By MARYA SALAMAT Bulatlat.com MANILA – This month, Filipino consumers are being asked yet again to cope with increased electricity rates, spurring protests and renewed calls to scrap the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA. The law is being blamed for having allowed electricity rates to increase so much. The Manila Electric Company (Meralco),…
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In the mountains
By PATRICIA LOURDES VIRAY Bulatlat.com Two trucks loaded with volunteers and school supplies trudged the dusty and bumpy path for almost two hours to reach its destination. As the trucks went up the mountains, the view of the whole town could be seen. A river indicated that they are getting near the isolated community. The…
‘Jasmin’ living example of the need to amend anti-rape law — Gabriela
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
“…it is our role as legislators to make sure that when victims turn to our legal system for redress, justice can and will be served in the fastest, least traumatic and least humiliating manner possible.” – Rep. Luz Ilagan, Gabriela Women’s Party
Slideshow: The dismal state of Quezon City public schools
The school opening last June 4 was greeted by the same problems experienced during the previous school years. It was disastrous as usual. The students were once again greeted by lack of chairs, books, classrooms and most specially teachers. The government’s answer to this perennial problems of shortages and poor quality of the education in…
Analysts warn of dangers in Philippines’ hosting of more US troops, warships
By MARYA SALAMAT
Although waning economically, the US still has the edge in military capabilities, which it may use to bully or declare war against countries resisting the assertion of its economic interests.
Disband paramilitary groups now, rights groups say
By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com MANILA – Human rights groups called for the immediate dismantling of paramilitary forces after a high-ranking military official announced that the government would do so by 2016. In a report by online news site Interaskyon.com, Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, commanding general of the Philippine Army, said he sees the dismantling…
Groups to launch Save Bondoc Peninsula Movement for Human Rights
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO Bulatlat.com MANILA — Grassroots human rights and peasant organizations in Southern Tagalog are poised to launch an all-out campaign to expose the increasing number of human rights violations in the region, specifically Quezon province in the Bondoc Peninsula. The groups said the Benigno Aquino III government has given its full-blessing…
Luisita farmers bare ‘grand plan’ to frustrate land distribution
By RONALYN V. OLEA
According to the document, Oplan April Spring has a P1.545 million ($35.9 thousand) budget for operations that include “propaganda and counter-propaganda, organizing and mobilization, special operations (psyops).”
Philippines losing money over anomalous Malampaya contract
By INA ALLECO SILVERIO
“It is an outrage that the government continues to uphold contracts with corporations that seriously put the country and the Filipino people at a perpetual disadvantage.” – Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares
The price of being an underling of the US
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com Here are bits of related, albeit diametrically opposite news. Local dailies reported that Philippine Undersecretary for Defense Affairs Honorio Azcueta said, after meeting with US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, that the US could use their former naval and air facilities in Subic, Zambales and in Clark Field in…
Bill privatizing the provision of housing being rushed in Congress – government employees
By IGAL JADA SAN ANDRES
“The government turning its back on its people and letting greedy corporations take advantage of the interests and wealth of our country by giving them the government’s money for housing is a clear form of corruption.” – Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE)