Pinoy Free Press

Free Burma!

2007-10-04T00:07:00.000+08:00

Another leftist critically wounded by attack

2007-08-15T12:22:00.000+08:00

Former Akbayan national council member Mila Luminog was shot and critically wounded at around 5.20PM yesterday in downtown Cotabato City after attending a seminar in Estosan hotel. A lone motorcycle-riding gunman shot her with a .45 caliber pistol while she was driving her vehicle along the busy national highway in the city. Three bullets hit her in different parts of the body. She was rushed to the hospital by her companions in the vehicle. The gunman escaped immediately after the incident. She is still in critical condition.

Mila Luminog was Akbayan council member from central Mindanao in 2003-2006. She is a staff of gubernatorial candidate Tocao Mastura in Shariff Kabunsuan where up to now, no provincial officials have been proclaimed yet.

"Akbayan Mindanao condemns in the strongest terms possible the attack on Mila's life", lamented by Akbayan officer Tom Villarin." "We ask police authorities to look into all possible angles behind such dastardly crime and bring the perpetrators to justice" he added.

Meralco’s additional power from NPC: Too little, too late, and useless

2007-08-09T13:03:00.000+08:00

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) today criticized the move of Meralco to source an additional 1,020 gWh electricity from the National Power Corporation (NPC) in an attempt to decrease power rates in this month's bill, saying it is "too little, too late, and useless."

FDC said that prior to the additional supply from NPC, Meralco was sourcing more than 25 percent of its power requirements from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) which has a higher generation rate than NPC. Meralco now sources 47 percent of its electricity supply from its independent power producers, 38 percent from NPC, and 15 percent from the wholesale electricity spot market.

Too Little
According to FDC, the additional supply from NPC beginning July this year is not enough to significantly lower electricity rates and bring back to the May or June level, before Meralco customers were charged with an additional P1.25/kWh rate, the cost of electricity.

In November 2006, Meralco and NPC entered into a five-year transition supply contract which locks the distribution utility to source up to 20 percent of its requirements from NPC at time-of-use rates. According to ERC, any excess consumption will make Meralco pay NPC an additional premium over and above the agreed contract energy charge plus other adjustments.

Prior to the additional supply sourced from NPC, more than 25 percent of Meralco's power supply requirement was sourced from WESM. In August last year, WESM's clearing price reached P10/kWh, almost 500 percent increase from its price in June. Investigation conducted by the Market Surveillance Committee of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation revealed that the increase was brought about by price fixing/manipulation by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), a major trader at WESM.

On August 1 this year, WESM's clearing price reached its highest so far, P54.965 per kWh for the Sual plant, almost breaching the P62 price cap at WESM.

"Given the high price trend in WESM, 15 percent is still a huge amount of electricity to be sourced from the spot market," said FDC.

Too Late
The coalition explained that Meralco acted too late in averting the increase in electricity charges of the consumers. "The damage has been done! It knew that prices in WESM are high yet, it continued to source more electricity from there than from the lower-priced NPC until June this year," said FDC.

"In one year of WESM's operation, only the first two months resulted in lower prices. This happened when WESM started in June and when Gloria Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address in July last year, announcing a reduction in power rates. Generation rates in WESM after that shot up to 500 percent or higher," FDC continued.

"Many consumers had already suffered from high generation charges since last year and the recent blow was the P1.25/kWh increase in our electricity bills last July," FDC added.

Useless
According to FDC, the alleged reason why Meralco increased the amount of electricity sourced from NPC is to protect consumers from the volatility of prices at WESM. "The bottom line is, electricity being a public utility, must be affordable and accessible to the consumers. Even the additional 1,020 gWh from NPC will not result in that," said FDC.

The coalition asserted that electricity rates in the country will remain high, even one of the highest in the world, as long as the debts and liabilities of NPC and of PSALM are not truly addressed such as the cancellation of onerous contracts with the independent power producers (IPPs) of NPC, audit of all other debts of NPC, and stopping payments to those debts found to have not benefited the public and have been due to the onerous transactions/contracts. More increases in electricity rates will be experienced by the consumers in the coming months as an estimated $9.1 billion worth of NPC debts and PSALM deficits due to power purchase obligations to IPPs will be accumulated by year 2010.

The coalition also reiterated that as long as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) exists, consumers will continue to suffer from high power rates. It claimed that EPIRA is designed to the anti-people profit-making scheme of power corporations like Meralco.

"EPIRA allows anti-consumer rate setting methodologies as excessive profits by utilities are assured. Meralco now rakes in a profit equivalent to more than 15 percent of its return on rate base. EPIRA also allows cross-ownership between distribution and generation, thus the Lopezes who control Meralco – the biggest distribution utility in the company servicing about 70 percent of the country's electricity needs – strengthens its hold in the industry with its share in power generation in the country also increasing. Meralco sources almost half of its electricity requirement from its IPPs," FDC said.

MWSS Board betrays public trust, again

2007-08-09T13:02:00.000+08:00

The recent appointment of a former Maynilad engineer as the newest member of the Regulatory Office of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is a clear manifestation of conflict of interest and of the agency's bias against consumers, the Freedom from Debt Coalition said on Tuesday.

Edgardo Esteban, who just resigned from Maynilad Water services as its head of water production unit last January, took his oath as its chief technical regulator last August 1 during the 10th anniversary celebrations of the MWSS privatization. His office will be responsible for technical and engineering functions including asset management and investment of the government water agency.

"The MWSS Board acted unlawful and betrayed the interest of the public when they appointed Mr. Esteban as a member of the Regulatory Office. MWSS Chairman Oscar Garcia has to explain to the water consumers why he violated a very clear provision in the Concession Agreement," said FDC secretary general Milo Tanchuling,

Under the 1997 Concession Agreement (Exhibit A, No. 2), "No member of the regulatory office shall have any present or prior affiliation with MWSS or either of the concessionaires (or any affiliate of either of the concessionaires)."

"Why would Mr. Garcia and the majority of the MWSS Board choose someone from one of the water concessionaires despite the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel's position that it is a possible violation of the terms of the Concession Agreement? This explains the brand of governance they have which is anti-consumers. This same brand of governance could also possibly explain the water shortage Metro Manila consumers are currently experiencing," said Tanchuling.

The group said that it is ironic that the agency supposedly protecting the interest of the consumers is taking the side of these corporate water concessionaires.

"This is not the first time the MWSS Board did this. In fact, we had filed a case against them last year before the Supreme Court when they declared Manila Water and Maynilad as 'mere agents and contractors' which, according to our study, resulted in the concessionaires' higher profit margins and the passing on of their corporate income tax to unsuspecting consumers," Tanchuling recalled.

Tanchuling said that their group, as water consumers, is mulling to file a complaint before the Ombudsman against Mr. Garcia and the MWSS Board.

A water regulator may not be removed except by action of the Appeals Panel as stipulated in the Concession Agreement. The complainant, however, must be a party to the agreement.

"After ten years of failed MWSS privatization, what we need is a strong and independent regulatory mechanism, not another controversial decision favoring corporate interests," stressed Tanchuling.

On Mrs. Arroyo’s 7th State of the Nation Address: FDC dispels claims of economic miracles

2007-07-20T17:24:00.000+08:00

"Gloria's economy is not working."

This is what the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said of Mrs. Arroyo's flamboyant and rosy economic claims; two days shy from the Executive's 7th State of the Nation Address (SONA) this 23rd of July.

In an economic forum at the University of the Philippines, FDC said if there is one way of truly measuring the economic performance of this government, then it is by scrutinizing our current debt situation beyond what is being peddled to us by Mrs. Arroyo's economic managers and spin doctors.

"If Mrs. Arroyo has anything to say on the debt during her SONA, most likely it would be a boring reiteration of her deceptive claims that the debt problem is 'over' or is being managed prudently," FDC President Ana Maria R. Nemenzo said.

"While this assertion may be partly true, however, these so-called improvements in the debt statistics have been achieved through pre-payment of loans in exchange for new loans with longer maturity, decreased availment of agencies of direct loans and the unplanned resurgence of our currency—all of which speaks of Mrs. Arroyo's core debt management strategy of borrowing heavily to pay old debts," Nemenzo said.

According to the group, Mrs. Arroyo's take on the debt does not solve the problem and is instead imbedding the predicament further. "No economy achieved real growth and development by prioritizing debt payments or by simply remaining in the debt trap. If not for the remittances of our Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) which this government has nothing to do with, the economy of our country would have long been in the mire of an undeniable and explicit economic crisis," Nemenzo said.

The anti-debt advocacy group likened the government's debt strategy as a form of pyramiding. FDC said that while it might seem to work at this particular juncture, it is highly unsustainable and harmful in the long run.

"Clearly, this is Mrs. Arroyo's own FrancSwiss scam. While we are fixated with apprehending those responsible for the FrancSwiss swindle, We, particularly, the new Congress must also put a stop to the pyramiding scam that is the Arroyo government's flawed debt management strategy which continues to deceive the Filipino people," Nemenzo said.

The group stated that while the Arroyo government continues to sell the idea of a 'good debt management', sustained accumulation of illegitimate debt cases are being religiously paid by the Filipinos under Mrs. Aroyo's rule. Some of the many debt cases FDC has mentioned are:

The $400 million North Rail Project;
The World Bank textbook loan anomaly;
The $121 million WB-funded Small Coconut Farms Development Project;
Austrian Medical Waste Project;
Power Sector Restructuring Projects; and,
Private loans that the public is now paying for, e.g., Casecnan and other IPPs, Metrorail Transit.

The group also called on the legislators of the 14th Congress to:

Repeal of the Automatic Appropriations Law - Stop prioritization of debt payments over the urgent needs of the Filipinos;
Pursue a Comprehensive Audit of Public Sector Debts and Contingent Liabilities, including review of existing laws and policies, particularly GMA's debt management strategy; and,
Non-allocation for payments of loans that clearly did not benefit the Filipinos, and/or those resulting from anomalous transaction.

"If we really want our economy to work and serve the interests of the poor, then our national leaders must address the debt problem seriously and courageously. Otherwise, so-called rosy economic performance will remain mere statistics devoid of any broad concurrence from the public," Nemenzo concluded.

ATM reiterates call for scrapping of Mining Law, exposes intensified drive for mining in new areas

2007-07-13T00:32:00.000+08:00

The Alyansa Tigil Mina welcomes the continued and unwavering support of the church in the campaign against the intensified drive for large-scale, corporate-driven mining operations in the country.

We share the sentiments of the bishops that mining, the way government and private, transnational corporations pursue it now, does not present a viable solution to the widespread poverty in our rural areas, nor is it a palatable alternative to the real policy issues that hound our country's continued economic sluggishness.

Mining now represents nothing but the destruction of the environment and the displacement of communities including indigenous peoples from their homes. The touted economic benefits of mining are a mythology long debunked. It has been historically proven by figures from government itself that where mining companies operated, the surrounding communities became no better off than before these companies came in. Regions where mining permits were given remain high on the list of provinces with the highest poverty levels. Employment in the mining industry has reached only a maximum of about 300,000 since the 1970s, or an ignorable average of 10,000 a year compared to the continued influx of millions of new labor entrants into the labor force every year.

ATM believes it is all about the money. The puny foreign exchange brought in by mining companies, after all deductions and tax holidays have been effectively repatriated, still amount to a considerable proportion. And yet our present and future generations bear the ill-effects of mining to our environment. At the expense of human rights, government and private corporations are riding roughshod over due process and the rule of law in their drive for maximum profit and the plunder of our natural resources.

Guided by the Mining Act of 1995 and the Mineral Action Plan, the GMA administration's 10-Point Agenda seeks to promote mining as one of its priority investment area, despite the fact that where mining operations intrude, local resistance has been often fierce, contentious and fraught with company violence and intimidation. Despite these realities government remains insensitive in its maniacal desire to tap into the dollar inflow.

In Sibuyan Island in Romblon, multinational corporations under the guise of local subsidiaries applied for small-scale mining exploration permits in Brgy. Mabini, San Fernando town to escape EIA and EC requirements. An ocular of the area however reveals that heavy equipment have been brought in, and excavations have began along the buffer zone at the foot of Mt. Guiting-Guiting, a Natural Park by presidential decree. Company infrastructures have been built onshore a few meters away from the national road affecting transportation and damaging coral reefs in the area. Other mining applications totaling about 20 or more are pending in Sibuyan Island, threatening the biodiversity of the area.

Interestingly a Marcos-era decree has assigned Sibuyan Island as a mangrove protected area, which would effectively bar any kind of mining activity in the area.

In Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, the TVI Phil's. has again resorted to maliciously attacking the duly-recognized representative of the indigenous peoples affected by their operations in the area. This is nothing but an attempt to cover up for the flawed and deceptive manner in which the company fabricated the supposed free and informed consent of the local residents to acquire mining rights in the area.

These cases, along with other sites of struggles where ATM actively works with local coalitions demonstrate the tragic reality of mining as an environmentally-destructive and violated industry. People's rights have been time and again violated by mining companies in cahoots with government agencies and other local players in total abandonment of our national patrimony and our people's rights to self-determination, development and freedom of choice.

We enjoin government at the national level to revisit its policy regime towards the industry, starting with the immediate scrapping of the mining law, an overhaul for the regulatory regime governing the industry and the stringent monitoring of mining operations and the companies behind them some of whom have been met with stiff resistance and slapped with environmental penalties for their operations elsewhere.

The Alyansa Tigil Mina offers its Annual Report to the public in hopes of drumbeating support for its continued campaign, and the wider dissemination of information regarding the realities of mining in the country. We salute the bishops in their continued support for our cause, and the tireless dedication of our communities and partner organizations at the local level who are the real engines of this continuing struggle.

The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) is a national coalition of NGOs, POs, church and other support groups born out of the collective concern against the impending threat of the revitalization of the mining industry in the Philippines . Alyansa Tigil Mina, Mobile No. 09153153719 Email nc@phildhrra.org

Global forum on migration and development held in Brussels

2007-07-12T22:51:00.000+08:00

Philippine Ambassador to Belgium Cristina Ortega reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the First Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) was held in Brussels on 10 and 11 July 2007 to effectively address the implications, challenges and opportunities for greater coherence between migration and development policies among countries of origin and destination.

The GFMD is an inter-state, informal and non-binding process for discussion of the various issues concerning international migration and its interconnectivity to development. The First GFMD was spearheaded by the Kingdom of Belgium, following the UN High Level Dialogue (HLD) on Migration and Development held in New York last September 2006.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs Esteban B. Conejos, Jr. headed the delegation from the Department of Foreign Affairs. Other members of the DFA delegation included Ambassador Ortega; Ambassador Enrique Manalo and Consul General Grace Princesa of the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; and Special Assistant Estrella L. Roman of DFA-OUMWA.

The Philippines' participation in the First GFMD is part of the Government's policy to promote the rights and protect the welfare of Filipino migrant workers. Undersecretary Conejos has also represented the Department in three preparatory meetings among "Friends of the Forum" held in Brussels and Geneva.

The DFA delegation was joined at the Forum by representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), namely, Undersecretary Danilo Cruz and Labor Attaché Manuel Imson of the Philippine Mission in Geneva. Labor Attaché Ciriaco Lagunzad of the Philippine Embassy in Brussels, on the other hand, was a member of the Belgian Task Force that organized the First GFMD. Other Philippine government officials who participated in the Forum were Chairman Patricia Sto. Tomas of the Development Bank of the Philippines, Vice Governor Diwa Gunigundo of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque, and POEA Administrator Rosalinda Baldoz.

The officials represented the Philippine Government in the First GFMD at the plenary and roundtable discussions. Aside from monitoring the proceedings of the two-day consultative forum, the officials also articulated the Philippine policies on labor migration and its link to development, and advanced the Government's agenda on protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of migrant Filipino workers and their families.

Around 144 UN member countries participated in the two-day Forum. At the same time, nearly 200 representatives from civil society actors such as NGOs, trade unions, the academe, church-based groups, and the private sector gathered at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels for Civil Society Day, where they discussed the same topics that the government actors tackled during the Forum, and submitted their findings and recommendations to the inter-state forum on 11 July.

The Philippines has a special participation in the First GFMD as the host of the Second GFMD, which will be held in Manila next year. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the Philippine hosting of the Second GFMD as a clear and concrete exercise of political will to advance the rights of migrant Filipino workers, to share Philippine experiences in managing labor migration, and to influence global perspectives and policies in aid of protecting the rights and welfare of migrant citizens. (DFA)

ADB told to review energy policy, rather than draft a strategy based on a flawed policy

2007-07-11T13:12:00.000+08:00

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) – Philippines on Wednesday urged the Asian Development Bank to review, if not overhaul, its 1995 Energy Policy rather than drafting a "new" strategy that is based on a "flawed" policy.

Said energy policy governs the power industry restructuring and privatization in ADB's developing member countries (DMCs) such as the Philippines through the Power Sector Restructuring Program (PSRP).

"ADB must consider re-examining its energy policy because it is all about catering to the interests of the corporate industry players and creditors, but not of the consumers," said FDC president Ana Maria R. Nemenzo in time for the forthcoming ADB's sub-regional "consultation" among stakeholders in Southeast Asia and the Pacific on July 13 at the Bank's main headquarters in Ortigas. This is the last of the four consultations on the Bank's draft Energy Strategy which is expected to be approved by September 2007.

One of the focuses of ADB's 1995 Energy Policy is on enabling private
investments in the energy sector. The policy sets the Bank's focus of
assistance which includes, among others, preferential financial support
for its DMCs that are willing to restructure their energy sector and
support to build-operate-transfer (BOT) type of projects in the private
sector as well as joint venture projects.

FDC said that ADB's energy policy, which was implemented through the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in the Philippines, has
compelled the government to increase the generation rates to attract more investors to participate in the privatization of government's generation assets. It also legitimized the debts arising from and payments to expensive and onerous contracts of National Power Corporation with independent power producers.

"This policy has caused additional debt burden to the national government and the National Power Corporation. From only about P500 billion long term debts and lease obligations to IPPs in 1998, now it has ballooned to about P1.4 trillion," said Nemenzo.

Maitet Diokno-Pascual, former president and now board member of FDC, said that the ADB knows about these problems. "But its response is typical of an international financial institution that won't acknowledge its error," she said, adding that the Bank just keeps on lending more and more to the power sector to cover up its mistakes.

Diokno-Pascual explained that since the US$300 million power sector
restructuring loan the ADB extended to the Philippines in 1998, it had to extend additional assistance—loans and technical assistance—of nearly US$500 million. From 2001-2006, 99.6 percent of the ADB assistance to the country's energy sector has been in the area of power sector development.

"This is not because the first loan was a resounding success, but because this is the only way the ADB knows how to keep the flame of power restructuring alive in the Philippines. At this point, the ones with the biggest stake in defending the power sector reforms are the creditors themselves," added Diokno-Pascual.

Nemenzo said that the ADB estimated the total financing requirement for
the power sector to reach US$9.1 billion or P418.6 billion (US$1=P46) in 2006 – 2010 to cover assumed loans from NPC and deficits/losses from
contracts with IPPs. US$450 million was already released by ADB in
December 2006 under the Power Sector Development Program Loan.

The draft strategy, which will guide the Bank's future operations in the energy sector, is expected to address key issues, including: energy
security; global warming/climate change; sector policy reform and
governance; and, energy efficiency.

Following the initial 1981 policy, the ADB Energy Policy was developed in 1995, which is subject for review every 5 years. The Bank undertook a review in 2000 and came up with framework and strategy for its operations for the succeeding years. However, the next review supposedly to be undertaken by 2005 was delayed as the Bank failed to come up with the draft paper for consultation with the different stakeholders.

The framework policies and strategies set in 2000 after the review of the 1995 energy policy are: poverty reduction; addressing regional and global environmental impacts; promoting regional cooperation; and, promoting private sector involvement, which prompted the restructuring of the energy sector in the country and helped create an enabling environment for private investors.

FDC hits ADB on power sector reforms, energy review process

2007-07-09T14:42:00.000+08:00

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) today challenged the Asian Development Bank to admit that its Power Sector Restructuring Program that is being undertaken in the Philippines through the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) enacted in 2001 has created more social and economic problems than supposed benefits to the people.

FDC president Ana Maria R. Nemenzo blamed ADB's power sector restructuring and privatization program for the ballooning National Power Corporation and national government debts, higher power rates, unreliability of supply and lesser access by the poor.

FDC issued this challenge in time for the forthcoming ADB's sub regional "consultation" among stakeholders in Southeast Asia and the Pacific on July 13 at the Bank's main headquarters in Ortigas. This is the last of the four consultations on the Bank's draft Energy Strategy which is expected to be approved by September 2007.

The group likewise criticized the process of the energy review, citing the short period to study and make a more intelligent and substantive comment on the draft strategy.

"It took the ADB almost one and a half years to finish the draft and yet the Bank only gives the stakeholders only 60 days to study and comment on it. In other regions such as Central Asia, they only had 16 days to study the draft before the consultation on June 14," said Nemenzo, who is also the international convener of the NGO Forum on the ADB.

"Besides, a strategy is less binding because it does not require the approval of the board. Will the 1995 energy policy be maintained? What rulepolicy or strategywill govern other energy issues not covered by the strategy?" asked Nemenzo.

Nemenzo raised one of NGO Forum on ADB's questions regarding the issue on strategy: "Will the implementation of contentious provision such as the reduction of carbon emissions, adoption of clean technology, and implementation of ADB safeguards, among others no longer be subjected under the Accountability Mechanism, since it is only a strategy and not a policy?"

The draft strategy, which will guide the Bank's future operations in the energy sector, is expected to address key issues, including: energy security; global warming/climate change; sector policy reform and governance; and, energy efficiency.

Following the initial 1981 policy, the ADB Energy Policy was developed in 1995 and is subject for review every 5 years. The Bank undertook a review in 2000 and came up with a framework and strategy for its operations for the succeeding years. However, the next review supposedly to be undertaken by 2005 was delayed as the Bank failed to come up with the draft paper for consultation with the different stakeholders.

The framework policies and strategies set in 2000 after the review of the 1995 energy policy are: poverty reduction; addressing regional and global environmental impacts; promoting regional cooperation; and, promoting private sector involvement, which prompted the restructuring of the energy sector in the country and helped create an enabling environment for private investors.

Reject compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA)

2007-07-09T13:09:00.000+08:00

Several trade unions, peasant organizations, women's groups, non-government organizations and political blocs belonging to the Stop the New Round! Coalition (SNR) today sent a letter to trade and industry Sec. Peter Favila to express their collective concern over a "possible compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations" and called on the Philippine government to reject the compromise proposal and put development at the heart of the NAMA negotiations.

The latest proposal from developing countries led by Chile for a "middle ground" solution represents a serious break from the position of NAMA 11 of which the Philippines is an active member.

The SNR challenged the secretary to be the "leading developing country voice in NAMA 11 in calling for the rejection of the new NAMA proposal."

NAMA is one of the more contentious issues in the WTO's controversial Doha "Development" Round. NAMA covers all products not covered by the Agreement on Agriculture. It aims to advance further liberalization in manufacturing products, fuels and mining products, fish and fish products, and forestry products.

Despite the claims of the WTO, the SNR believes that the current round has effectively sidelined development. This is very apparent in the NAMA negotiations where the "US and EU want an ambitious NAMA formula" that would force developing countries to pry open their market for industrial and fisheries sector. The most contentious point in the so-called "Swiss formula", adopted in Hong Kong during the last WTO Ministerial Conference in 2005, is the coefficient that would be used to determine the tariff cuts of developed and developing economies.

The Chilean proposal calls for a coefficient in the high teens or low twenties for developing countries and below 10 for developed countries.

The SNR said that a coefficient for developing countries in the high teens would be "a murderous compromise on the part of the Philippines."

The SNR believes that "a compromise deal on NAMA would compromise jobs."

In the Philipines, such an agreement would exacerbate an already acute jobs crisis. "Job losses could be expected in the motor vehicles sector, which employs around 39,000, the apparel sector with an even bigger employment of 370,000, the leather and footwear sector with 69,000 workers, furniture sector with 143,000 workers and plastic products which provides jobs to 54,000 workers."

The SNR is a broad coalition of people's organizations and NGOs campaigning against new free trade agreements.

Open letter to Sec. Favila re a possible compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations

2007-07-09T11:41:00.000+08:00

9 July 2007

HON. PETER FAVILA
Secretary
Department of Trade and Industry

Dear Secretary Favila,

We are alarmed over reports of a possible compromise deal on Non-agricultural Market Access (NAMA) negotiations. The latest proposal from developing countries led by Chile for a "middle ground" solution represents a serious break from the position of NAMA 11 of which the Philippines is an active member.

It is clear that the United States and the European Union want to squeeze as much as they can from developing countries on NAMA as pay back for what they claim to be their own concessions in agriculture, concessions that many analysts feel are not even enough to level the playing field in agriculture. It is clear that the US and EU want an ambitious NAMA formula in order to pry open the market for industrial and fisheries sector in developing countries.

The new NAMA proposal coming as it were in the aftermath of the collapse of the G4 meeting in Potsdam, and which is projected as an initiative from developing countries plays dangerously into the strategy of the US and EU. This is exactly the opening that the US and EU were hoping for in Potsdam. The proposal hands the compromise to them in a silver platter.

The call from the new proposal for more flexibility and compromise should be seriously challenged. In Hong Kong, developing countries have already made a huge compromise when they agreed to adopt the ambitious Swiss formula for tariff reductions. Under an ambitious formula, developing countries would absorb close to 70% cuts in their industrial and fishery tariffs as opposed to the measly 25 % cuts for developed countries. Simulations done by both the WTO and international trade unions have already provided us a picture of the possible consequences on jobs and revenues under an ambitious NAMA agreement.

A coefficient for developing countries in the high teens would be a murderous compromise on the part of the Philippines. Such an ambitious formula would result in a substantial reduction of our average bound rates for industrial and fishery products and would constitute a serious erosion of our policy space. Sectors that would be adversely affected include the automotive sector, apparel, plastics, leather products and footwear, and the furniture sector which would all absorb cuts not just in bound rates but in actual applied rates. Huge cuts on bound rates would be felt in rubber products, fabricated metals, wood and wood products, and paper and paper products.

A compromise deal on NAMA would compromise jobs. Job losses could be expected in the motor vehicles sector, which employs around 39,000, the apparel sector with an even bigger employment of 370,000, the leather and footwear sector with 69,000 workers, furniture sector with 143,000 workers and plastic products which provides jobs to 54,000 workers.

We do not need to remind you that central to the NAMA 11 position is the demand to put the development objective at the heart of the NAMA negotiations. The compromise deal on NAMA undermines this very objective.
We challenge you now in this most critical time in the negotiations to exhibit leadership in NAMA 11. We challenge you to be the leading developing country voice in NAMA 11 in calling for the rejection of the new NAMA proposal.

"No deal is still better than a bad deal" Mr. Secretary and in the interest of Filipino workers, we hope that this is still your guiding principle.

Stop the New Round! Coalition
Akbayan
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM)
Association of Genuine Labor Organization (AGLO)
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women - Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU)
Convergence for Community Centered Area DevelopmentFocus on the Global South - Philippines
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Global Network Asia
International Gender and Trade Network - Asia
Kilusang para sa Pambansang Demokraysa
Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Pilipinas (KPMP)
Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN)
Liga Manggagawa
Makabayan - Pilipinas
Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN)
Pambansang Katipunan ng Malayang Magbubukid - PKKM
Philippine Metalworkers' Alliance (PMA)
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)
Resource Center for People's Development (RCPD)
Women and Gender Institute (WAGI)

Journalists can't be compelled to disclose news sources under Anti-Terror Act

2007-07-09T11:38:00.000+08:00

Journalists cannot be compelled under the Human
Security Act (Republic Act 9372) to reveal to law
enforcement authorities their sources of information
in connection with reports about terrorist activities
they write about.

This was pointed out today by Senate Minority Leader
Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) who
authored this particular provision, as part of several
amendments in the HSA that were adopted at his
suggestion to prevent violations of civil liberties.

Pimentel said lawyers and doctors likewise cannot be
compelled to reveal their communications with their
clients and patients whose involvement in terrorism
activities are being investigated by the authorities.

Explaining why media practitioners should not be
required to reveal their sources of information,
Pimentel invoked section 4 of Article III (Bill of
Rights) of the Constitution which provides: "No law
shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of
expression, or of the press, or the right of the
people to peaceably assemble and petition the
government for redress of grievances."

"In fact, there is more reason to exempt the
correspondences, messages and records of journalists
from being monitored, bugged and recorded or
subpoenaed for use under legal compunction in the
investigation or terrorist trials than the
communications between doctors and patients," Pimentel
said.

The minority leader also cited the concern of the
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the United States
that "if any journalist strongly and legitimately
suspects that his or her communications with a sources
are being intercepted by a third party, that
journalist simply cannot promise confidentiality in
good faith to an international source when that source
could face torture or death if the communication is
revealed."

Another major amendment to the HSA adopted at
Pimentel's suggestion was the reduction of the period
of detention to terror suspects to not more than three
days if they were arrested without court warrants or
if they are not formally charged.

Originally, the maximum period for detaining terrorist
suspects without a court warrant was for 15 days and
later reduced to five days.

Justifying the shortened detention period, Pimentel
pointed out that the Constitution, under Article VII
section 18 provides that during the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus, any person arrested or detained
for rebellion shall be judicially charged within three
days, otherwise he shall be released.

"The three-day period during which a person may be
detained without charges even during a rebellion or
invasion, is a constitutional demarcation line that
must not be breached," he said.

Pimentel said that a related amendment would require
law enforcers to immediately bring before any judge,
Commission on Human Rights official or justice of the
Sandiganbayan or Court of Appeals any person arrested
by them on charges or suspicion of terrorism before
the suspect is detained.

He said the requirement of immediately bringing an
arrested terrorist suspect to the presence of a
judicial magistrate will discourage abuse or physical
maltreatment of the suspect.

Other major amendments:

1. Compensating persons wrongfully arrested and
detained on anti-terrorism charges in the amount of
P500,000 for every day of detention.
2. Creating a grievance committee headed by the
Ombudsman before which people harassed by law
enforcers on charges of terrorism may complain and get
redress for their grievances. The grievance committee
will have their divisions - one each - in Luzon,
Visayas and Mindanao.

Pimentel said he has introduced nearly a hundred
amendments to the Human Security Act, backed by some
200 pages of studies, to make sure that the bill will
not be used as an instrument of terror against the
people.

"We worked on the Human Security Act very assiduously
and meticulously because I think, in all honesty, that
it is the most terrifying piece of legislation ever
submitted to the hall of Congress," he said.

Taal spa project exposes infirmities of environmental regulations

2007-07-08T21:09:00.000+08:00

The botched proposal to construct a tourist spa in the mouth of Taal volcano is another example of how government regulations with respect to the environment are wantonly disregarded and violated. Even though its Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) has been revoked, the DENR Secretary has come out to say the company can apply for one again.

Yet the very idea that a permanent structure was to be built right in the most dangerous part of the volcano should have given more than enough cause for alarm much earlier, had the DENR not been remiss in its oversight duties. Unless the project is abandoned altogether, the public must remain vigilant.

This again shows the infirmities of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) mechanism as a prerequisite to the implementation of development projects. As the first step towards securing an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) the EIA requires the free and prior informed consent of the local communities to be affected by a development project. It is a social safeguard provided for not only in the EIA law, but other statutes including the Mining Law, Indigenous People's Rights Act and the Local Government Code.

But the proposed Taal spa illustrates that the local community did not support the project and that it was railroaded by the local government unit. There is enough reason to make the LGU accountable for abuse of authority in this regard.

The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) believes the environmental compliance aspect of the Taal spa project should be an occasion to revisit the EIA system and the granting of ECCs to construction firms. It has been our experience with our communities affected by mining operations that more often than not, the granting of ECCs are highly susceptible to corruption and collusion, to the detriment of the host communities where development projects, including mining operations, are located.

The manner in which development projects are measured and assessed in relation to their effects on the environment must be reformed and stricter policies need to be put in place against development projects that seek to utilize the country's natural and mineral resources.

There has got to be a better way to promote development among the thirteen or so municipalities surrounding Taal without sacrificing the heritage of Taal volcano itself. The Taal spa, had it not been for the vigilance of the local residents, would have proceeded, to the detriment of Talisay and the local population. It is the same with the mining communities where informed consent is often twisted with false promises of economic prosperity in exchange for the violation of our patrimony and the exploitation of our environment.

Jaybee Garganera
Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)
59-C Salvador St., Loyola Heights, QC

DOLE tasked to address job mismatch

2007-07-05T10:59:00.000+08:00

Following President Arroyo's order to raise the level of the country's educational system to world standards, the Department of Education was tasked to address the problem on job mismatch and have specific plans and programs for education development.

At present, DepED is targeting half a million public school teachers to undergo virtual training through the Cyber Education project.

DepED Secretary Jesli Lapus said through Cyber education, we are bringing our teachers from all over the country closer to quality teacher training activities and materials.

We will ensure that all our teachers are provided the much-needed trainings they need to improve teaching and student learning, he said.

Secretary Lapus has also vigorously pushed for the strengthening of "tech-voc" education and trainings under the supervision and control of the department.

The move came with the gathering of government figures which showed that there were more than half a million blue collar jobs not being filled due to a shortage of skilled workers in the country while millions remain unemployed.

"We have to address what we call as the 'job mismatch'. Out of the 2.6 million unemployed Filipino, around 1.1 million are college graduates.

"But at the same time, we have 650,000 tech-voc jobs available in the local market, and we cannot fill in the vacancies because our tech-voc job applicants lack the required tech-voc skills," Lapus said.

Results of the National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE), the latest administered by DepED showed that majority of high school batch 2007 are not fit for college and should take the technical and vocational track.

Lapus expressed the DepEd's hope that students and parents will take advantage of the NCAE in charting their future after high school graduation.

"Students need to be given career counseling support and parents need to be informed and re-educated to appreciate viable alternatives to the college diploma." Lapus said.

The NCAE had four major components that sought to determine the aptitude of examinees in general scholastics, technical-vocational, entrepreneurial skills, and non-verbal ability.

The test also had a fifth part that questioned examinees on their occupational interest. Aptitude for college was mainly measured by the general scholastics aptitude (GSA) test of the NCAE which carried 220 items.

The technical-vocational aptitude test had 50 items, the entrepreneurial skills test had 30 items and the non-verbal ability test had 30 items. (PIA XI)- Rose Palacio

Poor performers in government do get axed, CSC says

2007-06-25T23:09:00.000+08:00

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) recently upheld the dismissal of a government employee who performed poorly and still failed to improve despite a warning.

A permanent employee in a water district was earlier dropped from the rolls for poor performance. Within the rating period, he displayed a classic case of incompetence and incorrigibility. He did not do his regular duties and responsibilities; he failed to observe existing office rules and regulations; and he ignored his supervisor’s reasonable instructions. After four months of this behavior, his supervisor sent a formal warning that he would be dismissed if he did not shape up. He ignored the warning.

CSC head Karina Constantino-David said that CSC’s rule on performance is clear that one rating of “poor” is enough ground for an employee’s dismissal, as is done in the private sector. She said that “however by practice, government employees are luckier than employees in the private sector because once they become permanent, it is very hard to fire them.”

David explained, “Bosses in government seldom give a rating that reflects the actual performance of their people, largely because the present rating system is highly subjective. Bosses often given in to awa for lack of a strong basis to do otherwise. In fact, the sum total of all the ratings of the 1.4 Million government people in the CSC records would be somewhere near “outstanding”, contrary to that of public opinion.”

David said that the CSC, as central personnel agency of government, has been developing and pilot-testing a rating system to address the problem. “The Performance Management System-Office Performance Evaluation System or PMS-OPES is an output-based system that will reduce the subjectivity of rating people in government agencies, make it easier for the boss to give an honest-to-goodness rating, and will provide a basis for the agency to remove a non-performer. “

She also explained that due process was observed in the case of the water district employee as he was properly warned of the possible dismissal. “Yet, he still ignored it. He probably thought he could get away with it, as some did in the past. It is about time, our government agencies get serious with weeding out non-performers. These non-performers contribute nothing and worse, they drain our limited resources that come from taxpayers’ money.”

FDC sees no light ahead with ADB’s power privatization program

2007-05-03T13:58:00.000+08:00

"ADB's power privatization program will only lure us deeper into total darkness!" cried Freedom from Debt Coalition as it held a demonstration before the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) main office in ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, while lugging a huge, black light bulb to symbolize the country's bleak future if high power rates imposed upon, and shouldered by the Filipino people remain unfettered.

"The country is in bad shape, and our people's suffering is more palpable than ever," according to FDC Vice President Wilson Fortaleza. "Filipino people now pay for P9/kwh-P9.50/kwh, from only P5/kwh prior to the passage of Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), while National Power Corporation (NPC) and government debts continue to balloon because of onerous power projects," he continued.

"ADB has a lot to do with the accelerating suffering of the Filipino people. It financed, designed, and pushed for the passage of EPIRA, which mandates the privatization of the power industry," explained Fortaleza.

In 1998, ADB approved the Power Sector Restructuring Program (PSRP) loan amounting to $300 million, which outlined the policy prescription for privatization and restructuring of the power industry. The release of two-thirds (2/3) of the PSRP loan depended on the passage of EPIRA in 2001.

EPIRA mandates the restructuring of the power industry and the privatization of NPC, the transfer of P200 billion NPC debts to the national government, the condonation of debts of the electric cooperatives, removal of cross subsidies and the collection of universal charge, which include charging electricity consumers for stranded debts of NPC and stranded contract costs of NPC, arising from onerous contracts with independent power producers (IPPs).

Even if on its face, EPIRA obviously passes on NPC's debt burdens to the people and intensifies monopolistic control and practice by few power companies by allowing for a mere handful to gain a stranglehold over the industry, ADB succeeded in compelling the Philippine government to promulgate EPIRA because some $550 million -- $200 million from ADB and JEXIM Bank for the interconnection project and $350 million ADB guarantee for NPC bonds in 2002 -- was also hinged on its passage.

"ADB's evil influence did not weaken through time. In fact, the impending P1.73/kWh increase in Meralco's electricity charges is highly attributable to the flawed wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) it prescribes. This was petitioned by the biggest distribution utility in the country for collection of its under-recoveries in December 2006 and January 2007 in generation costs due to increase in WESM prices and system losses," Fortaleza explained.

Instead of delivering its promised low power rates, WESM was found riddled with price manipulations during its first three months of operation consequently increasing the generation rates by about P1/kWh.

"ADB has left our country little breathing room, if at all, in our own affairs. Its suggested policies for reforms are tainted with its own interests alone. We demand that it leave the country, cease meddling in our affairs and cancel illegitimate debts from onerous power projects such as IPP contracts. The suffering must stop now," Fortaleza suggested.

"The ADB has the gall to claim it is owned by its member countries, and that it works towards improving the welfare of their people. But mere common sense dictates that the increases it imposes in support of big businesses and profiteers are unjust to a people who live in substandard conditions. This callousness must be made known, and their loathsome propensity for gains at the expense of everything else must be stopped," the FDC officer said.

Aptly, as ADB and government officials proceed to Kyoto, Japan this coming May 6 for the 40th ADB Annual Governors Meeting, FDC said that anti-debt and anti-privatization advocacy groups will make sure that the Filipino peoples' protests against ADB's power privatization program will resound persistently until it deafens and earns due attention and regard.

- Freedom from Debt Coalition

Women’s Rights NGO calls on Candidates to Uphold Women’s Rights

2007-04-30T13:47:00.000+08:00

"Congressional and local electoral candidates when elected into government posts must uphold women's rights as protected by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Women's Convention)," says Atty. Clara Rita A. Padilla, Executive Director of EnGendeRights. She adds, "They must take their stand to protect women's access to the full range of contraceptive methods including emergency contraception, access to safe and legal abortion, sexuality education for adolescents, skills and education for women in prostitution, legalization of divorce, repeal of discriminatory Muslim Code provisions and lesbian rights."

These concerns except for lesbian rights were included in the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Concluding Comments during its 36th Session in August 2006. CEDAW monitors the implementation of the Women's Convention by the Philippine government.

"When elected into office they must provide access to the full range of contraceptive methods in an effort to prevent unintended pregnancy, abortion and maternal mortality and morbidity. They must take a stand in opposing bills restricting access to medically safe methods of contraception such as emergency contraceptive pills, Depo Provera, and IUDs," Atty. Padilla added.

"Congressional representatives should file bills that uphold women's rights including bills on Reproductive Health Care, Anti-Discrimination against Sexual Orientation; repeal of the penalty imposed on women who induce abortion and those assisting them as means to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity related to complications from unsafe abortion; improvement of the implementation of the Policy on Prevention and Management of Abortion Complications; implementation of sexuality education in schools for adolescents; and legalization of divorce," says Atty. Padilla.

In the House of Representatives, staunch supporters of reproductive health and rights in the past were Nereus Acosta (whose sister Malou Acosta is now running), Benjamin Agarao, Jr., Mayong Aguja (Akbayan), Darlene Antonino-Custodio, Agapito Aquino, Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel (Akbayan), Liza Largoza-Maza (Gabriela Women's Party), Renato Magtubo (Partido ng Manggagawa), Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna), Gilbert Remulla, Loretta Ann Rosales (Akbayan), Rolex T. Suplico, Lorenzo R. Tañada III, and Ronaldo B. Zamora.

Atty. Padilla said, "Government officials should follow the lead of local government officials such as Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo of Aurora and Governor Glenn Prudenciano of Ifugao who have spearheaded the enactment of ordinances such as "The Aurora Reproductive Health Care Code of 2005" (Provincial Ordinance No. 125 (2005)) supporting increased reproductive health care services, including mandatory sexuality education, responsible parenthood counseling and "Reproductive Health and Responsible Parenthood Ordinance of Ifugao" (Ordinance 2006-33), respectively."

"We cannot have government officials who use their religious beliefs in governance. Clearly, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has wielded her influence in the Department of Health and the Population Commission in vigorously campaigning for the so-called "natural family planning" (NFP) method as a means of courting the religious right," said Atty. Padilla.

Atty. Padilla cautioned against several local officials who used their administrative powers to completely prohibit the delivery of modern methods of contraceptives and to promote natural family planning. She says, "In recent years, policies banning all "artificial" birth control methods, including condoms, pills, intra-uterine devices and sterilization, were introduced in Laguna, Manila City, and Puerto Princesa in 1995, 2000 and 2001 respectively. The policies introduced in Laguna and Puerto Princesa have since been overturned by subsequent local administrations, but the Manila City Policy still prevails."

In Makati, pregnant adolescents are denied access to free medical services through an erroneous assumption of Mayor Jejomar Binay that such policy will "discourage the incidence of teenage pregnancies." Atty. Padilla says, "This policy clearly discriminates against adolescents' right to access reproductive services and unnecessarily puts them at risk."

"Another glaring example is the continued conduct of congressional hearings in the 13th Congress on bills filed by blatantly religious party-list groups such as Buhay party-list that aim to prohibit safe and effective methods of contraception including IUDS and emergency contraceptive pills and even increase the penalty for women who induce abortion all stemming from their religious beliefs," Atty. Padilla continued.

Atty. Padilla says, "We also have the problem of continued arrests by police of abortion service providers and sellers of the medical abortion pill Cytotec. Television crews, who do not understand the issues of women relating to abortion and who are mainly concerned with raising their viewership for purposes of sensationalism, instigated these arrests."

"Such religious stances have no place in governance. These stances disregard women's realities where half of all pregnancies of Filipino women are unintended and about 200 Filipino women die from maternal-related causes out of every 100,000 live births," says Atty. Padilla citing the UNFPA 2006 State of the World Population report. Nine in 10 women who induce abortion are married or in a consensual union, more than half have at least 3 children, roughly two-thirds are poor and nearly 90% are Catholic; about 800 women die every year (or two women die every day) due to complications resulting from unsafe abortion; approximately 473,000 women had abortions and an estimated 79,000 women were hospitalized for complications due to unsafe abortion in 2000 (Singh S et al., Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines: Causes and Consequences, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2006, at 4). Such stances endanger women's lives and health violating women's basic right to life and health.

The constitutional provision protecting the life of woman and the unborn from conception allows access to information and services to contraception and even abortion. Chile and Peru have the same constitutional protection of the life of the woman and the unborn from conception and they allow access to emergency contraceptive pills. In Argentina and Belgium, emergency contraceptive pills are available without prescription. Spain, upon whose old Penal Code the Philippine Revised Penal Code penalty imposed on the woman who induced abortion was adopted, allows abortion on grounds of rape and fetal impairment leaving the Philippines to contend with its colonial laws. Belgium, France and Italy allow abortion on demand. Colombia allows abortion on grounds of danger to life and health, rape and fetal malformation incompatible with life outside the uterus. Last April 24, Mexico City legalized abortion in the first trimester without restriction.

All the above-mentioned predominantly Catholic countries belie the claim that restricting access to contraception and even safe and legal abortion in the Philippines is a matter of practice of the Catholic religion. It is simply ignorance of medicine, science and law and clinging to our colonial past.

Catholic women around the world--including more than 60 percent of Catholic women in Trinidad, Tobago and Botswana, and 28 percent in the Philippines--have used contraceptive methods, showing that Catholic women exercise freedom of conscience.

It is the obligation of the Philippine government as cited in the recent CEDAW Concluding Comments on the Philippines to "strengthen measures aimed at the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, including by making a comprehensive range of contraceptives more widely available and without any restriction"; "give priority attention to the situation of adolescents and that it provide sex education, targeted at girls and boys, with special attention to the prevention of early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases."

CEDAW urged the Philippines "to consider the problem of unsafe abortion as a matter of high priority. The Committee recommends that the State party consider reviewing the laws relating to abortion with a view to removing punitive provisions imposed on women who undergo abortion and provide them with access to quality services for the management of complications arising from unsafe abortions and to reduce women's maternal mortality rates."

"Elected officials must realize that our very own Constitution states that, 'Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.' Elected officials must be reminded that they are mere representatives of the Filipino people and that their obligation is to the Filipino people and not to themselves," said Atty. Padilla.

"Elected officials must respect plurality in our society. They should allow access to information and health care services and give primary importance to a person's right to reproductive self-determination. Fundamentalist public officials who restrict access to information and health care services do not deserve any place in governance," Atty. Padilla added.

- www.engenderights.org

Consumers decry P1.73/kwh rates increase, call for cancellation of onerous IPP contracts

2007-04-23T17:28:00.000+08:00

Members of Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) staged a picket today in front of the Energy Regulatory Commission office to protest the impending P1.73/kwh increase in their power rates due to recoveries applied for by Meralco at the Commission.

Meralco has filed two petitions at the ERC asking for collection of its "under-recoveries" in generation costs and system loss charges for the months of December 2006 and January 2007. So far, this is second highest power rate hike petition since 2004, when Napocor appealed for a P2/kwh increase in its generation charges. The ERC only approved P1.03/kwh.

The coalition noted that the recoveries for December 2006 alone would mean about P1.11/kWh increase in Meralco consumer's electricity bill once this is approved by the ERC. The increase resulting from two applications of Meralco will actually be higher than P1.73/kwh because Meralco also wanted to impose a carrying cost or interest equivalent to 91-day T-bill rates plus 300 points for the delay in the implementation of new charges and also because VAT would be imposed on the increase in generation rate and systems loss charges.

"The consumers had enough of these increases. We cannot take any more unjust increases. We are already charged about P9/kwh to P9.50/kwh for our electricity," said FDC Vice President Wilson Fortaleza.

Fortaleza explained that electricity rates remain high because of the continued passing on to the consumers of the costs due to the onerous "take-or-pay" provision in the IPP contracts which both the National Power Corporation and Meralco entered into.

"We continue to suffer because of paying for the overpriced contracted electricity from the IPPs even when this is actually not fully generated. It is unjust and immoral to be made to pay for electricity that one did not use, and which is not available in the first place," Fortaleza added.

FDC demanded that the government must make a decisive step towards reducing electricity rates. This can be done by either canceling the onerous IPP contracts or change its onerous terms such as the take-or-pay and the fuel guarantees. The coalition demanded further that VAT on power should be lifted to provide relief for electricity consumers.

STOP THE WAR IN MINDANAO

2007-04-19T09:32:00.000+08:00

Proof of MNLF coddling JI and ASG must be presented; US Troops Out

As hostilities between the Philippine military and the Moro National
Liberation front escalate in Mindanao, we from the Stop the War
Coalition - Philippines, a broad coalition of social movements,
NGOs, and other organizations, join the call for an immediate
ceasefire, a return to the negotiating table, and full, substantive,
and meaningful self-determination for the Moros, indigenous, and
other oppressed peoples in Mindanao.

We demand convincing and unequivocal proof behind the government's
reason for its military offensive – i.e. that the Moro National
Liberation Front is coddling 'terrorists.' We reject the manipulative
use of the threat of 'terrorism' against the Moro people and we
reject military solutions to address the said threat.

We demand the immediate withdrawal of the US troops who have been
permanently stationed in Mindanao since 2002 and we demand that they
play absolutely no role whatsoever – whether in providing
intelligence or assisting in operations – in the ongoing conflict.

We call for justice for all those who have been killed, tortured, or
detained and we demand accountability and punishment for all
perpetrators.

We demand relief and rehabilitation for all those who have been
displaced by the war, protection for all civilians, and compensation
for all those who have been affected.

We call on the media to report on the war fairly and accurately. We
demand that journalists refrain from being the mouthpiece of the
military and we demand that they should have the courage to challenge
and verify the military's claims.

We call for the full implementation of the peace agreements and we
call for the expulsion of hawks in the military and in the government
who have been working to undermine it. We demand the immediate
release of Nur Misuari who has been illegally detained for five years
without any trial.

We stand in solidarity with all those who stand for lasting peace and
genuine self-determination.

Stop the War Coalition-Philippines
17 April 2007

Members:

Alliance of Genuine Labor Organizations (AGLO)
AKBAYAN!
Akbayan! Youth
Alab Katipunan
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
ALMANA
ALYANSA!
Anak Mindanao Party (AMIN)
APPRA
ASAP
ASSALAM Bangsamoro
ASSALAM Party
Bagong Kamalayan Collective, Inc
Bangsamoro People's Solidarity
Billah Islam
BISIG-Youth
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)
Coalition Against Trafficking of Women Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Filipino Democratic Movement (FilDem)
Focus on the Global South
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Gathering for Peace
Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD)
International South Group Network (ISGN)
Juan Makata
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission – Association of
Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines
K! Kalayaan NCR-BLC
KAAKBAY AFDM
Kagan People's Forum – Mindanao
KAISA KA
KALAYAAN
KANLUNGAN
Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya
KOMPAK
Laban ng Masa (LnM)
League of Urban Poor for Action
Liga Manggagawa
MAKABAYAN Pilipinas
Movement for Student Power (MASP)
PANGISDA
Partido Manggagawa
People's Task Force for Bases Clean UP Philippines
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement
Philippine Peace and Security Council
Pambansang Kaisahan ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP)
PKSK
Progressive Organization of Worker Advocates (PRO-WORKER)
Resource Center for People's Development (RCPD)
Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan (SDK)
SANLAKAS
Solidarity of Unions and Labor Organizations for a New Government
(SULONG)
Task Force Subic Rape
Teatrong Bayan
TW-MAE-W
UP ALYANSA
UP Assabiyah
UP-IIS
Women and Gender Commission AMRSP
Women and Gender Institute
Women's Legal Bureau, Inc
YES to Change!
Young Moro Professionals Network
Youth for Nationalism and Democracy (YND)

ENDORSED BY (as of 18 April 2007):
Asian Women Human Rights Council- Philippines
Balay Rehabilitation Center
CONZARRD Inc.
GZO Peace Institute
Jihad-al-Akbar Org
Lolas Kampanyera Comfort Women Survivors Group
Mindanao Solidarity Network
Wedpro Inc.
Xaverian Missionaries

(Individuals)
Fr. Archie Casey SX
Lennard Daoud P Tan
Sheila May Tan

Challenge to the Electoral Candidates: lasting power rates reduction!

2007-03-23T18:42:00.000+08:00

While the latest petition of the National Power Corporation (NPC) to reduce its generation charge due to appreciation of the peso was welcome news, a greater challenge on how to address the high power rates in the country is still being posed not only to NPC, but to the present administration as well as to all electoral candidates, particularly the senatoriables and House Representatives.

If the administration of Gloria Arroyo together with her senatorial candidates thought they have already earned "pogi" points after gaining media mileage in the power rates reduction of Meralco last month, they are wrong. The announcement could only temporarily appease the electricity consumers as they continue to pay relatively high electricity bill, eating a huge amount in their monthly budget. Consumers are feeling the crunch of paying high for electricity especially since enrolment for next school year starts again one month from now. As long as this administration does not bother to address the fundamental question on how to reduce the high cost of electricity, consumers will remain edgy and will continue to hold the administration responsible for their sorry plight.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition believes there are five reasons why power rates are high which the Arroyo administration and all candidates running for higher positions in the land ought to address.

First, the continuous payments to expensive contracts with independent power producers even when they are grossly burdensome contribute largely to rising electricity prices. Purchased power, fuel and currency exchange rate costs that NPC and distribution utilities like Meralco pay to their IPPs are being recovered from the electricity consumers through the generation rate adjustment mechanism (GRAM) and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment (ICERA). These charges are tucked in the generation charge item which account for about fiftty per cent of the total electricity bill.

Second, the aggressive drive to privatize NPC had resulted in an increase of P1.00/kwh in its generation rates in 2004-2005 allegedly to meet the so-called true cost of electricity. Such increase was just half of the P2.00/kwh generation rate increase that NPC asked for. This was apparently to attract more investors to buy NPC plants.

Third, abuses such as overpricing/overcharging and collection of costs that should not be borne by the consumers by some private distribution utilities as well as of some electric cooperatives also lead to increase in price of electricity.

Fourth, the Arroyo administration's measure to impose the 12% value added tax (VAT) on electricity has resulted in increase in the electricity bill by as much as P200 monthly for consumers with 210-290 kilowatt hour consumption.

And last, the stance adopted by the the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) aggravates the burden of consumers who are taken advantage of by the power utilities. The ERC should act in the interest of the greater public, and not of a few elites.

Consumers will be watching out the platform and promises of the candidates with regard to power rates. We all want lasting solution to high power rates... not temporary palliatives!

- Freedom from Debt Coalition

Farmers hail installation in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, say it was a victory for all defenders of land right

2007-03-23T11:33:00.000+08:00

After 10 years of struggle and a series of failed promises, the 122 farmer-beneficiaries of the contentious Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental were finally installed in the land awarded to them five years ago under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Gerry Cahilig, a CLOA holder, said Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman had declared them installed in 114 hectares covered by their collective certificate of land ownership award (CLOA).

The installation was secured by some 300 elements of both the police Regional Mobile Group (RMG) and the 11^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippines Army.

Some 30 hard core supporters of former landowner Roberto J. Cuenca were reported arrested by the RMG for throwing rocks at police vehicles, but otherwise no untoward incident was reported.

"The installation was well supervised and under complete control by Secretary Pangandaman," Cahilig said.

Pangandaman made a surprise move to install after he was reportedly ordered by President Arroyo during the cabinet meeting last Wednesday to proceed with the installation.

Farmers on hunger strike in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City hailed the installation and thanked President Arroyo for responding to their plea for installation.

Gregorio Paclibar, 71, one of the hunger strikers and president of Hacienda Velez-Malaga Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organization (HAVEMARBO), said the installation was a victory not only of Velez-Malaga farmers but of all those who fight for and defend the right of the poor to own land.

"The installation would not have been possible without the determined sacrifice of the farmer-beneficiaries and the support given by multi-sector groups, including peasant advocates, religious groups, solidarity networks, and the government through President Arroyo," he said.

Paclibar added: "There is no victory without unity, determination, and sacrifice. This victory is for all."

Paclibar said they will formally announce the lifting of their hunger strike when the installation is declared completely successful and secured.

"We have started to eat lugaw (gruel). We want to hear that the farmer-beneficiaries out there in the hacienda are fully secured. If our land is put in danger again, we are ready to make more sacrifice," he said.

Jose Rodito Angeles, president of the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM), said he was told that a community precinct to be manned by police and military would set up inside the hacienda.

"Police and military presence in the hacienda is very important to ensure the safety of the farmer-beneficiaries and to prevent reprisal by the armed men of former landowner Roberto Cuenca," Angeles said.

- Task Force Mapalad

Bread and Roses: Women Workers and Prostitution Survivors Call for an End to Militarism and Sexual Violence

2007-03-08T08:04:00.000+08:00

International Women's Day Press Statement

Three days after President Gloria Arroyo signed the Anti-Terror Bill into law, women's groups led by workers and prostitution victims-survivors echoed the call of the first Russian feminists who called for bread and peace in 1917, when women started to mark March 8 as International Women's Day.

In a march-rally to Mendiola, organized by the Women's Committee of the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) as well as by victims and advocates of prostitution from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), speakers denounced the passage of the Human Security Act and the continuing Balikatan exercises as "grave acts of pimping by the Arroyo government of our country and women, for the US."

Marlene Sindayen, spokesperson of APL-Women, said that the Human Security Act (HSA), clearly patterned after its American version, will trample upon civil liberties that people fought so hard to restore after the Marcos dictatorship. "This government continues to welcome US troops through Balikatan exercises even as it has facilitated the transfer of custody to the US Embassy of serviceman Daniel Smith who was convicted of raping a Filipina. Our country and the Filipino women are being prostituted by our own government in exchange for continued patronage," according to Sindayen.

A total of 390 American servicemen will participate in this year's Balikatan. According to earlier reports, around 5,000 American troops participated in past Balikatan war games. Balikatan 2007, the 23^rd in this series, is conducted under the auspices of the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Field trainings had originally been planned for this year's exercises in Capas, Tarlac and in Laur, Nueva Ecija. However, the US said the exercises would push through only after the Philippine government handed Smith back to American custody even without a court order. Smith, who was convicted last December 4 for raping a Filipina in the former Subic Naval Base, was turned over to US authorities on the midnight of Dec. 31, 2006, as the Filipinos are gearing for the New Year's celebration.

"Prostitution and rape of Filipino women and children increased once again after the signing of the VFA in 1998," stated Jean Enriquez, Executive Director of CATW-AP. Citing statistics that prostitution during the presence of the US military bases rose to at least 22,000 in Angeles and Olongapo cities, Enriquez noted that the number dramatically fell to 143 when the bases were removed in 1992 up to 1998^{^[1]}. Since the VFA came into effect in 1999, the number of prostituted women in Angeles and Olongapo has risen again to roughly 8000 in 3 years time.^{^[2]}

"Now, we are counting around 11,000 women in prostitution in just the two cities, and they keep getting younger women^{^[3]}. We haven't even included those abused in Cebu, Gen. Santos, Zamboanga and numerous other cities where the US troops now have access because of the VFA. Our member organizations have documented the recruitment of girls, allegedly for househelp or waitressing, ending up as entertainers for the soldiers," according to Enriquez.

Mylene Aniola, a survivor of prostitution and leader of Bagong Kamalayan Collective, Inc. (BKCI) testified that her own mother has been recruited for prostitution in Olongapo City. According to Aniola, "Many of us belong to second-generation prostitution because US militarism in our country continues. What we need are jobs and peace, and not increasing numbers of soldiers. Genuine human security means bread and roses, freedom from hunger, war and sexual violence."

In its statement, the labor center averred that prostitution is not work, but violence against women. APL asserted that it is the government's duty to ensure the provision of full employment to women and all citizens.

Then in 1917 and now, women workers (commemorating those who died in New York at the Triangle Fire) and prostituted women march for bread and peace. The survivors carried roses, demanding the scrapping of the VFA, the HSA and calling for justice to all women victims of sexual violence. They also wore white shirts with slogans: Karapatan ng Kababaihan, Ipaglaban! (Fight for women's rights!) The images are no different from what Russian Alexandra Kollontai wrote in her account of the women's day in 1917:"The wives, daughters and mothers of soldiers, previously as downtrodden and oppressed as prostitutes, demanded an end to their humiliation and angrily denounced all the hungry suffering of the past"

^{^[1]} Data from BUKLOD, survivors' group based in Olongapo City and member of CATW-AP.

^{^[2]} Ibid

^{^[3]} Ibid

Consumers cry for bigger rates reduction, call for cancellation of onerous IPP contracts

2007-03-01T01:17:00.000+08:00

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) welcome the recent decision of the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordering the National Power Corporation
to provisionally reduce its rates by 4.3 centavos for Luzon, 31.51
centavos for Visayas, 0.45 centavos for Mindanao following the
strengthening of peso against the dollar. But it cries for higher
reduction in the electricity rates.

We view these reductions as short-lived as they depended on the
peso-dollar exchange rates which fluctuate constantly. The strengthening
of peso is thus far not sustainable. The reductions only have
"deodorizing effect" to the continually high power rates in our country
for so many years now since the government admitted that it continues to
charge the electricity consumers for the purchased electricity from the
independent power producers even when this is not generated nor delivered.
The consumers are made to pay for this before through the purchased power
adjustment (PPA) and now through the cost recovery mechanism called the
generation rate adjustment mechanism and the incremental currency exchange
rate adjustment (ICERA) under which NPC regularly applies for rates
adjustment at the ERC.

GRAM includes the incremental fuel and the power purchased cost of
generation charge to the Independent Power Producer (IPP) while ICERA
includes the foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Both
applications were filed by NPC last year and provisionally approved last
Tuesday, but still subject for a public hearing per decision of ERC.

We stress that for as long as the government continues to legitimize the
onerous and anomalous IPP contracts, any reduction is palliative.
Ultimately, the consumer will always be burdened by the huge amount of
guarantees which includes the take-or-pay provision, fuel cost and
exchange rate fluctuations.

The consumers have suffered enough from high electricity rates. We want
lower electricity rates. Cancel the onerous IPP contracts.

Biyaheng EDSA: Saan papunta?

2007-02-24T12:14:00.000+08:00

INSTEAD of the usual rallies and loud chanting in the streets, an advocacy
group today gave the public free rides while entertaining them with
socially-relevant songs about "People Power" that took place 21 years ago,
and about the pertinent issues that still hound the country.

Using a passenger bus draped with colorful tarpaulins, balloons and
slogans concerning debt, fiscal and utility issues, the Freedom from Debt
Coalition (FDC) traveled the EDSA thoroughfare offering commuters free
rides while invited artists serenaded them with progressive songs.

"This is our own way of commemorating EDSA 1," said FDC President Ana
Maria R. Nemenzo, adding that they intend to observe the People Power
anniversary by educating the public in a creative fashion about the
serious and multifaceted problem of debt and it effects on the Filipino.

"This also aims to challenge the people to use the said issues as
political gauges in choosing their candidates this coming May elections,"
added Nemenzo.

"After twenty-one years of EDSA resulting in succeeding governments and
tedious electoral exercises, the promise of meaningful change remains
unfulfilled. Our country is still heavily indebted to foreign creditor
banks and rich countries while important social services like education
and health have taken the backseat in favor debt servicing. People have no
access to clean water and our electricity rates is one of the highest in
Asia," Nemenzo said.

The group then urged the people not to succumb to the usual fanfare and
wreath-laying activities facilitated by our truth-challenged government in
its pathetic attempt to ride on EDSA's progressive character.

"The best way to pay tribute to this historical affair is to highlight the
peoples' legitimate issues and concerns that are still awaiting immediate
resolution," Nemenzo stressed.

"We also urge the public to be wary of the colorful, yet empty political
ads of many candidates this coming elections. Let us use real issues as
barometers in choosing our leaders. No candidate, opposition or
administration, must be excused from having a clear platform addressing
the peoples' legitimate grievances," the FDC president added.

"The best way to honor and relive the ethos of EDSA 1 is to go beyond
superficial commemoration and to use it to advance our genuine interests.
Let us extend the grand EDSA tradition in the ballot boxes. Vote against
Trapo Politics! Vote against the Debt!" Nemenzo concluded.

The "educational" trip started at UP Diliman. It picked up passengers at
major stop areas in Philcoa, Edsa Kamuning, Cubao, Santolan, Ortigas, Shaw
Blvd., Buendia and Ayala.

Farmers and fishers disrupt Lamy's meeting with business

2007-02-24T09:49:00.000+08:00

Loud shouts of protest greet WTO Director General's visit to Manila

MAKATI CITY, PHILIPPINES- Vowing to let Pascal Lamy hear the loud cries of poor sectors, farmers and fishers gate crashed and disrupted a meeting yesterday organized by Philippine business with World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Pascal Lamy.

Around 5 leaders representing major national coalitions and networks campaigning against the WTO, unfurled a banner that reads LAMY GO HOME, after Lamy delivered his address to a crowd of government officials and representatives of business.

The leaders were immediately accosted by hotel security and violently dragged out of the hotel and shoved back to the streets. As the activists were trying to wrestle their banner off the hands of hotel security, loud shouts of Lamy Go Home, Lamy Go Home echoed throughout the hall.

They later joined the picket of around 400 people outside the posh New World-Renaissance Hotel located in Makati City the Philippines business district, and continued their protest action. Lamy was portrayed in the street protest as the "whipping boy" of US president Bush and German Chancellor Merkel representing the EU attacking the interests of developing countries while Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo looks on, more worried about pleasing the visiting dignitary than the cries of poor sectors for protection and support.

In the meeting, Lamy once again talked about the strong signals of support that he has been getting among political and business leaders around the world for the full resumption of multilateral trade talks. Lamy seemed optimistic and confident that countries like the Philippines, whose development he said is highly dependent on trade, would be able to make the necessary commitment and action to move the negotiations forward and conclude the round the soonest possible time.

Lamy's remarks at the meeting, indeed his whole trip to Indonesia and the Philippines has been viewed by many as an attempt to soften the position of these two countries that are the erstwhile leaders of the G33 grouping of developing countries in the WTO.

If the Philippine government wavers on its position on the crucial issues of special products and special safeguards mechanism in agriculture and flexibilities for developing countries in the NAMA negotiations, the livelihoods of small farmers, fishers and job security of workers would further be threatened by liberalization. These sectors would no longer have any serious recourse against the onslaught of cheap highly subsidized imported goods. A surrender by the Philippines of its position on SP/SSM and NAMA would seriously undermine all the efforts to push for these protection and flexibilities and to demand policy space for developing countries.

The Philippine government has so far issued no public statements on its negotiating position but we have received reports that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has indicated to key cabinet secretaries that the Philippines should not be a stumbling block to the Doha negotiations.

Hontiveros rebukes Esperon for misusing 'good' leftist party

2007-02-22T16:10:00.000+08:00

Reacting angrily over the AFP Chief of Staff's statement describing AKBAYAN as an example of a 'good' leftist party, AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros chided Gen. Esperon today for using AKBAYAN's name in a pathetic attempt to evade accountability over extrajudicial killings.

"If they see AKBAYAN as a 'good' left party, then why does the AFP burn effigies of me in so-called peace rallies to conclude their anti-communist campaigns in rural areas?" demanded Hontiveros. "Instead of using AKBAYAN to deodorize the AFP, Esperon should take Alston's findings as a chance to cleanse AFP of its skeletons in the closet."

The solon, however, is concerned that Alston's findings would be for naught. "It should lead to a credible inquiry on extrajudicial killings. However, if the administration itself uses the AFP to advance its political survival, justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings and reforms in the AFP seem impossible," Rep. Hontiveros said.

She added that by pitting AKBAYAN against other leftist organizations, Esperon hopes to spark greater harassment against AKBAYAN from the NPA. While AKBAYAN has consistently spoken against the NPA's extortion activities and killings, it has likewise condemned to the strongest degree the AFP's abuses against other leftist parties. "Coercion and violence have no place in a democracy," the solon pointed out.

"As a progressive political party, AKBAYAN has always upheld the universality of human rights and human dignity. We condemn abuses, whether committed by the State or by armed groups like NPA," Rep. Hontiveros stressed.

"AKBAYAN has strongly sided in favor of plurality in political participation. We may have ideological differences with other leftist party-list groups, but we believe that it should be left to the electorate to determine which party reflects and carries the interest of marginalized communities and mass movements," Rep. Hontiveros added.

She also clarified that AKBAYAN is not pushing for the disqualification of Bayan Muna and its allied party-list groups before the Commission on Elections. "While Lito Bayudan was a leader of AKBAYAN, his widow was not. We categorically deny that the disqualification charges were sanctioned or ordered by AKBAYAN," Rep. Hontiveros explained.

The Doha Round is not for us

2007-02-22T00:45:00.000+08:00

Monsieur Lamy, du Cycle de Doha n'est pas pour nous !

The Doha Round is not for us!

Pascal Lamy is a man with a mission. Since assuming the post of Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in September 2005, the former Trade Commissioner of the European Union has taken to heart his role as the captain of global trade, hoping to steer the 148 Member countries of the WTO into concluding a new multilateral trade agreement under the Doha Round the soonest possible time.

In his report to the WTO General Council on 7 February 2007, Lamy said that "political conditions are now more favorable for the conclusion of the Round than they have been for a long time". His optimism stems from what he calls "the clear signals of renewed commitment to a successful conclusion of the Round" from statements and messages of support from international gatherings including ASEAN Summit in Cebu, the African Union trade ministers meeting in Addis Ababa, and most recently the gathering of economic and business elites in Davos. Mr. Lamy has also heard the loud and powerful voices of the US President, the President of the European Commission, the German EU Presidency, the Japanese Prime Minister and Brazilian President all echoing their desire for full resumption of talks.

But while Mr. Lamy is all ears to the views expressed by politicians and big business, his "quiet diplomacy" has largely ignored the growing voices of opposition to the round from many sectors in the developing world.

The so called Doha Development Round was launched in 2001 promising to put the interests of developing countries especially the least developed among them at the center of the negotiations. Over the course of the negotiations however the agenda of rich countries for greater market access for their agricultural, fisheries and industrial products and for more open investment regimes for their services sectors have lorded over the interest of poor countries.

In all the major areas of negotiations, poor countries have already given more than they bargained for and yet they are being asked to sacrifice some more in the name of development. Developing countries have in a sense already agreed to further reduction of agricultural tariffs and consented to increasing tariff bindings and then to tariff reductions on industrial and fishery products. What they are asking in return is for the US and the EU to reduce their huge domestic and export subsidies, flexibilities for special products and safeguards against import surges. Now even these demands for special and differential treatment and flexibilities are being attacked as stumbling blocks to a new trade deal.

Mr Lamy's mission in Indonesia and the Philippines is to soften the position of these two countries, which represent the leadership of the G33-grouping of developing countries, and get the commitment of these two governments to see the negotiations through. In other words, Lamy would be asking the Indonesian and Philippine governments to waver on their position for flexibilities and safeguard mechanisms. There are strong indications that he might just get what he wants. There are strong indications that the Philippine Government will capitulate.

In late July 2006, Lamy referred to the indefinite suspension of the trade talks as a period of reflection. Echoing this call, Philippine Trade Secretary Peter Favila vowed to conduct "wide public consultations" in the wake of the temporary impasse in order to "strengthen and consolidate the Philippine position on the Doha negotiations."

No such consultations were held. The Philippine government squandered the opportunity to listen to the sectors and to consolidate our position on these negotiations. If only Lamy and the Philippine government listened to the people they would have heard about the devastating effects of further lowering of agricultural tariffs on the lives of small farmers. They would have heard the plea of trade unions against lay-offs and factory closures or the voices of the small fisherfolks demanding subsidies and not tariff cuts. If only Lamy, GMA and her team listened to the people they would have heard one clear message: NO DEAL. The Doha Round is not for us!

We greet Pascal Lamy's quiet diplomacy to conclude the anti-development Doha round with loud shouts of protests. The Doha round should be exposed for what it truly is, a market access round for rich countries.

It is now crunch time for developing countries like the Philippines. The Philippine government must now choose to either stand behind the peoples' interests, remain strong and firm in pushing for what's best for us, for our own development agenda, and walk away from these lopsided negotiations or it can surrender our national interests, stand behind Lamy and continue to sacrifice our agriculture and our industries for the promise of development that may never happen.

Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

2007-02-22T00:26:00.000+08:00

Manila, 21 February 2007

I have spent the past ten days in the Philippines at the invitation of
the Government in order to inquire into the phenomenon of
extrajudicial executions. I am very grateful to the Government for the
unqualified cooperation extended to me. During my stay here I have met
with virtually all of the relevant senior officials of Government.
They include the President, the Executive Secretary, the National
Security Adviser, the Secretaries for Defence, Justice, DILG and the
Peace Process. I have also met with a significant number of members of
Congress on different sides of the political spectrum, the Chief
Justice, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP), the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, the
members of both sides of the Joint Monitoring Committee, and
representatives of the MNLF and MILF. Of particular relevance to my
specific concerns, I also met with Task Force Usig, and with the Melo
Commission, and I have received the complete dossier compiled by TF
Usig, as well as the report of the Melo Commission, the and the
responses to its findings by the AFP and by retired Maj-Gen Palparan.
I have also visited Baguio and Davao and met with the regional Human
Rights Commission offices, local PNP and AFP commanders, and the Mayor
of Davao, among others.

Equally importantly, roughly half of my time here was devoted to
meetings with representatives of civil society, in Manila, Baguio, and
Davao. Through their extremely valuable contributions in the form of
documentation and detailed testimony I have learned a great deal.

Let me begin by acknowledging several important elements. The first is
that the Government's invitation to visit reflects a clear recognition
of the gravity of the problem, a willingness to permit outside
scrutiny, and a very welcome preparedness to engage on this issue.
The assurances that I received from the President, in particular, were
very encouraging. Second, I note that my visit takes place within the
context of a counter-insurgency operation which takes place on a range
of fronts, and I do not in any way underestimate the resulting
challenges facing for the Government and the AFP. Third, I wish to
clarify that my formal role is to report to the UN Human Rights
Council and to the Government on the situation I have found. I
consider that the very fact of my visit has already begun the process
of acting as a catalyst to deeper reflection on these issues both
within the national and international settings. Finally, I must
emphasise that the present statement is only designed to give a
general indication of some, but by no means all, of the issues to be
addressed, and the recommendations put forward, in my final report. I
expect that will be available sometime within the next three months.

Sources of information

The first major challenge for my mission was to obtain detailed and
well supported information. I have been surprised by both the amount
and the quality of information provided to me. Most key Government
agencies are organized and systematic in much of their data collection
and classification. Similarly, Philippines civil society
organizations are generally sophisticated and professional. I sought,
and obtained, meetings across the entire political spectrum. I leave
the Philippines with a wealth of information to be processed in the
preparation of my final report.

But the question has still been posed as to whether the information
provided to me by either all, or at least certain, local NGO groups
can be considered reliable. The word 'propaganda' was used by many of
my interlocutors. What I took them to mean was that the overriding
goal of the relevant groups in raising EJE questions was to gain
political advantage in the context of a broader battle for public
opinion and power, and that the HR dimensions were secondary at best.
Some went further to suggest that many of the cases were fabricated,
or at least trumped up, to look more serious than they are.

I consider it essential to respond to these concerns immediately.
First, there is inevitably a propaganda element in such allegations.
The aim is to win public sympathy and to discredit other actors. But
the existence of a propaganda dimension does not, in itself, destroy
the credibility of the information and allegations. I would insist,
instead, on the need to apply several tests relating to credibility.
First, is it only NGOs from one part of the political spectrum who are
making these allegations? The answer is clearly 'no'. Human rights
groups in the Philippines range across the entire spectrum in terms of
their political sympathies, but I met no groups who challenged the
basic fact that large numbers of extrajudicial executions are taking
place, even if they disagreed on precise figures. Second, how
compelling is the actual information presented? I found there was
considerable variation ranging from submissions which were entirely
credible and contextually aware all the way down to some which struck
me as superficial and dubious. But the great majority are closer to
the top of that spectrum than to the bottom. Third, has the
information proved credible under 'cross-examination'. My colleagues
and I heard a large number of cases in depth and we probed the stories
presented to us in order to ascertain their accuracy and the broader
context.

As a result, I believe that I have gathered a huge amount of data and
certainly much more than has been made available to any one of the
major national inquiries.

Extent of my focus

My focus goes well beyond that adopted by either TF Usig or the Melo
Commission, both of which are concerned essentially with political and
media killings. Those specific killings are, in many ways, a symptom
of a much more extensive problem and we should not permit our focus to
be limited artificially. The TF Usig/Melo scope of inquiry is
inappropriate for me for several reasons:

(a) The approach is essentially reactive. It is not based on an
original assessment of what is going on in the country at large, but
rather on what a limited range of CSOs report. As a result, the focus
then is often shifted (unhelpfully) to the orientation of the CSO, the
quality of the documentation in particular cases, etc.;

(b) Many killings are not reported, or not pursued, and for good
reason; and

(c) A significant proportion of acknowledged cases of 'disappearances'
involve individuals who have been killed but who are not reflected in
the figures.

How many have been killed?

The numbers game is especially unproductive, although a source of
endless fascination. Is it 25, 100, or 800? I don't have a figure. But
I am certain that the number is high enough to be distressing. Even
more importantly, numbers are not what count. The impact of even a
limited number of killings of the type alleged is corrosive in many
ways. It intimidates vast numbers of civil society actors, it sends a
message of vulnerability to all but the most well connected, and it
severely undermines the political discourse which is central to a
resolution of the problems confronting this country.

Permit me to make a brief comment on the term 'unexplained killings',
which is used by officials and which I consider to be inapt and
misleading. It may be appropriate in the context of a judicial process
but human rights inquiries are more broad-ranging and one does not
have to wait for a court to secure a conviction before one can
conclude that human rights violations are occurring. The term
'extrajudicial killings' which has a long pedigree is far more
accurate and should be used.

