Tingog Katawhan! Ikulong si Gloria Arroyo!

Pagkampo sa militar sa eskwelahan ginabawal sa internasyunal nga balaudnon

2011-11-11T18:36:00.000+08:00

AFP violate children’s rights in areas under armed conflict

By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — In a remote town of Sadanga, Mountain Province, detachments were established by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in school compounds allegedly to neutralize the usual presence of the New Peoples Army (NPA), a revolutionary force which operates in the area and in the whole Cordillera region.

Sources said that there are at least three schools in the said town where military camps were established: in the Sadanga Elementary School in Tap-ag, Sadanga National High School in Sangey, and Belwang Elementary School in Belwang. Troops camped there were identified to be from the 54th IB led by a certain Lt. Joseph Sabas.

With the troops’ presence, some teachers positively favor and justify the armed presence that they are there to guard the schools from the influence of the rebels.

Reached to verify the presence of military camps in the said schools, the mayor of the town confirmed the troops’ encampment inside the campuses. When residents were interviewed they even identified the locations to be within the campuses mentioned.

“Yes, it is with the permission of the barangay officials kasi ayaw namin umaumay NPA nga agrecruit young people me” (because don’t like the NPA visits to recruit our youth), explained Sadanga Mayor Gavino Ganggangan in an SMS message.

This revealed that the presence of the military troops in the area is traceable to the anti-insurgency campaign of the government to maintain “peace” because various mining applications covering that area are already inked.

While Mayor Ganggangan, alleged barangay officials, and some teachers welcomed the military presence in the area, others are more concerned of the validity of the military presence and its effect on the school children.

In June this year, a team of UNICEF officials headed by Robert MacTavish went to visit the area. As the camps were proven to be inside the school campuses, they reportedly wrote the AFP to act on the removal of the camps as it endangers the safety of the children, a local member of the team revealed. But the troops remained there to the present.

Armed conflict

In an interview with Anastacia B. Tamayo, she explained that International Humanitarian Law (IHL) applies in the areas (in the Philippines) where two contending forces exist. As indicated by the information from the mayor and the teachers both the AFP and the rebels operate in Sadanga area (as in other areas of the region), various instruments under IHL apply. These instruments are to protect civilians, children, non-combatants and institutions like schools, hospitals and church, she added.

The children are caught in the “crossfire” in this situation due to the presence of the two forces, hence there is the intervention of the IHL, opines Tamayo, chapter administrator of the Philippine Red Cross here. She cited that the Philippine Congress passed, on December 11, 2009, Republic Act 9851 which mandates that government act on crimes against the International Humanitarian Law.

More instruments protect children

In a media seminar on child protection in this city, speakers explained that the presence of the military camps inside school campus is tantamount to the violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child.

The presence of armed groups unduely influenced and in-still fear on the children, explained Cesar Giovanni Soledad, program manager of the International Labour Organization.

Protection and care of children affected by armed conflict are mandated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child which the Philippine government is obliged to implemented.

Children in armed conflict are even protected under our national system, reiterated Ariel Hans Sebellino, executive director of the Philippine Press Institute.

To implement the convention, the Philippines particularly passed Republic Act (RA) 7610 which provides special protection for children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination, including children in armed conflict.

FPIC necessary

An expert on indigenous people’s rights pointed that the presence of military in the community needs the free, prior and informed consent from the concerned citizens.

The source said that the FPIC as mandated by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 is required as the program or policy of military deployment affects their existence or self-determination as a collective group.

On the other hand, in a phone interview, Cordilleras’ Department of Education office, Delfin Salidao, the legal officer, points out that military detachment or barracks inside the school campus is not allowed as a policy of their office.

He referred this reporter to call their division office in Mountain Province if they had granted such request by the AFP, which, he claimed, maybe allowed. The calls to check their MP Division failed due to typhoon-cut communication lines.

Rights vs. Military camps non-negotiable

Rights advocates – both in the international and local – claimed that the rights of the children against military camps and barracks inside school campuses are prohibited and non-negotiable, as provided by the UN instruments, Convention on the Rights of the Child and local laws.

The UNICEF said that the convention contains universally set of non-negotiable standards and obligations which provide protection and support for the rights of the children.

“As the Philippine state is a signatory to the said convention and ratified it on July 26, 1990, it must strictly observe it without exemption,” said Jude Baggo, secretary-general of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) reiterating RA 7610, Art X, Sec. 22, paragraph e which states: “Public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and rural health units shall not be utilized for military purposes such as command posts, barracks, detachments and supply depots.” # nordis.net

Korte Suprema inutusan ang military na palayain si Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño, at Manuel Merino

2011-06-20T13:51:00.001+08:00

SC to military: Release student activists
By Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News
Posted at 06/20/2011 8:07 AM | Updated as of 06/20/2011 10:53 AM

MANILA, Philippines - *The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a decision of the Court of Appeals(CA) ordering the military, led by retired army general Jovito Palparan, to immediately release University of the Philippines(UP) student activists Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, along with Manuel Merino, from their detention.*

In a decision by the court En Banc promulgated last May 31 and penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales(ret), the high court directed Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr.(ret), Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, Lt. Francis Mirablelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez and Donald Caigas, who were once assigned to the 7th Infantry Division and the 24th Infantry Battalion, and found by the high tribunal as the "responsible and accountable individuals," to immediately comply with the appellate court's decision on September 17, 2008, acting on a case for Writ of Amparo, for the activist's immediate release.

"Respondents Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Gen. Jovito Palparan, Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Arnel Enriquez and Donald Caigas shall remain personally impleaded in the petitions to answer for any responsibilities and/or accountabilities they may have incurred during their incumbencies," the decision read.

"Owing to the retirement and/or reassignment to other places of assignment of some of the respondents herein... the incumbent commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division and the incumbent battalion commander of the 24th Infantry Battalion, both of the Philippine Army, are enjoined to fully ensure the release of Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino from detention."

Basahin and buong balita

Kaugnay na balita: Raps filed vs Palparan for enforced disappearances

MAKABAYAN pinuna ang pakikialam ng Estados Unidos sa South China Sea

2011-06-18T01:09:00.001+08:00

MAKABAYAN hits US meddling in South China Sea
Rebuffs China’s domineering tactics in Spratly’s

THE Makabayan bloc in Congress led by BAYAN MUNA Partylist Rep. Teddy Casiño assailed the United States for "meddling into the territorial dispute with China and several Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea."

The coalition also criticized Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III for “political mendicancy” in asking US support on the issue.

“It is not surprising that Pnoy is delighted about the statement of US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas that they will work with the Philippine government on issues including the disputed South China Sea and the Spratlys. What is lamentable is that the US is once again playing interventionist politics and that Malacanang is touting its own political mendicancy,” Casiño said.

He added that “the US should not meddle in the South China Sea dispute. We are no longer the “Little Brown Brothers” from our colonial past with the US. Using the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty as a pretext and invoking “partnership” with us in all subjects as they say do not justify at all US interference in our foreign affairs.”

“In fact, the cold war era treaty with the US should be terminated and the Philippine ambassador to the US should stop shopping for ukay-ukay military surplus from US Foreign Military Sales and Financing,” he pointed out.

The US move, including a US Senate resolution condemning China, Casiño said, “only provokes more tension in the disputed area. The US is indeed engaging and containing China in the region but PNoy should not let our own sovereign country be dragged into their jingoist and hegemonic position.”

“The Declaration of the Conduct of Parties on the South China Sea should be advanced for more cooperation even without the ASEAN or other regional grouping like the APEC where the US has conveniently pushed for its own exploitative interests detrimental to the region. Cooperation in the region, not rivalry and competition, without US interference should be asserted by peoples and nations directly involved in the contested area,” Casiño pointed out.

“The statement of US senators Jim Webb and James Inhofe condemning China on the issue creates more tension. So are the “aggravating words” with China being issued from Malacanang. We should stop this pro-US warmongering,but above all China should stop its domineering and aggressive stance on the Spratly issue” the Makabayan solon said. ###

Tribong Subanen sa Zamboanga del Norte nagreklamo sa United Nations

2011-06-17T01:35:00.001+08:00

Subanen to raise mining complaint to UN
16-Jun-11, Rio Rose Uro
Source: InterAksyon.com

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Notwithstanding the apology of a Canadian mining firm for operating within their ancestral domain, leaders of the Subanen tribe in Zamboanga del Norte said they would continue their efforts to hold government accountable before the United Nations for allowing the desecration of what they consider sacred ground.

The tribe held a “cleansing ritual” in Siocon town last month after TVI Resources Development apologized to them.

But Timuay Noval Lambo of the Seven Rivers Council, a traditional governance setup encompassing several tribal territories, said the atonement of TVIRD does not matter because their complaint before the UN “is for violations of the Philippine government against our rights, customs and traditions.”

In July 2007, two Subanen leaders filed a complaint against the Philippine government before the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) for taking their community’s rights for granted by allowing the TVIRD mining project on Mt. Canatuan.

Cathal Doyle of the Irish Human Rights Center, which is assisting the Subanen leaders, said the category of discrimination in this case pertains to government policies that are discriminatory to indigenous peoples.

“We are not imposing (any) penalty nor requiring government to conduct a cleansing ritual. We are (only) asking (for) an admission of their fault and commitment to protect the rights of indigenous peoples, first and foremost,” explained Timuay Jose Anoy, one of the complainants.

TVIRD has a 508-hectare gold-silver and, later, copper-zinc mining operation in Canatuan covered by a Mineral Production Sharing Agreement (MPSA) granted by the national government in 1997.

This mining tenement sits within the 8,100-hectare ancestral domain of the descendants of Apo Manglang headed by Anoy.

Called the Apo Manglang Glupa Pusaka (AMGP), this tribal territory is covered by a certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT) issued by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

But TVIRD commenced operation in Canatuan without the AMGP’s consent, which is required under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Worse, the NCIP allegedly constituted a bogus Siocon Council of Elders (SCoE) to represent the tribe in negotiations with TVIRD, sowing division among the Subanen people.

“The government, through the NCIP, is primarily responsible for the chaotic situation in the Subanon community of Canatuan,” Anoy said.

He claimed the NCIP recognized the bogus SCoE “despite their knowledge that I existed as Timuay of Canatuan.”

“TVIRD recognized and secured the consent to mine sacred Mt. Canatuan from the SCoE on the grounds that NCIP told them to do so,” Anoy added.

The Subanens’ UNCERD complaint is among the 40 documented cases of violation of indigenous peoples’ rights throughout the country, the bulk of which are related to the entry of large-scale mining projects that mostly impinged on the tribes’ ancestral domains, Doyle said.

Indigenous peoples advocate Carl Cesar Rebuta said government is obliged to answer the Subanens’ UNCERD complaint by August this year.

Galit ng mga kabataan at estudyante sa lumalalang krisis sa edukasyon sa ilalim ni Noynoy inihambing kay Simon sa nobelang El Filibusterismo

2011-06-17T01:00:00.000+08:00

Rizal to do ‘a Simon’ if he was alive today under Noynoy – Anakbayan
On June 16, 2011

As the nation prepares to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of National Hero Jose Rizal, a national youth group believes he would have been driven to follow one of the main characters in one of his most important novels, the El Filibusterismo.

“If he was alive today, Rizal would most likely be pushed into emulating ‘Simon’ due to the disgusting lack of social change under the current administration” said Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of the youth group Anakbayan.

The character Simon, formerly known as the young reformist named Crisostomo Ibarra, seeked to overthrow the ruling classes of Rizal’s time after his previous ‘peaceful’ plans were frustrated.

“With the deregulated and commercialized tertiary education system under Noynoy, Rizal wouldn’t even have been able to finish his studies in the Ateneo and the UST” said Crisostomo.

The tuition and other fees in the Ateneo De Manila and University of Sto. Tomas, the two schools in which the national hero studied, are among the most expensive in the country at around P40 thousand and P60 thousand, respectively. They are also among the 281 universities nationwide which hiked their tuition rates this year.

In addition, the youth leader noted that Rizal would have empathized with the hundreds of thousands of urban and rural poor who are being evicted from their homes under Noynoy’s Public Private Partnership (PPP) program.

Based on the government’s own research, an estimated half-million families all over Metro Manila are targeted by four waves of demolitions. Many will make way for PPP projects such as the Central Business District and National Government Center in Quezon City, privatization of Intramuros and the North Harbor in Manila, the privatization of the Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, and the construction of the Laguna Lake Dike.

In rural areas, tens of thousands of farmers and indigenous peoples are being ejected to make way for projects such as a 30 thousand hectare biofuel plantation in Isabela, a Lopez Family-owned plantation in Nueva Ecija, and the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone in Aurora. The planned expansion of the MRT train line into Bulacan is also the alleged reason behind attempts by the Araneta family (related to DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas) to eject farmers in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

Ang patuloy na pakikibaka ng mga magsasaka sa Hacienda Luisita

2011-06-16T20:20:00.005+08:00

“Hacienda Luisita is not just a peasant struggle, it is a Filipino struggle against the feudal system that keeps our country from moving on and developing. Every freedom loving Filipino citizen should support the call for the distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands to the farmworkers.” -Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL, Peasant Alliance in Central Luzon)

Click for more texts, photos, and videos.

Pangangamkam ng lupa, globalized na rin. Stop local and global landgrabbing!

2011-06-15T11:52:00.000+08:00

IBON Features | June 2011

FOREIGN LAND DEALS: GLOBAL LAND GRABBING?

These land deals are unconstitutional and have long-term severe implications to the host country's food security, land ownership and national sovereignty.

*IBON Features--* There is a rising trend in the number of what are called foreign land deals in many countries across the globe, covering up to million hectares of land. The scale and rate at which these deals have taken place, plus the institutions involved in the transactions have made these deals controversial.

The implications of foreign land deals are tremendous, especially on farmers' rights, food security and national sovereignty.

*Land rush*

Foreign land deals refer to purchases or long-term leases or large tracts of productive lands in the poor countries by rich countries and their corporations, which need resources to produce crops either for food, feedstock, or biofuels in commercial and export quantities. These have been referred to as "land grabs" because of the usually unfair terms by which they have been transacted. While most of these deals pass through legal government channels, consultation with the communities of farmers and indigenous people is lacking.

The land rush, which began as early as 2006, is said to be not only due to the rush by "food insecure" nations to ensure food supply or the increasing demand for alternative sources of energy like biofuels, but also by market opportunities from speculation on land value.

Indeed in the face of an intensifying global crisis, land markets have become attractive as they present a new arena for speculation on land prices. According to Oxfam, there are around 120 hedge funds, retirement funds, agribusiness corporations and private equity funds investing in agricultural lands in poor countries. This shows that the land rush is only partly explained by the food and energy demands, and it becomes apparent that investment in soft commodities such as farmlands is about profitability.

*Who are involved?*

According to non-government organization GRAIN, the Philippines is among the leading target countries for land deals, with others like Sudan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, etc. This is despite provisions in the Philippine Constitution barring foreigners from owning land in the country.

Global land grabbing was first noticed with the involvement of China and Middle Eastern countries. So-called food insecure countries have sought to outsource their local food production by gaining land control in other countries. Since 2008, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Gulf countries, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, UAE, India, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea have been on a land rush to Africa, South and Southeast Asia, South America and Central Asia.

But aside from the "food-insecure" nations, another group of land grabbers are the investment houses, private equity funds, fund managers, and large agribusiness corporations. They enter the picture either through local private partners, the host governments, or through their own governments seeking joint ventures with the taget countries. One example of this disguised group of land grabbers is the Japanese firm Mitsui, which bought 100,000 hectares of land in Brazil for soybean production. This land grabbing is in the form of acquisition of farmlands, where Japanese and Arab trading and processing corporations are involved.

The third group of land grabbers is the host governments. They change national laws, policies, as well as practices on land ownership to accommodate the foreign acquisitions. For instance, the Sudan government, which owns most of the country's land, is issuing leases at cheap prices. Meanwhile the Chinese government introduced rights leasing or trading to farmers.

Other governments that are reluctant to open up and allow foreigners to take over their lands will have to deal with the World Bank. In 2009, World Bank loans, grants, equity investments, and guarantees increased by a record 54% from the previous year, and most of the increases are directed to facilitating foreign land deals.

*The Philippines*

After centuries of colonial land grabs and decades of failed land reforms and globalization, the country is actually set for this new brand of foreign land grabbing.

The Philippine Agribusiness Development Cooperation Center (PADCC), created in 2007 keeps a land bank of supposedly idle lands that may be considered for agribusiness deals. It facilitated a US$300-million worth of investments from the NEH of Bahrain and the local AMA group to establish a banana export project in Davao del Norte.

On the other hand, the Philippine government under former President Gloria Arroyo entered 18 deals with China, letting Chinese companies access 1.24 million hectares of land. These deals, which became controversial together with the NBN-ZTE deal, have already been cancelled.

The Philippine government is also waiting for the follow-up visits from Saudi Arabia to finalize the US$238.6 million fresh investments for cash crop plantations like banana, mango and pineapple, as well as aquaculture and halal food processing. The two governments have actually been discussing the possibility of Saudi food production in Mindanao and other parts of the Philippines for a lease of 50 years or so.

Meanwhile, China has reportedly secured control of over 2 million hectares of foreign agricultural lands from countries including the Philippines, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Laos, etc. There is also a plan by the Republic of Korea of investing in corn plantation in the Philippines involving a large agricultural area.

Moreover, the Philippine government has allocated six million hectares of 'idle lands' for the production of sugarcane, coconut, cassava, jathropa, oil palm, etc. It has also allocated two million hectares for agribusiness development. All these are even bigger than the size of the country's current cereals farms.

*Promised Benefits*

One of the promised benefits of farmland investments is affordable food for all. But land deals are happening in two unrelated markets---the products market and the land market, with the latter operating on too much speculation. With this, the prices of food will continue to be affected not by the supply-demand equations and production ratios but only with the amount of capital invested in the commodity exchanges. In fact, the steep increases in rice prices in 2008 were largely due to the activities of financial investors in the commodity exchanges.

Also, allowing foreigners to own land for food production will not ensure stable food prices because the produce will eventually be exported back to the source countries at the prevailing global market prices. This will benefit agribusiness corporations and their governments tremendously by increased profits from utilizing cheap land and labor in the host countries and reselling at speculation-driven prices.

Moreover, the marginalization and displacement of farming communities from their land will undermine further their capacity to buy food. In the end, because of the foreign land deals, communities immediately lose their rights to be consulted and participate in food distribution programs. Host governments will also lose further the chance to build stocks, implement centralized procurement and develop local markets.

The entry of corporate control in agricultural and food production will eventually destroy small-scale and backyard farming. The small farms, as well as the national capacity to produce its own food, are bound to lose in the foreign land deals by allowing foreign corporations and investors to produce food while the local market relies on imports. Thus in the end, host countries have essentially given up their right to be self-reliant and self-sufficient in food production as well as their economic democracy to determine the sustainable use of their seeds, genetic resources, water resources, livestock and other natural resources.

Lastly, host governments may be held accountable not only for the lack of transparency in transacting foreign land deals and violating the rights of communities, but for surrendering sovereignty to pursue food security and national development. *IBON Features*

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

Cong. Manny Pacquiao sumusuporta sa P125 wage hike

2011-06-14T23:52:00.000+08:00

Pacquiao packs a punch for wage hike bill
By Atom Araullo, ABS-CBN News
06/14/2011

MANILA, Philippines - Congressman Manny Pacquiao has joined calls for a "significant wage hike" for workers as he links arms with labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and Anakpawis party-list on the issue.

Pacquiao, who has made no secret of his proletarian background, said it's about time for workers to find a little relief from the rising cost of basic commodities.

"Ako rin ay naging ordinaryong manggagawa. Naging welder, service boy, nagbenta ng balot at sampaguita, nagtra-trabaho sa kakarampot na kita. Hindi naging madali ang buhay kaya naiintindihan ko ang inyong laban," said the fighting congressman of Sarangani province.

KMU and Anakpawis hope Pacquiao can deliver the knockout punch in their quest to pass House Bill 375 or the P125 across-the-board wage hike bill in the 14th Congress.

"Very significant at welcome ang suporta ni Congressman Pacquiao, at pinapakita lang nito na marunong siyang lumingon sa kanyang pinanggalingan," said Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano. "Ang pakiramdam namin hindi lang siya guest kundi kahanay mismo ng masang Anakpawis."

Anakpawis and other progressive party-list groups have been pushing for a legislated wage increase for many years, citing rapid inflation and the huge discrepancy between minimum wage and the estimated daily cost of living.

Mariano insists that based on experience, no significant wage increases have been implemented through the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.

Pacquiao said he is one with KMU and Anakpawis in condemning the P22 Cost of Living Allowance that was approved by government recently, as this was hardly felt by laborers.

The People's Champ also scoffed at claims that business will suffer if basic wages are increased.

"Lagi namang panakot sa mga manggagawa yan," Pacquiao said. "Pero kailangan natin pakita na pinapahalagahan natin sila, kasi importante ang mga nagtratrabaho sa pag-unlad ng buong bayan."

Why the NATO powers are trying to assassinate Moammar Gaddafi

2011-06-13T15:44:00.001+08:00

Why the NATO powers are trying to assassinate Moammar Gaddafi
Protecting civilians or western oil companies?
June 13, 2011

By Brian Becker

Wikileaks-released State Department cables from November 2007 and afterwards show the real reason for the mounting U.S. hostility to the Libyan government prior to the current civil war.

NATO has been dropping devastating bunker-busting bombs on Muammar Gaddafi's home in an attempt to assassinate him. One son and several grandchildren have died but Gaddafi has survived. The State Department cables give background to the hostility directed against Gaddafi by the United States and other NATO powers.

One State Department cable from November 2007 (Wikileaks reference ID 07TRIPOLI967) sounds the alarm of “growing evidence of Libyan resource nationalism” by the Gaddafi government. This was almost identical language employed by the U.S. and British governments against Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh when he nationalized Iran’s oil field in 1951. Mossadegh was overthrown by a 1953 CIA coup that restored the Shah to the throne. It allowed U.S. and British oil companies to re-take ownership over Iran’s oil until the 1979 revolution.

The crime of “resource nationalism”

Condemning “Libyan resource nationalism” is diplomatic language. The U.S. government was furious that Gaddafi was moving to rein in and limit the power and profits of the western-owned oil giants that he permitted to come back into the country after George W. Bush in 2004 lifted economic sanctions against Libya.

The same cable refers to an angry speech that Gaddafi made in 2006 which was interpreted as a virtual act of war by the oil companies and the U.S. and western governments.

Gaddafi's speech included these unacceptable words: “Oil companies are controlled by foreigners who have made millions from them—now, Libyans must take their place to profit from this money.”

Oil reserves in Libya are largest in Africa

Libya has the largest oil reserves in Africa and the ninth largest in the world with 41.5 billion barrels as of 2007. The U.S. government and oil industry surveys conclude that Libya has 63 years of reserves at current production rates if no new reserves were to be found. But Libya is considered to have many unexplored reserves. Libya has been a big prize for the western oil giants both because of the quantity of oil and of the particularly high quality of Libyan oil.

In 2008, according to another leaked State Department cable, Gaddafi summoned Conoco-Phillips Chief Executive Jim Mulva to a meeting in Sirte, Libya. There he threatened to expel U.S. oil companies and “threatened to dramatically reduce Libya’s oil production.”

The oil companies and the State Department, as the cables indicate, were increasingly agitated by Gaddafi’s interference with their operations. The Washington Post, which is a big cheerleader for the U.S./NATO bombing campaign, published a story on June 11, 2011, about the leaked Libya cables: “Labor laws were amended to ‘Libyanise’ the economy, and oil firms were pressed to hire Libyan managers, finance people and human resource directors.”

Gaddafi 2009 speech suggested nationalizing Libyan oil

Another Wikileaks-released State Department cable from Jan. 30, 2009, (Wikileaks reference ID 09TRIPOLI71) discusses a January 2009 speech by Gaddafi, stating, “Muammar al-Qadhafi suggested that Libya and other oil exporting states could nationalize their oil production in view of sharply plummeting petroleum prices.”

The U.S. government fully backed the Saudi monarchy and the Mubarak dictatorship, but turned on Libya—not because the regime violated human rights or democracy, but because Gaddafi sought to limit their power. The oil companies, however annoyed they were by having to work with the Libyan government, would have certainly continued their current business operations. The opening of a civil war inside of Libya in February 2011, however, gave a perfect pretext to overthrow the regime and place in power a government that the NATO powers hope will serve as a client regime.

In any country, Libya included, the masses of people can have many valid and legitimate grievances against their government. Even those who support Gaddafi against the NATO bombers probably have grievances. But the U.S., British, French and Italian governments are at war to protect their own interests. Protecting civilians and promoting democracy is of zero concern to Conoco-Phillips, Exxon-Mobil or any of the other oil giants.

The Wikileaks-released State Department cables make it clear that the basis for U.S. hostility to the Gaddafi regime was about who should control Libya’s vast oil reserves. Should it be Libya or should it be the biggest capitalist oil enterprises from western countries?

“Those who dominate Libya’s political and economic leadership are pursuing increasingly nationalistic policies in the energy sector that could jeopardize efficient exploitation of Libya’s extensive oil and gas reserves,” the November 2007 cable states.

Anti-Gaddafi rebels in Washington, D.C.

In mid-May 2011, just six weeks after the NATO bombing of Libya began, leaders of the anti-Gaddafi rebel movement came to Washington, D.C., for “talks.” They spoke at the U.S.-Libya Business Council. The big oil companies were present. The rebels have employed a public relations/lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C., called the Harbour Group.

The principals of the Harbour Group include Hillary Clinton’s staff director from the 1992 presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. Another served as a spokesperson for the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and other conservative Republicans. The third served as a public relations figure in the last three Democratic presidential conventions, according to Reuters.

“Now you can figure out who’s going to win, and the name is not Gaddafi,” Nansan Saleri, the founder of the Houston-based Quantico Reservoir Impact company told the Washington Post. Saleri, former head of reservoir management at Saudi Aramco, explained why the company wouldn’t do business in Libya until now. “Everything in Libya—everything—had to be approved by Gaddafi or one of his sons,” he told the Post. Saleri continued, “Certain things about the mosaic are taking shape. The western companies are positioning themselves.” Within five years, he predicted, “Libyan production is going to be higher than right now and investments are going to come in.”

Libya today is resisting the new colonialism. The colonizers assign noble names such as “protecting civilians” to their military mission. But their role in Africa and the Middle East during the past decades and centuries deprive such propaganda of any credibility. They rely though on the uniformity of the corporate-owned media coverage about their “humanitarian motives” to disguise their crass and cynical plans in Libya and elsewhere.

Mga opisyales ng Romblon tinatakot ng malaking Canadian na kompanya sa pagminina

2011-06-12T10:50:00.001+08:00

Romblon local officials unfazed by mining firm’s threats
Source: CBCP News

ROMBLON, June 8, 2011―Local officials in the island province of Romblon are standing their ground against mining exploration in the area despite pressures from mining firms.

The local executives decried what they call utter disrespect to local autonomy by Ivanhoe Philippines, Inc. a subsidiary of a Canadian mining firm, which is pressuring the local government to allow it to explore despite a declared mining moratorium.

Odiongan Mayor Baltazar Firmalo in a letter sent to Ivanhoe, said he remains firm in his stand against mining and that he would not allow any exploration done in his area.

“I am keeping my stand against mining. This being the case, it would appear contradicting if I would allow your company to conduct any presentation of your mining exploration program in the barangays,” said Firmalo.

Msgr. Ernie Fetalino, chairman of Romblon Ecumenical Forum Against Mining (REFAM), an anti-mining advocacy group lauded the local officials for their uncompromising stand against mining despite threats.

“We are disappointed that many of our leaders have been maligned with threats and empty promises by Ivanhoe but we are thankful that they stood firm with the will and conscience of their constituents against mining,” he said.

The Mining Act of 1995 requires mining companies to present its programs and plans to concerned local government units to secure certificates that would lead to the approval of a license to operate.

Odiongan vice mayor Briccio Fajutnao said Ivanhoe Philippines and other mining companies have not been granted a social license because the people have already decided against mining in the province.

“The mining company cannot fool us,” the vice-mayor said.

Municipal councilor Bonbon Fernandez even declared that those “who work for the mining company will soon be declared ‘persona non grata’.”

“The censure becomes imperative as Ivanhoe continues to break the provincial moratorium and insults the will of the people as expressed through numerous anti-mining resolutions at all levels of our local government,” Fernandez said. (CBCPNews)

Nasaan na ang mga Corystas?

2011-06-11T20:01:00.000+08:00

For shame!
Dr. Carol P. Araullo
June 09, 2011

What is there left to do except decry - again and again – the brazen attempts of the country’s political elite to obliterate the people’s victory over authoritarianism, martial rule and the wanton plunder of the nation’s economy and resources, this time by allowing “full military honors” to accompany the burial of Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos’ refrigerated remains.

After supposedly consulting with “concerned” sectors (foremost of whom were Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, Governor Imee Marcos and Congresswoman Imelda Marcos) Vice President Jejomar Binay has recommended to President Benigno “Noynoy: Aquino III that “full military honors” be accorded to the dictator should his remains be interred in Ilocos province, his political bailiwick.

Mr. Binay nixed burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, presumably because he wished to avoid any impression that the Aquino government considers Marcos a hero, that being far too controversial.

But to say that the late unlamented dictator deserves “full military honors” just because he was a former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, no matter that the majority of the same armed forces mutinied against him in the wake of the EDSA people’s uprising, is not at all a “balanced” solution as Mr. Binay claims. Far from it.

Should Mr. Aquino allow such “full military honors”, it would unfailingly lead to the full reinstatement of Ferdinand E. Marcos to the country’s Hall of Fame rather than where he was right after his ouster and where he should remain forever, the nation’s Hall of Perfidy and Shame.

What’s more, it would be another step in the direction of fully reinstating the Marcoses politically and will give his heirs a stab at the highest positions in the land including the Presidency. This is why the Marcoses are delighted at the outcome of the Binay “survey” although they try to appear coy about it.

The proposal is a grave insult even to the Philippine military, at least the remaining decent and upright members of the military.

Marcos used the armed forces to usurp the people's sovereign power. He then dragged it down to the depths of corruption, criminality and human rights abuse,

The Philippine military's reputation was at its nadir when Marcos' power was at its peak and the military has never quite rid itself not only of the stigma but also of the criminal mindset it had acquired under the fascist dictatorship.

It was only when the military abandoned Marcos did its reputation suddenly improve in the eyes of the people to the extent that wily generals like General Ramos jumped at the opportunity to launder its past and started calling it the “New” AFP.

But no real reforms ever took place as the thousands of extrajudicial killings and billions of stolen AFP funds post EDSA I attest to.

Marcos, who was largely responsible for bringing dishonor to the military as well as bringing the military into dishonor and disrepute, is the last person to deserve “full military honors.”

Mr. Aquino acts in so unpresidential a manner by passing on the apparently politically risky decision to his ambitious Vice President (for whom he has no special feelings unlike his bosom friends, shooting buddies and close relatives).

His moronic excuse is that he will be perceived to be biased, being the son of Benigno “Ninoy”Aquino, Marcos’ arch enemy, and Corazon “Cory” Aquino, his political nemesis.

But, like it or not, he is the President of the country. Eventually, it will be his decision whether to accept Mr. Binay’s seemingly harebrained but supremely foxy recommendation.

More likely, the people pushing for this “grand reconciliation” represent the same vested interests that supported both Noynoy’s and Bongbong’s candidacies. These shadowy figures can not fathom any fundamental differences between the two - except for a complex historical thread tying their past and their future together - that cannot be bridged by practical politics.

The Marcos loyalists have also started crawling out of the woodwork, primarily the politicians in Congress who signed on to a House Resolution calling for a hero’s burial for Marcos.

Apart from being a demonstration of crass opportunism, this development provides ample proof that Mrs. Marcos and her children have not only survived their ouster from power, they have retained enough of their ill-gotten wealth to engineer their political comeback and are now skillfully accumulating even more political capital under the Aquino dispensation.

So where is the “Yellow Crowd” in all this? Except for the members of the Makati Business Club who made it their business to condemn what they rightfully called “historical revisionism at its deceitful worst”, we hardly hear any outraged voices from the vaunted “Corystas”.

Does this indicate that those among the privileged classes who celebrated the so-called restoration of democracy via “people power” (and thereby their restoration to positions of pelf and power) are finally done with “people power” and all its messy implications and consequences to the ruling elite?

The sins of omission and commission of those in a position to finally bury the onerous, odious and completely reprehensible legacy of the Marcos era have caused the creeping collective amnesia about it, now to be capped by “full military honors” for Marcos.

