By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Today, as the whole nation remembers the lives of the departed, we commemorate the missing. We light a candle not for their souls to rest in peace but to shed light on their way home. We offer flowers not because we believe they are no longer with us but because they are deeply missed,” Mary Guy “Ghay” Portajada, daughter of a missing labor leader, said.
By MARYA SALAMAT
President Benigno Aquino III boldly declared during his first State of the Nation Address that public-private partnerships would be the solution to the government’s lack of funds and the need to develop the country’s infrastructure. But at whose expense?
Sidebar: Show Basis for Toll Hikes – Transport Groups
Military Terrorizes Batangas Community, Forcibly Recruits Minors to Join Paramilitary By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
A minor’s refusal to join the CAFGU resulted in him being beaten up and threatened by soldiers. And he is not alone in his ordeal.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Leaders and representatives of commuters, drivers, workers, transport workers and transport operators including pier-based truckers and bus companies, an association of independent oil companies and a legal expert banded together to oppose the impending toll fee hike.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“They wasted two years of my life,” Lita Mahilum, a political prisoner who was in jail for two years before being cleared by the Court of Appeals of the charges filed against her by the military, said.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Big landowners in Negros Occidental have found another way to retain and re-concentrate the land in their hands: file criminal cases against peasants and farm workers.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“A glaring proof that Filipino women are still living in oppressive conditions – even though the country ranks high in gender-based indexes – is the increasing number of victims of violence against women, most notably, gang rape,” said Lana Linaban, secretary general of Gabriela.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Union hits delaying tactics and labor rights violations of ABS CBN. Labor centers slam government proposal to further relax labor laws.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
“It has been 100 days and we don’t see any major achievement or results as far as genuine change is concerned. There is plenty of rhetoric but too few accomplishments that could be felt by the poor.”– Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO, MARYA SALAMAT and ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
After playing tough against the Luisita SDO during the first oral argument, the SC justices seemed to have “retreated” during the second hearing, forming a mediation panel for a “happy compromise.” The peasants’ desire for actual distribution of land, which the peasants say is no longer negotiable, should have been clear by now.