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By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Legal protest movements are rising on a global scale in an unprecedented way. They are fueled by pro-imperialist and reactionary policies and such concrete conditions generated by these as rising mass unemployment, soaring prices of food, fuel and other basic commodities and increasingly violent reaction of states to unarmed protests.” – Professor Jose Maria Sison
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
“Obviously, Malacañang’s unseen hand played a major role in the anti-farmer decision of the Supreme Court.” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
"We are alarmed that CMU, a center for education and formation of values, by its actions, is promoting a teaching of values that contradicts the intention of social justice. By denying the farmers the land that is very much attached to their lives, the CMU has become a despotic landlord rather than an educational institution." - solidarity mission
By MARYA SALAMAT
Since the Moro Islamic Liberation Front submitted its draft comprehensive compact in February, the government’s counter-proposal has been highly anticipated, because putting the drafts on the table is expected “to lead to substantive talks,” said the MILF.
Sidebar:
Interview with MILF’s Iqbal on the current MILF-GPH ceasefire, peace talks
By MARYA SALAMAT
“I was once a laborer, too. I have worked at various jobs just to be able to feed my family. I know how it is to work hard and to subsist on meager wages.” – Rep. Manny Pacquiao
By ANNE MARXZE D.UMIL
“The RH bill has many positive provisions that may be put to waste if the population control menace continues to overshadow the bill’s essence. As we work to strengthen the public and fellow legislators’ appreciation of such good provisions, we shall nonetheless refuse to make the RH bill a platform for population control.
The debate over the reproductive health bill is heating up. Absence in the debate is the voice of women who would be greatly affected by the rejection or enactment of a reproductive health bill.
By JOAN GARCIA
Their history of resistance against the plunder of their resources is as rich as their mountains.
Sidebar: Cordillera elders form pact against mining, militarization
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Mangyans try to survive by farming and yet they are discriminated against; buyers of their produce try to cheat them; mining companies displace them; and the military accuses them of aiding NPA guerrillas and harasses them, or worse, kills some of them.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
In the age of ukay-ukay, it doesn't matter how expensive or how inexpensive your clothes and accessories are. What's important is how you wear them.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Contrary to government claims, the entry of mining transnational corporations has not improved the lives of the Filipino people and the economy as a whole.
This was not the first time Gil Lebria, 37, had gone abroad for work. Unfortunately, this was also not the first time that he and others like him encountered a major problem that the Philippine government had ignored and, as a result, they were forced to return home earlier than planned, empty-handed.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Celito Baccay, 31, a key leader and organizer of the union in Maeno Giken, a Japanese-owned manufacturer of steel, iron and stainless steel products, was shot by gunmen at point-blank range. A week before the incident, Baccay turned down a promotion offered by the management that would have disqualified him from the union. This, according to his wife, angered the management.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
They were sexually harassed; they had no union; their pay never went above the minimum wage; and their 13th month pay was cut in half. When they formed a union, the management tried to undermine it. But everything turned out for the better when the workers, who are predominantly women, collectively staged protest actions from noise barrage, to work slowdown and finally a strike.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
St. Scholastica’s College has given recognition to Bulatlat.com writer Anne Marxze Umil for her coverage of issues concerning women.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Manila preschool teachers are all in favor of the nationalization of the kindergarten program, but they are vehemently against the Department of education’s plans to hire new teachers on a contractual basis.
Sidebar: ‘Yes’ to Universal Kindergarten, ‘No’ to Contractualization of Kinder Teachers – ACT Teachers
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Maria Victoria Cavanes and her fellow OFW Maricel Busbos, who are working as domestic helpers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are being routinely physically abused by their employers. Their families are desperately appealing for their rescue.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Today, Feb. 22, the workers at the largest plantation and cannery in the Philippines will hold a union election. The incumbent KMU-affiliated union, Amado-Kadena, is fighting to retain its dominance even as Dole Philippines uses a pro-management faction of the union against it while the US company, its allies and the military vilify and harass the union's members and officers.
Search for Missing Dad, Other Disappeared
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
"When we were still (in Saudi) the government did not help us. Now that we are home, they still could not extend any assistance to us." – Lubaira Guiandal, 43, one of the OFWs who lived under the Khandara Bridge while awaiting repatriation.
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