NEWS AT A GLANCE

Workers, migrants greet GMA’s candidacy with protests

Militant groups last week assailed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision to run in the 2004 elections and called for her immediate resignation.

In a statement, Elmer Labog, secretary general of Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement), said, “Walang palabra de honor si Gloria” (Macapagal has no word of honor).

Macapagal-Arroyo reversed her Dec. 2002 announcement not to run and to concentrate on her work instead for the rest of her term.

In a separate reaction, Migrante Party spokesperson John Monterona said, "How can Macapagal-Arroyo easily declare her candidacy for 2004 now when our economy is teetering on the edge of a recession?”  “With 4.35 million Filipinos without jobs and an underemployment rate of 20.8 percent, Gloria will find it doubly hard to get support from the people.”

In a noise barrage at Welcome Rotonda following Macapagal’s announcement, Apolinario Alvarez, national president of Anak ng Bayan youth party, said, “Macapagal-Arroyo doesn’t even deserve to finish her current term…We cannot give a plunderer and liar another six years.” 

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Peace advocates slam GMA’s request for U.S. military aid

The Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (InPeace Mindanao) recently warned President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that “begging” for more U.S. military aid “would (make the country) serve as cannon fodder that will further enflame the war in Mindanao.”

Foreign Secretary Blas Ople had earlier announced the Macapagal-Arroyo government will ask for 30 choppers and 30,000 M-16 rifles from U.S. President George W. Bush when he visits Manila Oct. 18.

Dr. Robinson Montalba, convenor of InPeace Mindanao, said, “These weapons of death and destruction will certainly be used to further the all-out war in Mindanao…To many farmers, Lumads, Moro, and ordinary folks, it means more evacuations and displacements, more human rights violations, and more carnage.”

Montalba slammed Macapagal-Arroyo for the move “in the face of hunger and destitution in Mindanao.”  He said the government’s militarist policies have deprived the people of health care, education, and food.   

Montalba said the rifles will be used to arm paramilitary groups, vigilante groups such as the Alamara, and the government’s regular armed forces in Mindanao.  “This is an intensification of the U.S. government’s proxy war, where American-manufactured weapons are used by domestic armed forces to divide-and-rule.” 

Montalba explained that the U.S. is “itching to monopolize the natural gas resources in the Moro-dominated Liguasan Marsh, mineral deposits in Lumad lands and Christian peasant settlements, and deuterium in the Philippine Deep.”

He said such economic interest in Mindanao is manifested by the ‘deployment of US troops in the island, the $30 million aid package for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the hype against counter-terrorism.’

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Red fighters kill 5 gov’t troops in encounter

Red fighters of the New People’s Army (NPA) killed two soldiers and three members of Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) in an encounter in Barangay (village) Manalac, Sapang Dalaga, Misamis Occidental, about 650 kms from Manila, northern Mindanao, Oct. 2.

Citing a report from the Misamis Occidental Front Operations Command, Ismael Marte, spokesperson of the NPA in Western Mindanao, said the clash started when soldiers of the Alpha Company of the 5th Infantry Battalion and 34th Military Intelligence Company of the 101st Brigade command attacked the NPA.

The 15-minute clash left no casualties on the NPA side.

Marte said, the NPA victory shows the guerrillas’ “high morale and excellent unity” even in defensive engagements and despite being far outnumbered.

The NPA spokesperson also urged soldiers of the Armed Forces to think twice before carrying out the orders of their field officers who, he added, have no concern for their welfare and who engage them even in losing battles to refrain from suffering unnecessary casualties in defending corrupt and rotten system.

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Judges, court personnel go on fasting to protest low pay

Regional trial court (RTC) judges staged a nationally-coordinated protest Oct. 6 to demand higher salary and other benefits.

The decision to go on mass leave was made in a meeting in Kawit, Cavite, 20 kms south of Manila, by members of the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) to press for the passage of a Senate bill granting allowances equivalent to the judges’ salary.

A report cited that in the state payroll judges belong to Salary Grade 29 with a little over P26,000 ($475) monthly.  Municipal judges receive lower pay.

In Baguio City, 200 kms north of Manila, RTC judges and personnel went on fasting and held a picket in front of the Justice Hall. 

The protesters contested the proposed P7.8-billion budget for the judiciary next year.  Judge Edilberto Claravall of the RTC Branch 60 said the amount represents only 0.9 percent of the proposed P864.8 national budget for 2004. 

The protesters included Judicial Excellence awardees Iluminada Cortes of RTC 59, Antonio Reyes of RTC 61 and Nelson Lidua Sr. of MTC Branch II.

Bulatlat.com

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