But the human rights victims of the Marcos dictatorship who bear the scars of brutal repression have stood up to say NO! and FOR SHAME!

The progressive legislators have countered the impudent House Resolution of the Marcos loyalists and their backers.

Human rights lawyers and advocates, progressive church people, the social and political activists from all classes and sectors and even some patriotic members of the military have also not forgotten and refuse to give up the fight.

In the name of all the martyrs and real heroes who died in the shadow of martial rule, we hope and pray that they shall, in the end, prevail. #

Published in Business World
10-11 June 2011

Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy sumisimpatiya sa mga Maoist guerrilas ng India

2011-06-07T17:35:00.000+08:00

Arundhati Roy: 'They are trying to keep me destabilised. Anybody who says anything is in danger'

The Booker prize-winning novelist on her political activism in India, why she no longer condemns violent resistance – and why it doesn't matter if she never writes a second novel

BY Stephen Moss
guardian.co.uk
5 June 2011

This is not an ideal beginning. I bump into Arundhati Roy as we are both heading for the loo in the foyer of the large building that houses her publisher Penguin's offices. There are some authors, V S Naipaul say, with whom this could be awkward. But not Roy, who makes me feel instantly at ease. A few minutes later, her publicist settles us in a small, bare room. As we take our positions on either side of a narrow desk I liken it to an interrogation suite. But she says that in India, interrogation rooms are a good deal less salubrious than this.

Roy, who is 50 this year, is best known for her 1997 Booker prize-winning novel The God of Small Things, but for the past decade has been an increasingly vocal critic of the Indian state, attacking its policy towards Kashmir, the environmental destruction wrought by rapid development, the country's nuclear weapons programme and corruption. As a prominent opponent of everything connected with globalisation, she is seeking to construct a "new modernity" based on sustainability and a defence of traditional ways of life.

Her new book, Broken Republic, brings together three essays about the Maoist guerrilla movement in the forests of central India that is resisting the government's attempts to develop and mine land on which tribal people live. The central essay, Walking with the Comrades, is a brilliant piece of reportage, recounting three weeks she spent with the guerrillas in the forest. She must, I suggest, have been in great personal danger. "Everybody's in great danger there, so you can't go round feeling you are specially in danger," she says in her pleasant, high-pitched voice. In any case, she says, the violence of bullets and torture are no greater than the violence of hunger and malnutrition, of vulnerable people feeling they're under siege.

Her time with the guerrillas made a profound impression. She describes spending nights sleeping on the forest floor in a "thousand-star hotel", applauds "the ferocity and grandeur of these poor people fighting back", and says "being in the forest made me feel like there was enough space in my body for all my organs". She detests glitzy, corporate, growth-obsessed modern Indian, and there in the forest she found a brief peace.

There is intense anger in the book, I say, implying that if she toned it down she might find a readier audience. "The anger is calibrated," she insists. "It's less than I actually feel." But even so, her critics call her shrill. "That word 'shrill' is reserved for any expression of feeling. It's all right for the establishment to be as shrill as it likes about annihilating people."

Is her political engagement derived from her mother, Mary Roy, who set up a school for girls in Kerala and has a reputation as a women's rights activist? "She's not an activist," says Roy. "I don't know why people keep saying that. My mother is like a character who escaped from the set of a Fellini film." She laughs at her own description. "She's a whole performing universe of her own. Activists would run a mile from her because they could not deal with what she is."

I want to talk more about Mary Roy – and eventually we do – but there's one important point to clear up first. Guerrillas use violence, generally directed against the police and army, but sometimes causing injury and death to civilians caught in the crossfire. Does she condemn that violence? "I don't condemn it any more," she says. "If you're an adivasi [tribal Indian] living in a forest village and 800 CRP [Central Reserve Police] come and surround your village and start burning it, what are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to go on hunger strike? Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? People have the right to resist annihilation."

Her critics label her a Maoist sympathiser. Is she? "I am a Maoist sympathiser," she says. "I'm not a Maoist ideologue, because the communist movements in history have been just as destructive as capitalism. But right now, when the assault is on, I feel they are very much part of the resistance that I support."

Roy talks about the resistance as an "insurrection"; she makes India sound as if it's ripe for a Chinese or Russian-style revolution. So how come we in the west don't hear about these mini-wars? "I have been told quite openly by several correspondents of international newspapers," she says, "that they have instructions – 'No negative news from India' – because it's an investment destination. So you don't hear about it. But there is an insurrection, and it's not just a Maoist insurrection. Everywhere in the country, people are fighting." I find the suggestion that such an injunction exists – or that self-respecting journalists would accept it – ridiculous. Foreign reporting of India might well be lazy or myopic, but I don't believe it's corrupt.

She sounds like a member of a religious sect, I say, as if she has seen the light. "It's a way of life, a way of thinking," she replies without taking offence. "I know people in India, even the modern young people, understand that here is something that's alive." So why not give up the plush home in Delhi and the media appearances, and return to the forest? "I'd be more than happy to if I had to, but I would be a liability to them in the forest. The battles have to be fought in different ways. The military side is just one part of it. What I do is another part of the battle."

I question her absolutism, her Manichaean view of the world, but I admire her courage. Her home has been pelted with stones; the Indian launch of Broken Republic was interrupted by pro-government demonstrators who stormed the stage; she may be charged with sedition for saying that Kashmiris should be given the right of self-determination. "They are trying to keep me destabilised," she says. Does she feel threatened? "Anybody who says anything is in danger. Hundreds of people are in jail."

Roy has likened writing fiction and polemic to the difference between dancing and walking. Does she not want to dance again? "Of course I do." Is she working on a new novel? "I have been," she says with a laugh, "but I don't get much time to do it." Does it bother her that the followup to The God of Small Things has been so long in coming? "I'm a highly unambitious person," she says. "What does it matter if there is or isn't a novel? I really don't look at it that way. For me, nothing would have been worth not going into that forest."

It's hard to judge whether there will be a second novel. The God of Small Things drew so much on her own life – her charismatic but overbearing mother; a drunken tea-planter father whom her mother left when Roy was very young; her own departure from home in her late teens – that it may be a one-off, a book as much lived as written. She gives ambiguous answers about whether she expects a second novel to appear. On the one hand, she says she is engaged with the resistance movement and that it dominates her thoughts. But almost in the same breath she says others have "picked up the baton" and she would like to return to fiction, to dance again.

What is certain is that little of the second novel has so far been written. She prefers not to tell me what it is about; indeed, she says it would not be possible to pinpoint the theme. "I don't have subjects. It's not like I'm trying to write an anti-dam novel. Fiction is too beautiful to be about just one thing. It should be about everything." Has she been blocked by the pressure of having to follow up a Booker winner? "No," she says. "We're not children all wanting to come first in class and win prizes. It's the pleasure of doing it. I don't know whether it will be a good book, but I'm curious about how and what I will write after these journeys."

Are her agent and publisher disappointed still to be waiting for the second novel? "They always knew there wasn't going to be some novel-producing factory," she says. "I was very clear about that. I don't see the point. I did something. I enjoyed doing it. I'm doing something now. I'm living to the edges of my fingernails, using everything I have. It's impossible for me to look at things politically or in any way as a project, to further my career. You're injected directly into the blood of the places in which you're living and what's going on there."

She has no financial need to write another novel. The God of Small Things, which sold more than 6m copies around the world, set her up for life, even though she has given much of the money away. She even spurned offers for the film rights, because she didn't want anyone interpreting her book for the screen. "Every reader has a vision of it in their head," she says, "and I didn't want it to be one film." She is strong-willed. Back in 1996, when The God of Small Things was being prepared for publication, she insisted on having control of the cover image because she didn't want "a jacket with tigers and ladies in saris". She is her indomitable mother's daughter.

I insist she tell me more about her Fellini-esque mother. She is, says Roy, like an empress. She has a number of buttons beside her bed which, when you press them, emit different bird calls. Each call signals to one of her retinue what she requires. Has she been the centre of her daughter's life? "No, she has been the centre of a lot of conflict in my life. She's an extraordinary women, and when we are together I feel like we are two nuclear-armed states." She laughs loudly. "We have to be a bit careful."

To defuse the family tensions, Roy left home when she was 16 to study architecture in Delhi – even then she wanted to build a new world. She married a fellow student at the age of 17. "He was a very nice guy, but I didn't take it seriously," she says. In 1984 she met and married film-maker Pradip Krishen, and helped him bring up his two daughters by an earlier marriage. They now live separately, though she still refers to him as her "sweetheart". So why separate? "My life is so crazy. There's so much pressure and idiosyncrasy. I don't have any establishment. I don't have anyone to mediate between me and the world. It's just based on instinct." I think what she's saying is that freedom matters more to her than anything else.

She chose not to have children because it would have impinged on that freedom. "For a long time I didn't have the means to support them," she says, "and once I did I thought I was too unreliable. So many of the women in India who are fighting these battles don't have children, because anything can happen. You have to be light on your feet and light in your head. I like to be a mobile republic."

Roy has in the past described herself as "a natural-born feminist". What did she mean by that? "Because of my mother and the way I grew up without a father to look after me, you learned early on that rule number one was look out for yourself. Much of what I can do and say now comes from being independent at an early age." Her mother was born into a wealthy, conservative Christian community in Kerala, but put herself outside the pale by marrying Ranjit Roy, a Hindu from West Bengal. When she returned to her home state after her divorce she had little money and was thus doubly marginalised. The mother eventually triumphed over all these obstacles and made a success of the school she founded, but growing up an outsider has left its mark on her daughter.

Roy says she has always been polemical, and points to her run-in with director Shekhar Kapur in the mid-1990s over his film Bandit Queen – she questioned whether he had the right to portray the rape of a living person on screen without that woman's consent. It may be that the novel is the exception in a life of agitation, rather than the agitation an odd outcrop in a life of fiction-writing. But has she sacrificed too much for the struggle – the chance to dance, children, perhaps even her second marriage? "I don't see any of these things as sacrifices," she says. "They are positive choices. I feel surrounded by love, by excitement. They are not being done in some martyr-like way. When I was walking through the forest with the comrades, we were laughing all the time."

Ilegal at monopolistang pagbili ng PLDT ng Digitel tinututulan sa kongreso

2011-06-06T18:34:00.003+08:00

On the Illegal and Monopolistic PLDT-Digitel Merger
Privilege Speech delivered before the House of Representatives
by Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy A. Casino
June 6, 2011

Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues.

I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege to protect the integrity of the House and help prevent the re-emergence of a monopoly in the telecommunications industry.

Around two months ago, telecommunications giant PLDT, which owns mobile phone leader SMART Communications, managed to buy into and gain control of Digital Telecommunications Inc., which in turn owns Sun Cellular, the third biggest mobile service provider. The merger created major tremors in the industry, the business community and mobile phone consumers.

Nagulat po ang lahat nang mabalitaan na ang PLDT-Smart, na nagmamay-ari na ng Red Mobile at Piltel Talk ‘n Text at kumokontrol ng 58% ng telecommunications industry, ay binili ang Digitel-Sun Cellular, na may hawak naman ng 13% ng maket.

Ibig sabihin, sa isang iglap, napunta sa kamay ng PLDT-Smart ang 71% ng buong telecommunications market.

Ang unang reaksyon ng marami, paano na ang unlimited text and call plans na pinauso ng Sun Cellular at matagal nang sakit ng ulo at gustong ipatigil ng Smart at Globe? Isang tanong din, kung ang sarili ngang serbisyo ng PLDT at Smart hindi nila maayos-ayos, iyon pa kayang sa Digitel at Sun?

Hindi kataka-taka ang ganitong reaksyon. May karanasan na kasi tayo sa monopolyo sa telecommunications industry. Noong araw, kontrolado rin ng PLDT ang telekomunikasyon sa Pilipinas. Ang resulta, mataas na presyo at masamang serbisyo. Ayaw na nating bumalik sa ganitong nakaraan.

In fact, Mr. Speaker, dear colleagues, this abhorrence of monopolies is enshrined in the Constitution. Section 19, Art. XII of the 1987 Constitution states: “The State shall regulate or prohibit monopolies when the public interest so requires. No combinations in restraint of trade or unfair competition shall be allowed.”

In the mid 1990s, the telecommunications industry was de-monopolized and telecommunications franchises granted to several companies with a built-in safeguard against any unintended reconsolidation of the industry. Among the said franchises was the one of Digitel, Republic Act 7678, which under Sec. 15 stated that Digitel “…shall not lease, transfer, grant the usufruct of, sell nor assign this franchise or the rights and privileges acquired thereunder to any person, firm, company, corporation or other commercial or legal entity, nor merge with any other corporation or entity without the prior approval of the Congress of the Philippines. Neither shall the controlling interest of the grantee be transferred, whether as a whole or in parts and whether simultaneously or contemporaneously, to any such person, firm, company, corporation or entity without the prior approval of the Congress of the Philippines.”

Essentially the same provisions can be found in the franchises of PLDT, RA 7082 renewed in 1991, Globe Telecom RA 7229 granted in 1992, and Smart Communications RA 7294 also in 1992. This provision was also reiterated in the franchise granted by Congress in 2002 to Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc., which owns Sun Cellular. Under the said franchises, Digitel, PLDT and Globe – the top three telecommunications companies – are required to get congressional approval before any lease, transfer, grant of usufruct, sale, and transfer of rights and privileges of their franchise.

Bakit po nilagay ng Kongreso ang ganitong mga probisyon? Sa tingin ko’y upang matiyak na hindi basta-bastang malilipat ang prankisa ng mga kumpanyang ito sa kung sinu-sino lang. Na hindi ito mapupunta sa mga fly-by-night operations o kaya’y sa mga nagtatangkang magtatag ng monopolyo sa industriya.

Precisely, Mr. Speaker, this is what happened in the PLDT-Digitel merger. Kinain ng PLDT-Smart ang Digitel-Sun Cellular. The merger now controls 71% of the market. What is wrong with this?

First thing’s first. The merger is illegal because such a buyout or swap and share deal, whatever you call it, requires congressional approval. This is explicit in Digitel’s and Digitel Mobile’s franchises. Proponents of the merger say congressional approval of such mergers and acquisitions have already been waived by virtue of the 1995 Public Telecommunications Policy Act (RA 7925), which ensures equality of treatment for franchise holders. The argument is that since the requirement for congressional approval of such mergers among telecom franchise holders have already been removed in two other franchises, that of RCPI and Sear, then under the principle of equal protection, the same should be waived for the merger involving PLDT-Smart and Digitel-Sun.

But, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think the framers of RA 7925 or other franchises that waived congressional approval ever imagined a situation where PLDT or any entity would once again control 71% of the market. Ang iniisip siguro ng Kongreso noon, kainan ng maliliit na isda, hindi ng mga dambuhala. A deal that would reverse the policy of demonopolization in the telecommunications industry was certainly not contemplated by previous Congresses and should not be tolerated by the 15th Congress. The fact is, congressional approval is explicitly required in the franchises of Digitel, Digitel Mobile, PLDT, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.

Second, not only is the deal illegal, it will foster a monopoly in the sector and all the ills that come with overwhelming market power. Ngayon pa lang nga, hindi na magawang matino ng PLDT-Smart ang kanilang serbisyo, bibigyan pa natin ng dagdag na negosyo? We are all victims of dropped calls, spam texts, questionable billings, unreliable and slow internet connections from the major players. Shouldn’t they improve their services first before gobbling up the competition?

Let’s be honest for a minute. What will stop PLDT from discontinuing or even disrupting Sun Cellular’s unlimited text and call plans? And with Sun out of the way, what will stop PLDT-owned Smart Communications from conniving with Globe Telecom in raising rates the way they always wanted it to happen?

Unfortunately, the body that is supposed to regulate monopoly practices in the industry, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), cannot be expected to protect the consumer or national interest. Our experience with the NTC is that it is afraid of the giant telcos. Sa halip na pangalagaan ang interest ng publiko, inuuna pa nito ang interes ng malalaking kumpanya sa telekomunikasyon.

I have yet to recall of an instance when the NTC exercised its regulatory powers to rein in the profiteering and abusive practices of the telcos. Palagi hong pinagbibigyan ang telco - pinapalusot ang lousy services at hinahayaan ang mataas na singil - on the pressumption that there is healthy competition.

There are persistent rumors that our NTC commissioners are on the payroll of the telcos. In this light, maybe its about time that we conduct lifestyle checks on the NTC commissioners.

In any case, Mr. Speaker, my fear is that the NTC and SEC will act to approve the PLDT-Digitel deal during our upcoming break. Kung magkabulilyaso sa deal na ito, tayo po, sa kahuli-hulihan, ang masisisi dahil sa atin nanggaling ang prankisa ng PLDT at Digitel. Hindi tayo dapat pumayag na basta-basta na lang itong lalabagin at manunumbalik ang monopoloyo sa industriya ng telekomunikasyon.

Dapat ho magdahan-dahan ang NTC at SEC sa pag-apruba ng merger na ito. Dapat sundin ang nasa batas – na kailangang dumaan ito sa isang transparent na proseso, may public hearing, at dapat dumaan din sa Kongreso para mabusisi natin kung talagang makikinabang dito ang mga konsyumer at ang interes ng publiko.

Yun lang po muna. Maraming salamat po. ###

Mga negosyante sa Makati Business Club malakas ang pagtutol din sa paglibing kay Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani

2011-06-03T20:06:00.002+08:00

Makati Biz Club opposes FM burial in Libingan
abs-cbnNEWS.com
06/02/2011

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati Business Club (MBC) is strongly opposing plans to bury former President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. To do so is a “historical revisionism at its deceitful worst.”

In a statement, the business leaders took exception to statements included in House Resolution 1135 that “as the longest-serving president of the republic, Ferdinand Marcos built the modern foundations of the Philippines,” and that he “remained a Filipino patriot to the end of his life and in death deserves to be honored as such.”

Such claim “is a gross distortion of the late dictator's true legacy of autocracy, ruined democratic institutions, violent political repression, unprecedented wholesale corruption, shameless nepotism, crony capitalism, a crushing debt burden, and widespread social inequity and marginalization,” the MBC said.

The group took note, in particular, the effect of the dictatorship on the business sector.

“We particularly remember the near bankruptcy of the government and the need for a moratorium on debt payments because of the burden of unpaid crony loans and the gross mismanagement of the economy in general. Our country struggled with the payments for those onerous loans long after Mr. Marcos had been deposed,” the group added.

The group said a hero is not distinguished by his titles and medals.

“No hero would deliberately bring suffering upon his people and ruin to his country. For these reasons, the Makati Business Club believes that, by virtue of his profoundly tainted record as the leader of our country, Mr. Marcos forfeited whatever rights he had to being buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani,” the MBC said.

Demolisyon at paglaban

2011-06-03T19:47:00.001+08:00

Demolition and resistance
Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

The protest march last Monday called by the urban poor alliance KADAMAY, to denounce a rash of violent demolitions of urban poor communities in Metro Manila, was quite daunting, what with the sweltering heat under the noonday sun. Nonetheless, my activist instincts impelled me to walk with the diminutive but fiery urban poor leader, Ka Mameng Deunida who, at 80-something, remains at the forefront of their uphill struggle.

What struck me immediately was that many of the rallyists were scrawny women who had even scrawnier babies, toddlers and pre-teens in tow. Even the leaders were mostly women, a testament not so much to women’s liberation it seems, but to the extent of desperation that had taken hold of their households and was forcing the mothers to take a stand.

The protesters’ placards showed that things hadn’t changed much since I began as an activist organizing in urban poor communities some 40 years ago, except that it had obviously gone from bad to worse. The demands remained to be “No to demolitions! Yes to jobs, decent wages, affordable housing, education and health care!” and a fairly new one “Stop urban militarization!”

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had signed a 10-Point Covenant with the Urban Poor as a presidential candidate and had promised an end to forced evictions. According to the pro-Aquino Urban Poor Advocates, Mr. Aquino was also committed to “decent relocation” that meant “relocation with quality housing, adequate basic services and sustainable livelihood support.”

The return to the practice of forced evictions under the Aquino watch jolted many urban poor communities back to the harsh reality that after elections, they were back to being “eyesores” and “hazards to public safety”.

Six months into his term, Mr. Aquino was forced to grant a four-month moratorium on demolitions after the valiant defense by residents of their sprawling urban poor settlement in North Triangle, Quezon City. Their homes were being wrecked by the National Housing Authority to give way to a public-private-partnership with a real property developer, Ayala Land, whose owners had supported Mr. Aquino’s presidential bid.

The urban poor have shown that pushed to the wall, they can and will fight back. Stopping the demolition teams by sheer street fighting is a valuable lesson that the urban poor have learned instinctively. As they learn about the roots of their poverty and insecure existence in the cities, their true empowerment begins.

Last April, DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo filed a report to Mr. Aquino on the problem of “informal settlers”, using the more politically-correct term in place of the pejorative one, “squatters”, that is still in use by government, mass media and private property owners.

To his credit, the report forthrightly acknowledges the extent of the problem – 556,526 families, whose total members comprise 25% of the projected 11.5 million population in the National Capital Region for 2010 (NSO).

It also candidly states that the “current and projected government shelter programs are inadequate to fully and effectively address the challenge”. The current shortfall is a whopping 523,765 units.

The Robredo report bats for making shelter a top priority of the national government with the requisite mobilization of financial resources from both the national government and LGUs. It highlights the fact that the average Philippine annual expenditure on housing from 2001-2007 was only .089% of GDP, far below what other southeast Asian countries were spending, from a high of 2.089 in Singapore to a low of .383 per cent in Malaysia.

It also calls for “socially inclusive urban redevelopment schemes” or those that provide poor, working people, whose labor is necessary to any society, a decent place to live.

This translates to a policy wherein “on-site housing solutions shall be exhausted first before considering in-city resettlement, then near-city resettlement and as a last resource, off-city resettlement.” And in order to accomplish on-site or in-city resettlement, the report advocates medium-rise or high-rise buildings to increase density of the population using a “vertical solution”.

A critical point is underscored: while initial capital outlay for such vertical housing is higher than current estimates of off-city relocation, most planners fail to take into account the latter’s attendant social and economic costs.

These include additional government costs in providing basic services (eg water systems, schools, hospitals); costs to the urban poor such as loss of livelihood or hiked transportation expense to commute to and from work or school; and separation of breadwinners from their families because livelihood opportunities are absent in relocation sites.

Of course, government has a habit of dislocating slum dwellers from their already difficult and precarious living conditions only to throw them out into the streets or cart them off to unlivable, far-away relocations sites, hidden from view. That way, they don’t have to bother about any added costs to the government. Moreover, who cares about how the urban poor fare.

The Robredo report, though a welcome departure from previous anti-people government approaches to the “challenge” posed by the urban poor, still fails to address the “push” and “pull” factors underlying the relentless mass migration of rural folk to the cities and the exacerbation of urban poverty and blight as a consequence.

In an earlier column, I tried to summarize these factors; to wit: “The underlying causes of this ever increasing rural to urban exodus are deeply rooted in landlessness (farmers dispossessed, evicted from land they till by land grabbers, land conversion, etc.); entrenched rural poverty and agricultural backwardness (aggravated by neoliberal policies of import liberalization and deregulation, e.g. the removal of agricultural subsidies); landlord and state suppression of peasant struggles against feudal oppression and exploitation; and the continuously deteriorating and overall stultifying living conditions in the countryside.” (See “No titles”, Streetwise 30 September 2011.)

This month the Reciprocal Working Committees on Socio-economic Reforms (RWC-SER) of the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) meet again to thresh out the provisions of a bilateral agreement that, if inked, could lay the basis for a negotiated political settlement of the armed conflict that has been raging for more than four decades.

The plight of the urban poor is squarely addressed in a fundamental and thoroughgoing way by the NDFP in its proposals for a Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-economic Reforms (CASER).

The NDFP calls for abolishing land monopoly in the rural areas and redistributing land to the tillers for free; establishing rural industries and supporting agricultural production in order to squarely address the rural poverty that drives mass migration to urban centers.

National industrialization on the other hand is recognized as “the key to a modern and diversified industrial economy” that can ensure livelihoods for the people, guarantee the satisfaction of their basic needs, bring about rapid and sustained economic growth and achieve economic independence from unwanted foreign domination. In this way decent jobs and other livelihood sources are generated for a burgeoning population, greater social wealth is created and government resources are beefed up as well to be used for the common good.

The Robredo report has been sitting on Mr. Aquino’s table unacted upon for more than two months.

Meanwhile the heartless demolitions are back with a vengeance; so too, the people’s growing resistance. #

Published in Business World
3-4 June 2011

Isang dekada ng pagsasapribado ng kuryente nagpapakita ng kapalpakan ng neoliberalismo

2011-06-02T20:09:00.000+08:00

Power Failure: Ten Years of EPIRA
GIOVANNI TAPANG, Ph.D.
The Manila Times

IT will be ten years to the day by next week when Republic Act No. 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 was enacted into law. Its passage was railroaded through Congress amidst a very strong lobby from the creditors of the National Power Corporation (NPC) led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These power sector reforms and the sale of state-owned power assets to private business were part of the pre-conditions of the IMF for the country to obtain more loans and funds from its creditors.

Those who pushed the bill repeatedly promised that the price of electricity would go down and that there would be no more crisis in power generation once the EPIRA takes effect. The bill sought to restructure the electricity industry and privatize the assets of NPC in order to cut its losses from outstanding loans and pass on the burden of power infrastructure investment to the private sector. On the side, the government will be earning revenues from the sale of generation plants that were owned by the NPC.

Yet contrary to what had been promised, the EPIRA has failed to bring power rates down. We continue to read about impending power crises as electricity generation failed to keep up with demand. There is now a trend towards the concentration of ownership and control in the power sector to only a few families and corporations. Worse, consumers and small businesses carry the burden of ever increasing power rates with the pass-on provisions of the Act and the embedding of the infamous power purchase agreement (PPA) into everyone’s unbundled electricity bill.

From the time EPIRA was passed until 2009, effective residential electricity prices per kilowatt hour rose by around 50 percent. From an ffective rate of P5.76 per kWh in 2001, it has risen to P8.65 by 2009 with a high of P8.98 in 2007. Looking at our own 300 kWh usage, our household effective rate hovered around P10.5 this year. That translates to a little bit over an eighty percent increase in effective rates since 2001. Part of this rise is due to increases in power generation charges from NPC. NPC’s effective rates increased from P2.39 kWh in 2000 to P4.67 this year. Other increases were due to recoveries (a.k.a. pass-on costs) of transmission and distribution utilities. On top of these is the value added tax that is imposed across all the components of your bill—including local and franchise taxes and systems losses.

The initial, and fleeting, 30-centavo Power Act reduction in 2001 has already been erased several times over due to these pass-on provisions in the EPIRA. The EPIRA has also hidden away the PPA which came from the contracts entered into by the NPC with independent power producers. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) instituted various cost recovery mechanisms over the years such as the Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (GRAM) to allow the continued collection by the NPC of charges similar to the PPA. For distribution utilities, there is the Automatic Adjustment of Generation Rates and System Loss Rates (AGRA) where fuel and contract costs are passed on to consumers. The AGRA is automatically passed on to consumers without hearings from the ERC.

The establishment of the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM), which purportedly would be the leveling mechanism to bring down the prices of electricity, was partly the reason why rates rose to ridiculous levels in 2010 due to speculation and lack of generation capacity. The ERC also opened the doors for a new way to set electricity rates. From the return on rate base (RORB) system, it instituted the performance-based regulation (PBR) for distribution utilities and even in the transmission rates of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). Under the PBR, rates are set based on promises of operation performance, costs and capital outlays planned by the company. Consumers are thus paying for something that has not
happened yet.

These are just examples of how the privatization and deregulation of electric power by the EPIRA resulted in high electricity rates for consumers. We shall detail other aspects of the EPIRA in succeeding columns and propose solutions that can push rates down and secure our energy supply.

After seeing its effects for one decade on everyone, neoliberal power reform has to be reversed. This is important since energy utilities are strategic in nature to the development of the country. If these industries are left to monopoly capital, whose interest is to recoup their investment and rake in profits—it will result in an unending increase in utility costs and our national interest will not be addressed.

Dr. Tapang is the chairperson of AGHAM and a convenor of POWER (People Opposed to Warantless Electricity Rates).

Isang taon ng patay na lider magsasaka, sinampahan ng gawa-gawang kaso ng Aquino government

2011-06-01T09:57:00.000+08:00

Press Release: June 1, 2011

Aquino administration still filing trumped-up charges against dead militant

Silang, Cavite – On the first year death anniversary of Rogelio Galit, a peasant leader and activist from Cavite received a subpoena instead of prayers.

Galit, popularly known as Mamay to his family and comrades in the peasant movement in Southern Tagalog died on June 1 last year succumbing to diabetes and heart ailment.

Galit was part of the 72 activists and leaders charged with murder and frustrated murder in Mindoro last 2007. The group was allegedly involved in a New People’s Army ambuscade.

He was arrested on November 6, 2008 in spite of being sick and bed ridden and was only released the following year when the court in Mindoro ruled in favor of the detained activists.

Galit was imprisoned along with other 6 co-accused including Remegio Saladero, a labor lawyer.

“This is a blatant abuse of power of the state. This is ridiculous,” an angered Axel Pinpin, secretary general of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan stated during a tribute activity for Galit in the latter’s home.

“No one in his right mind will do this to a dead person. This is a product of dirty imagination of the armed state elements” added Pinpin, referring to the new murder and multiple charges gainst the “ST-72” filed before the Provincial Prosecutor’s office in San Pablo City

Kasama-TK condemned the latest attempt of the government to persecute the leaders and members of progressive organizations.

After a mass celebration that signaled the end of mourning for Galit, the group proceeded to Silang Town Plaza and hold a condemnation rally and call for the junking of the new trumped-up charges against the “ST-72”.

Meanwhile, militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan - Southern Tagalog (BAYAN-ST) asserts that this recycling of trumped-up charges attests the state’s fascist character. “As we pay our highest tribute to Ka Mamay, we condemn in harshest possible terms the re-affirmation of Aquino of its predecessor Arroyo’s wrong-doings by extending Oplan Bantay Laya II and now pursuing Oplan Bayanihan,” in a statement by XL Fuentes, BAYAN-ST’s spokesperson.

“Natatapos sa babang-luksa ni Mamay ang pagdadalamhati namin, at ngayon din nagsisimulang muli ang pakikibaka namin para itaguyod ang mga karapatang sibil ng mamamayan,” said the wife of Galit.#

9 sundalo ng AFP nahaharap sa kasong pagpatay sa isang myembro ng Bayan Muna sa Bikol

2011-06-01T05:11:00.000+08:00

9 Army soldiers face charges for militant’s death
By Shiena M. Barrameda
May 23, 2011
Inquirer

PILI, Camarines Sur—Nine Army soldiers, including two officers, are facing murder charges for the death of a member of Bayan Muna party-list in Bicol in February.

Maj. Angelo Guzman, spokesperson of the 9th Infantry Division (ID), confirmed to reporters here Saturday that a case of murder has been filed by the police at the Camarines Sur Prosecutor’s Office on Friday against Maj. Danilo Ambe, Lt. Mariel Bonilla, S/Sgt. Deogracias Sarmiento, Pfc Edgardo Tala, Pfc Zander Aler, Pfc Suege Tubig, Pfc Casiano Belangel Jr., Private Alvin De Villa, Pfc Jessie Villareal and several John Does for the death of Rodel Estrellado on Feb. 25.

Discrepancies

The case was filed after a special police investigation concluded that contrary to the claim of the Army unit led by Ambe, Estrellado did not die in an encounter between soldiers and communist rebels, but was abducted and killed.

Karapatan Bicol spokesperson Vince Casilihan said on Sunday that his group and the local members of Bayan Muna initiated the filing of the complaint against the soldiers on behalf of Estrellado who was reportedly abducted from his residence in Malilipot, Albay, and killed in a “fake” encounter in Bato, Camarines Sur.

The case was filed immediately after reports and investigations regarding the killing of Estrellado conducted by a special task force of the Philippine National Police unearthed discrepancies in the pieces of evidence presented by the Army.

Senior Supt. Edwin Diocos, regional director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Bicol, said they have gathered enough evidence to set the wheels of justice moving.

Casilihan said the “John Does” should have been named. He said the immediate superiors and other officers mentioned in the case should also be charged. “They are more liable of the crime than these rank-and-file soldiers,” Casilihan said. “These soldiers were just following their superiors’ orders.”

Tip of the iceberg

“(The killing of) Estrellado is just the tip of the iceberg here. There are more (like) him, victims of human rights violation in Bicol perpetrated by the soldiers,” Casilihan added.

