and bear the brunt of military operations.
In one of their stories of long ago, the Mansaka, an indigenous tribe from the provinces of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, once possessed a golden guitar, which they played when they sang their songs of longing, aspirations and victory.
By MARYA SALAMAT
While the government bears down on small businesses and producers, warning them against profiteering in the wake of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, it has allowed Shell, Caltex and Petron to increase oil prices at will.
By MARYA SALAMAT
It what appears to be a challenge to the assertions of conservative groups and the government that the Church should not be involved in politics and the “affairs of the state,” Catholic priests from all over the country -- in a historic first -- gathered to discern and discuss their role amid these turbulent times.
By MARYA SALAMAT
According to Monsignor Walter Cerbito of the diocese of Catarman, Northern Samar, nobody is safe anymore in his province, not even priests, as the militarization intensifies. The murder of the Reverend Cecilio Lucero only underscored the worsening human-rights violations there.
By RITCHE T. SALGADO
Even with the memory of the Reverend Cecilio Lucero’s death still fresh in the minds of the people of Northern Samar, the military continues to implement the counter-insurgency program in the province, targeting civilians.
By ARTHUR ALLAD-IW
The Cordillera region incurred most of the damages in Northern Luzon with 309 dead and P1.398 billion of damaged infrastructures and agriculture caused by typhoon Pepeng.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
"The dams, particularly San Roque Dam, are supposedly designed and used to control floods. However, the floodings these infrastructures have brought us prove that they were not really designed for that function. These dams just bring profit to its proponents and more harm than benefit to the people."
By ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
The construction of dams has always been opposed because of their destructive effects on whole communities. Several anti-dam leaders have been killed as a result. The recent devastation by the dams of Luzon proved that they were right all along.
In the years ahead, the number and magnitude of disasters will increase with colossal human and economic losses. The task of rescue, recovery, relief and rehabilitation will have to fall more and more on the people themselves as they have in fact done in recent years.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Days after Ondoy struck, the government declared that it would no longer allow these poor Filipinos to return to their shattered homes.
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