Tens of thousands of civilian contract workers from poverty-stricken countries — among them Filipino Rey Torres (left) — were hired to support the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. In case of injury or death, they are supposed to be covered by workers’ compensation insurance financed by American taxpayers. But the program has failed to deliver medical care and other benefits.
Category: Special Reports
In Triumph’s Underwear Shops in the Philippines, a Fear of Massive Job Layoffs
Triumph, one of the world’s largest underwear makers, has been re-exporting its raw materials from the Philippines to other countries where labor cost is lower. Its workers are understandably worried. Worse, they have reason to believe that the company may end up becoming a runaway shop.
Why CARPER Is Worse Than CARP
Among other provisions, the CARPER bill mandates that private agricultural lands – the type that the Arroyos and the Cojuangcos own – can only be distributed if the original CARP managed to distribute 90 percent of its target. But CARP, despite the two decades it had, only distributed less than half of it. It’s an impossible provision that only underscores what progressive farmers have been saying all along – that CARPER is bogus.
Jeepney Drivers as Milking Cows of ‘Crocodiles’ in Arroyo Administration
Steep increases in fines and penalties, imposed by the Arroyo regime to make up for its chronic revenue shortfalls, are hitting jeepney drivers particularly hard. As if that were not enough, buwayas (crododiles) masquerading as traffic enforcers in colorful uniforms lurk in the streets, waiting to pounce on them at every turn.
Poor and Sick Filipinos Pay Dearly for Failure of Cheaper-Medicines Law
A law passed last year to bring down the prices of drugs and medicines has not delivered on its promise, according to consumer and health advocates. It failed to break the stranglehold of huge transnational drug companies on the Philippine market. It also squandered an opportunity to develop the local pharmaceutical industry.
10 Years On, VFA Only Served US Interests
Activists protesting the VFA.
Has the Visiting Forces Agreement served its avowed purpose? Or has it only reinforced the unequal alliance between the Philippines and the United States, a relationship so tilted in the Americans’ favor that to call the VFA an agreement — with all the word’s connotation of equal rights, benefits and privileges — would be a travesty?
Video: In Honor of Human-Rights Defenders
In Honor of Human-Rights Defenders
Audio: ‘Vanessa’ Narrates How US Soldier Raped Her
‘Vanessa’ Narrates How American Raped Her
Video: Taken — A Mother’s Journey in Search of the Truth About Her Missing Son
Click here for a higher-resolution version Click here to download this video documentary (running time: 20 mins; format: m4v; filesize: 52.05MB; screen size: 352×288)
Christmas Outside Prison Walls
One may see “limited joy” this Christmas in the faces of three men who walked out of prison on December 11, a day after International Human Rights Day. They may be considered “free men” now but for them, the struggle to be free continues as they join a society that they say remains imprisoned by…
Canadian Govt’s Aid to RP in Question due to Intensifying Rights Violations
Members of the Canadian Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines marked the celebration of the International Human Rights Day by joining gatherings of various community organizations in forums that took the Canadian government to task for “paying lip service” to the intensifying human rights violations in the Philippines. BY EDWIN MERCURIO Contributed to Bulatlat.com…