Guzman said the military welcomed the development on the Estrellado case as it would give their soldiers the chance to defend themselves properly in court.

Although he admitted that while the 9th ID inspector general, Col. Colina de Lima, had also noted discrepancies in the statements provided by the soldiers involved in the case, the Army remains firm in its claim that Estrellado died in a legitimate encounter in Bato.

Pagtutol sa dayuhang kompanya ng pagmimina nauwi sa paglabag sa karapatang pantao

2011-05-30T06:07:00.002+08:00

Resistance to mining exploration gave rise to rights violations
Published on May 27, 2011
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

Related article: Peace mission in Davao reveals rights, humanitarian law violations under Oplan Bayanihan

MANILA — After the murder of Santos Manrique, news of the supposed death of Belen Galleto, a local leader in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, circulated through text messages.

But Galleto is still alive. Like Manrique, Galleto is at the frontline of the fight of small scale miners against the entry of Napnapan Mineral Resources Inc. (NMRI) and RUSSELL Mines and Minerals in their community.

Manrique, who was the president of the Federation of Miners Aggrupation in Pantukan (FEDMAP), a barangay council member of Kingking village and a co-convener of the Save Pantukan Alliance, was shot dead by four unidentified men inside his house on April 12 in front of his grandson and wife.

“After Manrique, it is me who they are after. But their attempts to thwart the struggle of small scale miners will not prevail because we will not yield Pantukan to any foreign plunderer,” Galleto, spokeswoman of Save Pantukan alliance, said in a statement sent through email.

Bishop Modesto Villasanta, convener of the Exodus for Justice and Peace (EJP), noted that the entry of Russel Mines and Minerals has resulted in human rights violations.

A recently concluded peace mission dubbed as Duyog sa Panaw led by EJP revealed that before his death, Manrique was visited by employees of Russell Mining and Minerals, Inc. urging him to allow its operations in the area.

US mining company Rusell Mines and Minerals has acquired the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement of Nationwide Development Corporation (NADECOR) and is now on the exploration stage of the Kingking Copper Gold Project, in Sitio Upper Lumdanggang, and Binutaan covering around 1,656 hectares

Russell Mines will use the open pit mining method and projects an estimated exploration cost of P15.8 million ($363 thousand). The foreign firm estimates Pantukan reserves that an approximate 750 million tons of ore (averaging .387 percent copper and .432 grams gold).

“Police investigation reports pointing to personal conflict as the reason behind Ricky’s killing is a sham. Ricky was a good community leader. Those who would gain more for his death are those which have been eyeing the high grade and yet untapped gold reserves in Pantukan,” Hanimay Suazo, acting secretary general of human rights group Karapatan and member of the peace mission, said.

Since March, Pantukan residents have staged a series of protest actions and filed petitions at the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Compostela Valley to stop the exploration and operations of large-scale and foreign mining. They assert instead that the government should act on the management and rehabilitation of small scale mining areas in the province.

On March 9, Manrique was also detained for a day at the Marapangi Police Station after being taken by elements of the 66th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army after he was accused of being a supporter of the New People’s Army.

Galleto said that since the start of the operations of NMRI and Russell company, the 71st IB was deployed in Pantukan. “We have not experienced this since 2007. Now Sitio Lumanggang is a hamletted area, with around 10 elements encamped within a populated community. This clearly shows how mining firms are employing the state army to quell the peoples’ resistance,” Galleto said.

The Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) that sent participants to the mission also said that the Russell Mines and Minerals did not acquire the Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Mansaka community in the area. The group will file a case against Russell at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) for violating the rights of indigenous peoples.

The mission documented 11 cases of violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) victimizing more than 3,664 individuals in a span of only three months in Pantukan.

Villasanta said violations ranged from extrajudicial killing, harassment, attack or use of public places for military purposes, illegal checkpoint, and land-grabbing of indigenous ancestral lands, and disrespect of indigenous traditional leadership and cultural rights committed by both the military elements, and the US mining company.

EJP said they will file charges in relation to the murder of Manrique and the harassment of Galleto.

Galleto remains unflinching in her resistance. “Ricky’s murder was a blatant attack on all those fighting against the entry of large-scale and foreign mining in Pantukan and Davao region. Because of his death, we become more emboldened to fight for our rights against the foreign plunder of our natural resources and the intensifying attacks on all rights defenders like Ricky and myself,” she said.

Paano nakakatulong ang Simbahan sa pagbibigay liwanag tungkol sa RH bill?

2011-05-27T14:37:00.004+08:00

Forbidden Fruit
By Luis Teodoro

THANKS TO some priests and bishops of the Catholic Church, and with considerable help from the media, the debate on the consolidated Reproductive Health bill (House Bill 4244) pending in the House of Representatives is turning into a murky exercise that’s spreading more disinformation than enlightenment.

The episode in which perennial and number one House absentee Manny Pacquiao weighed in on the issue by announcing his opposition to the anti-RH bill demonstrated how far some bishops will go to stop the bill. The anti-RH bishops’ cynical manipulation of the boxer put their opposition on the front pages and the news programs, furthering their advocacy despite Pacquiao’s unfamiliarity with the issues and his embarrassing trouncing during the House debates. Although coached by the bishops, Pacquiao not only misquoted the Biblical injunction to “Be fruitful and multiply,” he also displayed an appalling though unsurprising ignorance of the bill’s intent and provisions unworthy of a member of the House of Representatives.

Not that some of his colleagues in that less than August body, including those who regularly attend the sessions and who’re not as accomplished as Pacquiao, have not been similarly ignorant. Some have argued that, the country being mostly Catholic, it should heed what Catholics want, which assumes that all Catholics agree with the anti-RH bishops. It also ignores the rights of non-Catholics as well as non-Christians, and presumes that only Catholics deserve representation in law, if not in Congress.

Others have played to the gallery by inveighing against abortion, alleging that the bill, which reiterates that abortion is illegal, would on the contrary legalize it. Either out of malice or ignorance of the fact that it makes having children and planning the number of children a couple wants a matter of choice, still others proclaim that the bill would compel Filipino couples to use artificial contraception. Echoing the views of some Catholic bishops, those of a more fundamentalist mind declare that intervening in the “natural process” of procreation is an offense against God. With their bad grammar and worse pronunciation, few of the country’s lawmakers inspired much confidence.

Some Church hierarchs have argued against the idea that an RH law would be a solution to poverty-- about which, however, they are right. Some countries, for example South Africa, where family planning has been in place for years, remain poor despite declining birth rates. There is truth as well in the argument that what’s needed to address poverty are the economic, political and social policies that so far seem to have eluded every administration including the present one.

The bishops who raise that argument may have a point, but it’s a straw figure they’re fighting. House Bill 4244 doesn’t claim that it would alleviate poverty, despite what seems to be President Benigno Aquino III’s assumption that that is indeed the bill’s aim. As any reading of its declaration of policy will reveal, HB 4244 would first of all make information and knowledge about reproductive health available. It is primarily meant to address the country’s high maternal death rate by providing the information, the means and the opportunity for everyone to enjoy reproductive health, while protecting women’s rights and the rights and welfare of children.

These are non-controversial, practically motherhood statements that have been current in other countries for years. It defies understanding why Church hierarchs as well as laymen and women should be so outraged over a bill that, among others, (1) doesn’t allow abortion, and in fact reaffirms, that abortion is illegal; (2) would provide couples the information as well as the means of preventing unwanted pregnancies so they can plan their families both for the health of the mother and to enable the family to better care for their children; (3) makes no claim to lowering the birth rate as the road to the eradication of poverty; and (4) would give couples the choice of planning their families or not, as well as making the means to do so, whether natural or artificial, available.

Such other dilatory questions as the constitutionality of using public funds for the establishment of a system that would assure reproductive health among citizens have also been settled, it being self- evident, contrary to the views of some bishops, that the state can use public funds in furtherance of social policy.

The vehemence with which some hierarchs of the Catholic Church have argued against the RH bill has understandably led to the suspicion that it’s not so much its provisions but the very idea of such a bill that’s unacceptable to some members of the clergy including several bishops. Because the bill would provide the information citizens need to take control of at least the reproductive aspect of their lives rather than continuing to entrust the shaping of those lives to the institutional Church, some Church hierarchs think it would undermine Church influence and power—the very power, such as excommunication and even civil disobedience, that some bishops have been threatening to unleash against the politicians supportive of the bill, including President Aquino III.

Catholic Church dogma entrusts the interpretation of doctrine as well as the living of the righteous life to the guidance of the clergy rather than to the individual: God after all drove Adam and Eve from Eden for eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. A laity ignorant even of their bodies and their reproductive choices not only makes the Church central to people’s lives. It also enhances its temporal power and its role as a major player in the country’s affairs. It’s all about control, the 400-year history of the Church in the Philippines being the history of its deliberate, sustained, and --so it hopes-- eternal involvement in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the nation.

The same worldly view drove the Church’s attempt to legislate mandatory religious instruction in the schools in the 1930s and its campaign against the teaching of Jose Rizal’s life and works in Philippine schools in the 1950s. The same impulse is behind its frantic opposition to the RH bill. Managing information and preventing its dissemination by other sources, and the consequent development among the flock of a capacity to make independent decisions on public policy or their private lives, has been its historical focus since the conquistadores seized these islands for Church and Spanish Crown. Information, choice, and knowledge, whether about society or one’s body, are forbidden fruit.

FROM BUSINESSWORLD, MAY 27-28, 2011

Comments and other columns: www.luisteodoro.com

Ang progresibong pananaw sa reproductive health (RH) bill

2011-05-26T20:10:00.002+08:00

Streetwise
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

Taking a stand on RH

Having borne two children of my own and having struggled to do my part in raising a family while practicing my profession in the field of public health and avidly pursuing my social and political causes, I submit that I may have something worthwhile to say on the controversy over the reproductive health bill.

Ill health, debilitation and untimely deaths due to preventable and curable diseases are undoubtedly an added bane on the masses, men and women alike. Women, however, by virtue of their reproductive functions, their traditional role as the family’s main caregiver and, more and more, as breadwinners themselves, carry distinct and additional burdens.

Central to the concern is the question of family planning or, technically speaking, fertility control. A woman of reproductive age who is ignorant about her body, how she can get pregnant, or choose not to get pregnant, and how to balance the role of giving life and rearing the young with being a productive member of society, as well as pursuing other aspirations and dreams for herself and for others – is a woman who is shackled and doomed to suffer unnecessarily.

Progressives cannot but be on the side of championing RH for women most especially for poor, exploited and oppressed women who are most disadvantaged and worst affected.

But this is not to agree blindly with the supposition that having many children dooms a woman and her family to a life of poverty or conversely, prosperity comes from having only a few. There are exceptions to this observation even in a backward, maldeveloped economy such as ours where poverty is endemic. The key of course lies in the woman’s economic class and social standing.

Those who carry this line easily slide to the proposition that countries and peoples are poor and backward because they are not managing their population growth.

The fear of the teeming multitude derives from an acceptance of the status quo with the overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world mired in a seemingly unending cycle of destitution, ignorance, disease and early death, pointing to overpopulation as the culprit while denying that a tiny majority appropriates the wealth of the world.

(Yes Virginia, US imperialism has elevated the Malthusian theory about unchecked population growth as the ultimate cause of poverty and the depletion of the world’s resources to the level of an international crusade.)

Progressives and genuine people’s organizations must be wary of, expose and contend with imperialist propaganda and programs disguised as pro-people but in truth serve anti-people purposes.

We can agree with the Catholic Church on the basic assumption that people per se should not be considered burdens to society. A people who are productive, not exploited and oppressed, are able to meet their basic needs as well as enjoy a sufficiently stimulating cultural life and are free to pursue their dreams and aspirations – such people are the limitless source of society’s wealth and constitute humanity’s future.

But while progressives can agree with some of the principles underlying the arguments raised by the opponents of the RH bill, the Catholic Church, in particular, there is no gainsaying that we are definitely on the opposing side on this one.

The Church is raising the bogey of abortion (in the process imposing its dogma on when conception takes place) and of alleged coercive means of undertaking RH education and imposing fertility control in opposing the bill. Some fan fears of a rise in promiscuous sexual behavior, sexually-transmitted disease, and moral and social degradation with the passage of the RH bill.

But the consolidated bill being considered has clear-cut provisions against these or at least reasonable safeguards.

Notwithstanding their good intentions, the CBCP cannot be taken to be an infallible judge of spiritual, much less secular issues, even by Catholic Church doctrine. More than once before, the church hierarchy had succeeded in imposing its collective views on matters that are more secular than spiritual, only to reverse itself after some time. We recall, for example, how for many years the teaching of Rizal's Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo was banned by legislation pushed by the Catholic Church on the grounds that these patriotic novels depicted it in a bad light.

Rather than attempt to impose its views and will on Congress, the Catholic Church would do well to undertake mass education campaigns to promote its views on family planning methods together with the concrete programs to match, among the people, especially the poor who have most need of them.

This way they can better utilize the Church’s formidable persuasive powers and clout rather than act as an adversary to the laudable aim of raising the level of the health and wellbeing of women and their families in this country.

A word of caution on the RH bill. There are several questionable and even objectionable provisions still. GABRIELA, the country’s premier alliance of progressive women, points to “vestiges of neomalthusianism” in the bills’s “Guiding Principles”, to wit, “The limited resources of the country cannot be suffered to be spread so thinly to service a burgeoning multitude making allocations grossly inadequate and effectively meaningless.”

Also in Section 25 on the “Implementing Mechanism”, GABRIELA asks why the Population Commission is designated as the coordinating body in the implementation of the RH bill when it is primarily a bill on women’s health.

It is clear that some of the proponents and a significant number of supporters of the RH bill are equally or even more impelled by considerations of population control and management than anything else. Thus we can expect them to persist in their tunnel vision and put the lid on discourse about the underlying, more fundamental causes of poverty and underdevelopment.

Consequently the rechanneling of more substantial government resources to RH aka family planning aka population control must be closely monitored to make sure it is more of the first and second which is the objective rather than purely and erroneously, the latter.

The abuses of past USAID-funded population control programs that pushed artificial contraception methods to the detriment of general and women’s health programs, gave rise to opportunities for undue influence by donor agencies and population control hawkers in public health policy-making, as well as for graft and corruption in richly-endowed population control programs must be prevented.

Enlightened legislation on women’s reproductive health is a step in the right direction. Whether it will achieve its intended purpose depends ultimately on women and their families relentlessly fighting for the full implementation of its positive provisions and taking a vigilant stance vis a vis its more questionable ones.

At the end of the day, only a people in charge of their own destinies -- whose political leadership represents and carries the interests of the overwhelming majority -- can ensure a population management policy which is pro-people and rationally designed to contribute to national development goals geared towards social justice, equity, freedom and prosperity. #

Published in Business World
27-28 May 2011

Basahin ang iba pang artikulo ni Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo

On the Road to Disaster: Gaps in RA9729 and Philippine Climate Change Policies

2011-05-26T14:39:00.002+08:00

Click here to download the complete publication (PDF format)

Economic sovereignty nanganganib sa E.U. free trade deal

2011-05-25T23:07:00.003+08:00

IBON NEWS / 25 May 2011
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail:
media@ibon.org | http://www.ibon.org

*ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY AT RISK WITH LOOMING E.U. FREE TRADE DEAL*

Trade officials will reportedly begin consultations among stakeholders for the proposed bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), but research group IBON urged government not to abandon the country's right to implement key development policy in favor of EU interests.

The group warned that as recovery from the global financial crisis remains fragile, the EU's drive to liberalize global trade and investment and deregulate economic activities is intensifying, especially amid its increasingly problematic agricultural, industrial, services and financial sectors.

An FTA with the EU, the group said, will further open up the Philippine economy, restrict economic sovereignty and drastically reduce policy space and flexibility. The FTA will be particularly damaging for its World Trade Organization-plus measures such as greater trade liberalization in agriculture and industry, introduction of stronger intellectual property rights (IPR) protections, and expansion into the Philippines' services and investments. Only the EU will benefit from this and in effect, will be passing on the burden of adjusting to its crisis to the Philippines, IBON said.

In fact, a report commissioned by the European Commission in 2009 noted that the Philippines will see a "decline of the cereals and grains (mainly rice) sectors" and "reduced real income levels in rural areas" from an FTA deal. The same report also observed how "increased trade and growth benefited only parts of society, widening the gap between poor and rich".

At the same time, it will be distressing for the country if the EU itself implements overt or concealed protectionist policies while the Philippines is forced to rapidly liberalize and strengthen investor protections. These will be all to the detriment of urgent Philippine development priorities and needs, said IBON. Filipinos have witnessed their livelihood and social welfare deteriorate from decades of free trade, and it is time that government reconsider failed and reckless trade and investment liberalization so that it can begin working for genuine development, the research group said.

The Philippine government led by the Department of Trade and Industry is preparing to enter into formal talks for a bilateral trade deal with EU after concluding the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in 2010. The PCA, which sets the framework and principles for an FTA, is said to be signed soon after EU countries approve the agreement. (end)

/IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues./

Hundreds demand justice for slain mayor at funeral

2011-05-22T21:06:00.001+08:00

By Joey A. Gabieta, Rachel V. Arnaiz
Inquirer Visayas
8:03 pm | Saturday, May 21st, 2011

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar, Philippines—The streets of Calbayog were filled with yellow ribbons and confetti as its slain mayor was laid to rest Saturday afternoon.

At least 1,000 people in yellow shirts, many of them from far-flung towns in Samar, joined the funeral march that brought Mayor Reynaldo Uy to his final resting place at the Saint Ignatius Cemetery, about a kilometer away from the city center.

“Justice for Mayor Ining Uy” were the words printed on their shirts.

One of those who joined the funeral march was 63-year-old Elena Sanchez from the island town of Tagapul-an, Samar.

She said that like many Samareños, she wanted justice for slain mayor and his family.

“He was a very good leader. He took care of us, poor people by providing us projects that benefited us,” she said.

The police have yet to arrest the lone gunman who shot and killed Uy, a stalwart of the Liberal Party in Samar, inside covered multi-purpose hall of Hinabangan town, Samar, on April 30 despite the P2 million bounty offered by the family.

Superintendent Elizar Egloso, information officer of the regional police office, assured Uy’s family and supporters that the police were doing everything to solve the murder.

“We have no breakthrough yet as no one has surfaced to help us identify the suspect (sic),” said Egloso in an interview by mobile phone. “But we assure the family of Mayor Uy that we will not stop until the (killer) is arrested.”

The casket bearing Uy’s remains was brought from the City Hall to the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Calbayog for an 8:30 a.m. Requiem Mass and necrological service that lasted for nearly four hours. The Mass was officiated by Bishop Isabelo Abarquez assisted by about 30 priests from the Diocese of Calbayog.

In his Homily, Abarquez condemned the killing of the mayor, whom he described as a well-loved doctor and leader.

“He was not just someone, but a somebody among his folks… a somebody among his constituents and a somebody among his colleagues in the House of Representatives. His death is not a defeat but a victory,” he said.

An emotionally charged necrological service followed the Mass.

Among those who spoke were Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz and Representatives Mel Senen Sarmiento of Samar, Raul Daza of Northern Samar and Teddy Casiño of the partylist group Bayan Muna.

Casiño described Uy as one of the leading figures in Samar who fought against forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.

Uy, he added, was one of the few courageous leaders who opposed the assignment of former Major General Jovito Palparan in Samar.

“Who would have thought that he would die in violence,” Casiño said.

Daza cautioned Uy’s supporters against resorting to violence in their quest for justice.

“I am calling for calm and sobriety. Let us not go on with the cycle of violence. Violence is counter-productive,” Daza said.

Uy’s daughter, Rosa Jessica Uy-Delgado, said they never thought that such a tragedy would fall on the family.

But she said she hoped her father’s killer would be punished.

National sovereignty doesn’t rank high in Noynoy’s priorities

2011-05-21T14:25:00.003+08:00

Visiting US forces visitors no longer
By Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:51 am | Friday, May 20th, 2011

MANILA, Philippines—A top official of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (PCVFA) has confirmed claims by the Pentagon that between 550 and 600 US troops are based indefinitely in the country.

Most of the American soldiers, belonging to the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P), are in Mindanao, but “some are in Manila doing support roles like procurement,” said PCVFA Executive Director Edilberto Adan.

The VFA has allowed the continued presence of the JSOTF-P in a strictly noncombat role, supposedly to advise, share information and conduct joint civil-military operations with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“They (US forces) are not allowed to engage in combat operations. Their presence is authorized by our government through the RP-US Mutual Defense Board,” said Assistant Foreign Secretary Eduardo Malaya.

Malaya, who is also the spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said support by the US forces “for the AFP has degraded the capabilities of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.”

Foot-dragging

Terry Ridon, chair of the League of Filipino Students, believes “the permanent presence of 600 US troops here is no news.”

“It had been confirmed as early as 2009 by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. What surprises us is the foot-dragging of the Aquino administration in failing to stop such an indefinite stay in the country,” Ridon said.

A PCVFA review of the May 1999 agreement, which started late last year, is “ongoing,” Adan told the Inquirer.

The former military officer, however, did not say when the review would be completed.

Sometime in November, Adan said that the VFA review planned to “look at the most contentious issues and ensure the provisions continue to make this agreement relevant and serve the national interest.”

Adan said the PCVFA had organized several technical working groups tasked with addressing different aspects of the VFA.

Contrary to claims by some VFA critics, the treaty had been aboveboard, he said.

Calls for abrogation

Militant groups have called anew for the abrogation of the VFA, which was concurred in by the Senate on May 27, 1999.

Renato Reyes Jr., Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general, said President Aquino “has been so awestruck by US military might that he even went on a tour of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. A few months earlier, he joined US troops in target practice during the Balikatan war games.”

“Given these actions by the President, we wonder how the so-called review of the VFA will end up. National sovereignty doesn’t seem to rank high in the administration’s priorities,” Reyes said.

Reyes noted that there was no attempt from the Aquino administration to question the Americans’ indefinite presence in the country.

“They’re no longer visitors. They’ve become permanent fixtures in Zamboanga. Their presence is a strong argument to terminate the VFA since it is too vague and overboard,” he said.

Reyes said the Palace review of the VFA was focused only on the unequal provisions in relation to custody of US troops who violated Philippine laws.

“The more essential question should be why the VFA is being used to allow the presence of an unlimited number of troops engaging in undefined activities for an unspecified period of time. The review will end up a sham if it will not result in the termination of the VFA,” he added.

Intimidating effect

Kabataan Rep. Raymond Palatino said “the number of US troops here is insignificant in a nation of 92 million people.”

But “they are armed soldiers of a military superpower which makes their presence on our shores a threat to our security and well-being. If concentrated in a single town, those troops have an intimidating effect on local politics,” Palatino said.

High court ruling

The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 11, 2009, that the VFA was duly concurred in by the Senate and had been recognized as a treaty by Washington.

The high tribunal also noted that the VFA was “simply an implementing agreement to the main RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951.”

Sometime in March 2010, the high court upheld anew the legality of the VFA.

In a resolution, the tribunal upheld its earlier ruling on the constitutionality of the agreement, which allowed the presence of US troops in the country for joint military exercises after the 1991 pullout of the American military bases in Clark and Subic.

Washington regards the VFA as an executive agreement which does not require approval by the US Senate.

Hindi bayani si Marcos

2011-05-20T21:37:00.001+08:00

Posted on May 19, 2011 08:50:04 PM
Streetwise -- By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo
Source: Business World

Marcos is no hero

Another revolting turn in the stomach-churning political scene in this country confronts us. The heirs to the Marcosian legacy of economic sabotage and plunder of the nation’s coffers, state terrorism and fascist abuse of the citizenry, and kowtowing to foreign imperialist impositions are now calling for the burial of the dictator Marcos’s petrified remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The resurrection of the idea to transfer the remains of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos to what is traditionally regarded as hallowed burial grounds for the nation’s heroes is outrageous and infuriating, especially for the direct victims of martial rule.

But it is an abomination still waiting to happen.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s nerve to sound the call after barely warming his seat in the Senate is not surprising. But the effrontery and collective amnesia of a big majority of legislators in the Lower House who signed HOR Resolution 1135 and the lack of a clear-cut stand much less official resistance from Malacañang is alarming.

In truth, the process of rehabilitation of the Marcos name began soon after his regime was overthrown.

We thought then that the Marcos dictatorship had been swept away, ignominiously, into the dustbin of history where it belonged. But we were sorely mistaken.

The Cory Aquino regime failed -- refused, even -- to lay the ground for the full condemnation and repudiation of the dictatorship.

Marcos-era fascist decrees and laws remain and are still used to suppress dissent and opposition to government policies and programs. Most of the perpetrators of human rights violations among the military and police, especially the most notorious ones, were never prosecuted much less convicted. A yardstick of failure of post-Marcos regimes, especially Mrs. Aquino’s, to prosecute martial law criminals is the failure to identify and prosecute the masterminds behind the assassination of her husband, the martyr, Benigno Aquino Jr.

The Marcos heirs, his cronies and henchmen of various stripes (from ex-generals and politicians to high-living technocrats, well-paid hacks, and other apologists) have been able to protect their ill-gotten wealth, reputations, and positions of power and influence from any demands for accountability much less restitution.

The public hardly notices that even in the field of education, with its decisive impact on molding the national consciousness, the lessons of martial rule especially its grievous effects on society, are not correctly and sufficiently taught, much less emphasized.

It is no wonder that the Marcoses, including Imelda, the other half of the conjugal dictatorship, whose name is synonymous with profligacy of gargantuan proportions, are now no longer social pariahs but are on the guest list of the many "high society" happenings hereabouts.

It follows then that the plunder, brutal suppression of human rights, the culture of impunity as well as the corruption and criminality endemic in government institutions, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police, continues unabated. All these can be attributed to the mind-set and the practice honed to perfection during the martial law years.

Through all these, the ruling regimes that succeeded Marcos were content to point to the restoration of formal democratic trappings like elections and Congress, as proof that the martial law era and its attendant evils are long past.

What they conveniently obscure, if not conceal, is that the economic and political crisis that brought about the dictatorship, was aggravated by it, and continues to fester even after its overthrow, is still very much around, providing the very same conditions for a return to authoritarianism and fascism.

By continuing the pro-foreign capital and anti-people economic policies of the Marcos era, succeeding regimes plunged our nation to deeper indebtedness and depression, causing increasing hardship and misery on our people, thus reinforcing the claim and illusion that life after martial law was worse and Marcos was a better ruler.

Meanwhile, the HOR resolution from the Marcos camp, at best, is another attempt at testing the waters, and the official response so far sends the signal that "it looks okay so long as it doesn’t pull down our popularity and satisfaction ratings". How else to explain the gingerly, tentative, buck-passing and "survey-conscious" response from Malacañang?

Consider that the resolution merely recycles most of the arguments that have long been exposed as outright lies (e.g., "decorated soldier" versus fake medals) or half-lies (e.g., "built the modern foundations of the Philippines" versus leading the economy to further ruin).

But the biggest argument that deserves to be demolished is that burying the dictator Marcos as a "hero" is a "magnanimous act of reconciliation which will strengthen the bonds of solidarity among the Filipino people".

The resolution outwardly appeals to the magnanimity of Mr. Aquino, son of the most prominent Marcos rival and martial law victim. But in fact, the resolution insults the President, not to mention the Filipino people, counting on their gullibility and total incapacity for discernment.

Mr. Aquino’s tepid response to the outrageous proposal is bound to embolden its proponents. But both grossly underestimate the people’s intelligence and their opposition to notions of reconciliation without justice or, simply put, the politics of accommodation among factions of the same ruling elite.

Those whose memory and scruples are not as limited, the victims of gross injustices and all those who would not want their children and grandchildren to suffer the horrors the Filipino people were subjected to by the Marcos rule, are bound to vehemently oppose this effort to bestow honor to a discredited tyrant and despot.

Seven representatives from the progressive party lists Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela Women’s Party, Kabataan and ACT Party Lists have sponsored a resolution opposing the Marcos resolution. It sums up the arguments against the proposal to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani thus:

"NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the House of Representatives strongly oppose renewed proposals to bury former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as a grave travesty of justice; a monumental historical distortion tantamount to declaring as a hero a dictator who committed crimes against humanity, plunged the nation deeper into foreign debt and control and plundered the nation’s resources; and a renunciation of the historic 1986 people power uprising which toppled Marcos."

Billions lost in Gloria M. Arroyo rice imports

2011-05-18T14:51:00.001+08:00

Smuggling at NFA bared
Billions lost in Gloria M. Arroyo rice imports
By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:01:00 05/17/2011

(First of two parts)

MANILA, Philippines--“Legalized smuggling.”

This was how the audit team hired by the National Food Authority (NFA) described the government’s rice importation program in the last three years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, which saw a rice crisis, soaring prices and huge losses for the grains agency.

A copy of the report prepared by a three-member team said the implementation of the private sector-financed (PSF) importation from 2008 to 2010 turned out to be a huge liability for the government.

It was marked by irregularities such as an uneven playing field among rice traders and fictitious firms that submitted bids, the report said.

The audit team, composed of Jesus P. Posadas, Oscar A. Torralba and Arthur O. Juan, said it was “jolted” by NFA’s financial statements, describing these as unbelievable.

“PSF as implemented effectively legalized smuggling,” the report said, noting that it was not coincidental that the period saw huge losses and debts for the agency. The losses were placed at tens of billions of pesos.

The NFA, tasked with stabilizing the price of the staple and ensuring that the country has enough buffer stocks, allows traders and farmers’ cooperatives to import the grain via its private sector-financed importation program.

The private companies, which had to get priority cards under a first-come, first-served basis, paid the NFA fees in exchange for importing the grain tax-free.

From 2008 to 2010, the NFA allowed commercial rice traders to import a total of 1.4 million metric tons. It asked the Fiscal Incentives Regulatory Board, on behalf of the traders, a tax exemption worth P20 billion.

Cartel

The audit team said it found many “red flags” in the PSF importation program during the period.

For one, the auditors realized that there were elements of a “cartel” among rice traders. The first-come, first-served basis rule was violated as some bidders received permits despite being absent or late in the queue. The names of contact persons on the manager’s checks submitted by different companies to the NFA were also the same, they said.

The companies that were given import licenses also turned out to be fictitious.

Dummy traders

“Apparently, the PSF importation was centrally orchestrated in violation of the NFA first-come, first-served rule and rationale of PSF. NFA utilized the first-come first-served rule for favored bidders,” the report said.

It said fictitious parties were awarded quotas in 2010 in violation of NFA policy guidelines.

The use of dummy traders to participate in the importation program caught the attention of President Benigno Aquino III. In January, Mr. Aquino, who was given a copy of the report, ordered an inquiry in response to the findings of the audit team.

Favored importers

The probe looked into the 10 groups in Pangasinan province that participated in the 2010 importation and were cited by Mr. Aquino.

The importers from Pangasinan were identified as Sta. Rosa Farm Products Corp., Pure Feeds Corp., Longos Proper MPC, Hillside MPC, Unzad MPC, Cabaritan MPC, La Tupiguera MPC, Pasileng Sur MPC, Eastern Binalonan MPC and D’Highlight Agri-Business MPC.

NFA Administrator Angelito Banayo had expressed surprise over the Pangasinan traders’ interest in importing rice when the province was one of the country’s top producers of the grain. He said the cooperatives were not even registered with the government.

The NFA report said 18 traders, including eight from Cebu, were allowed to purchase a total of 200,000 MT through the agency last year.

The Cebu importers were identified as Radegonda Vallejo, Chevy Bacaltos, Edisa Cabuenas, Jugy Obando, Jerome Tan, Othoniel Acquiatan, Marivic Ventura and Glenn Ernesto Pacana.

Check numbers

While the names of these companies’ representatives on the manager’s checks submitted to the NFA were different, the check numbers from the cooperatives in Pangasinan were in consecutive sequence. “It’s too much of a coincidence,” the audit team said.

La Tupiguera, for instance, issued two checks under the name of Melvin T. Delos Reyes. The serial numbers on the checks were 5370 and 5371.

The manager’s checks that followed the sequence 5372, 5373 and 5374 were also received by the NFA. The checks came from Pasileng Sur MPC. Its representative was identified as Ernesto Servillo.

Unzad MPC and Hillside MPC, represented by Jaime Blanco and Analyn Blanco, respectively, sent checks numbered 6336, 6337, 6338, 6339, 6340, 6341 and 6342.

A similar method was employed in 2009. That year, cooperatives such as Nagkakaisang Mamayan, Laong MPC, Macangcong MPC, and Kabuhayan MPC issued vouchers in sequence.

