On Labor Day, workers take Aquino to task for pushing working people deeper into poverty

On Labor Day, workers take Aquino to task for pushing working people deeper into poverty

Aquino has granted only “measly wage hikes, promoted contractualization even more, made demolitions of urban poor communities more brutal, and colluded with the oil cartel.” – KMU

By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com

MANILA –Some 100,000 working people and youth marched simultaneously in various cities of the Philippines on Labor Day, May 1. In the capital, an estimated 20,000 marched under the scorching sun and sudden downpour late in the afternoon. All over the Philippines they uniformly condemned, in various languages, the Aquino government’s inaction on people’s hunger and poverty. In fact, they blamed the government of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III for pushing the working people deeper into poverty.
Labor leaders took turns lambasting Aquino’s supposed programs for helping the poor as bogus and palliative, not offering real solutions or at worst, even contributing to their worsening poverty.

“Pres. Aquino did nothing to lessen hunger and poverty among workers and the poor,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, chairman of labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno that led the bigger May 1 rallies all over the Philippines. Labog said Aquino has failed to heed the demands of workers and poor people who suffered for more than nine years under the past administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo, who preceded Aquino as president, had given the lowest real wage hikes to workers on record, according to independent think tank Ibon Philippines. Also under Arroyo’s watch, bloody dispersals of picketlines and strikes happened, giving rise to the now infamous “Hacienda Luisita massacre” and the killings of Nestle´ union leaders.

Aquino’s effigy as a US’ pitbull (Photo by Marya Salamat / bulatlat.com)

Aquino had wooed Filipino voters with promises of “change” and of being different from Arroyo. But two years into his term, he has proven “that he is no different from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when it comes to economic policies,” said Labog. He explained that Aquino has granted only “measly wage hikes, promoted contractualization even more, made demolitions of urban poor communities more brutal, and colluded with the oil cartel.”

P125 and P6,000 wage hikes 

Government employees, teachers and health workers, including their family members who joined the rally, scoffed at Aquino’s “surprise package.”.... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/05/02/on-labor-day-workers-take-aquino-to-task-for-pushing-working-people-deeper-into-poverty/

Incompetence FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 05/03/2012 From all indications, the prosecution realizes that its case against the Chief Justice, Renato Corona, is weak and conviction, if based on the merits of the case is the norm, is not possible. Whether the prosecution and the Noynoy administration have 16 votes to convict Corona is still questionable at this stage. That the prosecution’s case is weak can be gleaned from the fact that it swoops down on virtually any manipulated “development” such as the Ombudsman’s order for the Chief Justice to explain his alleged $10 million deposits in several banks, of which Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales has not even produced any document to substantiate her claim of $10 million.

Incompetence

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

05/03/2012
From all indications, the prosecution realizes that its case against the Chief Justice, Renato Corona, is weak and conviction, if based on the merits of the case is the norm, is not possible.

Whether the prosecution and the Noynoy administration have 16 votes to convict Corona is still questionable at this stage.

That the prosecution’s case is weak can be gleaned from the fact that it swoops down on virtually any manipulated “development” such as the Ombudsman’s order for the Chief Justice to explain his alleged $10 million deposits in several banks, of which Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales has not even produced any document to substantiate her claim of $10 million..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120503com2.html

Pentagon encircles Iran: Victory would take 3 weeks

Pentagon encircles Iran: Victory would take 3 weeks

As the US beefs up its military presence in the Persian Gulf region, Pentagon strategists estimate that they would need less than a month to defeat Iranian forces should a military conflict take place.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) believes it can destroy or significantly degrade Iran's conventional armed forces in about three weeks using air and sea strikes, a defense source told The Washington Post.

