Year: 2017

1 Comment , , ,
With Duterte’s TRAIN, poor pay higher taxes so rich can take home more

The overwhelming majority of Filipinos do not get any income tax benefits from TRAIN. Most of the country’s total 22.7 million families do not pay income tax because they are just minimum wage earners or otherwise in informal work with low and erratic incomes. Even if TRAIN reduces income taxes paid by most of the reported 7.5 million personal income taxpayers, this still leaves as much as 15.2 million families without any income tax gains.

Read the rest of this entry

, , ,
Method to the madness

Nowadays President Rodrigo Duterte is wont to take every opportunity to accuse the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) of the vilest atrocities he can think of (or invent) as his regime goes into high gear in its counterinsurgency war, perversely codenamed Oplan Kapayapaan. The latest is at a speech he gave to…

Read the rest of this entry

, , , , ,
Media groups condemn threat against Davao broadcaster

By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA Kodao Productions Media organizations slammed a death threat against a radio broadcaster in Davao City Monday, saying it is part of the ongoing crackdown against alleged critics of the Rodrigo Duterte government. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), People’s Alternative Media Network (AlterMidya) and the Philippine chapter of…

Read the rest of this entry

Ni DANNY FABELLA Ang mga salita Upang kayo’y papurihan Ay kapos Kung ang inyong gawa Ay hindi namin susundan Nang lubos Kaya nga’t hahakbang Ang bawat isa sa amin, Pasulong! Kami’y buong tapang Sa laban n’yo’t simulain, Dudugtong. At walang pasista Na ‘di natin dudurugin Nang ganap Ang laya’t hustisya Ay tiyak nating kakamtin Sa…

Read the rest of this entry

, , , ,
Double-whammy acts by Congress in one day

On Dec. 13, on its last session day before the holiday break, the 17th Congress of the Philippines, dominated by the “super-majorities” of President Duterte’s political allies, took two controversial actions both of which will have negative impacts on the lives of the Filipino people, particularly the vast number of the poor and marginalized. The…

Read the rest of this entry

, , , , ,
Ending the information crisis

The reformists and revolutionaries of the late 19th century; those who fought the Japanese invaders during World War II; and the professionals, workers, and farmers who comprised the core of the resistance against the Marcos dictatorship understood only too well the role of information in exposing the injustice and racist assumptions of Spanish colonial rule,…

Read the rest of this entry

, , , ,
Killing in the name of Duterte’s Crackdown

By DLS PINEDA This administration has lost its capacity to surprise. One year and a half, hundreds of broken promises, and fourteen thousand drug-related deaths since Duterte took oath, the biggest surprise is that we’re no longer surprised with what’s going on. So when 10 activists are killed within Sunday and Monday, and when the…

Read the rest of this entry

, ,
Anti-commie PSYOP

While he was quick to add that communists are not terrorists, we all know that a private school history professor is not in any position to dictate upon the president. There has been a strong push back from the mass movement on the labeling of their organizations as “communist fronts.” For progressive activists, this is an act of political vilification enacted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that justifies extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearance, torture, warrantless arrests, and the criminalization of political dissent.

Read the rest of this entry