Sofia Guzman

Records also showed that some traders in 2009 had one representative as shown by the name on several manager’s checks. Eastern Sta. Maria MPC, Pindangan Estate, Lleno’s Ricemill and Cabusay Ricemill were all represented by Sofia Guzman.

In 2008, at the height of the rice shortage, the National Bureau of Investigation charged Guzman and several others with hoarding, price manipulation and diversion of government rice stocks after a raid on warehouses in Metro Manila.

Refund of fees

These traders, the auditors said, paid the NFA a “service fee” for their license to import rice.

However, the fees were given back to the same companies that claimed the refunds were part of their incentives for delivering the staple early. This practice deprived the NFA of revenues, the report said.

“Service fees, originally intended as revenue collection of NFA and for the purpose of equalizing the pricing gap of NFA import relative to PSF import were refunded at liberal discretion of NFA,” the report said.

In 2010, the 18 companies paid the NFA a total of P400 million in service fees. The agency returned about P298 million to the traders.

Rebates questioned

The auditors questioned the practice of giving rebates, noting the NFA did not have a mechanism back then to monitor the importation of the private traders.

The NFA could neither ascertain if the rice imports entered the country early or if they were sold below market price. The traders, according to the audit team, did not report to the NFA after getting their import permits.

“PSF imports are processed in the name of NFA, hence, the NFA has direct or indirect liability to suppliers and to the BoC/BIR [Bureau of Customs/ Bureau of Internal Revenue]. But NFA has no oversight or regulatory leverage on disposition of imports,” the report said.

Big profits

“PSF importer enjoys the same subsidy as NFA gets for its direct import, but PSF parties sell theirs at commercial prices and keep the profits entirely for themselves, duty and tax-free,” the audit noted.

By doing so, the national government not only subsidized the rice businesses of “real and fictitious” traders, it also allowed them to gain big profits in the market at the expense of taxpayers.

Private sector importation was not the only “red flag” that caught the attention of the audit team when it examined the procurement process to trace the surge in the agency’s debt to P120 billion as of December 2010.

The report said the country’s purchase of rice in the last decade was marred by wrong timing, over-importation, off-the-mark estimates of per capita consumption and poor rice intelligence and management, which all contributed to the price increases, shortage and mounting debts.

Like oil, rice is sensitive to world events and market speculation. Agricultural and policy decisions of rice sellers and buyers like the Philippines are closely monitored as they affect the global price of rice.

Wrong timing

As the world’s biggest rice importer, it was in the interest of the Philippines to buy at the lowest price if possible.

But in the past decade, the audit found out that the country bought rice under questionable schemes that compelled it to pay premium and significantly way above benchmark prices.

The auditors said they were flabbergasted by the adjustments the NFA made in 2004-2005 to buy rice at the latter part of the year when it was the “lean months” for rice exporters like Thailand and Vietnam.

If a country needs to buy rice from these producers, the best time to order it is the first quarter of the year when harvests kicked in.

The practice of importing rice in the last quarter of the year was repeated in 2009. The government ordered 2.2 million MT of rice from Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan from Nov. 4, 2009 to Dec. 15, 2009.

There were four bidding sessions conducted in that period, a method that pushed prices upward and put the government at a disadvantage, the auditors said.

“Why order in the lean months and why that much bulk? Of course, you will have to pay premium for it,” the auditors said.

Records from the NFA showed that during this period, the Philippines paid as much as $692/MT when it ordered 61,565.875 MT from Vietnam.

Banayo said this was about $200 more than the prevailing global market price in the first half of the year. The increment, he noted, was too much, even if freight and interests costs were factored in.

Noynoy Aquino tuta ng kano!

2011-05-18T13:53:00.004+08:00

May 15, 2011
PRESS RELEASE

Aquino maintains RP subjugation with US warship ‘routine maintenance’---LFS

For the militant student group League of the Filipino Students (LFS), the visit of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III along with senior members of his Cabinet to the USS Carl Vinson currently docked in Manila Bay is an open declaration that his government, like past regimes, will unconditionally serve US interests, albeit disastrous for the Filipino people.

In a press statement, LFS national chairperson Terry Ridon said, the shameless act displayed by President Aquino and top officials of his administration is a welcome greeting to US military troops to engage in full scale military activities in Philippine soil, waging a war of aggression against the Filipino people. The USS Carl Vinson is the same ship used to bury Osama bin Laden, it being one of the most heavily armored vessels of the US Navy.

“Aquino and his company of puppets’ visit to the high powered war machine known as USS Carl Vinson should be condemned by freedom loving Filipinos to the highest order. It is a striking affirmation of Aquino’s puppetry to US and his wholesale approval of the White House’s ongoing terrorism through steady military operations waged here by US troops.” the LFS chairperson stressed.

President Aquino and his party composed of foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Armed Forces Chief of Staff were given a special tour of the US Navy aircraft carrier while the ship was still out at sea yesterday. The ship docks today in Manila Bay for a four day routine ‘maintenance’ beginning Sunday.

“If there is anything maintained in their supposed ‘routine maintenance’, it is the subordanition of the Philippines to the US. This raises the same questions asked repeatedly by the Filipino people, what then is our gain with the Visiting Forces Agreement? That we get to see big warships in our shores? That we, without warning, have to face the terror of having a warmachine docked in our motherland?”, said Ridon.

Ridon, a University of the Philippines (UP) graduating law student, said President Aquino even violated the provision of the 1987 reactionary Philippine Constitution that prohibits the entry of nuclear powered military ships in the country.

“USS Carl Vinson is a nuclear powered vessel which is of course designed to carry nuclear arms wherever the US mercenaries wish to go for covert and overt military operations. To set the record straight, Mr. Aquino violated his own constitution in the name of US
imperialism. This blatant one-man show of treachery is a ground for impeachment or any other legal and constitutional case against Aquino”
the LFS chair added.#

Reference:
Terry Ridon
National Chairperson

Imbestigahan ang pagpasok ng US nuke carrier sa Pilipinas

2011-05-16T21:14:00.001+08:00

NEWS RELEASE
May 16, 2011

Peasant group urges LOVFA to probe US nuke carrier’s entry
After operations vs Bin Laden, US Navy Seals retreat to PH

A militant peasant group today called on the Legislative Oversight on the Visiting Forces Agreement (LOVFA) to immediately probe the docking and four-day stay of the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson in Philippine territory saying “the US turned the Philippines a US military rallying point after its interventionist attack in Pakistan.”

“The US North Arabian fleet’s entry only a month after the so-called US-RP Balikatan joint military exercises clearly shows US troops’ unhampered entry and perpetual basing in the country,” says Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas secretary-general Danilo Ramos.

The last US-RP Balikatan exercise was held last April 5 to 15 this year in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog and was joined by more than 3,000 US troops.

Ramos said that “despite a supposed review of the onerous and one-sided VFA on issues of sovereignty the US continuously displays arrogance and might by stepping on the country’s national sovereignty.”

“Worse, after receiving the US Navy Seals that launched an interventionist military operation in Pakistan, the USS Carl Vinson retreats to Philippines making our country a military rallying point of US wars,” says Ramos. “The US slowly drags the country to its wars of aggression.”

The peasant leader also said President Aquino’s visit to the USS Carl Vinson on Saturday “smacks of puppetry and made a mockery of the country’s sovereignty.”

“President Aquino himself mocked the country’s sovereignty by allowing the entry of US nuclear warheads and warships,” Ramos said adding: “Aquino’s so-called visit to the USS Carl Vinson smacks of puppetry to the US in the highest order.” #

Diskriminasyon sa mga bakla pinag-usapan sa Kongreso

2011-05-16T20:12:00.004+08:00

On the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia
By Rep. Teddy Casiño
Bayan Muna Party List

Privilege Speech
May 16, 2011

Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, I rise to avail of the privilege hour to speak in behalf of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender constituents. Yung mga tinataguriang bakla, tomboy, silahis, operada at mga ka-pederasyon. Ang ilan po sa kanila'y kasama natin ngayon sa gallery.

Tomorrow marks a historic event in their lives. Twenty one years ago, following decades of struggles for recognition and equality, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Mental Disorders. Dati kasi, ang tingin sa kanila ng WHO ay mga baliw. Ngayon ay hindi na, kahit na marami sa kanila'y nakakaloka.

Because of this, May 17 is generally acknowledged as the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia or IDAHO. IDAHO commemorates the continuing struggle to expand human rights protection to include all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. More than the celebration of gay pride, IDAHO urges everyone to aggressively combat and openly condemn sexual and gender discrimination and violence.

Taken as a whole, the achievements of global and national societies in addressing the injustices suffered by our LGBT is impressive yet still sorely lacking. Twenty one years after the WHO's historic action, the miserable plight of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender communities continue. All over the globe, they have horrifying stories of discrimination, vilification, and violence. LGBTs are paying a terribly high price due to age-old prejudices and state-sanctioned or church-sponsored homophobia and transphobia.

More than 80 countries still maintain laws that make same-sex relations a criminal offense, exposing gay men and lesbians to the risk of arrest, imprisonment and, in some cases, torture or death. At least seven countries (Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Nigeria) maintain the death penalty for consensual adult same sex practices. There are still anti-sodomy laws in former British and Spanish colonies.

The United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Philippines is a signatory, has perpetually argued that laws criminalizing homosexuality are inherently discriminatory and incompatible with existing international human right standards. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, and UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon have both been calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality and for further measures to counter discrimination and prejudice directed at LGBTs.

Yet, we will all be appalled by the accounts of brutality and genocide the LGBTs face.

Basahin ang buong speech

Read House Bill 1483: LGBT Anti-Discrimination Bill of 2010

Epekto ng nagmamahal na gasolina sa maliliit na mangingisda

2011-05-16T03:38:00.002+08:00

Hindi marating ang laot: Epekto ng nagmamahal na gasolina sa maliliit na mangingisda
By Ilang-Ilang D. Quijano
May 15, 2011
Source: Pinoy Weekly

Gitagum, Misamis Oriental—Inihanda nila ang lambat at pinuno ng langis ang gasera. Sumakay sa bangka, nag-antanda, at saka nagsagwan patungo sa direksiyon ng mga bangka at umiindap-indap nang gasera ng kanilang mga kasamahan sa may hindi kalayuan. Balita ng mga mangingisda, maraming bansi (flying fish) doon ngayon.

Gusto nilang samantalahin ang pagkakataon, dahil minsan na lamang nakakahuli ng maraming isda nang hindi pumapalaot. Bihira nang lumampas sa 100 metro mula sa baybayin ang karamihan sa mga mangingisda sa Brgy. Poblacion. Karamihan, hindi na gumagamit ng motor dahil sa mataas na presyo ng gasolina. Sa probinsiyang ito, aabot ang presyo ng gasolina sa mahigit P60 kada litro.

“Para makabawi sa gastos, kailangan makahuli ka ng lima hanggang anim na kilo ng isda,” sabi ng 45-anyos na si Jimmy Buray.

Umaabot kasi sa P180 ang gastos niya para sa tatlong litro ng gasolina, at ang huling isda naman ay naibebenta ng P70 kada kilo. “Kaya kung dalawang kilo lang ang mahuli mo, lugi ka pa ng P40. May mga araw pa na walang huli.”

Basahin ang buong kuwento

Myembro ng Anakbayan binugbog at pinatay ng pulis sa Navotas

2011-05-15T17:20:00.000+08:00

Urgent Action Alert
Anakbayan member beaten up and killed by police in Navotas City
UA No: 2011-05-01

UA Date : May 10, 2011
UA Case : Summary Execution

Victim/s : JERWIN DE ANTONIO, 27 years old, single, Fisherman
Resident of Block 6, Bagong Silang, San Jose village, Navotas City
Member of Anakbayan

Place of Incident : Navotas West, Navotas City, Metro Manila

Date of Incident : April 21, 2011

Alleged Perpetrator(s) : Police Officer 1 Ronie dela Cruz and two other policemen identified only as PO1 Carancho and PO1 Gonzales

Account of the Incident:

In the evening of April 20, Jerwin was fetched by a colleague from his house, and the two went to the market where they got some fish to sell. The two then split up the money they earned from selling fish and proceeded to the Boulevard where they went their separate ways.

Witnesses said that a few minutes later, they saw the three police men PO1 Ronie dela Cruz, Carancho and Gonzales forced Jerwin into their patrol vehicle. Witnesses said the police men proceeded to beat up Jerwin inside the vehicle, while the victim flailed his arms and asked for help.

The three police men brought Jerwin to the Police Station 3, Navotas City where they charged him with vagrancy. The police men then brought Jerwin to a lying-in clinic near the San Jose church for a medical check-up. After this, at around 5 am, witnesses said the police brought Jerwin to a side street near a barangay outpost in Navotas West. Two witnesses said they saw Jerwin being beaten up by the three policemen, two of whom were in uniform while the third was in civilian clothes.

They heard Jerwin shouting and pleading: "Sir, please stop it, enough" and asking for help. While Jerwin cried, the policemen only answered "Run!" The policemen also pushed a gun to the victim to make him fight back. The witnesses heard four gunshots then saw the policemen toss Jerwin like a dead animal into a tricycle. A piece of paper that was left in the scene and turned out to be Jerwin's medical certificate from the lying-in clinic was seen taken by a barangay tanod.

At 5:25 am, policemen brought Jerwin's body to the Tondo General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. He was still
unidentified when his body was brought to the Marcello Funenaria in Tangos, Navotas City.

Jerwin was the eldest child and the family breadwinner. His family was already worried because he did not go home. On April 21, at 3 pm, Jerwin's siblings started looking for him around Malabon and Navotas. They went to the Navotas City hall where they were directed to the Navotas City police. At the police station, a policeman in civilian clothes said that they had no information about it and directed them instead to the Malabon City Jail. The victim's siblings went to where they were directed and found nothing. By evening, Jerwin's siblings were still asking around when someone mentioned about a shooting in the coastal area. Witnesses description of the victim matched that of Jerwin, particularly, the clothes that he was wearing when he left the house. The siblings then went back to the Navotas City Police station where policemen asked for a picture and documents about the victim. The police interrogated the victim's siblings and insisted that they give the police the documents. Jerwin's siblings refused. The police then told them that his body was already at the funenaria.

At 1 am on April 22, Jerwin's siblings went to the morgue and confirmed that he was the one who was killed at a shooting in the coastal area.

Recommended Action:

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:

1. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights
groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the summary execution of Jerwin de Antonio.

2. The military to stop the labeling and targeting of human rights defenders as "members of front organizations of the communists"
and "enemies of the state."

3. The Philippine Government to withdraw its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan, which victimizes innnocent and unarmed
civilians

4. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a
party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of these instruments' provisions.

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph / opnet@ops.gov.ph

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
osec@opapp.gov.ph

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-9281 / 911-0488
Fax:+63(2) 911 6213
Email: osnd@philonline.com

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-8344; 5213721
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.214
Fax: (+632) 521-1614
Email: soj@doj.gov.ph

Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: _ chair.rosales.chr@gmail.com
_, _lorettann@gmail.com_

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our address below.

URGENT ACTION Prepared by:
KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights
National Office
2/F Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin cor Matatag Sts.,
Brgy. Central, Diliman, Quezon City 1100 PHILIPPINES
Voice/Fax: (+632) 435 4146
Email: urgentaction@karapatan.org

Website: www.karapatan.org

Pagtibayin ang pagkakaisa ng mga Pilipino sa Italy laban sa Circular No. 29

2011-05-14T17:22:00.003+08:00

Message of solidarity to the Alliance of Filipino Migrants in Italy
in their campaign against the unjust Circular No. 29

MIGRANTE Europe and the progressive network of Filipino organizations in Europe send their warmest solidarity greetings to Filipinos in Rome, Italy and in other parts of Italy who are in the midst of a just campaign to call for the repeal of Circular No. 29 released by the Italian Ministry of Interior.

Circular No. 29 is a measure that was implemented by the Italian government last October 7, 2010, which orders Filipinos living and working in Italy to drop their middle names in official documents purportedly to avoid confusion in the use of middle names. This measure was actually endorsed by the Philippine Embassy in Italy.

Filipinos campaigning for the repeal of this measure stand on solid and just grounds. The measure was implemented without consultation with the Filipino community; it has triggered more confusion among Filipinos; and, such would unjustly require all Filipinos to change their official documents such as passports and IDs, at their expense.

Despite appeals and requests from Filipinos, principally in Rome, to dialogue with the Philippine Embassy and for it to pursue diplomatic representation with the Italian Ministry of Interior to repeal the measure, the Philippine Embassy thru Ambassador Romeo Manalo has continued to ignore the pleas of Filipinos in Italy.

This, despite the overwhelming sentiment of migrant Filipinos who have registered their rejection of Circular No. 29. Righteously, Filipinos in Italy launched a campaign and was able to forge unity among compatriots with the formation of an alliance called Task Force Circular No. 29 also called Alliance of Filipino Migrants in Italy.

MIGRANTE Europe firmly supports the calls of the Alliance of Filipino Migrants in Italy, not only for the repeal of Circular No. 29, but also their equally urgent calls and demands to the Philippine government thru the Philippine Embassy, to repeal the law making membership in the PAG-IBIG Fund mandatory; to lower the passport fee; and to lobby the Italian government to allow retired Filipino migrants to be able to enjoy their pension in the Philippines.

The Filipino migrants' demands are just and reasonable in the context of the financial and economic crisis affecting migrant-receiving countries in Europe, that has resulted to less working hours, less pay, if not outright job loss for many migrant workers. Families of migrant Filipinos in Italy suffer the consequences of this crisis.

MIGRANTE Europe asserts that it is the fundamental duty of the Philippine government to ensure that the rights, welfare and voices of Filipino nationals, whom they have pushed to work abroad, because they are not able to provide them jobs in the Philippines, are safeguarded, upheld and heard.

We call on all migrants – Filipinos and all other migrant nationals, to close ranks and firmly assert and fight for their rights and interests, in the midst of the economic crisis and assaults by big business and states on the rights of all workers.

MIGRANTE Europe

Postbus 15687, 1001 ND Amsterdam
The Netherlands
14 May 2011

Mga congressman ng progressive partylists ay "pinakamahirap" sa kongreso

2011-05-14T14:27:00.004+08:00

Itinuturing na “pinakamahirap" naman sa mga kongresista at hindi nakasama sa tinatawag na “millionaires club" ang mga kinatawan ng party-list groups na sina:

- Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano
- Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro “Teddy" Casino
- Kabataan Rep. Raymond Palatino
- Alliance of Concerned Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio

Mga artistang naging kongresista, kabilang sa mga milyunaryo sa Kamara
05/13/2011 | 05:01 PM
Source: GMA news

MANILA – Kabilang ang tatlong artista na naging kongresista sa listahan ng mga pinakamayamang miyembro ng Kamara de Representantes, batay sa isinumite nilang statement of assets and liabilities and net worth (SALN) nitong 2010.

Tulad ng inaasahan, ang Pinoy boxing icon at Sarangani congressman na si Manny Pacquiao, ang lumitaw na pinakamayamang kongresista ngayong 15th Congress.

Taglay niya ang P1.134 bilyong net worth at walang pagkakautang, batay sa listahang ipinalabas ng Records Management Service ng Kamara nitong Biyernes.

Hindi pa kasama rito ang kinita ni Pacquiao na aabot sa $30 milyon sa naging laban niya kay Sugar Shane Mosley noong nakaraang Linggo sa Las Vegas.

Samantala, nasa 15th place bilang richest lawmaker taglay ang kabuuang yaman na P167.275 milyon at P18.918 milyong liabilities si Leyte Rep. Lucy Marie Torres-Gomez, misis ng aktor na si Richard Gomez.

Ang misis naman ni Sen Ramon “Bong" Revilla Jr na si Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, ay nasa ika-21 puwesto na may P125.753 milyong net worth.

Ang dating aktor na si Laguna Rep. Danilo “Dan" Fernandez, ay nagtala ng P42 milyong net worth (P46.5 milyong total assets minus P4.5 milyong liabilities).

Hindi naman nagpahuli ang mga Arroyo sa listahan ng mga pinakamayamang kongresista. Si dating pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, kongresista na ngayon ng Pampanga, ay nasa ika-17 puwesto tangan ang P140.212 milyong net worth.

Sumunod naman sa kanya ang bayaw na si Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, na may P137.922 milyong net worth.

Si Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey" Macapagal-Arroyo, ay nagtala ng P95,547,024 net worth, at P87.263 milyon naman ang ari-arian ni Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado “Dato" Macapagal-Arroyo.

Pasok naman sa top 10 richest lawmakers sina:

2. Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez (P624.85M);
3. Dating first lady at Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos (P623.6M);
4. Negros Occidental Rep. Julio Ledesma (P555.07M);
5. Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (P475.61M);
6. Deputy Minority Leader Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco (P294.6M)
7. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., (P283.29M);
8. Tarlac Rep. Enrique Cojuangco, (P199.59 M)
9. Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Farinas,( P195.78M);at
10. Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron (P165.99M).

Mga magsasaka papanagutin si Merci sa 'fertilizer scam'

2011-05-11T22:32:00.004+08:00

Farmers groups file ‘fertilizer scam’ charges vs Merci
May 10, 2011
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Source: Bulatlat

Former ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez may have resigned from her post, but by no means is she going to enjoy her new state of unemployment.

On Monday, May 9, leaders of the farmers group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas were accompanied by lawyers from Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra) and the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) as they filed criminal charges against resigned Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez at the Department of Justice in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

The complainants include Anakpawis Partylist Representative Rafael V. Mariano, the KMP, Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), Amihan, Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Kalipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK), Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL), and the NUPL. According to the groups, Gutierrez junked at least 40 reports filed by Task Force Abono, a special probe body the Office of the Ombudsman formed to investigate controversies connected to the fertilizer scam.

The groups are charging Gutierrez for violation of section 3 (e)[1] and (f)[2] of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act; for violation of Article 208[3] of the Revised Penal Code or negligence or tolerance in the prosecution of offenses; for violation of Article 183[4] of the Revised Penal Code or perjury in solemn affirmation; and violation of Presidential Decree No. 1829 or Penalizing Obstruction of Apprehension and Prosecution of Criminal Offenders.

Obstruction of justice, perjury

NUPL secretary general and lawyer Edre Olalia said Gutierrez should be held liable for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. He said the violations were tantamount to obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the graft complaint the said farmers’ organizations lodged against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the issue of the fertilizer scam.

“Gutierrez resigned, yes, but it doesn’t mean that she can no longer be held accountable or responsible for how she did not perform her duty to prosecute important corruption cases involving the previous administration under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We cannot allow Gutierrez and officials like her to go unpunished for betraying the public trust. These people must be made to account for their actions. Gutierrez was tasked to go after officials who committed serious acts of corruption, but she sat on the cases involving massive graft and corruption,” he said.

Mariano said that the former ombudsman unfailingly served as the the “main protector” of those who masterminded the malversation of P728 million fertilizer funds in 2004.

“As a willing accomplice in the plunder of farmers’ funds, Gutierrez must be held criminally liable,” he said. He asserted that complaint the farmers groups filed are part of their quest for justice and accountability against the previous regime, and a message to the incumbent administration.

“We want to send a strong political message to President Benigno Aquino III that we are keeping a close eye on his administration. He has so far done nothing to hold the thieves accountable, but the Filipino people are determined to see justice done. The thieves who raided the nation’s coffers cannot be allowed to escape punishment. President Aquino should take a cue from actions such as this filing of criminal charges against Gutierrez and put meat into his words that he is an enemy of the corrupt,” he said.

The origins of the controversy

In 2003, an employee of the Department of Agriculture’s resident ombudsman in Central Mindanao Marlene Esperat filed a graft complaint against then agriculture secretary Arthur Yap, then undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante, and several others in connection with alleged irregularities in a P432-million fertilizer deal.

Two months before the May 2004 presidential election, Macapagal-Arroyo, herself running for election, was accused by several politicians of “virtual vote-buying” by approving the release of P728 million to favored officials to buy farm inputs like fertilizer and pesticide for their constituents, as part of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani project.

Farmers from Central Luzon and all over Mindanao attested in consequent investigations that they did not receive a single centavo from the fertilizer fund.

As for Esperat who later became a journalist, she was shot dead in her home in Sultan Kudarat on March 24, 2005. Three men were convicted of her murder, but the suspected masterminds—alleged to be officials of the agriculture department office in Central Mindanao —remain at large.

Fertilizer scam paper trail leads to Arroyo

In their 10-page joint complaint-affidavit, the complainants led by KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos and Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said that Gutierrez did not act on any of the recommendations of Task Force Abono made in the report it submitted to her office on June 20, 2006. Among the recommendations they made were the filing of criminal complaints against public officials among them Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante and congressional representatives Nanette Daza, Federico Sandoval, Oscar Gozos and Governor Carmencita Reyes.

In the complaint, the groups said that for Gutierrez not to act promptly on the complaints is inexcusable because (1) a period of more than five (5) years already constitutes inordinate delay in the administration of justice; (2) the reports and evidence gathered by the Task Force Abono, the Senate, and the Commission on Audit finding high-ranking government officials and private individuals culpable have long been submitted and known to Ombudsman Gutierrez as early as during the first quarter of 2006; and (3) the said failure is contrary to the Ombudsman’s duty to give priority to complaints filed against high ranking government officials and/or those occupying supervisory positions and to complaints involving grave offenses and large sums of money.

Ramos said it was apparent from the beginning that Gutierrez was determined to squash the investigations on the fertilizer scam because the paper trail led directly to Malacañang and former president Arroyo.

“Gutierrez had no intention of addressing the corruption charges against high-ranking government officials connected to the fertilizer scam,” he said.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap said that from February to March 2007, Task Force Abono issued subpoena duces tecum to the the Land Bank Department of Agriculture Extension Branch office in Quezon city to provide records of a particular bank account where the money disbursed through checks in the fertilizer fund scam were allegedly deposited. Gutierrez, however, issued a memorandum order stating that all requests or referrals to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for documents, information or bank account examination of subjects of investigation must go through her office first.

According to Hicap, all of Task Force Abono’s reports and findings were not acted upon during the height of the controversy. Instead, Gutierrez took action only on March 11, 2011 when her office issued a joint resolution for the filing of plunder ad other criminal and administrative cases against several government officials involved in the fertilizer fund scam.

“Gutierrez is directly responsible for the failure of Task Force Abono. She moved heaven and earth to protect Arroyo and other corrupt government officials,” he said.

He added that Pamalakaya intends to file criminal and administrative charges against Gutierrez for neglecting and abandoning other cases his group had filed before Office of the Ombudsman under Gutierrez stewardship.

In the meantime, Olalia said that Gutierrez should be held accountable for other cases as well.

“Her inaction even covered cases filed against government officials and state agents involved in human rights violations,” he said. He cited the case of Raymond Manalo, the witness to the abduction of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño which remains pending before the the Office of the Ombudsman.

Lawyer Jobert Pahilga of the Sentra Foundation said his clients in KMP are also determined to file plunder charges against Macapagal-Arroyo in the coming days.

“The farmers who were deprived of the fertilizer funds in 2004 want this issue resolved. They want those behind the massive corruption scam prosecuted and the funds that were intended for them to be returned, he said.

KMP’s Ramos also said that farmers want justice to be served for those who were killed [3] and silenced when investigations were conducted by other government agencies regarding the scam involving bogus agricultural inputs. He was referring to to KMP-Panay leader Nilo Arado and KMP-Pampanga leader Ofelia “Nanay Perla” Rodriguez who were abducted and killed, respectively.

Arado was abducted in April 2007 while Rodriguez was shot to death in front of her family in January 2006.

The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism

2011-05-11T15:05:00.001+08:00

The Internet’s Unholy Marriage to Capitalism
John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney
2011, Volume 62, Issue 10 (March)
Monthly Review

The Internet, or more broadly, the digital revolution is truly changing the world at multiple levels. But it has also failed to deliver on much of the promise that was once seen as implicit in its technology. If the Internet was expected to provide more competitive markets and accountable businesses, open government, an end to corruption, and decreasing inequality—or, to put it baldly, increased human happiness—it has been a disappointment. To put it another way, if the Internet actually improved the world over the past twenty years as much as its champions once predicted, we dread to think where the world would be if it had never existed.

Read more

Yumaman si Noynoy ng 4 million pesos

2011-05-11T00:49:00.000+08:00

Aquino richer by P4M; Binay P.6M poorer

By Leila B. Salaverria, Christine O. Avendaño
First Posted 02:21:00 05/10/2011
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III is worth nearly P55 million and is P4.8 million richer since becoming Chief Executive last year, according to his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for 2010.

Still, Vice President Jejomar Binay is a few million pesos richer than Mr. Aquino. Binay is worth P58.1 million, based on his 2010 SALN.

Mr. Aquino, who bought himself a used Porsche for Christmas, has motor vehicles worth P8.7 million, according to his latest SALN submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman on April 25.

His motor vehicles are among his personal and other properties which amount to P33.16 million. His other assets are cash on hand and in banks worth P6.22 million; receivables of P17.03 million; and other assets valued at P1.20 million.

The President’s real properties were valued at P22.07 million. These consisted of a residential lot in Tarlac City, agricultural land in Tarlac City, agricultural land in Capas, Tarlac, a house and lot in Quezon City and a commercial lot in San Juan City.

The residential lot and the agricultural land in Tarlac City were purchases and were acquired in 1997 and 1987. The rest of his real properties were part of his inheritance.

The President has only one liability—his tax payables to the Bureau of Internal Revenue placed at P228,961.

These put his net worth at P54.99 million, up P4.80 million from P50.19 million when he assumed office on June 30 last year.

Read more

Consumer group scores telco over service outage

2011-05-11T00:46:00.000+08:00

Consumer group scores telco over service outage
PATERNO ESMAQUEL II
05/10/2011 | 03:56 PM
Source: GMA News

Globe Telecom should compensate consumers affected by the mobile service interruptions that hit Visayas and Mindanao on Monday, consumer group TXTPower said on May 10.

“Perhaps Globe should provide its subscribers a one-time rebate or discount for the inconvenience caused by the fiber cut incident," TXTPower president Tonyo Cruz said in a statement.

On May 9, Globe subscribers in Visayas and Mindanao experienced service interruptions that prevented them from sending text messages, making calls, and surfing the Internet because of a severed fiber optic cable.

Parts of Luzon could have also been affected, said a company spokesperson on GMA News TV’s “On Call" newscast.

Cruz explained, “The least Globe could have done is to quickly provide information on its network problems through social media, TV, radio, and print."

Cruz added that the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) should investigate the issue “to make sure that everything would soon be back to normal."

Cruz also called on the NTC to look into possible problems like oversubscription and insufficient or zero back-ups. — TJD, GMA News

Bayan Muna Rep. Casiño dinetalye ang ilang anomalya sa Ombudsman sa ilalim ni Merci Guttierez

2011-05-10T07:42:00.006+08:00

NEWS RELEASE – May 10, 2011

Merci resignation

Casiño: Congress should help in filing cases versus Gutierrez, probe defects in Ombudsman procedures

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, in a privilege speech last night, called on the House to help complainants from peoples organizations and farmer’s groups file criminal and administrative charges versus former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, in particular violation of Sec. 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Article 208 of the Revised Penal Code, among others; and to exercise its oversight and legislative powers in strengthening the institution in the continuing fight against graft and corruption.

“The resignation of Ombudsman is a victory in our continuing struggle against corruption and the protectors of the corrupt. But Gutierrez resigned to cut her losses as well as the losses of Mrs. Arroyo. Congress should now follow through on this through its legislative and oversight functions as well as support initiatives of our people to hold accountable not only former Ombudsman Gutierrez but the officials she was protecting – including former President Gloria Arroyo. We said it then and we repeat, Ombudsman Gutierrez was impeached for protecting the former President. If she has resigned and is being held accountable for this, what more the former President, who is accountable for graver crimes and anomalies?” Casiño said.

The progressive solon said in his speech that Ombudsman Gutierrez systematically hindered her investigators in Task Force Abono from pursuing leads and effectively sabotaged the fertilizer fund scam investigation and case-build up process.

“The House should conduct an inquiry on how the processes within the Ombudsman have been so re-engineered by Gutierrez to make it vulnerable to delay and corruption. For example, the way cases have been dribbled between the Field Investigation Office (FIO) and the Preliminary, Administrative and Management Office (PAMO). Or the way the Ombudsman has centralized all resolutions and reports to her office, thereby undermining the powers of her deputies. Or how centralizing all requests to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has made it harder for investigators to conduct paper trails of stolen money. The approval of all reports, decisions, and investigations and travel authorization were centralized by Gutierrez. This was done to ensure that no cases in the fertilizer fund scam would be filed,” Casiño said.

“Getting Gutierrez out of the way is one step towards getting corrupt officials accountable. It is high time that we pursue cleaning up and strengthening the institutional processes of the Ombudsman so that all the cases versus Gutierrez and the accountable officials she was protecting can be pursued,” Casiño said. #

Privilege Speech follows.

On the resignation of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez

Privilege Speech delivered by
Rep. Teddy Casiño (Bayan Muna Party List)

May 9, 2011

Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues.

I rise to avail of the privilege hour to speak about the resignation of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

Last April 29, ten days before the opening of her impeachment trial in the Senate, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned, saying that she did not want the House, the Senate, the Executive and the nation at large to be consumed by her removal from public office. She said she would rather that we focus instead on the impelling problems of our people.

Well, that is exactly what we wanted to do with her impeachment – focus on the impelling problem of corruption and remove the biggest stumbling block to holding the corrupt, former President and her officials accountable for their crimes.

Yun sana ang habol natin sa trial, mailabas ang buong katotohanan tungkol sa kanyang pananagutan sa pagtatakip ng mga kaso ni dating pangulong Gloria Arroyo at kanyang mga opisyal.

Her trial in the Senate would have further exposed her gross, inexcusable delays and inaction on cases involving the former president and her corrupt officials, but her deliberate acts to whitewash and sabotage said cases. Not only that, it would have exposed the accountabilities as well of her patron, the former president.

And so she resigned to cut her losses as well as the losses of Mrs. Arroyo.

Kung natuloy lang ang impeachment trial, siguradong tanggal si Ombudsman Gutierrez sa pwesto at muling masasariwa sa publiko ang napakaraming anomalya ng nagdaang administrasyon.

Isang halimbawa lang ng mga dagdag na ebidensya na nakuha ng ating mga complainants, congressmen-prosecutors, private prosecutors at volunteers ay ang pagsabotahe ni Ombudsman Gutierrez sa kaso ng GMA fertilizer fund scam.

Ayon sa mga insider na kanilang nakausap, ang mismong panel ng mga imbestigador na itinayo ng kanyang Field Investigation Office, ang Task Force Abono, ay tinalian niya ng kamay at kinalaunan ay binuwag. Paano ito ginawa? It would be instructive to see how the Ombudsman undermined her own Task Force Abono.

On Feb. 28, 2006, Task Force Abono convened and started its investigations. Within weeks, in March of 2006, Ombudsman Gutierrez issued a Memorandum Order requiring that all resolutions, decisions, fact-finding reports, investigation reports and/or orders shall be approved by the Ombudsman herself. This became a stumbling bloc to the filing of cases by the assistant ombudsman. Prior to such order, the assistant ombudsman was authorized to approve fact-finding and/or investigation reports for the filing of case/s for preliminary investigation or for administrative adjudication. The approval of the Ombudsman was required only if the recommendation was for the closure of investigation/dismissal of a complaint. Samakatuwid, binago ng Ombudsman ang proseso at tiniyak na walang makakapag-file ng kaso laban sa mga sangkot sa fertilizer fund scam kung hindi dadaan sa kanya. At totoo nga, wala siyang inaprubahang pag-file ng kaso sa loob ng limang taon.

On June 2006, the first of 30 reports of Task Force Abono reached the Ombudsman’s office. It recommended the filing of criminal complaints against Jocelyn Joc-Joc Bolante, several congressmen, LGU officials, and private individuals for violating Article 220 of the Revised Penal Code as well as Sections 3 (e) and (g) of Republic Act 3019. It also recommended administrative cases against incumbent officials and the suspension of said public officials pursuant to Section 24, Republic Act 6770. The Ombudsman subsequently sat on these recommendations.

A month later on July 2006, the second report was submitted to the Ombudsman. It recommended criminal charges for violation of RA 3019 Sec. 3 (e) and (g) against 15 public officials and private persons, including those connected to Feshan Philippines, one of the suppliers of the fake and overpriced liquid fertilizers, for violation of RA 9184 Sec. 65 (b) subparagraph 4. Public officials were likewise recommended to be charged for Dishonesty, Grave Misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service and slapped suspension orders. Again, the Ombudsman sat on the case.

Task Force Abono’s investigations continued the following year until April 2007. By this time, the Ombudsman had centralized the approval of all travel authorities and was making it hard for Task Force Abono to travel outside Metro Manila to secure records, documents and reports from different COA Auditors’ Offices in Cebu, Davao and other areas, as well as to secure Sworn Statements of witnesses in the Fertilizer Scam.

When Task Force Abono conducted paper trails on the money disbursed in the Fertilizer Scam and found out that several CHECKS in payment to alleged fertilizer suppliers were deposited to a BANK ACCOUNT maintained at Land Bank, Department of Agriculture Extension Branch, Elliptical Road, Quezon City, the Ombudsman issued a Memorandum Order requiring that ALL request or referral to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for documents, information, or for the conduct of bank account examination of subjects of investigation in the Ombudsman be coursed through the Ombudsman for approval. This effectively thwarted efforts to conduct a more expansive and deeper investigation of the paper trail.

Despite such acts by the Ombudsman, the Task Force persevered. By July 2007, Task Force Abono submitted not less than THIRTY (30) Investigation Reports in the Fertilizer Fund Scam, all recommending the filing of criminal and administrative charges against the concerned public officials and private persons found to have involvement in the scam.

Pero ano po ang ginawa ng Ombudsman sa mga report na ito? Wala.

In fact, rather than support the Task Force in its zeal to prosecute the case, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez transferred one of the co-chairmen of the FIO to the Preliminary, Administrative and Monitoring Office (PAMO), effectively relieving him of his position in the Task Force and putting him in the freezer. This was in August 9, 2007. A week later, on August 16, 2007, The other co-chairman of Task Force Abono was also relieved for no reason and directed to report to his subordinate, a junior officer, the latter being designated as his replacement as the OIC-Director of the Asset Investigation Bureau. This caused the person’s resignation.

The transfer and subsequent relieve of the two co-chairmen effectively disbanded the Task Force Abono and stopped the conduct of the case build-up and gathering of evidences.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, kitang-kita dito na hindi lang nagpabaya si Ombudsman Gutierrez kundi aktibong kumilos para talian ang kamay ng mga imbestigador at itigil ang imbestigasyon. For this, she deserves not only impeachment but criminal and administrative charges, in particular Sec. 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Article 208 of the Revised Penal Code, among others.

It is important to note that in her resignation statement, Ombudsman Gutierrez never acknowledged her shortcomings. Sa kabliktaran, nagyabang pa siya na siya ay isang mahusay na Ombudsman at parang siya pa ang biktima. Hindi pwedeng ganyan na lang, na para bang tayo pa ang may utang na loob sa kanya sa kanyang pagre-resign. Her resignation does not and should not get her off the hook.

Thus, we expect other sectors, particularly the farmers groups and other complainants of the impeachment complaint, to pursue such charges in the courts. We urge the House, specifically the Justice Committee, to extend assistance to such initiatives from our people.

More importantly for the House, I think it is important that we conduct an inquiry, in pursuit of our legislative and oversight powers, on how the processes within the Ombudsman has been so designed to make it vulnerable to delay and corruption. For example, the way cases have been dribbled between the Field Investigation Office and the Preliminary, Administrative and Management Office (PAMO). Or the way the Ombudsman has centralized all resolutions and reports to her office, thereby undermining the powers of her deputies. Or how centralizing all requests to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLAC) has made it harder for investigators to conduct paper trails of stolen money.

Pero yan ho ay sa usapin ng Ombudsman lamang. The more pressing thing now is to hold accountable the person who the Ombudsman was protecting – and that is former President Gloria Arroyo.

Last year, this representation filed a case in the DOJ against the former president on the issue of the NBN-ZTE contract. A group of human rights advocates have filed cases as well for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during her term. A few weeks ago, former solicitor general Frank Chavez filed plunder cases against the former President. Now that Ombudsman Gutierrez has resigned, we expect more cases to be filed. And we expect the new Ombudsman to act on these cases with dispatch.

We said it then and we repeat, Ombudsman Gutierrez was impeached for protecting the former President. If she has resigned and is being held accountable for this, what more the former President, who is accountable for graver crimes and anomalies?

The resignation of Ombudsman is a victory in our continuing struggle against corruption and the protectors of the corrupt. The House should follow through on this through its legislative and oversight functions as well as support initiatives of our people to hold accountable not only former Ombudsman Gutierrez but the people she was protecting.#

Palparan's comeuppance

2011-05-08T15:33:00.000+08:00

Opinion

Palparan's comeuppance
AT GROUND LEVEL By Satur C. Ocampo
Updated May 07, 2011 12:00 AM
Source: THE PHILIPPINE STAR

Remember Jovito Palparan Jr., the notorious Philippine Army officer tagged by militant political activists as “The Butcher”?

In 2007 the Melo Commission recommended Palparan’s investigation for extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations. Instead, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo personally presented him as a special guest and commended his exploits during her 2008 state-of-the-nation address, thus abetting his continued terror campaign till he retired as major general in 2009.

Now Palparan may soon be hailed to court to face criminal charges. Comeuppance at last!

Last Wednesday the mothers of the two former UP students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, who were abducted and “disappeared” in 2006, filed a complaint at the Department of Justice against Palparan, two Army colonels and several others. The charges: rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, maltreatment of prisoners, grave threats, grave coercion, and violation of RA 7438 (on the rights of detained persons).

Sherlyn and Karen were abducted by armed men on June 26, 2006 in Hagonoy, Bulacan. Witnesses have identified their abductors as soldiers of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Norzagaray, Bulacan. They were detained and tortured in a camp in Limay, Bataan under the 24th IB. The 56th and 24th IBs were both under the 7th Infantry Division, then headed by Palparan.

Their mothers, Erlinda T. Cadapan and Concepcion E. Empeno, filed a petition for habeas corpus at the Supreme Court. The SC directed the Court of Appeals to hear the petitions. Initially the CA denied the petition in 2007, but on appeal in 2008 it reversed the ruling and ordered the military to release the two women.

Yet to this day they remain in limbo.

At least two factors can be credited for the recent positive turn of events.

1. The courageous and credible detailed testimony at the 2008 CA hearing of a young Bulacan farmer, Raymond Manalo. His testimony — which convinced the CA to reverse its 2007 ruling on the habeas corpus petition cited above — is the linchpin of the criminal case, backed up by the testimonies of seven other witnesses.

In that testimony Raymond cited the direct involvement of Palparan in the abduction, detention and torture of Sherlyn and Karen. In a separate testimony earlier in his own petition for the writ of amparo related to his abduction, he detailed Palparan’s direct role and those of his two trusted aides since the 1980s, MSgt. Donald Caigas and MSgt. Rizal Hilario.

Raymond and his brother Reynaldo were abducted on Feb. 14, 2006 in San Ildefonso, Bulacan and detained together with Sherlyn and Karen, and another farmer, Manuel Merino in the Limay camp. They escaped after 17 months of detention, filed the amparo petition which the Court of Appeals granted in 2008 and affirmed by the Supreme Court.

In its ruling penned by then Chief Justice Reynato Puno, dismissing the military’s appeal to reverse the CA decision, the SC affirmed the credibility of Raymond’s testimony. It likewise clearly pointed out Palparan’s direct accountability for the abduction and violation of the brothers’ human rights.

2. The formation of Task Force Lawsuit, a legal-paralegal group which supervises the preparation, filing and pursuance of this case. The group has been formed by the human rights alliance Karapatan, the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and progressive party-list organizations. (The group needs more lawyers to help, and justice and human rights supporters to donate funds.)

TF Lawsuit last month filed a damage suit against Gloria Arroyo and some military officers for the illegal arrest and detention of the health workers known as “Morong 43.” The group is set to file next a criminal case against officers and soldiers of the 56th IB for the abduction-disappearance of Jonas Burgos on April 28, 2007. It is also looking into the revival of the Manalo brothers’ abduction case, which was filed with the Ombudsman but hasn’t been acted on.

On the Jonas Burgos case, TF Lawsuit will coordinate with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who last April 14 directed state prosecutors to initiate criminal proceedings against 1st Lt. Harry Agagen Baliaga Jr., a 56th IB company commanding officer, and other persons allegedly involved.

NUPL secretary-general Edre Olalia, chief counsel in the Cadapan-Empeno case, explains:

“This will not ensure that Karen and Sherlyn will be brought back to us. Indeed, this is more than seeking justice for them. This is a way to put these incorrigible abductors, torturers, and rapists out of places of authority.”

In short, TF Lawsuit aims to score a breakthrough against impunity, the political atmosphere wherein no major human rights violators have been arrested and prosecuted since the era of martial law.

Another NUPL member, Juan Oliva, commended the decision of seven Bulacan farmers, fishermen and barrio folk to testify in the case as “an outstanding act of courage, and a genuine belief that criminals must be punished.”

Interestingly, two young women, contemporaries of Sherlyn and Karen as UP students, passed the last bar examinations and are now assisting in the case. They are Sandra Jill Santos and Ma. Cristina Yambot.

Let’s wish all of them Godspeed.

Seeking Justice for Jonas Burgos

2011-05-07T15:32:00.001+08:00

Seeking Justice for Jonas Burgos
Published on May 6, 2011
Source: BULATLAT

Mrs. Burgos told Bulatlat.com that for three consecutive nights, a van with tinted windows parked in front of their house in Quezon City for 15 minutes.

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Despite the risks involved, Mrs. Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, is determined to sue all those involved in the abduction of her son.

In an interview with Bulatlat.com, Mrs. Burgos said, surveillance on her intensified again after the release of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) report implicating the military in the enforced disappearance of her son.

Jonas, son of press freedom icon Jose “Joe” Burgos Jr., was abducted on April 28, 2007 at the Ever Gotesco mall in Commonwealth, Quezon City by elements of the Philippine Army.

Mrs. Burgos told Bulatlat.com that for three consecutive nights, a van with tinted windows parked in front of their house in Quezon City for 15 minutes. In all three occasions, no one boarded or stepped out of the van. Mrs. Burgos said she also noticed motorcycle-riding men tailing her several times.

“I have learned to be alert,” Mrs. Burgos said. “I am ready to hit them with my bag,” she added.

The surveillance and harassment she has been experiencing are not new. At one time, Mrs. Burgos’s car was taken. Reliable sources told her that anti-carnapping syndicates were not the ones who did it.

In a media briefing on May 4, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced that steps are being taken in relation to the recommendations submitted by the CHR to the Supreme Court.

The CHR recommended the filing of kidnapping charges against Lt. Harry Baliaga, commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion’s Bravo Company, 7th Infantry Division, based in Bulacan. Baliaga was identified by two witnesses as one of those who abducted Jonas. The Commission also urged the Supreme Court to grant the petition for writ of amparo filed by Mrs. Burgos.

The CHR was tasked by the Supreme Court to investigate the abduction of Jonas Burgos. In its resolution, the High Court noted that there were “significant lapses” in the police investigation. The Burgos family filed a petition seeking the reversal of the Court of Appeals’s decision denying their petition for writ of amparo and absolving police and military officials implicated in the Burgos case.

On April 29, Mrs. Burgos met with Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to discuss the filing of formal charges against Baliaga.
De Lima said they hope to start the preliminary investigation on Baliaga soon.

Mrs. Burgos called for the suspension of Baliaga. “He must be detained in the barracks so that any time, he can be summoned by the courts,” she said.

Mrs. Burgos said she is set to meet with a panel of prosecutors next week.

As for the threats, Mrs. Burgos said: “I am ready to see God any time. My only fear is that they would go after my children.” She is determined to pursue the family’s search for Jonas and their struggle for justice.

Philippines pledges to end enforced disappearances

2011-05-06T15:35:00.000+08:00

Philippines pledges to end enforced disappearances
Thursday, 05 May 2011 04:22
Source: THE PENINSULA

MANILA: The Philippines pledged yesterday to end enforced disappearances of left-wing activists, community organisers and suspected Maoist rebels and sign and ratify an international treaty.

More than 2,000 such cases have been documented in the Philippines, about 40 percent of which were reported during the iron-fisted regime of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos from 1965 to 1986.

Dozens were also reported missing during the nine-year rule of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which ended last year. Her government was also blamed for hundreds of political killings in 2006-2007.

Philippine security forces also promised to cooperate in the investigation and prosecution of military and police officers implicated in disappearances, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told a forum.

“You have our commitment to drive this practice to extinction,” de Lima said.

The international convention for the protection of people from enforced disappearances came into force in December 2010, four years after it was adopted by the United Nations.

Eighty-eight states have signed the treaty, but only 25 have ratified it. The Philippines had yet to sign because of resistance under the previous administration, de Lima said.

“I will talk to the president and ask him to sign the convention at the soonest,” de Lima said, adding there had been a shift in the military’s orientation in respecting human rights under the new government.

She said an army captain implicated in the 2007 disappearance of Jonas Burgos, a leader of a left-wing farmers’ group and son of a journalist and freedom fighter, had been taken into “protective custody” while charges against him were being prepared in the Justice department.

Renato Reyes, spokesman for the left-wing New Patriotic Alliance, said his group welcomed the commitment. “We are calling on the president to make a stand on the issue and show his political will,” Reyes said, adding the security forces would probably oppose any action that could hold soldiers accountable for rights abuses.

Reyes said his group had also met de Lima.

“She appeared sincere in assuring us the killings and the disappearance will stop, but we’re more interested in punishing those who have been identified to have been involved in the killings and disappearances.”

REUTERS

More human rights cases vs Arroyo regime: group

2011-05-06T15:30:00.000+08:00

More human rights cases vs Arroyo regime: group
Thursday, May 5, 2011-05-08
Source: SUN STAR MANILA

EXPECT more cases to be filed against top civilian, military and police officials allegedly involved in human rights violations in the past decade, a militant lawyers group said Thursday.

Ephraim Cortez of the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL) told Sun.Star it will continue to pursue all avenues to prosecute human rights violators, especially those who have committed murder, rape and other crimes.

In the drawing board are criminal cases concerning the disappearance of agriculturist Jonas Burgos in 2007 and the illegal arrest and detention of the so-called "Morong 43" health workers last year, Cortez said.

Respondents would likely include former President now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former executive secretary Eduardo Ermita and other military officials.

"We will file it in the next few weeks," Cortez said.

Burgos, who taught organic farming among peasants in Bulacan, was allegedly abducted by suspected military men on April 28, 2007 in a mall along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

The "Morong 43", meanwhile, were suspected communist rebels after they were allegedly caught making explosives at a farm house in Morong, Rizal in February 2010. They were released in December that year.

Mothers of missing University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño filed a criminal complaint on Wednesday against retired General Jovito Palparan Jr. for rape, serious physical injuries, arbitrary detention, among other offenses.

Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, alleging conspiracy within the military unit, filed the cases at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Attached to the complaint were eight detailed affidavits that established Sherlyn and Karen were in military custody. Both were missing since June 2006.

NUPL also cited violations of international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)

Palparan kinasuhan kaugnay ng pagkawala ng dalawang estudyante ng University of the Philippines

2011-05-05T22:59:00.000+08:00

Raps filed vs Palparan for enforced disappearances
By Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News
Posted at 05/04/2011 12:30 PM | Updated as of 05/04/2011 7:05 PM

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - The mothers of missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño filed criminal charges today against retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr. and 6 others before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the enforced disappearance of the two students in June, 2006.

Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeno filed a joint complaint affidavit against Palparan, Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, 2Lt. Francis Mirabelle Samson, Arnel Enriquez, Master Sergeant Donald Caigas, Master Sergeant Rizal Hilario, and several "John Does" and "Jane Does."

Respondents are being charged for the following offenses:

-rape;
-serious physical injuries;
-arbitrary detention;
-maltreatment of prisoners;
-grave threats;
-grave coercion;
-violation of Republic Act(RA) 7438, also known as "An Act Defining Certain Rights of Persons Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation as well as the Duties of the Arresting, Detaining and Investigating Officers, and Providing Penalties for Violations thereof; and
-violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Cadapan and Empeño were reportedly forcibly taken by armed men wearing bonnets on June 26, 2006 from the house of a certain Raquel Halili in Barangay San Miguel, Hagonoy, Bulacan.

Cadapan is a senior Bachelor of Sports Science student at UP Diliman College of Human Kinetics and a tri-athlete.

Empeño is a senior BA Sociology student of UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

The complaint alleged Cadapan and Empeño were forcibly taken on suspicion of being New People's Army (NPA) Rebels.

Witnesses tag Palparan's men

Their abductors were identified by witnesses as elements of the Philippine Army based in the 56th Infantry Battalion headquarters in Barangay Iba, Hagonoy, Bulacan under the command of then Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, Jr.

Some of these witnesses were allegedly detained in the same military detachments/camps where Cadapan and Empeño were held, and allegedly saw how both were tortured and maltreated.

"The allegations stated in this Joint Complaint Affidavit clearly established conspiracy, i.e. not only the individual liability of those who carried out the focible taking, torture and rape, but also the criminal liability of the military officers who are impleaded in this case... SHERYLN AND KAREN’S disappearance was planned and carried out, and their torture and rape inflicted by and under the orders, knowledge and acquiescence of Lt. Col. Rogelio Boac, then commanding officer of the 56th Infantry Battalion and Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado, then commanding officer of the 24th Infantry Battalion, both under the direct command, order, and supervision of Maj. General Jovito Palparan Jr., commanding general of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army who in turn himself directly participated as well as instigated, induced, cooperated or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation, execution or cover-up of these crimes," the complaint read.

"We included Maj. Gen. Palparan as one of the respondents in this case on the basis of the eyewitnesses and the testimonies of our witnesses who are willing to testify before the courts that (Maj. Gen.) Palparan has direct participation and even induced the military under his command to commit (a) series of human rights violations against Karen and Sherlyn. We have strong evidence against him as can be shown in the testimonies of our witnesses that's why we are charging him for rape and also arbitrary detention, grave coercion and other criminal law violations," said Atty. Cris Yambot, complainants' lawyer.

DOJ to give due importance

The DOJ assured the case will be given due importance considering that it is a case of alleged human rights violations being monitored by the international human rights community.

"With the filing of this joint complaint affidavit, you can expect that the department(of justice) will thoroughly study this and will properly handle the case because... as you know, the accountability that the Filipino people are trying to exact from the previous administration,from the previous officials - both civilian and military - are not only in the area of graft and corruption, but also, equally important, in the area of human rights violations -gross, grave and serious human rights violations," Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said upon receipt of the complaint.

"Malaki ang pag-asa po namin na maso-solve ang aming problema sa pamumuno ng ating madam Leila de Lima kasi po, naniniwala kami, na (sa) kanyang pagiging human rights advocate at defender, malaki po pag-asa namin," complainant Empeno said.

"Sa araw pong ito kami ay naghahain dine sa DOJ ng isang legal remedy pa na, we believe, dapat po namin gagawin hanggang po namin makakamtan ang tagumpay ng paghahanap namin sa aming mga anak na ang pagkakaalam po namin, yung may kasalanan po nito ay security state forces ng ating bansa," complainant Cadapan said.

Burgos, HR groups back victims

Outside the DOJ, human rights groups, among them, Karapatan, picketed in support of complainants.

Mrs. Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos, allegedly also forcibly taken by the military, was also present to give her support to Mrs. Cadapan and Mrs. Empeño.

The case will be assigned to a panel of prosecutors or to a handling prosecutor who will conduct the preliminary investigation to determine whether there is probable cause to file the informations in court.

Palparan has yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

Pinagsamang tubo ng Big Three kumpanya ng langis mas malaki pa sa pinagsamang kita ng pinakamahihirap na pamilya

2011-05-05T20:28:00.005+08:00

IBON News / 5 May 2011
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail:
media@ibon.org | http://www.ibon.org

BIG THREE'S PROFITS MORE THAN COMBINED INCOME OF COUNTRY'S POOREST FAMILIES

The profits of the Big Three oil firms are rising as rapidly as the increasing oil prices, with a record of at least Php141.7 billion in profits in the last decade. This is more than the combined income of the country's poorest 2.36 million families-- amounting to Php114.3 billion in 2009, research group IBON said.

The figures debunk the Big Three's claims that local price hikes are needed so that they can recover losses from the global oil price movements. With this IBON said the call for real transparency in the domestic oil industry remains urgent to make sure that the Big Three is not profiting at the public's expense.

The local price of diesel increased from Php13.96 per liter in 2001 to peak at Php44.31 in 2008 before falling slightly to Php41.26 in 2010. The price of regular gasoline meanwhile increased from Php16.58 in 2001 to Php45.92 in 2008 and then further to Php48.73 in 2010.

At the same time, the net income of Pilipinas Shell increased six-fold from Php3.1 billion in 2001 to Php19 billion in 2008 and then Php16 billion in 2009 with total net income over the 9-year period reaching Php73.0 billion. The net income of Chevron increased eleven-fold from Php1 billion in 2001 to Php10.7 billion in 2007 then Php8.6 billion in 2008, before dipping to Php8.3 billion in 2009. Its total net income over the period 2001-2009 reached Php40.2 billion.

Profit data for Petron is incomplete but its profits increased from Php1.2 billion in 2001 to Php6.1 billion in 2007, totaling Php28.6 billion over the 7-year period. It has reportedly booked Php1.9 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2010 alone.

Globally, mother companies of the Big Three firms are also raking in superprofits with the oil price hikes. The price of Dubai crude increased from an annual average of US$22.70 per barrel in 2001 then peaked at US$ 94.80 in 2008 before falling to US$78.10 in 2010. The price of Dubai crude has again begun to rise rapidly and is already at some US$120 per barrel.

The profits of Royal Dutch Shell more than doubled from US$10.9 billion in 2001 to US$26.3 billion in 2008 and fell slightly to US$20.1 billion in 2010. Its total profits over the decade 2001-2010 reached US$192 billion -- or more than the value of the Philippine economy, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), in 2010 of US$189.0 billion.

The profits of Chevron in turn increased over seven-fold from US$3.3 billion in 2001 to US$23.9 billion in 2008 before dipping to US$19 billion in 2010. Its total profits in the last decade reached US$128.3 billion.

These figures show that the global and local oil price increases have benefited the oil monopoly tremendously. Locally the deregulation and its principle of automatic price adjustments have allowed the Big Three to amass huge profits while further strengthening the industry cartel. IBON reiterates its position against the oil deregulation policy, which encourages such gross profiteering at the expense of Filipino consumers.

/IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution
established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications,
information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues./

Pambansang industriyalisasyon para sa malawakang empleyo

2011-05-04T21:15:00.003+08:00

Papaano masisiguro ang empleyo – na may makabuluhang sahod – ng milyun-milyong manggagawang Pilipino?

Ito ang isa sa mga tanong na nasasagot ng inihahapag na programang pang-ekonimiya ng National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), sa pag-uusap hinggil sa mga repormang sosyo-ekonomiko sa pagpapatuloy ng usapang pangkapayapaan sa pagitan nito at gobyerno ng Pilipinas (GPH).

“Ang sosyo-ekonomikong mga repormang iminumungkahi ng NDFP ay kaugnay ng pagsasakatuparan ng pambansa at demokratikong mga interes ng sambayanan,” ani Fidel Agcaoili, pangalawang tagapangulo at tagapagsalita ng NDFP Peace Panel. “(Laman nito) ang mga pangangailangan para umunlad ang lipunang Pilipino.”

Dalawa ang pangunahing laman ng inihahaing sosyo-ekonomikong mga reporma ng NDFP, ayon kay Agcaoili. Una, ang tunay na reporma sa lupa, para mapalaya ang 75% ng populasyon mula sa piyudalismo.

“Kasabay ng pagpapatupad ng tunay na reporma sa lupa, iyung tinatawag nating pambansang industriyalisasyon. Iyun kasi ang patutunguhan ng pagkakaroon ng tunay na reporma sa lupa – ang magkaroon ng sariling industriya ang lipunang Pilipino. Kumbaga, ang dumaan sa stage ng kapitalismo, patungong sosyalismo,” paliwanag ni Agcaoili.

Basahin ang buong balita dito.

Tama na ang palusot Gloriaquino!

2011-05-03T23:31:00.007+08:00

Aquino: Cases vs Arroyo not a priority
First Posted 04:18:00 05/02/2011
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III Sunday confirmed the government was preparing to file corruption charges against former President turned Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but stressed that for now the priority was to find a new Ombudsman to replace Merceditas Gutierrez who is stepping down on May 6.

The President said he wanted the new Ombudsman to be “dedicated” and courageous in pursuing justice for the government.

Speaking to reporters after hosting a Labor Day breakfast for labor leaders in Malacañang, Mr. Aquino was asked if the government was lining up cases against Arroyo now that Gutierrez —whom he had described as the obstacle to the government’s bid to file cases against the former president and her allies—was on the way out.

Still intact

Mr. Aquino said the Palace-created Truth Commission was “set up primarily to get all of that [cases],” and that the cases that had been “deposited” with the presidential body—which has yet to convene pending the Supreme Court’s final decision on the constitutionality of its creation—were “still intact.”

“We are closer to actually filing charges where appropriate,” the President said.

But he added: “Can I say it’s difficult to say that it’s directed to specific individuals at this point in time. There’s still a process that has to be followed but we will make the appropriate announcements to the cases that are ready for filing at the soonest possible time.”

Big buzz

He said the focus now was on finding a new Ombudsman, adding that he was awaiting the list of nominees from the Judicial and Bar Council.

Meanwhile, two members of the ruling Liberal Party, which Mr. Aquino heads, are on the short list for the next Ombudsman which will be submitted to the President.

Former Sen. Wigberto Tañada and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rene Villa are generating the “biggest buzz” among the candidates for Gutierrez’s replacement.

A source in Aquino administration said former Chief Justice Reynato Puno had declined the President’s offer of the Ombudsman post. Christine O. Avendaño and Gil Cabacungan

RICE PRICE MONITORING GROUP URGES HALT TO NFA PRIVATIZATION

2011-05-03T20:47:00.001+08:00

IBON Media Release / 3 May 2011
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org
|http://www.ibon.org

NO MORE P25/KL RICE IN THE MARKET
RICE PRICE MONITORING GROUP URGES HALT TO NFA PRIVATIZATION

Bantay Bigas, a rice price monitoring group comprised of rice industry
multistakeholders recently urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to stop
pushing for the privatization of the National Food Authority in face of an
increasing trend in the price of rice, the country's staple.

To counter ADB claims that the price of rice dropped by 0.9% since June 2010,
the group cited Bureau of Agriculture Statistics data showing that rice prices
in fact increased by an average of 1.2% for all rice grades. The price of NFA
rice also went up by Php 2.00 or 8% in December 2010. Thus, the P25 per-kilo
NFA rice is no longer available in the market, further making the staple less
affordable to poor Filipinos.

"The increase in the price of NFA rice is an impact of government's plan to
privatize the country's food agency in response to conditions imposed by the
ADB and other international lending institutions," Bantay Bigas spokesperson
Lita Mariano said. Among several such loans the group noted the 1993 Food
Sector Loan Program and the 1999 Grains Sector Development Program of the ADB
which both pushed for NFA privatization including the privatization of the
NFA's local palay procurement and rice importation functions as well as the
increase of the price of NFA rice.

"The ADB itself revealed in a study that increases in food prices push more
Filipinos into poverty, therefore it should stop pushing for the privatization
of the NFA and instead support the agency in fulfilling its mandate of
ensuring distribution of the basic staple at affordable prices," Mariano said.
According to the ADB, a 10% hike in local food prices would add 1.37 million
to the ranks of the poor, and even higher food price increases would push even
more into poverty.

Bantay Bigas, of which IBON is a secretariat member, is set to launch this
month a transcript of the National Rice People's Congress (NPRC) which it held
last February. The NPRC highlights summative reports of consultative exchanges
it held with various rice industry multistakeholders in Luzon, Vizayas and
Mindanao. It also yielded a unity pact by participants, one urgent demand of
which is bringing back to the market the Php18.25 per kilo NFA rice and
increasing the NFA's palay procurement by restoring its budget of at least
Php8 million. (end)

Pagpatay sa Mayor ng Calbayog City kinondena ng Makabayan Coalition

2011-05-03T16:32:00.000+08:00

THE MAKABAYAN Coalition of eight progressive parties led by Satur Ocampo assailed the cold-blooded murder last Saturday of Calbayog City Mayor Reynaldo Uy and the wounding of Samar Board Member Eunice Babalcon.

In a statement, Satur Ocampo said that Uy had been very supportive of the patriotic and progressive platform of Makabayan and its affiliates in Congress and the local government.

“In fact, as a congressman, he even denounced the extra-judicial killings of activists,” Ocampo added.

“It is a tragic loss. We condole with the family and friends of Mayor Uy as we wish Board Member Babalcon speedy recovery,” Ocampo said.