“We plan for any eventuality we can and provide options to the president,” Army Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman at CENTCOM told the newspaper. “We take our guidance from the secretary of defense and from our civilian bosses in [Washington] DC. So any kind of guidance they give us, that’s what we go off of [sic].”.... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/us-military-presence-iran-419/

Russia 'retains right' to pre-emptive strike on missile shield

Russia 'retains right' to pre-emptive strike on missile shield

 Russia is ready for a pre-emptive strike on European missile defense systems if the US refuses dialogue, stated Russia’s Chief of General Staff Nikolay Makarov at the Moscow ABM conference.

­“Considering the destabilizing nature of the [American] ABM system, namely the creation of an illusion of inflicting a disarming [nuclear] strike with impunity, a decision on pre-emptive deployment of assault weapons could be taken when the situation gets harder,” Gen. Makarov told the audience.

The NATO delegation present at the conference rushed to disagree with the Russian general, saying that the ABM system would never target Russia..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/russia-pre-emptive-strikes-abm-488/

Firefox creators Mozilla attack Congress; denounce CISPA

Silicon Valley’s Mozilla Corporation has tasked themselves with extinguishing a fire, and no, it’s not what you have in mind.

Mozilla, the Mountain View, California-based developers responsible for creating the hugely successful Firefox Web browser, has issued a statement publically condemning the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. In a memo sent to Forbes’ data security department on late Tuesday, Mozilla’s privacy and public policy official explains that its newly-publicized stance is not one that encourages online cyber attacks, but merely establishes that the company is in favor of protecting the rights of its users.

“While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security,” reads the statement.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/mozilla-cispa-bill-statement-428/

Heroic janitress returns P1 million BLURBAL THRUSTS Louie Logarta 05/03/2012

Heroic janitress returns P1 million

BLURBAL THRUSTS

Louie Logarta

05/03/2012
The entire Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) is currently agog over the heroic act of a lowly janitress, one of its numerous contractual employees who receive less than the legislated across-the-board minimum wage, in surrendering a plastic pouch containing some P1.2 million in foreign currency notes that was inadvertently dropped by some clueless passenger.

According to sources in the NAIA general manager’s office, a 32-year old cleaning lady identified as Mary Jennifer Doroga was attending to her assigned duties minding the floor of the Customs arrival area in the NAIA Terminal 1 when she chanced upon the pouch.

Rather than succumb to her baser instincts, Doroga reportedly took the money she had found lying on the floor to the Customs duty collector in order to have it returned to the proper owner, but their efforts to do so proved futile. And after half-an-hour, the precious find was turned over to the NAIA lost-and-found section for safekeeping..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120503com4.html

Might is right VIEWPOINTS Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz 05/03/2012

Might is right

VIEWPOINTS

Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz

05/03/2012
The bigger and better the guns, the mightier the Armed Forces, the more destructive the bombs, the mightier are the countries that have them, the more right they have to do as they please.

Poor countries are but diversions and trophies to them. Miserable people are their stepping-stones for more power and influence.

Such is the essence and implications of the twisted dictums, the nauseating maxim that “might is right.”

This is when marginalized countries are stepped down upon and impoverished people are used as stools for bigger might and/or more insatiable materialistic holdings. The rules of ethics are considered passé. The norms of morals are held irrelevant. What is right could be readily set aside while what is wrong could be conveniently considered right..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120503com7.html

China flexes muscle with 23 vessels in disputed shoal By Michaela P. del Callar, Angie M. Rosales and Mario J. Mallari 05/03/2012

TAIWAN SETS UP AIRBORNE UNIT IN SPRATLYS

China flexes muscle with 23 vessels in disputed shoal

By Michaela P. del Callar, Angie M. Rosales and Mario J. Mallari 05/03/2012

A day after President Aquino’s two Cabinet secretaries appealed for help from the United States government for a minimum Philippine “credible defense” against Chinese incursions in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, China flexed its maritime muscle with 23 vessels at the disputed South China Sea shoal while its rival, Taiwan, made public its claim on the contested area Wednesday, further complicating the dangerous 23-day standoff.

A group of Filipino-Americans, meanwhile, announced planned protests in China’s embassies and consulates in the US and Canada on May 11 to denounce what they call Chinese aggression on Philippine sovereignty. A similar demonstration will also be held in Manila on the same day.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said on radio that China has stationed four Chinese government ships in the Scarborough, including Beijing’s most advanced patrol craft, while eight Chinese fishing vessels were spotted inside the shoal’s lagoon, along with 11 smaller boats. This is the largest number of Chinese vessels monitored by the Philippines thus far in the shoal..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120503hea1.html

Ex-Comelec exec cites uncorrectable PCOS defects By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2012

Ex-Comelec exec cites uncorrectable PCOS defects

By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2012

Two Associate Justices, through their questions and statements during oral arguments yesterday, appear to favor the poll body’s purchase of the flawed automated machines, even as a former official of the Commission on Elections, Commissioner Augusto Lagman, voiced before the Supreme Court (SC) the defects of the automated machines that the Brillantes Comelec wants to purchase which have not to date been addressed and fixed by the poll body.

He took the position of election monitoring groups before the high tribunal to stop government’s P1.8-billion contract for the purchase of defective election machines for next year’s elections.

In oral arguments, Lagman said he agrees with the main contention in the consolidated petitions of Automated Election System Watch (AES Watch) led by former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona Jr., the Solidarity for Sovereignty (S4S) led by Linda Montayre, and another group of concerned citizens led by Davao City Archbishop Fernando Capalla that the contract violated R.A. 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act)..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20120503hea2.html

Rules relaxed for release of cleared accused in drug raps — DoJ chief By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2012 Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced yesterday that she has relaxed the rules on the release of persons accused of drug charges a year after regaining full authority over disposition of drug-related cases. Last year, President Aquino issued issued Administrative Order (AO) No. 8 repealing Administrative Order No. 253 issued by former President Arroyo which gave the Office of the President the power to automatically review the decisions and resolutions of the justice secretary covering dismissed drug-related complaints. AO No. 8 mandates that all cases pending before the Office of the President shall be returned to the DoJ for their appropriate disposition.

Rules relaxed for release of cleared accused in drug raps — DoJ chief

By Benjamin B. Pulta 05/03/2012

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima announced yesterday that she has relaxed the rules on the release of persons accused of drug charges a year after regaining full authority over disposition of drug-related cases.

Last year, President Aquino issued issued Administrative Order (AO) No. 8 repealing Administrative Order No. 253 issued by former President Arroyo which gave the Office of the President the power to automatically review the decisions and resolutions of the justice secretary covering dismissed drug-related complaints.

AO No. 8 mandates that all cases pending before the Office of the President shall be returned to the DoJ for their appropriate disposition..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120503nat1.html

Accounting sought on sale of AFP properties By Gerry Baldo 05/03/2012

Accounting sought on sale of AFP properties

By Gerry Baldo 05/03/2012

A former police officer who is now a lawmaker yesterday sought an inquiry into the proceeds of the sale of the properties of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

According to Antipolo City Rep. Romeo Acop, the Aquino government should create a special group that would investigate and account funds generated by the Bases Conversion Development Authority in the sale of military camps since the time of former President Fidel Ramos.

The BCDA was formed to dispose Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) properties the proceeds of which should be used to modernize the AFP..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/nation/20120503nat3.html

San Juan lawmaker urges Noy: Revive your mom’s LACC By Charlie V. Manalo 05/03/2012

San Juan lawmaker urges Noy: Revive your mom’s LACC

By Charlie V. Manalo 05/03/2012

San Juan City Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito yesterday appealed to President Aquino to create a Labor Advisory Consultative Council (LACC) that would advise the President on the real amount of wage increase acceptable both to the labor and business sector.

Ejercito, who is the vice-chairman of the House committee on labor, said such creation of an advisory council similar during the late President Cory Aquino’s regime would benefit the Aquino administration for it could give sound counsel on handling the immediate needs of the country’s work force.


