This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 5, March 6-12, 2005
NEWS AT A GLANCE Farmer couple’s bodies
torched The peasant group Katipunan
ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) on March 2 blamed
the 16th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IB PA) for the
deaths of a peasant couple in Barangay (village) Ligang, Mamburao, Mindoro
Occidental on March 1. Kasama-TK chairperson
Guillermo Bautista said that the couple, Romeo and Linda Pinar, were “brutally
murdered” and their remains and house burned afterward. He said 16th
IB PA soldiers, disappointed in their campaign to dismantle the New People’s
Army in the province, are turning on hapless civilians whom they wrongly suspect
as either sympathizers or NPA members. The scene of the murder was
near the reported encounter site of NPA guerrillas and government troops last
Feb. 18.
* * * NUJP denounces threats vs
San Pablo journalists “The government's failure
to effectively fight corruption not only impoverishes the public – it also
exposes journalists to danger,” said NUJP secretary general Carlos Conde. “On
the other hand, the government's failure to protect journalists and prosecute
the killers of many of them will result in a press that is too intimidated to
expose corruption.”
* * * Lady solon seeks probe into
foreign takeover Maza said the Third Party
Private Custodians accredited by the BSP could extract as much as Php50 million
daily in custodian fees from Government Securities Eligible Dealers (GSEDs) who
could, in turn, impose higher interest rates during government security
auctions. The government’s virtual
surrender of its custody of government securities, the lady solon said, is an
abnegation of the government’s sovereign duty. She filed a House resolution
seeking an inquiry into the program.
* * * Arrest of Quezon
activists linked to Balikatan - CPP The March 1 arrest of four
women activists in Sampaloc, Quezon province has been condemned by the Communist
Party of the Philippines (CPP) saying it is connected with the ongoing
US-Philippine Balikatan or joint military exercises in the province and in other
areas in southern Luzon. The Philippine Army arrested Ella Manalo, Aileen Ramos,
Mira Gamba and Nancy Elle, members of the militant women's group Gabriela, on
suspicion of being members of the New People's Army (NPA). Denying that the arrested
women were NPA guerrillas, CPP spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal criticized
March 4 the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for fabricating charges and
planting evidence against them. He added that "human rights violations by the
military and police always escalate in areas where joint military exercises are
conducted by the US and Philippine armed forces." Rosal also called for the
end of Balikatan joint military exercises, saying it is a violation of
Philippine national sovereignty.
* * *
AFP ignorant of international humanitarian law - NDFP Fidel
Agcaoili, a member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
negotiating panel, criticized March 1 Lt. Col. Franklin del Prado, spokesperson
of the Philippine Army's 6th Infantry Division, for his ignorance on the
international humanitarian law (IHL). Prado reportedly said that the New
People’s Army’s (NPA) violated the IHL when it used a land mine in an ambush of
an Army platoon in Sultan Kudarat, southern Philippines. Since the IHL
is meant to protect civilians and non-combatants from war, Agcaoili said the use
of command-detonated land mines directed at military targets does not violate
the IHL. Agcaoili,
also the co-chair of the
Government of the Philippines (GRP)-NDFP Joint Monitoring Committee,
said that the ban on anti-personnel mines is not contained in the Geneva
Conventions but in the Ottawa Treaty signed in Canada. Manually-detonated mines
intentionally directed against military targets are not banned under the treaty,
he said. “The AFP
should educate its officers so that their ignorance is not bared for the whole
world to see,” Agcaoili said. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
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The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines denounced March 2 death
threats against Dodie Banzuela, associate publisher of the San Pablo City weekly
Deretso Balita, and the paper's reporter and columnist, Iring Maranan.
The two journalists have exposed corruption in the city and have themselves sued
a local official for corruption.
Meanwhile, Asian Star Express Balita columnist Arnulfo Villanueva was
gunned down in Naic, Cavite on Feb. 28. Villanueva, 43, is the first journalist
to be killed in the country this year.
of gov’t securities
In a March 2 privilege speech, Gabriela Women’s Partylist Rep. Liza Largoza Maza
said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP)-proposed Third Party Custodianship
Rule could result in higher interest rates that could shoot up the country’s
domestic debts. The BSP has accredited four foreign banks, HSBC, Standard
Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Citibank, a local bank, the Bank of the Philippine
Islands and the Philippine Depository and Trust Corporation as Third Party
private custodians of government securities.