Uy was a former congressman of Samar’s first district and was planning to run for governor with Babalcon as his running mate. He supported a recall petition against Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan and her brother, Vice Gov. James Tan, which was found sufficient in form and substance by the Commission on Elections last January. Recall elections are to be set for Samar.

Makabayan further stated: “We view with grave concern this latest case of electoral violence and we call on the Aquino government for an independent probe on the matter. Even state security forces, the military and the police, should not be spared from the investigations. Our own experience bears out the complicity of government armed forces in such violence, such as in the case of the Ampatuan massacre and the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearance of activists.”

“We hope that this violence would not escalate into a full-blown war between families as we all strive for unity in justice and progress,” Makabayan concluded.

Ang pangalawang kamatayan ni Osama bin Laden

2011-05-03T15:28:00.004+08:00

Osama bin Laden’s Second Death
by Paul Craig Roberts
Trends Research Institute
May 2, 2011

Related link: Top 10 Reasons for bin Laden's Death Announcement

Until the decline of the dollar reached the breaking point, Osama bin Laden, who many experts believe to have been dead for years, was a useful bogeyman to use to feed the profits of the US military/security complex.

If today were April 1 and not May 2, we could dismiss as an April fool’s joke this morning’s headline that Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight in Pakistan and quickly buried at sea. As it is, we must take it as more evidence that the US government has unlimited belief in the gullibility of Americans..

Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?

Consider also the claims, repeated by a triumphalist US media celebrating bin Laden’s death, that "bin Laden used his millions to bankroll terrorist training camps in Sudan, the Philippines, and Afghanistan, sending ‘holy warriors’ to foment revolution and fight with fundamentalist Muslim forces across North Africa, in Chechnya, Tajikistan and Bosnia." That’s a lot of activity for mere millions to bankroll (perhaps the US should have put him in charge of the Pentagon), but the main question is: how was bin Laden able to move his money about? What banking system was helping him? The US government succeeds in seizing the assets of people and of entire countries, Libya being the most recent. Why not bin Laden’s? Was he carrying around with him $100 million dollars in gold coins and sending emissaries to distribute payments to his far-flung operations?

This morning’s headline has the odor of a staged event. The smell reeks from the triumphalist news reports loaded with exaggerations, from celebrants waving flags and chanting "USA USA." Could something else be going on? No doubt President Obama is in desperate need of a victory. He committed the fool’s error of restarting the war in Afghanistan, and now after a decade of fighting the US faces stalemate, if not defeat. The wars of the Bush/Obama regimes have bankrupted the US, leaving huge deficits and a declining dollar in their wake. And re-election time is approaching.

The various lies and deceptions, such as "weapons of mass destruction," of the last several administrations had terrible consequences for the US and the world. But not all deceptions are the same. Remember, the entire reason for invading Afghanistan in the first place was to get bin Laden. Now that President Obama has declared bin Laden to have been shot in the head by US special forces operating in an independent country and buried at sea, there is no reason for continuing the war.

Perhaps the precipitous decline in the US dollar in foreign exchange markets has forced some real budget reductions, which can only come from stopping the open-ended wars. Until the decline of the dollar reached the breaking point, Osama bin Laden, who many experts believe to have been dead for years, was a useful bogeyman to use to feed the profits of the US military/security complex.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has been reporting shocking cases of prosecutorial abuse for two decades. A new edition of his book, The Tyranny of Good Intentions, co-authored with Lawrence Stratton, a documented account of how Americans lost the protection of law, has been released by Random House.

Copyright © 2011 Paul Craig Roberts

Top 10 Reasons for bin Laden's Death Announcement

10. They ran out of Bin Laden look-alikes to use in fake videos
9. People stopped believing that a cave-dweller on a dialysis machine was still
alive after 10 years
8. People discovered the Frost/Bhutto interview on YouTube where she confirmed
that Bin Laden was dead already, back in 2004 – probably died in December 2001
7. They want to be able to say something was achieved for the TRILLIONS spent on
wars over the last 10 years and the thousands of innocent civilian lives
6. They need a distraction from the upcoming Gaza Flotilla and from the upcoming
vote in the UN on Palestinian sovereignity, and the Move-Over-AIPAC conference
this month
5. They need us to remain terrified of the upcoming retaliation for Bin Laden’s
death to justify the continuance of the TSA’s “Grope or Fry” policy
4. They need a distraction from the birth certificate controversy
3. They need a distraction from the murders of Ghadafi’s son and grandchildren
2. They need a ploy to remake Obama as a hero to the “USA! USA!” crowd and get
him re-elected
1. They need an excuse to pull troops out of Afghanistan to deploy elsewhere and
take us into war once more – probably Syria/Iran

May 1: Pakikibaka laban sa kagutuman, kahirapan, at pang-aapi

2011-05-01T15:40:00.004+08:00

Update 2011-5-2: Click here for pictures, statements, and videos of the May 1 protest

May 1 is igniting a flame that could burn Aquino

This year’s Labor Day bears witness to the display of outrage by the Filipino workers and people over the Aquino regime’s refusal to grant a significant wage hike amidst rising prices of basic goods and services, and petroleum products especially.

It is an outrage directed at the hunger, poverty and oppression that have intensified over the reign of regimes which have all served big foreign capitalists and governments and the local ruling elite at the expense of the Filipino workers and people.

It is an outrage over the extreme exploitation and oppression of Filipino workers. The pressing down of wages, the rolling back of job security, the lack of jobs and livelihood, and attacks on trade-union rights have intensified through the years.

It is an outrage that seeks an immediate and genuine economic relief in the coming days, weeks and months. Band-aid solutions being offered by the Aquino regime will not dissipate this outrage but will only ignite it even further.

We vow that today’s big nationwide protests will lead to even bigger protests in the coming days, weeks and months throughout the country. We vow to translate our anger at the Aquino regime’s policies to collective action and struggle.

The targets of our continuing outrage are the unabated oil price hikes and overpricing of oil, the Aquino regime’s efforts to deny a significant wage hike through the regional wage boards, and cuts in subsidies to education and social services.

The Aquino regime should heed Labor Day’s warning signal. If it fails to act now to uphold the interests of the Filipino workers and people, it will face ever-growing protests and the possibility of being the target of an ouster movement.

On the occasion of the 125th international celebration of Labor Day, we express our solidarity with the workers and peoples of the world who are fighting the plunder and wars of aggression being carried out by US imperialism.

By calling our protest a “Day of Outrage,” we highlight our solidarity with the workers and peoples of the Middle East and North Africa who have defied repression and deceit to topple anti-people regimes and seek radical change for their societies.

With the workers and peoples of the world, we are seeking an end to neoliberal and pro-imperialist policies that have kept our country underdeveloped. We want an end to a system that has only enriched the few at the expense of the majority.

Even as we express our outrage, we are filled with hope as we witness the workers and people of the Philippines and the world stand up to their exploiters and oppressors to collectively and militantly say “Enough!” and to fight for change.

Reference Person:
Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson
Campaign: PhP 125 Legislated Wage Hike
Contact information: 0908-1636597

MIGRANTE Austria sinisingil si Noynoy sa kanyang mga pangako

2011-04-30T15:15:00.003+08:00

2011 May Day Statement

We at MIGRANTE Austria honor and march with the working people of the world as we denounce a whole year of betrayal by President Benigno Aquino III.

Armed with a most welcome promise of change, Aquino was mandated by the people to drag the country out of the quagmire left behind by the 10-year rule of his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He made sweet promises on his 10-point agenda declaring that we, the people, are his „boss“. But instead of delivering on his promises, he has outrightly neglected the Filipino people’s issues and legitimate demands in his first year of his term.

As a candidate for President, Aquino talked big about prosecuting and holding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo accountable for plunder and gross human rights violations. Now in office, Aquino continues many of the policies of Arroyo’s and other previous governments as the socio-economic and human rights situation in the country further deteriorates.

Facts and figures are available to prove this. But when a third of the country's 94 million people remain in deep poverty and their numbers continue to grow by the day, statistics are hardly necessary. We know and experience it in our daily lives.

The costs of basic commodities and services in the country continue to rise and 4.1 million families -- have gone hungry at least once in the past three months (SocialWeatherStation poll, March 2011).

According to the National Statistics Office (NSO) there are about 2.86 million unemployed and 6.76 million Filipinos underemployed as of 2010. The daily minimum wage of Php404 is just 2/5 of the estimated average family living wage (FLW) of Php988 in the National Capital Region (NCR) as of March 2011. Despite of this, Aquino refused to legislate a P125 (USD 2.71) daily wage increase across the board and is instead leaving up the matter to the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board – a cheap way to shirk responsibility.

Owing to the Labor Export Policy implemented by previous governments in the last four decades, more than 20% of the 36-million Philippine work force is deployed abroad at a high social cost (including family separations, various forms of maltreatment in host countries). The so-called Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who remit the dollars that fuel the Philippines' economy are hailed as the country’s present-day heroes but the government hardly pays more than lip service to their rights and welfare. The government does not have a system for the repatriation of OFWs in crisis-struck countries and has neither the will nor the capacity to reabsorb them into the local work force.

Rep. Rafael Mariano of Party-list, Anakpawis stressed "If only the government will protect the local industries from smuggling, global competition and trade liberalization policy, then unemployment and underemployment will not be a cause of concern."

Indeed, Aquino has chosen to pursue a policy of subservience to foreign dictates. In fact, thousands of urban poor families have been displaced through violent demolition of their homes, public transportation fares have been hiked, and value added tax has been imposed on expressways -- all in the name of the public-private partnership program pushed by the World Bank. Large scale foreign mining projects that give foreign companies a high return on their investments cause environmental destruction and damage to human lives and human rights violations. It is also to meet the conditionality of the World Bank that Aquino stopped rice subsidies via the National Food Authority and created the Conditional Cash Transfer, a dole-out program prone to corruption by government officials at all levels.

Not surprisingly, the dictates of imperial power go beyond socio-economic policy. The Visiting Forces Agreement with the USA continues to be in force. Aquino has reneged on its promise to review said Agreement containing provisions that compromise the country’ s sovereignty. Only several days ago, on the occasion of the visit of 2 US senators to the country, he started sounding off to the nation the possibility of the return of US forces in the country’s "former" US bases.

Furthermore, in accordance with the US Counter-Insurgency Strategy for the Philippines, Aquino implements measures that violate the human rights of our already-suffering people. He extended Arroyo’s military campaign upon taking office in June 2010 and launched at the beginning of 2011 his own Oplan Bayanihan which likewise seeks to silence voices of dissent specially in the countryside where peasants and farmers fighting for their basic rights to the soil they till. Harassment, abductions, illegal arrests, trumped-up charges torture and other forms of human rights violations continue unabated throughout the country and the human rights watchdog KARAPATAN documented more than 40 cases of extrajudicial killings during Aquino’s first year in power.

We can fill a book, we can fill a lot of books, to show that Aquino, in his first year, was not eager to make the government work on behalf of the laborer, the farmer and the urban poor, the small businessman and has waisted a good part of his time mismanaging the crises that came his way. He has not proven that he can be trusted to look out for the interests of the Filipino people. And there is no indication that the situation will change for the better within his term. He is not into the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to achieve peace based on social justice. He is not for the implementation of genuine land reform, as one can see from his handling of the dispute over his family’s Hacienda Luisita. He must have the willingness to assert national independence and adopt an economic development program based on national industrialization and enlightened social policies.

We believe that only the united action of all working people will bring the much-needed change in the key areas of our lives. Your solidarity and support give us enormous strength to press on in our struggle

For more information, please contact:

migrante.austria@gmail.com

The "wedding of the century" is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing

2011-04-29T19:28:00.002+08:00

Vantage Point -- By Luis V. Teodoro

A royal pain

With the 21st century so young, the media are already calling the April 29 event "The wedding of the century." The British media’s focus on the wedding of William Windsor and Catherine Middleton is understandable.

There may be a republican movement in Britain that detests the monarchy and wants it abolished, but there are enough monarchists out there to merit -- if that’s the word -- the kind of breathless attention such conservative papers as London’s Daily Mail have been paying to the run-up to and the actual wedding of two unremarkable people who, if the groom were not second in the line of succession to the British throne, the world would have no reason to notice.

Not that even that really matters, monarchies being relics of a feudal era, anachronisms that have no place in a world in turmoil. For some reason, however, it does seem to matter even to the US media, which are devoting twice as much time, space, and humanpower to the event as the British media. And yet, a New York Times survey found that only six percent of US people have been following the media puffery over the engagement, the wedding and their tiniest details, and are likely to be interested in watching the pomp and circumstance of April 29 via the major TV networks and the Web.

In the Philippines, where there’s no earthly reason why audiences should be interested, print and broadcast as well as the Internet news sites have been similarly hyping the event and are threatening to deluge Filipinos with the same mindless trivia the Western media are grinding out.

One suspects it’s because Philippine media’s mostly Western sources have been flooding them with stories on such earthshaking topics as Ms. Middleton’s weight and diet, her taste in clothes and her work, together with reports on how she and Mr. Windsor met, where they’re going to live, and the supposedly raging debate on whether she should continue working or devote her time to her "royal duties" full time.

And what would those duties be, pray tell? At her level, they’re mostly likely to consist of cutting the ribbon to dog shows, although she could also join Mr. Windsor’s grandmother, Elizabeth, in those handshaking and head-nodding sorties among her "subjects" the British call "walkabouts."

Whatever duties the British monarchy has are supposedly ceremonial, which is true, up to a point. But British republicans point out that as British head of state, Elizabeth Windsor (aka Elizabeth II) also has, among others, the following powers: that of choosing the prime minister, dissolving Parliament, dismissing the governments of other countries of which she is also head of state, rejecting laws passed by Parliament, pardoning criminals, and declaring a state of emergency.

These powers are supposedly exercised in consultation with, and with the consent of, the government, but in the absence of a written constitution, the head of state, in this case Elizabeth, can influence the thinking of prime ministers, who, in any case, determine the extent to which they will allow the monarch to influence policy making. Most have only been too happy to heed the monarch’s views.

Some members of Parliament have also admitted to a tendency not to raise too many questions about such issues as the finances of the so-called royal family, among other reasons because no one can be a member of Parliament without taking an oath to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and her successors, according to law, so help me God." In short, says John Pratt of the Centre for Citizenship, members of Parliament "must declare their loyalty to an unelected, unaccountable individual with no democratic legitimacy, and to any and all members of her family!"

Republicans argue that this requirement either bars people who don’t believe in the monarchy from serving in Parliament, or compels them to lie if they do take the oath. What’s more, only the Windsors, solely on the strength of their hereditary prerogatives, can ever be heads of state, unlike in other parliamentary democracies where a president is either elected by Parliament or at large by the people. The result, says Pratt, is to reserve the office of head of state for one family and to deny it to others, thus making democracy a farce.

For the feudal privilege of having people they may call "Queen," "Prince," "Duke," etc., the British taxpayer spends some 110 million pounds (approximately $200 million) a year to pay for the palaces, stables, fleets of cars, first-class travel, living allowances, staff of 1,000, etc., to which the "royals" are "entitled."

As to the claim that the monarchy unites the country, the antics -- some critics say the philistinism and intellectual vacuity -- of some Windsors have actually done the opposite. During World War II, some of the Windsors -- a German house renamed only in 1915 -- were sympathetic to Hitler, for example. William Windsor’s father Charles, first in line to succeed Elizabeth Windsor as British head of state, supported apartheid when practically the entire planet and most Britons were opposed to it. Charles’ own "fairy tale" wedding to Diana Spencer and his affair with his current wife while she was still alive, not to mention Diana’s own affairs, were themselves a scandal that to this day still invites acrimonious debate.

"Fairy tale" is indeed the key phrase in the media to-do over the William Windsor-Catherine Middleton wedding. Not only is it a tale told to divert people from the realities of a changing world, it is also a tale lived by people who have absolutely no understanding or even knowledge of what’s happening in it, one indication being the Windsors’ enduring friendships with such tyrants as the king of Bahrain, whom they have invited to the April 29 wedding.

The "wedding of the century" is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. And yet the Philippine media, mesmerized by their counterparts in the West, are inflicting and will continue to inflict on Filipino audiences this Saturday (Friday in Britain) that very same tale. In the process they deny space and time to the reporting of events that do matter to the lives of the millions who must cope with inflation, poverty, hunger, violence, fear, corruption in high places, and the media’s own enduring inability to distinguish between what matters and what doesn’t.

Comments and other columns: www.luisteodoro.com

Bawal sa batas na gabi mag-demolish

2011-04-29T17:42:00.001+08:00

'Demolition by night' riles Caloocan settlers
Source: abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 04/28/2011 10:19 AM | Updated as of 04/28/2011 1:50 PM

MANILA, Philippines – Residents of Barangay 182, Zone 16, Pangarap Village in Caloocan protested an alleged illegal demolition in their barangay, which left two people wounded by gunfire Wednesday night.

Armed security guards opened fire at the vehicles in the barangay, hitting two of the residents. One was identified as Dino Cabaldo.

Residents believed the demolition was illegal.

“Harassment na ito. Wala naman silang maipakita na court order,” said Barangay Captain Eusebio Palmario of Brgy. 182.

“Bawal sa batas na gabi mag-demolish,” he added.

Police arrived on the scene to restore order in the area but no arrests were made. The armed men immediately fled the scene.

Police will continue to monitor the barangay to prevent any more untoward incidents. -- Report by Jeck Batallones, ABS-CBN News

Mga call center agents sasama sa Labor Day protest

2011-04-27T14:06:00.003+08:00

BPO workers gear up for May 1 solidarity actions
04/26/2011
Source: GMAnews.tv

Because BPO workers, more commonly known as call center agents, have several job-related concerns, they will meet with the Kabataan Partylist in order to gear up for solidarity actions on May 1.

Their concerns include job security, the right to association, occupational safety and job-related health issues.

In an interview with GMA News Online, Marben Romero, a former training manager at Sitel — an outsourcing firm that deals in technical and customer service accounts — described the main issues call center agents face these days.

“A call center agent’s main concerns these days are: One, job security. Many agents can be let go when accounts get terminated. And things are in constant flux in the BPO industry," he said.

“Two, health concerns. Due to the lifestyle — improper nutrition, eating too much junk food, adjusting to the night shift, irresponsible sex lives — a lot of agents put their own health at risk," Romero said.

“Also, speaking of the night shift, getting home safely can be a concern. It can be a dangerous world out there, man," he added.

BPO agents who wish to take solidarity actions on Labor Day and thus make their concerns known may want to attend a meeting Wednesday at the UP Diliman College of Mass Communications Auditorium at 10 a.m.

The meeting will be between BPO agents and Kabataan Partylist chaired by Rep. Raymond V. Palatino. — With Aya Yuson/VS, GMA News

Panoorin ang bidyong "Kuwentong Obrero"

2011-04-26T05:32:00.002+08:00

Kuwentong Obrero | Dagdag Sahod na Makabuluhan: Kailangang Ipaglaban from mayday multimedia philippines

CHR report on Melissa Roxas practically clears AFP in torture -- Bayan

2011-04-25T15:59:00.005+08:00

Does Ericson Acosta deserve the hot summer nights in a Calbayog provincial jail?

2011-04-24T16:44:00.004+08:00

DOES THIS CULTURAL WORKER DESERVE THE HOT SUMMER NIGHTS IN A CALBAYOG PROVINCIAL JAIL?
by Pablo A. Tariman
Manila
Sat 23rd April 2011
Source: Munting Nayon Netherlands
Related post: #1 Prison Diary

There are many things my grandson, Emmanuel Tariman Acosta, didn’t know about his father, Ericson Acosta.

My grandson didn’t know that his father acted in several theater productions at the University of the Philippines (UP), including the UP Repertory Company’s “Sa Sariling Bayan” directed by Soxy Topacio; Dulaang UP’s “Green Bird,” directed by the late Ogie Juliano; and “Monumento,” which his father wrote and directed. By coincidence, Ericson also played the lead role of Andres Bonifacio in this multi-media production by the UP Alay Sining.

Ericson’s love affair with theater was understandable. He took a crash course in theater arts with PETA in his elementary school days; he was active in the UST high school theater group and reorganized the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) while EDSA 2 was unfolding.

After his term as editor of the University of the Philippines (UP) Collegian where he was also editor of its Literary Folio, my grandson’s father had stints as segment writer for ABS-CBN’s Wanted TV Patrol and assistant entertainment section editor of the Manila Times.

Two months ago on February 13 to be exact, something happened to my grandson’s father: members of the AFP’s 34th IB led by 2nd Lt. Jacob Madarang arrested him while doing research on the human rights situation in Samar province. He was unarmed and in the company of a local barangay official when he was arrested and note: without warrant. He was held for three days without charges and was subjected to continuous tactical interrogation by the military. Three days after arrest in which no charges was filed, he was finally charged with illegal possession of explosives to justify his detention in the Calbayog sub-provincial jail.

It took me close to two months before I could find the courage to break the news to my grandson. It was the month before the final exams and I didn’t want him carrying extra emotional burden. Emmanuel did very well during the exams in which he got grades ranging from 90 to 92 in all subjects. He was asked to join a dance number –yes, his first on the school stage -- during the recognition program. I thought it would be better to finish all the school events before I break the news to him.

But one day before the scheduled presscon last April 15 launching the Free Ericson Acosta Campaign spearheaded by former colleagues from the UP Philippine Collegian, UP Alay Sining and UP Amnesty International, as well as his former schoolmates from UST High School, my grandson asked: who was in jail and why did he keep on hearing lawyers and court hearings in my phone conversation?

I told him gently his father is closely guarded by soldiers and he couldn’t move around. I tried to avoid the words “arrest” and “jail.”

In the presscon, my grandson got everything from testimonials from people his father knew. Dr. Pilar Ocampo -- who taught at UST while Ericson was president of the UST Tanghalang Sto. Tomas – said the former Collegian editor was an active campus leader, well mannered and didn’t deserve to be in jail.

Then my grandson saw a video of his father playing the acoustic guitar inside the Calbayog jail. I thought my grandson winced and his grandmother was in tears.

Meanwhile, the cultural sector led by National Artists for Literature Bien Lumbera, actors Pen Medina and Nanding Josef, filmmaker Carlitos Siguion Reyna and UP Dean of Mass Communications Rolando Tolentino has rallied behind Ericson in a statement signed by signatories from the cultural sector, media and academe denouncing the illegal arrest of the former UP Collegian editor.

Said Lumbera: “Ericson deserves to be released for his continuing incarceration is a grievous loss to the growth of a truly democratic art and culture of the Filipino people."

Lumbera has known Acosta since his activist days in the university and has published favorable reviews for “Monumento” written and directed by Ericson.

Distinguished actor and former Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Vice President and Artistic Director Nanding Josef said: “This new administration is challenged to be different from its predecessors. Free those whose only ‘crime’ is genuinely serving the least served, and jail without delay those who have greedily taken away ‘food on the table of the poor.’ I know him Ericson personally as a cultural worker. I am humbled by his sacrifices and his commitment to the poor. My accomplishments as an artist and cultural worker are nothing compared to his," Josef added.

In his counter-affidavit filed last April11 and signed by his counsel Atty. Julian F. Oliva, Jr., Ericson maintained that he was arrested without warrant and was not doing anything illegal during the arrest. On top of that, he was not informed of the reason for his arrest, he was denied the right to counsel and was denied to make calls to his family or lawyer and was subjected to prolonged interrogation for 44 hours.

Added Ericson in his counter-affidavit:

“During tactical interrogation, I was physically and psychologically tortured;

I was deprived of sleep, threatened, intimidated, coerced and forced to admit membership in the NPA; the evidence against me – the so-called grenade”, was planted.

The complaint against me was filed in court on after 72 hours and 30 minutes after my arrest.”

Meanwhile, Ericson has languished in the Samar jail for more than two months now.

Ericson’s family is preparing for a long and dragging legal battle.

To date, he is in jail writing his prison diaries.

By coincidence, my grandson watched Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Jose Rizal” last Holy Thursday on Channel 7. I knew there are some questions lurking in his mind: what was Rizal writing and why was he in jail? Why was he shot and what was his crime?

It was the same question he wanted to ask when he saw the sequence of Ronnie Lazaro (as the detained leader of a rebel group) in the teleserye, "Minsan Lang Kitang Iibigin" which is about a rebel and a PMA graduate who happen to be twins.

At age 8 and entering grade 3 only this coming school year, there are many things I couldn’t explain well to my grandson.

It’s Ericson’s birthday on May 27.

I told my grandson he can visit his father in that Samar jail before his father’s birthday.

“What do we bring?” he asked.

“Your father ordered electric fan and a rice cooker,” I answered.

“We can listen to the Calbayog school orchestra while we are there,” I added.

In my mind, this cultural worker (who happens to be my son-in-law) doesn’t deserve the hot summer nights in a Calbayog provincial jail.

(The author presents violinist Gina Medina and pianist Mary Anne Espina in a special fundraising concert for the legal fund of Ericson Acosta on Saturday, May 28, 2011, 6 p.m. at the Balay Kalinaw, UP campus, Diliman, Quezon City. Tickets at P1000 (with buffet dinner) and P500 (concert only). Tel. (02)7484152 or cell 09065104270)

Europe's Rising Islamophobia

2011-04-22T01:33:00.001+08:00

Europe's Rising Islamophobia
by Paul Hockenos
Released: 21 Apr 2011
Source: Agence Global

Berlin -- With inspiring scenes of the Arab Spring on television for months, one might have expected images of democratic revolutions to punch a hole in the crude anti-Muslim stereotypes of Europe’s Islamophobes, those politicians and intellectuals who swear that Islam is totalitarian to its core. And if this alone didn’t dispel clichés of a monolithic, violent religion, then surely the vox pop of diaspora Egyptians, Tunisians and others on the nightly news -- university students, women who head NGOs and children alongside their native French or German peers -- would have demonstrated the diversity and integration of Muslim Europeans, something study after study documents.

To the contrary, in recent elections Islamophobes like France’s right-wing National Front and the anti-EU True Finn Party racked up their best numbers ever, the latest strides in a surging movement that is recasting the political landscape of Western Europe. These elements have every reason to thank mainstream politicians, who, in the hope of exploiting the phenomenon for their own gain, have paved the way for the far right. In April, for example, France’s ridiculous “burqa ban” went into effect with overwhelming popular support, while EU leaders pushed the panic button over Tunisian refugees landing in Italy and Malta, turning the image of peaceful revolutionaries across the Mediterranean into one of an impoverished mob besieging Fortress Europe.

What makes anti-Muslim racism so lethal is that unlike populisms of the past, Islamophobia has broad appeal across the political spectrum, from the far left to the far right and irrespective of class or educational level. Where it manifests itself in electoral parties, such as in France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and now even Sweden and Finland, its advocates fare much better than old-school far-right parties ever did, with their vulgar anti-Semitism and expansionist fantasies. There is nevertheless plenty of overlap with the extreme right, which inscribes anti-Islam thinking prominently in its manifestos and is thriving on the new discourse; never before have so many of its representatives been so close to the levers of power in so many Western European countries.

Islamophobia is solidly mainstream; there is no politically correct taboo against it, as there is with overt racism or other strains of xenophobia. In fact, some of Europe’s highest-profile Islamophobes justify their attacks on Islam and Europe’s Muslims in the name of women’s and gay rights. Conservative, liberal and even leftist parties tap into it, partly out of opportunism and partly out of conviction. Invoking secularism and Enlightenment values, some centrists and leftists propagate a cultural racism that instead of using skin color imputes immutable characteristics to cultures and assigns them a hierarchy, with Western civilization at the top. This is Islamophobia, which functions just as racism does, and serves the purposes of those who have long sought to stem immigration, keep Turkey out of the European Union and secure a white Christian Europe.

* * *

Not every European country has anti-Muslim parties as successful as two of Islamophobia’s poster boys, the Dutch Freedom Party and the Danish People’s Party, both of which put the clash of cultures and the Islamic menace at the center of their programs. Yet these cases are instructive, because they represent a new generation of the European right, and the conditions of their rise exist across Western Europe. Surveys and opinion polls, for example, indicate that anti-Muslim sentiment in Holland and Denmark is about the same as in most other Western European countries. In one recent study, between 34 and 37 percent of French, Dutch, Portuguese and Danes say they have a negative opinion of Muslims. In Germany the figure is 59 percent.

The Dutch Freedom Party is a one-man outfit led by 47-year-old Geert Wilders, immediately recognizable by his wavy mane of platinum-blond hair. Since October the party has been an unofficial partner in the center-right governing coalition (it has no cabinet seats, but it can dictate terms to a minority government that ultimately needs its votes). In the Netherlands, previously renowned for its tolerance, Wilders’s party more than doubled its numbers last year, to 16 percent of the electorate, on a platform to stop the “Islamization of the Netherlands.” The party pledged to halt immigration from “Muslim countries,” to tax women wearing headscarves and to ban the Koran as well as the construction of mosques. Wilders blames the easygoing model of Dutch multiculturalism for exposing the Netherlands to Islam, and thus for undermining the very tolerance it naïvely extended to Muslim peoples. Over the past two years he has consistently polled as one of the country’s most popular politicians, despite being put on trial on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims (the case is ongoing).

As for the Danish People’s Party, it has worked hand-in-hand with the country’s center-right government since 2001. The party -- one leading MP likens the hijab to the swastika -- took 15 percent of the vote in the 2009 European Parliament elections and is now Denmark’s third-biggest party. Its guiding light, Pia Kjaersgaard, originally belonged to one of Denmark’s establishment parties, as Wilders did in the Netherlands. Unlike the old right, with its blood-and-soil chauvinism and anti-Semitism, new rightists like Kjaersgaard couch their nationalism as a defense of Western civilization and even “Judeo-Christian values.” One of her quotes: “Not in their wildest imagination would anyone [in 1900] have imagined that large parts of Copenhagen and other Danish towns would be populated by people who are at a lower stage of civilization, with their own primitive and cruel customs like honor killings, forced marriages, halal slaughtering, and blood-feuds. This is exactly what is happening now…. [They] have come to a Denmark that left the dark ages hundreds of years ago.”

In both countries the governments have caved in to Islamophobes by dramatically tightening immigration requirements for non-Westerners. The once proudly open-minded Denmark now has the strictest such laws in Europe. “I’m certain that soon many other countries will copy us,” boasted the People’s Party after the November passage of a law it co-wrote. The opposition Social Democrats, though fiercely split on the issue, ended up backing the bill as well. Their rationale: to stop forced marriages and protect ethnic minority women from family pressure, as if immigration restrictions would accomplish either. All such talk from centrist parties does is perpetuate prejudices: in this case, that forced marriage is the rule in Muslim European families, which is simply not true.

The Netherlands and Denmark, like most of Western Europe, have significant numbers of foreign-born immigrants and second-generation inhabitants from Arabic or majority-Muslim countries. (Many have Turkish backgrounds and -- as with many Bosnians, Moroccans and Iraqis -- may or may not practice Islam. But thanks to the new discourse, which conflates ethnicity with religion, they’re all called Muslims.) These communities make up 5 and 4 percent of their populations, respectively (3.2 percent is the European Union average), and have a positive birthrate, in contrast with sagging demographics across almost all of traditionally Christian Europe, a trend that has Islamophobes sounding the alarm bells. It is also the case -- though the root causes are hotly disputed -- that segments of these minorities are poorly integrated, unemployment among them is higher than the national average and 1 to 2 percent hold radical views.

Even in EU countries that don’t have growing anti-Muslim parties, Islamophobic sentiment is potent. In Germany, for example, one survey after another attests to widening hostility directed at the Muslim population and Islam in general. One recent study showed 58 percent of Germans in favor of restricting religious freedom for Muslims. This included more than 75 percent of those in eastern Germany, where the Muslim population is negligible. Thirty-seven percent of Germans feel the Federal Republic would be better off “without Islam.” The surveys underscore the steady rise of these sentiments since 2004, with a significant jump from 2009 to 2010. They also show that while attitudes are particularly strong in traditional right-wing milieus, they have also become more pronounced in the middle and upper classes and among Germans with higher education. They also reveal that anti-Muslim feelings are far stronger than homophobia, classic racism, sexism or anti-Semitism -- the latter long the measure for illiberal thinking in Germany.