However, since LACC is an all-labor council and has no representative from the business sector, Ejercito said there should be a separate presentation of their position..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120503met1.html

Number of people in QC tested positive for HIV soars to 57 05/03/2012 The local health department in Quezon City has observed an increase in the number of people who have been tested positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The number of victims is now 57, all of them men aged 20 to 45, city’s health office chief Antonieta Inumerable said. HIV infection causes the deadly Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition that gradually destroys the immune system, which makes it harder for the body to fight infections, according to the city health office.

Number of people in QC tested positive for HIV soars to 57

05/03/2012
The local health department in Quezon City has observed an increase in the number of people who have been tested positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The number of victims is now 57, all of them men aged 20 to 45, city’s health office chief Antonieta Inumerable said.

HIV infection causes the deadly Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), a condition that gradually destroys the immune system, which makes it harder for the body to fight infections, according to the city health office..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/metro/20120503met4.html

Maximum US gains at the least cost via VFA

Maximum US gains at the least cost via VFA

Last April 18-19, invited by the Patriotiko Mindanao alliance, I joined the culminating activities in Zamboanga City of the 2012 Mindanao-wide anti-Balikatan protest billed as “People’s Caravan and Lakbayan against US Militarism and Plunder.”

It was an exhilarating experience for me for two reasons:

1. Aside from the senior activists I met at the first People’s Caravan in 2002 — when the first Balikatan joint US-RP military exercises began in the armed-conflict areas of Basilan and Zamboanga — most of the 2012 participants were young, politically-keen people. I had brief but highly-satisfying interactions with them..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/27/maximum-us-gains-at-the-least-cost-via-vfa/

Running to America again EDITORIAL 05/02/2012

Running to America again

EDITORIAL

Click to enlarge

05/02/2012
There went the Aquino government, running again to the United States and appealing for help to build a “minimum credible defense” amid an escalating territorial dispute with China.

Credible defense against giant China? There can never be any build up of credible defense on the Philippine side mainly because even if the country stacks up on military warfare, we can’t ever beat China and its military might, since China has been well-equipped militarily, land, sea and air for decades.

What then are Foreign Secretary Alberto del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin really asking from Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta in their talks in Washington?

Surely they know that even military surplus from the US government isn’t that easy to get — without the US getting something in return — and generally, the US takes more from the country than what it gives it..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120502com1.html

Ghraib mistake? US student drinks urine to survive prison abandonment

Ghraib mistake? US student drinks urine to survive prison abandonment

A San Diego college student was left in a cell for five days without food, water or access to a toilet by federal drug agents. He says he drank his own urine to stay alive, and even tried to etch a message to his mother in his own arm.

Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Chong says he was forgotten in a five-by-10-foot (1.6 x 2.3m) windowless cell after being arrested by the Drug Enforcement Administration agents on April 21.

Daniel was questioned, and then the agents told him he could go home. One agent even offered him a ride, Chong told the media on Tuesday. No criminal charges were filed against him..... MORE

Source:  RT.com

URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/student-urine-cell-us-386/

Chorus of criticism: Netanyahu’s politics puts Israel ‘in mortal danger’

Chorus of criticism: Netanyahu’s politics puts Israel ‘in mortal danger’

Former PM Ehud Olmert and the recently-resigned Kadima leader Tzipi Livni have joined the chorus of past and present senior Israeli politicians criticizing the government and its warmongering policy against Iran.
­Livni announced her resignation as leader of the centrist liberal Kadima party on Tuesday, saying in her speech that Netanyahu’s government is putting the existence of the Jewish state “in mortal danger” by ignoring growing international discontent.

“Israel is on a volcano, the international clock is ticking and you should not be the ‘chief of Shin Bet’ to understand that. The real danger is a politics that buries its head in the sand,” Livni said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://rt.com/news/israel-iran-netanyahu-politics-criticism-365/

Advocacy group for indigenous peoples pushes agenda for education

Advocacy group for indigenous peoples pushes agenda for education

Since 2009, militarization has caused the closure of schools and disruption of classes in the rural areas of Mindanao.
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR) recently released a paper premised on the impact of military operations on campaigns for the education of indigenous peoples in the country. It said that in the last decade, the national government has done very little to improve the welfare of indigenous peoples particularly in Mindanao. In the meantime, military operations have also served to undermine the efforts of indigenous communities and people’s organizations to develop their own systems for improvement.

According to the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), there are between 14 million to 17 million Filipinos spread across 110 ethno-linguistic groups. Most of these ethnic groups are concentrated in Mindanao with 61 percent. Luzon has 33 percent of these indigenous people while the rest are in Visayas.
In a paper titled, “Education and Militarization of Indigenous Communities: Our Experience as Rural Missionaries in Mindanao”, RMP-NM’s subregional coordinator Sr. Ma. Famita Somogod dissected how the national government’s declarations to help indigenous peoples have not resulted in any concrete gains for the the latter.

The paper was presented to the “Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and Advocacy” Training Program for the Indigenous Advocates in Asia-Pacific in Sabah, Malaysia held from April 23 to May 2 by Diplomacy Training Program (DTP), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS), and the Center for Malaysian Indigenous Studies-University of Malaya (CMIS).

Somogod said that even as the government has identified education as its priority service, the indigenous peoples of Mindanao view it as a “vague illusion.” She said accredited schools supposedly established for indigenous peoples were built or established in areas far from the communities. Many residents are also unable to pay even the smallest fees, and some of the Lumad children spend their formative years in community alternative learning schools usually established with the aid of non-government organizations.

Rural Missionaries of the Philippines Northern Mindanao Sub-Region’s Minduyog Community Learning Center in Sitio Minduyog, Brgy. Lydia, Lapaz Agusan del Sur.(Contributed photo / bulatlat.com)

“Even in the rare situations where communities are benefited by a literacy and numeracy school, these are not sustained because of counter-insurgency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Instead of protecting the communities from rebel groups, the communities have become the targets of the operations. Militarization and war have resulted to human rights violations, exacerbating the living conditions of the already impoverished indigenous communities, with indigenous children becoming most vulnerable,” she said..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/05/01/advocacy-group-for-indigenous-peoples-pushes-agenda-for-education/

Bulatlat Live: May 1 Labor Day

Bulatlat Live: May 1 Labor Day

Dubbed as “A Day of Reckoning,” this May 1 the Filipino working class is set to hold rallies in major urban centers nationwide. Workers’ groups are taking President Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino III to task for his government’s inaction on, or frustration of, the working people’s long-standing calls for living wages and decent jobs. They are protesting, too, the Aquino government’s hand in worsening the Filipinos’ hunger and poverty, and its exceeding even the previous government’s puppetry to the US..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/05/01/bulatlat-live-may-1-labor-day/

JPE’s ‘life lessons’ CROSSROADS Jonathan De la Cruz 05/02/2012

JPE’s ‘life lessons’

CROSSROADS

Jonathan De la Cruz

05/02/2012
To say that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE) is one of the most colorful leaders of his generation is to state the obvious. He has, in the eyes not only of his, but of the post-war generations after his and those of the current crop of aspiring ones, cast such a huge shadow which will probably have few equals in the nation’s history for years on end. But more than being colorful he has been one of the most “controversial” as he himself confessed when he addressed the graduating class of the UP College of Law a week ago. Indeed, he has, as the song goes, had led a life well lived and, if I may add, a charmed one as well.

Last April 23, for the first time in years, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile went back to the UP College of Law in what he noted was a journey of “fond recollections.” Although early on he had taken issue with some students of the college for coming out with what he derided as premature and unreliable “statistics” about the public’s “attitude” toward Chief Justice Renato Corona and the ongoing impeachment trial. He he advised he could not resist this opportunity of sharing life’s lessons with this “young batch of upcoming members of the bar from my Alma Mater.”.... MORE
Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120502com4.html