This mainstreaming of Islamophobia would have been inconceivable without the post-9/11 anti-Muslim discourse in European media; Islamophobic websites like Germany’s Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa and Politically Incorrect have tens of thousands of visitors a day. In large part the trail was blazed by intellectuals, a surprising number of whom had roots in progressive politics. Hugely influential was the late Italian writer Oriana Fallaci, whose bestselling books insisted that Islam is a thoroughly violent and totalitarian creed striving for world domination. The former antifascist partisan and left-wing journalist once likened the Koran to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Others include French writer and activist Bernard-Henri Levy (“the veil is an invitation to rape”), British novelist and former New Statesman editor Martin Amis, Dutch intellectual and Labor Party member Paul Scheffer, and in Germany such figures as Ralph Giordano, Necla Kelek, Alice Schwarzer and Henryk Broder, all leftists or former leftists of one stripe or another. Schwarzer, for example, is the mother of Germany’s feminist movement, and with her flagship quarterly EMMA she has fought for women’s liberation since the early 1970s. She denounces Islam as misogynistic and misanthropic, accusing it -- and those who defend it -- of betraying the universality of human rights. For her, and for many other critics of Islam, “tolerating” the religion means tolerating forced marriages, honor killings, burqas, female genital mutilation and polygamy. Schwarzer now argues for measures that conservatives and the far right have pursued for decades. In the past it was coalitions comprising liberal intellectuals, feminists and Christian churches that waged fierce opposition to such legislation.

Where the new right parties aren’t surging, centrist politicians take on much of the anti-Muslim baggage. It wasn’t, for example, right-wingers who passed the burqa bans in France and Belgium but liberal and mainstream conservative parties, backed by the left. In France, some Socialists and Communists joined President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling party in voting for the recent ban of the full veil in public, a law proposed by a Communist mayor from southern France (the Greens abstained, fearful of the repercussions of a no vote). Polls showed 80 percent of French voters in favor of the ban.

In contrast to the conservative parties’ thinly veiled racism, the left’s anti-Muslim reaction is an anticlerical stance, a kind of dogmatic secularism that sees religion as nothing more than the opiate of the masses. Its inability to grasp that Islam is a source of identity for many European Muslims and, more important, to debunk racist Islamophobia plays straight into the hands of political foes, including the churches (which come off as benevolent compared with en vogue caricatures of Islam). By branding Islam as something qualitatively different from and much more dangerous than other religions, the left helps to stigmatize it further -- and lets Christianity off the hook.

As John Mullen of France’s radical left-wing Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste explains, “The majority of the left in France believe that the hijab is an assault on women’s rights. This position quickly moves into the prejudice that Muslim women in France are more oppressed than non-Muslim women, that the experience of women in, say, Saudi Arabia is merely an extreme case of an oppression which is inherent in Islam.” He and other NPA activists protested the party’s reluctance to allow Ilham Moussaïd, a secular, French-born, prochoice feminist, to run as a candidate because she wears a headscarf. Twelve eventually quit. Says Mullen: “Muslim and Arab men are then presented as the major source of women’s oppression and contrasted with the progressive white values of Republican France. So opposition to religious practices on the basis of progressive values can easily turn into a thinly disguised form of racism.”

* * *

In Germany the issue burst into the political sphere only last year, with the publication of Deutschland schafft sich ab (“Germany Does Away With Itself”), by Thilo Sarrazin, a Social Democrat, an economist on the board of Germany’s Central Bank and a former Berlin councilman. In it he argues that Muslims are “unwilling” and “unable” to integrate; that Muslim immigrants sponge off the welfare systems; that because of their higher birthrate they will soon outnumber indigenous Germans; and that immigration (from the wrong parts of the world) undermines Germany’s “cultural identity” and “national character.” He writes, “I don’t want the country of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to be largely Muslim, or that Turkish or Arabic will be spoken in large areas, that women will wear headscarves and the daily rhythm is set by the call of the muezzin.” Unlike much of the cultural anti-Muslim sentiment in the media, Sarrazin’s book explicitly mixes race into the blend, arguing that “Muslim genes” are somehow inferior to German ones.

Though Sarrazin’s book certainly wasn’t the first anti-Muslim tract published in Germany, it was the first by a mainstream politician. It unexpectedly surged to the top of the bestseller list, where it remains today. While controversy over the book forced him to leave the Central Bank, it made the sullen, gray-haired economist Germany’s favorite talk-show guest and a multimillionaire. Fortunately, Sarrazin is not a movement leader and has no ambition to start his own party. An explicitly anti-Muslim right-wing movement, Pro Deutschland, has emerged recently, but it has yet to kindle broad-based enthusiasm, perhaps because the established parties are soaking up its potential.

The Sarrazin affair illustrated just how deep-seated Islamophobia has become in Germany. At first, the country’s leading politicians responded by roundly condemning the author. But once polls emerged showing that every party’s constituency believed that Sarrazin “gets some things right,” many critics backed off. The Social Democrats balked at expelling him (an investigation is under way), and party members as esteemed as former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, one of the fathers of the Federal Republic, praised Sarrazin’s candor. Chancellor Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat, said “the multiculturalism experiment” has “failed,” and the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union said it was high time to stop immigration from alien cultures. Although Germany’s Left Party condemned the Sarrazin theses, one poll showed that 29 percent of the party’s voters would be sympathetic to a Sarrazin-led party, the highest result of all the parties (Left Party voters are overwhelmingly eastern German, secular and consider themselves socialists).

Critically, Germany’s political elite is divided over the issues posed by Islam and Muslims. Almost every party -- with the exception of the Greens, whose members poll lowest for Islamophobia -- has prominent representatives who are hostile to Islam as well as those who speak out for tolerance. For example, Germany’s president, Christian Democrat Christian Wulff, underscored in a major address this year that “Islam now too is part of Germany,” an enormous step forward in making the country’s 4 million Muslims feel at home. And Merkel has made great strides in modernizing the Christian Democrats, including the initiation of the Islam Conference, a forum for dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims. But conservatives have long fought for tighter immigration laws and still defend the idea of a Christian Europe, for example in their adamant opposition to Turkish EU membership. For some, anti-Muslim sentiment is a perfect way to dress up bigotry in liberal clothing. Now conservatives call for limiting immigration because of Islam’s antipathy to gay rights and feminism -- which they now claim to support, in contrast with backward Muslims! Islamophobia is an enormous boon to these forces, supplying them with an ostensibly politically correct rationale for their goals as well as access to previously unreachable voters.

Although Islamophobia is gaining ground at a disturbing clip, there are voices of reason among the political elites and civil society. They rightly emphasize that there is no monolithic Islam as such -- it is preposterous, for example, to throw Iran-born political refugees with university degrees into the same pot as 1960s-era Anatolian guest workers, even though both are “Muslim.” And reducing all of Islam to its most radical factions only serves demagogues and obstructs integration. They point out that Islam is remarkably heterogeneous and dynamic, and includes an emergent European Islam that blends religion with modernity. Moreover, Europe’s integration of immigrants is actually far more successful than critics portray it, with their images of “parallel societies” and sinister ghettos.

A number of recent studies in Germany unequivocally refute anti-Islam clichés. They show, for example, that the vast majority of Muslims don’t see Islam as a political ideology and don’t define themselves foremost through religion but through social standing, regional origin and profession. Only about 7 percent are deeply religious and adhere to patriarchal traditions; these tend to live in ethnic enclaves, unlike their co-religionists. In Germany 98 percent of Muslims choose their own partners. Eighty-four percent believe in separation of church and state. The new studies corroborate other research showing that most of Europe’s 53 million Muslims (16 million in the EU) have lifestyles and concerns a lot like those of non-Muslim Europeans. The birthrate of successive generations of “German Turks,” for example, is approaching that of other Germans. Muslim groups have welcomed initiatives, like Germany’s Islam Conference, to bring Islam and European Muslims into the mainstream, as well as other positive steps to overcome the discrimination that, in part, accounts for European Muslims’ marginalization and lands many of them at the bottom rung of the social ladder.

Europe’s left in particular should be in a better position to critique Islamophobic discourse. This means a rethinking of knee-jerk laicism in light of new phenomena such as the desire of many women from Muslim backgrounds to wear a headscarf for reasons of ethnic or religious pride. Or, if the left is to insist on radical secularism, then it should apply the same critique to all religions. Why, for example, is Islam to blame when ethnic Turkish kids perform poorly in German schools, but not Catholicism when Italian migrants flunk out (which they do, in higher numbers than kids with Turkish backgrounds)? In the same vein, the rationale for exceptional behavior such as honor killings should be sought in the patriarchal traditions of certain countries rather than in Islam itself. Cultural racism, which legitimizes right-wing goals, is a complex phenomenon to decode, but it is the task of progressive forces to do it.

Policies like Switzerland’s ban on minaret construction (approved by 58 percent of voters in 2009) and veil prohibitions in France, Belgium and parts of Germany violate basic rights. Increasingly derogatory popular attitudes toward Islam and Muslims translate into workplace and schoolyard discrimination, which only increases tensions. Moreover, the mainstreaming of bigotry has created a new right and revived the old one: Austria’s Freedom Party, the Flemish Vlaams Blok and France’s National Front have renewed their fortunes by adopting Islamophobia. In last fall’s Vienna elections, the Jörg Haider-less Freedom Party nearly doubled its 2005 result, capturing 27 percent of the vote. Polls actually show the National Front’s new leader, Marine Le Pen, running ahead of Sarkozy for the 2012 presidential vote.

Of all the specters haunting Europe, none are as potent-- or potentially disruptive to democracy -- as Islamophobia. Though the economic crisis and budget slashing across the continent have certainly fueled anti-Muslim discourse, they are not chiefly to blame for Islamophobia. The goals and jingoistic assumptions at the core of the right’s agenda are essentially unchanged from the 1980s. The difference is that the left and liberals have largely capitulated, unable to address the issue of Islam and the Muslims among us in a constructive way.

Paul Hockenos, a writer based in Berlin, is the author of Free to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe.

Copyright © 2011 The Nation -- distributed by Agence Global

France to Italy: Ayaw namin ang mga Tunisian immigrants

2011-04-19T00:21:00.003+08:00

Simula na ba ito ng pagkawatak-watak ng Europa? Gusto lang yata huthutin ang yaman ng Africa pero ayaw naman tulungan ang mga nagsilikas na mga mahihirap mula dito. Tapos may pakunwari pang "we just want to protect the civilians" kaya binobomba ngayon ang Libya.

Source: AoLNews

MENTON, France -- Simmering tensions between Italy and France over the influx of thousands of Tunisian immigrants reached the boiling point after French riot police blocked trains carrying North Africans bound for the French Riviera from southern Italy.

More than 20,000 Tunisian immigrants have arrived in Italy since the January revolution in their country. Rome granted them residence permits of six months so they can join "friends and family" in France and elsewhere in Europe -- a move that has infuriated France.

On Sunday, about 350 mostly Italian activists supporting the Tunisian immigrants, and chanting anti-France slogans, massed at the Ventimiglia, Italy, train station, and French riot police stopped trains from crossing into Menton. Stunned tourists found themselves stranded in the middle of the increasingly bizarre conflict.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini issued a statement late Sunday instructing Italy's ambassador to Paris to express "the firm protest of the Italian government" calling France's actions illegal based on the European Union's policy of open borders.

Basahin ang buong balita dito.

Eighty Years War

2011-04-18T18:55:00.003+08:00

Grabe pala ang patayan na nangyari sa Netherlands at mga karatig na bansa noong kapanahunan ng pananakop ng Espanya sa Pilipinas. Magandang basahin itong kasaysayan ng pagkabuo ng bansang Netherlands. Itong Eighty Years War ay tinatawag din pala na Dutch War of Independence. Nagsimula ito sa taong 1568, tatlong taon matapos marating ni Miguel Lopez de Legazpi ang Cebu. Si Legazpi ang namuno sa pinakaunang matagumpay na pananakop sa arkipelago ng Pilipinas. Naunang dumating si Ferdinand Magellan noong 1521 pero napatay ito ni Lapu-lapu kaya naudlot ang tangkang pananakop ng Espanya.

Natapos ang Eighty Years' War sa taong 1648, isang taon bago sinimulan ni Sumuroy ang pag-aalsa laban sa mga Espanyol sa probinsya ng Samar.

Manggagawa, Mayo Uno na naman!

2011-04-17T19:48:00.002+08:00

Pakinggan ang pinakabagong broadcast ng Buhay Manggagawa.

Manggagawa at mamamayan! Sa Mayo Uno, magkita-kita tayo alas diyes ng umaga sa mga tipunang ito: Trabaho Market, Paco Market, Plaza Moriones, at Blumentritt. Magmamartsa tayo patungong Liwasang Bonifacio...

Download this episode (3 min)

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

2011-04-13T01:13:00.002+08:00

Ang sulat sa baba ay sinulat ni Ericson Acosta, isang bilanggong pulitikal na nakapiit ngayon sa isang provincial jail sa Samar.

# 1 PRISON DIARY: Press Statement Debacle…

This is miserable writing. This can’t be the comprehensive press statement that I’ve tasked myself to write two days earlier. It’s 1:00 am and a few minutes ago I’ve just completely abandoned pursuing my original outline. Now I’m trying, groping, cramming to come up with an alternative. I’m quite confident though that the papers which the campaign organizers have prepared and the messages of the speakers would more than suffice in providing the media with the general political context of my case, the circumstances of my illegal arrest and detention, as well as some basic details regarding my person. Just the same, my apologies. In the meantime, bear with me as I ramble on.

I have already received and read most of what have been written about me since my arrest. These have given me a clear picture of how promptly friends and comrades have actively taken my cause, and how in a short period of time the Free Ericson Acosta Campaign has reached quite an extensive base of support. I am of course sincerely touched by all this. I have long been wanting to communicate with them through letters or general statements, not only to thank them but also to personally shed light on my experience with state fascism. But I’ve been having some difficult, stubborn time with my writing.

I suppose I’m still basically ill-adjusted with my present prison set-up. I find it almost impossible to write during the day. The heat inside the cell is simply oppressive – there is no ceiling here, the lone window is less than a square foot, and my tarima is just beside two charcoal stoves that burn non-stop. The noise outside and the frenzied – sometimes juvenile, sometimes zombie-like goings on among my 12 kakosas inside a stifling, cramped-up space are just too distracting, disorienting.

But it is at night, when the heat, noise and fuss have all supposed to have subsided, that I am actually assailed by more pressing writing issues. There would always be this heavy strain that seems to balance itself upon my bobbed head, and as though from a ravine’s edge, I’d be looking down my writing pad waiting for vertigo to set in. Then this intermittent heaving motion in the chest. And, especially during the first month, I would, even without tears, just suddenly notice myself sobbing. This is pretty intense. I could never have imagined myself writing in such a wrenching, emotional state.

This is trauma of some sort I guess. But one, I think, that I’m compelled less to subvert than to temper. It is not necessarily the feeling of having been vanquished or the sense of utter helplessness that usually creeps in. No. More often, it is that surge of righteous vindication that overwhelms me.

It’s not writer’s block that has been nagging me. I call it writer’s burst. I’ve actually written a great deal already in the last two months as I tried to sum up and make sense of my ordeal. All of which, however, except for a few, amount to nothing more than disjointed rambling notes or a series of incoherent digressions.

The past week though has seen some modest breakthrough. It helped that my legal counsel had asked me to personally write my counter affidavit. I was able to finish it on time, glaring lapses in grammar notwithstanding. I was also able to complete a draft of a regional human rights situationer that focused on the cases of human rights violations in Barangay Bay-ang in San Jorge, Samar. I was in Bay-ang at the time of my arrest precisely to follow-up on these cases.

A friend of mine has sent me some samples of Ka Allan Jasminez’ Prison Diary entries. I realized that I would have to really step up on my writing and maximize relatively less restrictive conditions here as compared to those in Ka Allan’s place of detention. Already, I have started reviewing my jumbled notes and have come up with a design that would piece them together into several essays with different themes.

I am optimistic, despite this press statement debacle, that I would finally be able to handle my writer’s burst. It is very important that I do. My active engagement through my writings naturally serves to effectively amplify the campaign, as well as the general call to free all political prisoners. While I am in fact the principal subject of the Free Ericson Acosta campaign, it’s time that I enlisted myself as its principal mass leader and propagandist as well. So let’s just keep the pressure on – FREE ME! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

Ericson L. Acosta

April 13, 2011

Calbayog sub-provincial jail

Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons?

2011-03-26T17:19:00.000+08:00

Source: Center for Research on Globalization

Who are the Libyan Freedom Fighters and Their Patrons?
by Prof. Peter Dale Scott

Peter Dale Scott's Libyan Notebook
[Editor's Note: Author's selected quotations and analysis]

Preface

The world is facing a very unpredictable and potentially dangerous situation in North Africa and the Middle East. What began as a memorable, promising, relatively nonviolent achievement of New Politics - the Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt - has morphed very swiftly into a recrudescence of old habits: America, already mired in two decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sporadic air attacks in Yemen and Somalia, now, bombing yet another Third World Country, in this case Libya.

USS Barry launches a Tomahawk missile in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn in the Mediterranean Sea, March 19, 2011. US government handout

The initially stated aim of this bombing was to diminish Libyan civilian casualties. But many, senior figures in Washington, including President Obama, have indicated that the US is gearing up for a quite different war for regime change, one that may well be protracted and could also easily expand beyond Libya.1 If it does expand, the hope for a nonviolent transition to civilian government in Tunisia and Egypt and other Middle East nations experiencing political unrest, may be lost to a hard-edged militarization of government, especially in Egypt. All of us, not just Egyptians, have a major stake in seeing that that does not happen.

The present article does not attempt to propose solutions or a course of action for the United States and its allies, or for the people of the Middle East. It attempts rather to examine the nature of the forces that have emerged in Libya over the last four decades that are presently being played out.

To this end I have begun to compile what I call my Libyan Notebook, a collection of relevant facts that underlie the present crisis. This Notebook will be judgmental, in that I am biased towards collecting facts that the US media tend to ignore, facts that are the product in many instances of investigative reporting that cuts to the heart of power relations, deep structures, and economic interests in the region including the US, Israel, and the Arab States as these have played out over the last two decades and more. But I hope that it will be usefully objective and open-ended, permitting others to draw diverse conclusions from the same set of facts.2

I wish to begin with two ill-understood topics: I. Who Are the Libyan Opposition, and II. Where Are the Libyan Rebel Arms Coming From?

I. Who Are the Libyan Opposition

1) Historically:

"If Muammar Al Gaddafi behaved paranoid, it was for good reason. It wasn't long after he reached the age of 27 and led a small group of junior military officers in a bloodless coup d'état against Libyan King Idris on September 1, 1969, that threats to his power and life emerged - from monarchists, Israeli Mossad, Palestinian disaffections, Saudi security, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL), the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition (NCLO), British intelligence, United States antagonism and, in 1995, the most serious of all, Al Qaeda-like Libyan Islamic fighting group, known as Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya. The Colonel reacted brutally, by either expelling or killing those he feared were against him."3

2) National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL)

"With the aim of overthrowing Libyan strongman Muammar Khadafy, Israel and the U.S. trained anti-Libyan rebels in a number of West and Central African countries. The Paris-based African Confidential newsletter reported on January 5th, 1989, that the US and Israel had set up a series of bases in Chad and other neighboring countries to train 2000 Libyan rebels captured by the Chad army. The group, called The National Front for the Salvation of Libya, was based in Chad."4

"US official records indicate that funding for the Chad-based secret war against Libya also came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Israel and Iraq. The Saudis, for instance, donated $7m to an opposition group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (also backed by French intelligence and the CIA). But a plan to assassinate Gadafi and take over the government on 8 May 1984 was crushed. In the following year, the US asked Egypt to invade Libya and overthrow Gadafi but President Mubarak refused. By the end of 1985, the Washington Post had exposed the plan after congressional leaders opposing it wrote in protest to President Reagan."5

"The FNSL [National Front for the Salvation of Libya] was part of the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition held in London in 2005, and British resources are being used to support the FNSL and other 'opposition' in Libya.... The FNSL held its national congress in the USA in July 2007. Reports of 'atrocities' and civilian deaths are being channeled into the western press from operations in Washington DC, and the opposition FNSL is reportedly organizing resistance and military attacks from both inside and outside Libya."6

3) National Conference for the Libyan Opposition (NCLO),

"The main group leading the insurrection is the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition which includes the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL). The NFSL, which is leading the violence, is a U.S.-sponsored armed militia of mostly Libyan expatriates and tribes opposed to al-Qaddafi."7

4) Al-Jama'a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya (Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, LIFG)

"The LIFG was founded in 1995 by a group of mujahideen veterans who had fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Upon their return to Libya they grew angry about what they viewed as the corruption and impiety of the Libyan regime and formed the LIFG to create a state that would show what they believed to be the true character of the Libyan people.

The most significant LIFG attack was a 1996 attempt to assassinate Gadhafi; LIFG members led by Wadi al-Shateh threw a bomb underneath his motorcade. The group also stages guerilla-style attacks against government security forces from its mountain bases. Although most LIFG members are strictly dedicated to toppling Gadhafi, intelligence reportedly indicates that some have joined forces with al-Qaida to wage jihad against Libyan and Western interests worldwide. ....
As recently as February 2004, then-Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that "one of the most immediate threats [to U.S. security] is from smaller international Sunni extremist groups that have benefited from al-Qaida links. They include ... the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group."8

"In recent days Libyan officials have distributed security documents giving the details of Sufiyan al-Koumi, said to be a driver for Osama bin Laden, and of another militant allegedly involved in an "Islamic emirate" in Derna, in now-liberated eastern Libya. Koumi, the documents show, was freed in September 2010 as part of a "reform and repent" initiative organised by Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son....

The LIFG, established in Afghanistan in the 1990s, has assassinated dozens of Libyan soldiers and policemen. In 2009, to mark Gaddafi's 40 years in power, it apologised for trying to kill him and agreed to lay down its arms. MI6 [British Intelligence] has been accused in the past of supporting it. Six LIFG leaders, still in prison, disavowed their old ways and explained why fighting Gaddafi no longer constituted "legitimate" jihad. Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, another freed LIFG member, denied the official claims. "Gaddafi is trying to divide the people," he told al-Jazeera. "He claims that there is an Islamist emirate in Derna and that I am its emir. He is taking advantage of the fact that I am a former political prisoner."

Derna is famous as the home of a large number of suicide bombers in Iraq. It is also deeply hostile to Gaddafi. "Residents of eastern Libya in general, and Derna in particular, view the Gaddadfa (Gaddafi's tribe) as uneducated, uncouth interlopers from an inconsequential part of the country who have 'stolen' the right to rule in Libya," US diplomats were told in 2008, in a cable since released by WikiLeaks.

The last 110 members of the LIFG were freed on 16 February, the day after the Libyan uprising began. One of those released, Abdulwahab Mohammed Kayed, is the brother of Abu Yahya Al Libi, one of al Qaida's top propagandists. Koumi fled Libya and is said to have ended up in Afghanistan working for Bin Laden. Captured in Pakistan, he was handed over to the US and sent to Guantánamo Bay in 2002. In 2009 he was sent back to Libya.9 US counter-terrorist experts have expressed concern that al-Qaida could take advantage of a political vacuum if Gaddafi is overthrown. But most analysts say that, although the Islamists' ideology has strong resonance in eastern Libya, there is no sign that the protests are going to be hijacked by them.10

"Fierce clashes between [Qadhafi's] security forces and Islamist guerrillas erupted in Benghazi in September 1995, leaving dozens killed on both sides. After weeks of intense fighting, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) formally declared its existence in a communiqué calling Qadhafi's government "an apostate regime that has blasphemed against the faith of God Almighty" and declaring its overthrow to be "the foremost duty after faith in God." [3] This and future LIFG communiqués were issued by Libyan Afghans who had been granted political asylum in Britain.... The involvement of the British government in the LIFG campaign against Qadhafi remains the subject of immense controversy. LIFG's next big operation, a failed attempt to assassinate Qadhafi in February 1996 that killed several of his bodyguards, was later said to have been financed by British intelligence to the tune of $160,000, according to ex-MI5 officer David Shayler. [4] While Shayler's allegations have not been independently confirmed, it is clear that Britain allowed LIFG to develop a base of logistical support and fundraising on its soil. At any rate, financing by bin Laden appears to have been much more important. According to one report, LIFG received up to $50,000 from the Saudi terrorist mastermind for each of its militants killed on the battlefield." [2005]11

"Americans, Britons and the French are finding themselves as comrades in arms with the rebel Islamic Fighting Group, the most radical element in the Al Qaeda network [to bring down Gaddhafi]. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted the risks of the unholy alliance in a congressional hearing, saying that the Libyan opposition is probably more anti-American than Muammar Gaddhafi. A decade ago, this very same delusion of a Western-Islamist partnership in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya ended abruptly in the 9/11 attacks."12

“In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited ‘around 25’ men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are ‘today are on the front lines in Adjabiya.

Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters ‘are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists,’ but added that the ‘members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader’.

His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, ‘including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries’.

Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against ‘the foreign invasion’ in Afghanistan, before being ‘captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan’. He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.

US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.” (“Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links,” Daily Telegraph [London], March 25, 2011)

5) Transitional National Council

"A RIVAL transitional government to the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi looks set to win US and other international support as momentum builds to oust the longtime dictator.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed yesterday that the Obama administration was reaching out to opponents of Colonel Gaddafi. She said the US was willing to offer ‘any kind of assistance' to remove him from power.

Protest leaders who have taken control in Libya's eastern cities claim to have established a transitional "national council" that amounts to rival rule. They have called on the country's army to join them as they prepare for an attack on the capital, Tripoli, where the Libyan leader retains control.

Confident the Libyan leader's 42-year rule was coming to an end, Mrs Clinton said yesterday: ‘We are just at the beginning of what will follow Gaddafi.'"13

6) Facebook

"He [Omar El- Hariri, Chief of Armed Forces for the Transitional National Council] remained under close surveillance by the security forces until Feb. 17, when the revolution started. It was not initiated by prominent figures of the older generation, he said, but began spontaneously when Tunisia and Egypt inspired the youth. ‘Children of Facebook!' he declared, in English, with a broad smile."14

7) Oil

"Libyan rebels in Benghazi said they have created a new national oil company to replace the corporation controlled by leader Muammar Qaddafi whose assets were frozen by the United Nations Security Council.
The Transitional National Council released a statement announcing the decision made at a March 19 meeting to establish the ‘Libyan Oil Company as supervisory authority on oil production and policies in the country, based temporarily in Benghazi, and the appointment of an interim director general" of the company.
The Council also said it "designated the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and the appointment of a governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi."15

Peter Dale Scott's Libyan Notebook

II. Where Are the Libyan Rebel Arms Coming From?

Robert Fisk, "Libya in turmoil: America's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels;
Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi," Independent, March 7, 2011:

"Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.

Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 ....

But the Saudis remain the only US Arab ally strategically placed and capable of furnishing weapons to the guerrillas of Libya. Their assistance would allow Washington to disclaim any military involvement in the supply chain - even though the arms would be American and paid for by the Saudis.

The Saudis have been told that opponents of Gaddafi need anti-tank rockets and mortars as a first priority to hold off attacks by Gaddafi's armour, and ground-to-air missiles to shoot down his fighter-bombers.

Supplies could reach Benghazi within 48 hours but they would need to be delivered to air bases in Libya or to Benghazi airport. If the guerrillas can then go on to the offensive and assault Gaddafi's strongholds in western Libya, the political pressure on America and Nato - not least from Republican members of Congress - to establish a no-fly zone would be reduced.

US military planners have already made it clear that a zone of this kind would necessitate US air attacks on Libya's functioning, if seriously depleted, anti-aircraft missile bases, thus bringing Washington directly into the war on the side of Gaddafi's opponents.

For several days now, US Awacs surveillance aircraft have been flying around Libya, making constant contact with Malta air traffic control and requesting details of Libyan flight patterns, including journeys made in the past 48 hours by Gaddafi's private jet which flew to Jordan and back to Libya just before the weekend.

Officially, Nato will only describe the presence of American Awacs planes as part of its post-9/11 Operation Active Endeavour, which has broad reach to undertake aerial counter-terrorism measures in the Middle East region.

The data from the Awacs is streamed to all Nato countries under the mission's existing mandate. Now that Gaddafi has been reinstated as a super-terrorist in the West's lexicon, however, the Nato mission can easily be used to search for targets of opportunity in Libya if active military operations are undertaken.

Al Jazeera English television channel last night broadcast recordings made by American aircraft to Maltese air traffic control, requesting information about Libyan flights, especially that of Gaddafi's jet.

An American Awacs aircraft, tail number LX-N90442 could be heard contacting the Malta control tower on Saturday for information about a Libyan Dassault-Falcon 900 jet 5A-DCN on its way from Amman to Mitiga, Gaddafi's own VIP airport.

Nato Awacs 07 is heard to say: "Do you have information on an aircraft with the Squawk 2017 position about 85 miles east of our [sic]?"

Malta air traffic control replies: "Seven, that sounds to be Falcon 900- at flight level 340, with a destination Mitiga, according to flight plan."

But Saudi Arabia is already facing dangers from a co-ordinated day of protest by its own Shia Muslim citizens who, emboldened by the Shia uprising in the neighbouring island of Bahrain, have called for street protests against the ruling family of al-Saud on Friday.

After pouring troops and security police into the province of Qatif last week, the Saudis announced a nationwide ban on all public demonstrations.

Shia organisers claim that up to 20,000 protesters plan to demonstrate with women in the front rows to prevent the Saudi army from opening fire.

If the Saudi government accedes to America's request to send guns and missiles to Libyan rebels, however, it would be almost impossible for President Barack Obama to condemn the kingdom for any violence against the Shias of the north-east provinces.

Thus has the Arab awakening, the demand for democracy in North Africa, the Shia revolt and the rising against Gaddafi become entangled in the space of just a few hours with US military priorities in the region. "16

"Libya rebels coordinating with West on air assault," Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2011

"Reports from the region suggest that the Saudis and Egyptians have been providing arms. Though U.S. officials could not confirm that, they say it is plausible."17

"Egypt Said to Arm Libya Rebels," Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2011:

"CAIRO-Egypt's military has begun shipping arms over the border to Libyan rebels with Washington's knowledge, U.S. and Libyan rebel officials said.

The shipments-mostly small arms such as assault rifles and ammunition-appear to be the first confirmed case of an outside government arming the rebel fighters. Those fighters have been losing ground for days in the face of a steady westward advance by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The Egyptian shipments are the strongest indication to date that some Arab countries are heeding Western calls to take a lead in efforts to intervene on behalf of pro-democracy rebels in their fight against Mr. Gadhafi in Libya. Washington and other Western countries have long voiced frustration with Arab states' unwillingness to help resolve crises in their own region, even as they criticized Western powers for attempting to do so.

The shipments also follow an unusually robust diplomatic response from Arab states. There have been rare public calls for foreign military intervention in an Arab country, including a vote by the 23-member Arab League last week urging the U.N. to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

The vote provided critical political cover to Western powers wary of intervening militarily without a broad regional and international mandate. On Thursday evening, the U.N. Security Council voted on a resolution endorsing a no-fly zone in Libya and authorizing military action in support of the rebels.

Within the council, Lebanon took a lead role drafting and circulating the draft of the resolution, which calls for "all necessary measures" to enforce a ban on flights over Libya. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have taken the lead in offering to participate in enforcing a no-fly zone, according to U.N. diplomats.

Libyan rebel officials in Benghazi, meanwhile, have praised Qatar from the first days of the uprising, calling the small Gulf state their staunchest ally. Qatar has consistently pressed behind the scenes for tough and urgent international action behind the scenes, these officials said.

Qatari flags fly prominently in rebel-held Benghazi. After pro-Gadhafi forces retook the town of Ras Lanuf last week, Libyan state TV broadcast images of food-aid packages bearing the Qatari flag.

The White House has been reluctant to back calls from leaders in Congress for arming Libya's rebels directly, arguing that the U.S. must first fully assess who the fighters are and what policies they will pursue if they succeeded in toppling Col. Gadhafi. U.S. officials believe the opposition includes some Islamist elements. They fear that Islamist groups hostile to the U.S. could try to hijack the opposition and take any arms that are provided.

The Egyptian weapons transfers began ‘a few days ago' and are ongoing, according to a senior U.S. official. ‘There's no formal U.S. policy or acknowledgement that this is going on,' said the senior official. But ‘this is something we have knowledge of.'

Calls to Egypt's foreign ministry and the spokesman for the prime minister seeking comment went unanswered. There is no means of reaching Egypt's military for comment. An Egyptian official in Washington said he had no knowledge of weapon shipments.

The U.S. official also noted that the shipments appeared to come "too little, too late" to tip the military balance in favor of the rebels, who have faced an onslaught from Libyan forces backed by tanks, artillery and aircraft.

"We know the Egyptian military council is helping us, but they can't be so visible," said Hani Souflakis, a Libyan businessman in Cairo who has been acting as a rebel liaison with the Egyptian government since the uprising began.

"Weapons are getting through," said Mr. Souflakis, who says he has regular contacts with Egyptian officials in Cairo and the rebel leadership in Libya. "Americans have given the green light to the Egyptians to help. The Americans don't want to be involved in a direct level, but the Egyptians wouldn't do it if they didn't get the green light."

Western officials and rebel leaders in Libya said the U.S. has wanted to avoid being seen as taking a leadership role in any military action against Mr. Gadhafi after its invasions of Iraq and Afganistan fueled anger and mistrust with Washington throughout the region.

But the U.S. stated clearly it wants Mr. Gadhafi out of power and has signaled it would support those offering help to the rebels militarily or otherwise.

A spokesman for the rebel government in Benghazi said arms shipments have begun arriving to the rebels but declined to specify where they came from.

"Our military committee is purchasing arms and arming our people. The weapons are coming, but the nature of the weapons, the amount, where it's coming from, that has been classified," said the spokesman, Mustafa al-Gherryani.

The U.S. official said Egypt wanted to keep the shipments covert. In public, Egypt has sought to maintain a neutral stance toward the rebel uprising in Libya. Egypt abstained during the Arab League's vote calling for the U.N. to impose a no-fly zone on Mr. Gadhafi, according to people familiar with the internal Arab League deliberations.

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian laborers are believed to still be in Libya.

On the other hand, the Egyptian military's covert support for the rebels suggests that it has calculated that Mr. Gadhafi is unlikely to remain in power, at least in the eastern half of the country, and therefore Egypt is eager to begin to build good relations with the rebels.

Rebel forces in the past 24 hours appeared to make some progress fending off pro-Gadhafi forces' assaults and have rolled out new weapons for the first time since the uprising began last month. Among them are rebel tanks that have taken up positions on the front lines in recent days. Rebels also launched fighter-jet attacks on government positions on Wednesday for the first time so far.

The tanks and fighter jets are believed to have been among the weapons seized by rebels from defected units of the Libyan army in the eastern half of the country, but they have received spare parts or trained mechanics from outside the country to help them deploy them, some rebel officials have speculated.
-Sam Dagher and Adam Entous contributed to this article.18

Benjamin Gottlieb, "Egypt Arms Libyan Rebels As Gaddafi's Conquest Continues," NeonTommy Annenberg Digital News, March 17, 2011:

Arms shipments from Egypt's military have begun flowing across the border into Libya with U.S. knowledge, Libyan rebels and U.S. officials said Thursday.

Made up mostly of small arms, such as assault rifles and ammunition, the shipments are the first confirmed reports of an outside government supporting rebel fighters with weapons. Rebels have been loosing ground for days against pro-Gaddafi forces aiming to end the conflict before foreign intervention plans are finalized.

Although the U.N. approved a "no-fly zone" over Libya late Thursday, rebel forces fear that any planned foreign intervention would be too little to late.

The shipment of arms indicated an unusually bold response by an Arab nation intervening in a conflict outside its borders. There have also been rare public decrees for the West to intervene in the conflict - the Arab League voted 23-0 last week encouraging the U.N. to impose the "no-fly zone" over Libya.

In spite of reports of arms flowing across the Egyptian boarder, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Menha Bakhoum told Reuters that Egypt would not be involved in any military intervention in neighboring Libya.

"Egypt will not be among those Arab states. We will not be involved in any military intervention. No intervention period," Bakhoum said.

Bakhoum was responding to comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said Thursday that discussions were on the table regarding Arab involvement in U.S. and European intervention in the conflict.

Clinton has said repeatedly that the U.S. desires involvement from a neighboring Arab nation in any planned intervention.

A Libyan rebel government spokesman in Benghazi, Mustafa al-Gherryani, said rebels have begun receiving arms shipments from neighboring nations, however he declined to reveal their origin.

"Our military committee is purchasing arms and arming our people. The weapons are coming, but the nature of the weapons, the amount, where it's coming from, that has been classified," he said.19

Yoichi Shimatsu, "Mideast Revolutions and 9-11 Intrigues Created in Qatar," New America Media, March 1, 2011

"It may puzzle and perhaps dismay young protesters in Benghazi, Cairo and Tunisia that their democratic hopes are being manipulated by an ultra-conservative Arab elite which has underhandedly backed a surge of militant Islamist radicals across North Africa. Credible U.S. intelligence reports have cited evidence pointing to Qatar's long-running support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and jihadist fighters returning from Afghanistan.

The links to Qatar uncovered by anti-terrorism investigators in the wake of 9-11 need to be reexamined now that the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an on-and-off affiliate of Al Qaeda, has seized armories across half of the North African country. Libya's well-stocked arsenals contain high-power explosives, rocket launchers and chemical weapons. LIFG is on the State Department's terrorist list.

Most worrying, according to a U.S. intelligence official cited by CNN, is the probable loss of chemical weapons. The Federation of American Scientists reports that, as of 2008, only 40 percent of Libya's mustard gas was destroyed in the second round of decommissioning. Chemical canisters along the Egyptian border were yet to be retrieved and are now presumably in the hands of armed militants.

After initially letting slip that the earliest Libyan protests were organized by the LIFG, Al Jazeera quickly changed its line to present a heavily filtered account portraying the events as ‘peaceful protests'. To explain away the gunshot deaths of Libyan soldiers during the uprising, the Qatar-based network presented a bizarre scenario of 150 dead soldiers in Libya having been executed by their officers for ‘refusing to fight'. The mysterious officers then miraculously vacated their base disappearing into thin air while surrounded by angry protesters! Off the record, one American intelligence analyst called these media claims an ‘absurdity' and suggested instead the obvious: that the soldiers were gunned down in an armed assault by war-hardened returned militants from Iraq and Afghanistan....
According to a Congressional Research Service report of January 2008, ‘Some observers have raised questions about possible support for Al Qaeda by some Qatari citizens, including members of Qatar's large ruling family. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Qatar's Interior Minister provided a safe haven to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed during the mid-1990s, and press reports indicate other terrorists may have received financial support or safe haven in Qatar after September 11, 2001.'

The national security chief, Interior Minister Abdullah bin Khalid al-Thani, is further mentioned as paying for a 1995 trip by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed ‘to join the Bosnia jihad.' The report recalls how after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, FBI officials "narrowly missed an opportunity to capture" the suspect in Qatar. ‘Former U.S. officials have since stated their belief that a high-ranking member of the Qatari government alerted him to the impending raid, allowing him to flee the country.'"20

Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Drugs Oil and War, The Road to 9/11, The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War. His most recent book is American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection and the Road to Afghanistan. Peter Dale Scott is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

His most recent book is American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection and the Road to Afghanistan.
His website, which contains a wealth of his writings, is here.

Notes

1 “Defense Secretary Gates, who recently warned against any further protracted US ground war, said on March 23 that the end of military action in Libya is unknown and could last longer than a few weeks. ‘I think there are any number of possible outcomes here and no one is in a position to predict them,’ Gates told reporters in Egypt” (C-Span, March 24, 2011).

2 Interested readers may wish to consult my first exploration, “Googling ‘Revolution’ in North Africa.”

3 Dan Lieberman, “Muammar Al Gaddafi Meets His Own Rebels,” CounterCurrents.org, March 9, 2011.

4 Joel Bainerman, Inside the Covert Operations of the CIA & Israel's Mossad (New York: S.P.I. Books, 1994), 14.

5 Richard Keeble, “The Secret War Against Libya,” MediaLens, 2002.

6 "Petroleum and Empire in North Africa. NATO Invasion of Libya Underway," By Keith Harmon Snow, 2 March 2011.

7 Ghali Hassan, “U.S. Love Affair with Murderous Dictators and Hate for Democracy.” Axis of Logic, Mar 17, 2011.

8 Center for Defense Information, “In the Spotlight: The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG),” January 18, 2005

9 Qadhafi was concerned about Al Qaeda terrorism in Libya, and in 1996 Libya became the first government to place Osama bin Laden on Interpol’s Wanted List (Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror [New York: Columbia UP, 2002], 142). Thereafter American and Libyan intelligence collaborated closely for some years against Al Qaeda. Beginning when?

10 Ian Black, “Libya rebels rejects Gaddafi's al-Qaida spin,” Guardian, March 1, 2011.

11 Gary Gambill, "The Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Jamestown Foundation," Terrorism Monitor, May 5, 2005,; citing Al-Hayat (London), 20 October 1995 [“communiqué”]; "The Shayler affair: The spooks, the Colonel and the jailed whistle-blower," The Observer (London), 9 August 1998; Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquié, Ben Laden: La Verite interdite (Bin Ladin: The Forbidden Truth). Cf. also Annie Machon, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers: MI5, MI6 And the Shayler Affair (Book Guild Publishing, 2005) [Shayler].

12 Yoichi Shimatsu, “Attack on Libya: Why Odyssey Dawn Is Doomed,” New America Media, March 20, 2011.

13 “US reaches out to Libyan insurgents,” The Australian, March 1, 2011,

14 “How a onetime friend to Gadhafi became his rival,” Globe and Mail [Toronto], March 4, 2011.

15 Libyan Rebel Council in Benghazi Forms Oil Company to Replace Qaddafi’s,” Bloomberg, March 22, 2011.

16 Robert Fisk, “America's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels,” Independent, March 7, 2011.

17 “Libya rebels coordinating with West on air assault,” Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2011.

18 “Egypt Said to Arm Libya Rebels,” Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2011,

19 Benjamin Gottlieb, “Egypt Arms Libyan Rebels As Gaddafi's Conquest Continues,” NeonTommy Annenberg Digital News, March 17, 2011.

20 Yoichi Shimatsu, “Mideast Revolutions and 9-11 Intrigues Created in Qatar,” New America Media, March 1, 2011. The al-Thani family’s protection of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is confirmed by former CIA officer Robert Baer (Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2003). Cf. Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil (New York: Crown, 2003); Peter Lance, Triple Cross (New York: Regan/HarperCollins, 2006), 234-37.

Peter Dale Scott is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Peter Dale Scott

A warning for the Egyptian people

2011-02-16T05:14:00.001+08:00

A Warning for Egyptian Revolutionaries:
Courtesy of People Power in the Philippines
by Michael Barker
This article is also reproduced in Monthly Review.

Much like Mubarak, the former democratic reformer turned long-serving US dictator for the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, demonstrates what can happen to even stalwart defenders of capitalism when they are opposed by their citizens en masse. Like Mubarak, Marcos previously provided a ray of hope for Western elites intent on quelling popular resistance within their own countries; after President Ronald Reagan launched his "worldwide campaign for democracy" before the British Parliament at Westminster in June 1982, he then decided to visit Marcos in the Philippines "where he announced in a public homage to the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, that 'the Philippines has been moulded in the image of American democracy.'" This commitment to 'democracy' in the Philippines was not new; the previous year vice president George Bush "raised a toast to Marcos during his visit to Manila, declaring 'We love your adherence to democratic principle and to the democratic process.'"1

Little wonder that when the US government institutionalized their commitment to democracy, it took the form an Orwellian organization called the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) -- an organization that was set up by the US government to overtly carry out the 'democracy promoting' interventions that had formerly been undertaken covertly by the Central Intelligence Agency. Since then, the NED has assumed a pivotal position in defusing revolutionary movements all over the world, but their central role in the eventual ouster of Marcos is worth retelling, especially bearing in mind the similarity of his regime of oppression to Mubarak's. Thankfully the history of the US government's 'democratic' invention in the Philippines has already been analysed in William I. Robinson's ground breaking book Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge University Press, 1996); consequently this article merely aims to encapsulate some of his key points.

To begin with, there should be no doubt that the ouster of President Marcos in 1986 was not due to any long-range conspiracy hatched in the White House: his removal from power was entirely due to a popular uprising. On the other hand, the US government did belatedly succeed in undermining and co-opting the revolutionary ferment that was in the air. What is clear is that throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the poor and oppressed citizens of the Philippines had been gathering political strength. This emerging power was significantly bolstered by the August 1983 assassination of the most visible leader of the elite opposition, Benigno Aquino Jr. -- a murder which had the effect of ensuring that the non-Marcos elite was finally "galvanized . . . into active opposition." This galvanization had the effect of drawing the middle classes into the already popular and vocal opposition movement; and with the potential for a broad-based increasingly radicalized opposition movement developing in the Philippines, the US government became more than a little interested in intervening in the region. Elite concern in the United States was further aggravated when in late 1984, the wife of the assassinated Benigno, Cory Aquino -- who was now a serious contender for power -- worked with other opposition leaders to draw up plans that "spelled out a nationalist-orientated program of social reform and development and also called for the removal of US military bases from the Philippines."2

The US had always been interested in the Philippines because of the Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force Base: military bases which were key strategic sites from which every US invasion of Asia had gone through since 1898. Concern really heightened and got greater in about 1984, because of the people's movement, including the New People's Army (NPA), a fighting force of over 20,000 fighters and led by the Communist Party of the Philippines.

If it wasn't obvious before, it now became evident to US planners that a "diverse and well organized" movement was gaining momentum in the Philippines, "ranging from the NPA insurgency, to the mass, left-of-center civic movement BAYAN (New Patriotic Federation, which went by its acronym in Tagalog), which brought together millions of Philippine citizens, to numerous parties and groups of the center, center-right and right." Noting that "[p]erhaps the weakest among the opposition were the center and conservative sectors which, as in Nicaragua and other authoritarian Third World regimes, had vacillated during many years between support for, and opposition to, the dictatorship," they quickly funnelled 'democracy' aid to these needy sectors of civil society.3

Between 1984 and 1990, Philippine organizations received at least $9 million from the NED and other US sources. These included: the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), which mobilized the business community against Marcos; the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), a minority, conservative union federation affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which competed with more radical and left-leaning labor organizations; Philippine "youth clubs" established under the guidance of US organizers to mobilize Philippine youth; the KABATID Philippine women's organization (KABATID is the Tagalog acronym for Women's Movement for the Nurturing of Democracy), also established under the guidance of US organizers; and the National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL).4

Here one should note that Robinson's figure of $9 million is based on publicly available NED annual reports, and as he observes, "the actual amount is probably much higher, since millions more were sent to the Philippines circuitously via such organizations as the AAFLI [Asian-American Free Labor Institute] and via the CIA and other 'national security' related spending, which is classified."5 To be sure the TUCP, which was the local affiliate of the AFL-CIO's Asian-American Free Labor Institute, was a creation of the Marcos Dictatorship pure and simple, and its goal was to keep the labor sector under control. Indeed, after Aquino's assassination, the US Government channelled millions of dollars to the TUCP through AAFLI as a way to help the TUCP -- and the Marcos Dictatorship -- survive. On the other hand, the most significant pro-worker, anti-management part of the labor movement in the Philippines was the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May First Movement) -- which was a nationalist, militant labor center of unions built in the various regional political economies across the nation that united on a national level on May 1, 1980, in Manila. KMU specifically challenged the TUCP, and they were central to the nationalist challenge to the dictatorship.

Living in fear of the evolution of a "left-center popular alliance," the US State Department dispatched their finest experts in conflict resolution to meet with Cory Aquino and the leader of the right-wing opposition, Salvador "Doy" Laurel, to "convince them to run under a united ticket that would stress anti-communism and refrain from opposing US bases in the Philippines (Laurel subsequently became Aquino's running-mate as candidate for vice-president)." Having laid the groundwork for a change of leadership, events then heated up when Marcos decided to ignore the results of the snap election held on February 7, 1986, in which the people of the Philippines elected the Aquino/Laurel ticket to power. Contrary to US interests, Marcos' adverse Dictatorial reaction further inflamed popular resistance, providing further fuel for the popular insurrection.6

The US wanted to do whatever it could to contain the growing insurrection, and an important part of the US's ultimately successful intervention in the Philippines was to get the military onside and ready for the 'democratic' transition; and a key player in this regard was General Fidel Ramos, a long-time loyalist to Marcos who was acting as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). It was in this way, with a 'little' prodding by the United States, that in mid-1985 General Ramos came to see the futility of supporting Marcos's crumbling regime and joined with Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile in helping organize a reformer's revolt which split the military shortly after the contested election.7 Thus when the people subsequently rose up in defiance of Marcos to protect the military reformers and their forces in Manila, Marcos' only choice at that time -- if he had wanted to crush the military revolt -- was to order the Army to slaughter the masses, and the US didn't want that!

With few other options left on the table, the US turned all its resources to bring pressure to bear on Marcos, and they did this by dispatching "at-large ambassador Philip Habib to Manila to urge Aquino to keep her followers off the streets and to convince Marcos to step down."8 However, when Habib failed to make the US's case firmly enough, Paul Laxalt, a right-wing US Senator from Nevada, called Marcos (on February 24) and told him to "cut and cut clean"; and within twenty-four hours Marcos was gone and Aquino had been sworn into office.9 Taken together, these actions served to undermine the growing political power of the people's power movement, as they circumscribed the need for the massive (potentially revolutionary) social protests that were in the pipeline -- which were to include economic boycotts and a general strike.

Significantly, "[s]uch actions would have greatly enhanced the labor movement, with its militant base and left-wing tendencies, in both removing Marcos and in shaping the post-Marcos government and policies." Yet one should note that there was never any question of Aquino -- soon to be Time magazine women of the year -- supporting labor, and particularly KMU, over the military. All the same, the big question for the US was: could she re-establish social stability and be won away from wanting to close the US military bases? Consequently after Aquino assumed power, there were several military coup efforts against her by the Marcos-inspired military,10 in which her side eventually prevailed: Ramos and Enrile played key roles here, with Ramos becoming more important of the two over time. Both Enrile and Ramos were longtime allies of the US -- Ramos is a graduate of West Point -- and they were able to convince her to keep the US bases. At the same time, the US government provided tons of money, and a direct address by Aquino to the US Congress, to keep her on their side, which wasn't hard: Aquino herself had gone to college in the US and was very pro-American. She also agreed to pay debt incurred by the Dictatorship, seeing them as legitimate.

In the aftermath of the US's 'democratic' intervention in the Philippines there has been a vigorous debate about the significance of the US's role in the process. Yet as Robinson points out, "whether or not US intervention was itself the determining factor in the overthrow of Marcos obscured a much more significant issue: US intervention was decisive in shaping the contours of the anti-Marcos movement and in establishing the terms and conditions under which Philippine social and political struggles would unfold in the post-Marcos period."11 Moreover it is critical to observe that the post-Marcos era has not been a happy period for the majority of the Philippines' citizens, In fact, Walden Bello and John Gershman described this new post-Marcos environment as "politically sanitized" to such an extent that "anti-elite candidates with radical political programs have been driven from the electoral arena by the threat of force -- so that even intense electoral competition would not be too destabilizing."12 Likewise in a stark reminder of what might happen in Egypt, Philippines labor specialist Kim Scipes writes:

[R]eplacing Marcos with Aquino left a brutal state apparatus intact, which Aquino used to kill peasants, workers and the urban poor. In fact, KMU leaders told me that the human rights abuses under democrat Aquino were worse than under dictator Marcos: she couldn't control her generals. However, whether she couldn't control them or if she didn't want to control them -- Alfred W. McCoy in Policing America's Empire(University of Wisconsin Press, 2009) claims the latter -- the fact is that unless the brutal state apparatus is dismantled, and especially the Police and the torture agencies, the repression could be re-instituted.13

The Egyptian people have struck a great blow for freedom from tyranny, and have complicated US and Israeli foreign policy in the region immensely, and such external forces will want to re-establish control at very first opportunity. However, not only foreigners but remnants of the Egyptian elite want to re-establish the control they've long had, and will do anything they can to do so. The Egyptian people need to learn from the Philippine experience, and do all they can to keep that from happening.

1 William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.117, p.122.

2 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.123, p.126.

3 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.125. "In November 1984, a secret NSC Study Directive made the call for a concerted US intervention in the Philippines to facilitate a transition. 'The United States has extremely important interests in the Philippines. . . Political and economic developments in the Philippines threaten these interests,' stated the directive. 'The US does not want to remove Marcos from power to destabilize the GOP [Government of the Philippines]. Rather, we are urging revitalization of democratic institutions, dismantling "crony" monopoly capitalism and allowing the economy to respond to free market forces, and restoring professional, apolitical leadership to the Philippine military to deal with the growing communist insurgency.' 'These efforts,' it went on, 'are meant to stabilize (the country] while strengthening institutions which will eventually provide for a peaceful transition.'" Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, pp.124-5.

4 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, pp.125-6. The reactionary Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) received almost US$7 million from the National Endowment for Democracy between 1984 and 1991 (p.135). One of the reasons for such emphasis on Philippine labor was the challenge from the militant KMU and the importance of labor in national political struggles" (p.136). For an excellent historical study of the KMU, see Kim Scipes, KMU: Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994(New Day Publishers, 1996). Scipes is also the author of AFL-CIO's Secret War Against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? (Lexington Books, 2010), which provides an excellent historical overview of the interaction between the US government and the National Endowment for Democracy and organized labor. Needless to say, this labor movement imperialism is not being done through labor movement procedures, but behind the backs of members.

5 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.403.

6 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.127.

7 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.128.

8 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.127.

9 With the ouster of Marcos, Ramos was now rewarded for his assistance by the newly elected Aquino administration who appointed him Chief of Staff of the AFP, and later Secretary of Defense. In 1992 when Cory Aquino left office, Ramos was elected president of the Philippines, a position he held until 1998. After his presidency, Ramos became a committed 'champion for democracy' by taking up a position as the Asia advisory board Member for the Carlyle Group, that is, until the board was disbanded in 2004. He is presently a trustee of the 'democracy promoting' International Crisis Group, and is a patron of the related Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. www.webofdemocracy.org/foundations-anthropology-an.html

10 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.141.

11 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.129.

12 Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, p.141.

13 Kim Scipes, Email to Author, February 12, 2011. For a must-read analysis of the post-Marcos developments in the Philippines, see Kim Scipes, "Review of the Month: Global Economic Crisis, Neoliberal Solutions, and the Philippines," Monthly Review, 51 (7), December 1999, pp. 1-14.

Ang galing talaga mag-magic ng gobyerno. Nabawasan daw ng 5.3 milyon ang mahihirap sa Pilipinas

2011-02-11T16:56:00.003+08:00

IBON Media Release / 10 February 2011
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue , Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org | http://www.ibon.org

NEW POVERTY METHODOLOGY REDUCES NUMBER OF POOR BY 5.3 MILLION
Poverty line now pegged at just PhP46 a day

Research group IBON questions the new methodology of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), saying that it significantly reduces the number of poor Filipinos by some 5.3 million.

The approved revisions reflected in the NSCB’s methodology for estimating poverty places the number of poor Filipinos to just 23.1 million in 2009. If the original methodology was consistently used, the number of poor should have been 28.5 million in 2009, which means that the new methodology effectively reduces the number of poor by 5.3 million without really improving the poverty situation. It would also show that the number of poor Filipinos increased by 850,000 from 2006 to 2009.

The NSCB has done this by pegging the official poverty threshold, or the amount supposedly necessary for a toler ab le standard of living, at just PhP46 per person per day instead of PhP52 per person per day if the old methodology was used.

This implies that a Filipino on average needs just PhP46 a day to meet all of his or her food and non-food needs. Basic needs include food, education, clothing and footwear, medical care, transportation and communication, fuel, light and water, housing, housing maintenance, furnishings, household operations, personal care and effects, and rental.

It must be stressed that the old methodology estimate of 28.5 million poor Filipinos in 2009 is still a likely low estimate because it assumes that a Filipino needs just P52 per day to stay out of poverty.

According to IBON, improvements to scientific methodologies are welcome but the new methodology seems unresponsive and detached to everyday realities. The group adds that it is better to err on the side of conservatism rather than paint an overly optimistic picture especially in the case of the Philippines which has seen rapid growth amid rising joblessness and low incomes. (end)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution est ab lished in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

IBON Media Release / 9 February 2011
IBON Foundation, Inc., IBON Center 114 Timog Avenue , Quezon City Philippines
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 62|Fax: 929-2496| E-mail: media@ibon.org | http://www.ibon.org

Use of ‘least cost’ food bundle questioned
NEW POVERTY METHODOLOGY DETACHED FROM REAL SITUATION

Research group IBON criticizes government’s new poverty methodology as unreflective of the real situation of poor Filipinos, saying that the adjustments made on the already-flawed methodology has further distorted the picture of poverty in the country.

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) yesterday released official poverty figures based on adjustments on the poverty estimation methodology, which the agency approved early this month. The new method supposedly estimates a food bundle, which is important because some three-fifths of the income of the poorest half of the population is spent on just food.

However, the estimates are based on a “least cost” food bundle, which the research group says may not be avail ab le to most Filipinos. This bundle apparently also relies on “revealed preference” which seems to mean that it reflects actual spending, but may be a pattern of spending not so much by choice but rather forced on Filipinos who adjust their spending according to their poverty.

Moreover, the revised methodology now pegs the official poverty threshold, or the amount supposedly necessary for a toler ab le standard of living, at just PhP46 per person per day in 2009. This is lower than what would have been a national poverty line of PhP52 according to the old methodology, and effectively reduces the number of poor by 5.32 million without really improving the poverty situation. If the original methodology was consistently used this would show that the number of poor Filipinos increased from 2006 by 850,000 to 28.5 million in 2009. It must be stressed that this is still a likely low estimate and assumes that a Filipino needs just P52 per day to stay out of poverty.

The research group says it is also disappointing that the government will only generate parallel estimates according to the old and new methodologies for just three years. This will make poverty estimates over time even more incompar ab le aside from, perhaps intentionally, giving the impression that poverty has been markedly decreasing. IBON also asks how the new methodology will affect the formulation of future poverty alleviation programs, especially amid rising prices and joblessness.

The government should cut poverty by increasing the incomes of Filipinos instead of reducing the poverty threshold. This is a similar situation to the change in the definition of unemployment in April 2005 under the previous Arroyo administration which statistically reduces the number of unemployed by some 1.5 million and the unemployment rate by around 3.6 percentage points without actually reducing the number of jobless Filipinos. (end)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution est ab lished in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.

Parangal sa isang inhinyero ng bayan

2010-08-21T21:48:00.001+08:00

TRIBUTE TO COMRADE BEATO LACABA

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Founding Chairman, Communist Party of the Philippines
Chief Political Consultant, National Democratic Front of the Philippines

I wish to convey most heartfelt condolences to the family and close comrades of Ka Beato Lacaba. I share your deep sense of loss as I am aware of his long dedicated service to the Filipino people, especially among his colleagues and friends in the field of science and technology. I owe to Ka Beato a special debt of gratitude in his capacity as sales manager of Aklat ng Bayan for playing a key role in publishing and distributing my books.

We are all consoled and gratified that he lived a life full of meaning and accomplishment in the people's struggle for national liberation and democracy. He had been an activist of the national democratic movement since his student days. After he graduated with the degree of mechanical engineer, he was employed by an engineering firm in Marikina where he helped arouse, organize and mobilize the workers and his fellow engineers.

From 1977 onwards, he was a member of a national democrat cell within the Liga ng Agham Para sa Bayan (LAB), an underground national democratic organization of scientists and technologists. He was active in organizing and mobilizing progressive scientists, engineers and workers doing scientific or technical work.

He enthusiastically applied his technical knowledge and skills in doing research and development of prototypes of machines and equipment needed by the national democratic movement. He exemplified the style of having a calm but active state of
mind. He performed his tasks quietly but diligently, conscientiously and productively.

He is fondly remembered by his colleagues in LAB as one who often turned a criticism-and-self-criticism session into an event full of laughter. He had a unique ability of lightening the atmosphere and bringing home important points. To insiders he was a self-effacing and humorous guy one could easily work with, although to outsiders he looked like he was a stern man with great authority.

He was highly appreciated for being able to earn a living for his family and yet being able to perform his revolutionary tasks. He ventured into business enterprises that could also
provide for the specific needs of his unit in LAB.

He was arrested in March 1990 along with other LAB members and was detained for several months at the Philippine Army's maximum security unit in Fort Bonifacio. He continued to be resolute and courageous. Upon his release, he immediately resumed participating in protest rallies and fora.

He was a charter member of the First Quarter Storm Movement and was one of its most active members. He was always present in any FQSM activity as well as multisectoral activities.

We are ever grateful to Ka Beato for having been an exemplary militant and for his contributions to the people's democratic struggle. His name and deeds are etched in the memory of the people. ###

Corruption was Gloria's biggest mistake: survey

2010-08-11T02:20:00.000+08:00

Corruption was Gloria's biggest mistake: survey
By David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 08/04/2010
Source: ABS-CBNnews

MANILA, Philippines - One out of every 4 Filipinos believes that corruption during former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's rule was her biggest shortcoming after 9 years in power, a new Pulse Asia survey revealed Wednesday.

The survey, conducted last July 1 to 11 or after Mrs. Arroyo stepped down from office, showed that 26% of Filipinos believe corruption was Arroyo's biggest mistake.

Corruption as Arroyo's biggest failing was top of mind for all respondents from all geographic areas and socio-economic classes except for Class E respondents, who said it was inflation.

Corruption was decried by at least 32% of Metro Manila respondents and 30% of Visayan respondents. It was also cited by 35% of Class ABC respondents, 27% of Class D and 21% of Class E.

Pulse Asia said the survey question "What was the greatest shortcoming or mistake that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has done during her 9 years in office?" was open ended, and responses were collated by interviewers. A total of 1,200 respondents participated in the nationwide survey.

Fourteen percent of Filipinos said corruption in general was Arroyo's biggest mistake, another 9% said it was the botched national broadband deal with China's ZTE Corp. while 3% cited the P728-million fertilizer fund scandal. The last two scandals are just some of the corruption scandals linked to the Arroyos.

Meanwhile, 17% of Filipinos said Arroyo's failure to control inflation was her second biggest mistake as president. At least 25% of Class E respondents identified this as Arroyo's greatest failing, compared to 21% for corruption.

Thirteen percent of Filipinos criticized Arroyo her for excessive travel and/or excessive spending of government funds--her third biggest mistake--while another 11% cited the "Hello, Garci" wiretapping scandal as Arroyo's biggest mistake.

The "Hello, Garci" scandal linked Arroyo to an alleged conspiracy to rig the 2004 presidential election and sparked the biggest political crisis in her administration.

Eight percent of Filipinos, meanwhile, cited Arroyo's failure to provide jobs for the poor, which was one of her promises in a previous State of the Nation Address.

Other shortcomings of Arroyo that were cited by respondents were: failure to resolve the Maguindanao massacre (3%), failure to reduce poverty (2%), failure to provide scholarships (1%), did not sign the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (1%), involvement in jueteng (1%), increase in foreign debt (1%), lack of credibility of Cabinet members (1%), and increase in value-added tax (1%).

Some respondents also criticized Arroyo for not punishing or for tolerating anomalies of her husband, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo; for grabbing the presidency from Joseph Estrada; for not implementing land distribution, and, for letting Mike Arroyo run the government.

Infrastructure deemed Arroyo's legacy

In the same survey, 43% of Filipinos said the upgrading of public infrastructure such as airports and seaports was Arroyo's greatest achievement after 9 years in office.

Majority of Class ABC (53%) and Metro Manila (54%) respondents cited infrastructure improvements as the former President’s biggest achievement, while big pluralities in the other geographic areas (40% to 45%) and socioeconomic groupings (40% to 44%) also did the same.

Less than one in 10 Filipinos cited other achievements of the former president such as improving access to education (6%), providing assistance to victims of natural calamities (4%), providing assistance to the poor (4%), providing health insurance (3%), providing jobs (2%), ensuring peace and order (2%), improving the welfare of soldiers and law enforcers (1%), and increasing the pay of workers (1%).

However, about a quarter of Filipinos (26%) did not cite any meaningful achievement of former President Arroyo.

Leaves office with little trust

The survey also showed Arroyo left the presidency last June with record low trust and performance ratings.

The Pulse Asia survey showed 62% of Filipinos dissatisfied with Arroyo's performance in her last 3 months in office, compared to 16% who approve and 22% who were undecided.

Disapproval was highest among Metro Manila (67%) and Class E (64%) respondents.

On the other hand, Arroyo scored the highest approval rating from the Visayas (27%) and those from Class ABC (21%).

The survey showed that a majority of Filipinos (67%) distrust Arroyo, compared to 13% who trust her and 20% who are undecided.

Pulse Asia said there are essentially no changes in the overall trust ratings of former President Arroyo from April to July.

MAKABAYAN political party, suportahan nato!

2010-06-01T22:39:00.000+08:00

Satur Ocampo for Senator!

Speaking on BBC about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines

Enjoining Bayan Muna supporters to continue with the fight

Discussing political killings and persecution by the government

Campaigning for Bayan Muna for partylist

Discussing the politics of the masses