Typology

It may help to specify the types of killing which are of particular
concern in the Philippines:
· Killings by military and police, and by the NPA or other groups, in
course of counter-insurgency. To the extent that such killings take
place in conformity with the rules of international humanitarian law
they fall outside my mandate.
· Killings not in the course of any armed engagement but in pursuit of
a specific counter-insurgency operation in the field.
· Killings, whether attributed to the military, the police, or private
actors, of activists associated with leftist groups and usually deemed
or assumed to be covertly assisting CPP-NPA-NDF. Private actors
include hired thugs in the pay of politicians, landowners, corporate
interests, and others.
· Vigilante, or death squad, killings
· Killings of journalists and other media persons.
· 'Ordinary' murders facilitated by the sense of impunity that exists.

Response by the Government

The response of Government to the crisis of extrajudicial executions
varies dramatically. There has been a welcome acknowledgement of the
seriousness of the problem at the very top. At the executive level the
messages have been very mixed and often unsatisfactory. And at the
operational level, the allegations have too often been met with a
response of incredulity, mixed with offence.

Explanations proffered

When I have sought explanations of the killings I have received a
range of answers.

(i) The allegations are essentially propaganda. I have addressed this
dimension already.

(ii) The allegations are fabricated. Much importance was attached to
two persons who had been listed as killed, but who were presented to
me alive. Two errors, in circumstances which might partly explain the
mistakes, do very little to discredit the vast number of remaining
allegations.

(iii) The theory that the 'correct, accurate, and truthful' reason for
the recent rise in killings lies in purges committed by the CPP/NPA.
This theory was relentlessly pushed by the AFP and many of my
Government interlocutors. But we must distinguish the number of 1,227
cited by the military from the limited number of cases in which the
CPP/NPA have acknowledged, indeed boasted, of killings. While such
cases have certainly occurred, even those most concerned about them,
such as members of Akbayan, have suggested to me that they could not
amount to even 10% of the total killings.

The evidence offered by the military in support of this theory is
especially unconvincing. Human rights organizations have documented
very few such cases. The AFP relies instead on figures and trends
relating to the purges of the late 1980s, and on an alleged CPP/NPA
document captured in May 2006 describing Operation Bushfire. In the
absence of much stronger supporting evidence this particular document
bears all the hallmarks of a fabrication and cannot be taken as
evidence of anything other than disinformation.

(iv) Some killings may have been attributable to the AFP, but they
were committed by rogue elements. There is little doubt that some such
killings have been committed. The AFP needs to give us precise details
and to indicate what investigations and prosecutions have been
undertaken in response. But, in any event, the rogue elephant theory
does not explain or even address the central questions with which we
are concerned.

Some major challenges for the future

(a) Acknowledgement by the AFP
The AFP remains in a state of almost total denial (as its official
response to the Melo Report amply demonstrates) of its need to respond
effectively and authentically to the significant number of killings
which have been convincingly attributed to them. The President needs
to persuade the military that its reputation and effectiveness will be
considerably enhanced, rather than undermined, by acknowledging the
facts and taking genuine steps to investigate. When the Chief of the
AFP contents himself with telephoning Maj-Gen Palparan three times in
order to satisfy himself that the persistent and extensive allegations
against the General were entirely unfounded, rather than launching a
thorough internal investigation, it is clear that there is still a
very long way to go.

(b) Moving beyond the Melo Commission
It is not for me to evaluate the Melo Report. That is for the people
of the Philippines to do. The President showed good faith in
responding to allegations by setting up an independent commission.
But the political and other capital that should have followed is being
slowly but surely drained away by the refusal to publish the report.
The justifications given are unconvincing. The report was never
intended to be preliminary or interim. The need to get 'leftists' to
testify is no reason to withhold a report which in some ways at least
vindicates their claims. And extending a Commission whose composition
has never succeeded in winning full cooperation seems unlikely to cure
the problems still perceived by those groups. Immediate release of the
report is an essential first step.

(c) The need to restore accountability
The focus on TF Usig and Melo is insufficient. The enduring and much
larger challenge is to restore the various accountability mechanisms
that the Philippines Constitution and Congress have put in place over
the years, too many of which have been systematically drained of their
force in recent years. I will go into detail in my final report, but
suffice it to note for present purposes that Executive Order 464, and
its replacement, Memorandum Circular 108, undermine significantly the
capacity of Congress to hold the executive to account in any
meaningful way.

(d) Witness protection
The vital flaw which undermines the utility of much of the judicial
system is the problem of virtual impunity that prevails. This, in
turn, is built upon the rampant problem of witness vulnerability. The
present message is that if you want to preserve your life expectancy,
don't act as a witness in a criminal prosecution for killing.
Witnesses are systematically intimidated and harassed. In a relatively
poor society, in which there is heavy dependence on community and very
limited real geographical mobility, witnesses are uniquely vulnerable
when the forces accused of killings are all too often those, or are
linked to those, who are charged with ensuring their security. The WPP
is impressive - on paper. In practice, however, it is deeply flawed
and would seem only to be truly effective in a very limited number of
cases. The result, as one expert suggested to me, is that 8 out of 10
strong cases, or 80% fail to move from the initial investigation to
the actual prosecution stage.

(e) Acceptance of the need to provide legitimate political space for
leftist groups
At the national level, there has been a definitive abandonment of
President Ramos' strategy of reconciliation. This might be termed the
Sinn Fein strategy. It involves the creation of an opening - the party-
list system - for leftist groups to enter the democratic political
system, while at the same time acknowledging that some of those groups
remain very sympathetic to the armed struggle being waged by illegal
groups (the IRA in the Irish case, or the NPA in the Philippines
case). The goal is to provide an incentive for such groups to enter
mainstream politics and to see that path as their best option.

Neither the party-list system nor the repeal of the Anti-Subversion
Act has been reversed by Congress. But, the executive branch, openly
and enthusiastically aided by the military, has worked resolutely to
circumvent the spirit of these legislative decisions by trying to
impede the work of the party-list groups and to put in question their
right to operate freely. The idea is not to destroy the NPA but to
eliminate organizations that support many of its goals and do not
actively disown its means. While non-violent in conception, there are
cases in which it has, certainly at the local level, spilled over into
decisions to extrajudicially execute those who cannot be reached by
legal process.

(f) Re-evaluate problematic aspects of counter-insurgency strategy
The increase in extrajudicial executions in recent years is
attributable, at least in part, to a shift in counterinsurgency
strategy that occurred in some areas, reflecting the considerable
regional variation in the strategies employed, especially with respect
to the civilian population. In some areas, an appeal to hearts-and-
minds is combined with an attempt to vilify left-leaning organizations
and to intimidate leaders of such organizations. In some instances,
such intimidation escalates into extrajudicial execution. This is a
grave and serious problem and one which I intend to examine in detail
in my final report.

Conclusion

The Philippines remains an example to all of us in terms of the
peaceful ending of martial law by the People's Revolution, and the
adoption of a Constitution reflecting a powerful commitment to ensure
respect for human rights. The various measures ordered by the
President in response to Melo constitute important first steps, but
there is a huge amount that remains to be done.

FDC to Arroyo: Disclose budget items you intend to line veto

2007-02-21T00:43:00.000+08:00

AFTER Depriving the Filipino people of their right to information
regarding the findings of the controversial Melo Commission, Mrs. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration again got a criticism from an
advocacy group for not divulging the specific items in the 2007 budget
that she intends to line veto.

"We demand the immediate disclosure of these budget items they (the
government) intend to line veto," said Freedom from Debt Coalition
president Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, adding that the P1.126 billion national
budget will come from the pockets of the Filipino people, who deserve to
be the recipients of their own taxes.

The group also expressed serious concern that some of the minor gains and
reforms pushed by civil society groups in the budget may be deleted or
nullified by Mrs. Arroyo and that both the House and the Senate may not be
able to approve or override the presidential veto because of time
constraints of the election campaign.

"It seems that Mrs. Arroyo only succumbs to international pressure, but
remains insensitive to the demands of the Filipino people. Aren't the
Filipino people the appropriate body to know the details of the Melo
report? At the same manner, aren't we the appropriate body to know the
specific budget items she intends to veto?" asked FDC president Ana Maria
R. Nemenzo.

Last week, Mrs. Arroyo reportedly ordered National Security Adviser
Norberto Gonzales to release the Melo document to the European Commission,
the EU's executive body, and UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston. The two
international bodies expect to receive the document today. Gonzalez was
quoted as saying that the government is "after the truth, so we will have
to release it to appropriate bodies."

FDC together with Social Watch Philippines and other civil society
networks supported and won the re-channeling of the controversial P4.7
billion school-feeding program to finance the building of additional
classrooms, distribution of nutritional supplements and hiring of more
teachers. The administration and its allies in the Lower House had
originally introduced this school-feeding program under the Department of
Education allocation, but this was exposed to be in fact a rice
distribution scheme thus raising suspicion it would be used for indirect
vote-buying at the coming May elections.

"If they did it before, they can certainly do it again," said Nemenzo,
referring to the 2004 fertilizer scam, when the government "shamelessly
sourced out P728 million from the Department of Agriculture's farm inputs
program to fund Mrs. Arroyo's presidential campaign."

The line-item veto authority allows the president to sign an appropriation
bill into law but can single out one or more specific spending provisions
in that bill for a veto. Congress must act on the veto, whether they
approve or override it, within 30 days; otherwise the executive version
will be enacted into law.

FDC then challenged both Houses of Congress to override Arroyo's veto
should she decided to nullify these minor reforms. However, FDC admitted
that it would be difficult considering the current election campaign
period.

"We encourage the Filipino people to protect our precious resources. The
task of developing a more democratic and participative budgeting system
begins with our efforts to thwart the government's scheme to once again
tinker with the peoples' money for its own convenience," Nemenzo said.

- www.freedomfromdebtcoalition.org

Wanted - An opposition with a platform against illegitimate debt and creditors’ conditionalities

2007-02-16T13:35:00.000+08:00

By Ana Maria R. Nemenzo

President, Freedom from Debt Coalition

This is in response to Alejandro Lichauco's column on the Daily Tribune last February 8, 2007 titled "On repudiation of foreign debt and IMF conditionalities" challenging the mainstream opposition, primarily Mr. Joseph Estrada, to build a platform faithful to repudiating foreign debt and IMF policies.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) commends this very noble proposal to put forward the serious debt problem as a new dynamic discourse in an otherwise tedious electoral exercise. What is presented to us in this election is an array of candidates who are fixated on survey ratings and dim-witted political ads rather than substantive platforms to address legitimate sectoral issues.

Lest we forget or before we succumb to the government's fantastic economic fairytale story, we are still trapped in this deadly spiral of debt payments. As of September 2005, the country's total debt amounted to a staggering P6.5 trillion. More disturbing is the fact that under Mrs. Arroyo's six-year rule, her government has chosen to take a very aggressive borrowings and repayment policy. To date, Mrs. Arroyo has already borrowed a total of P2.77 trillion, which is more than the combined debt of Aquino, Ramos and Estrada which only totals P1.51 trillion—making her the country's biggest and most aggressive borrower in our entire fiscal history.

Without a shred of doubt, the country's debt problem is the single greatest obstacle why genuine development is far from being realized. Proof of this, two years ago, our government paid P678.95 billion in interest and principal payments representing 85 percent of the country's total revenue collection and 52.7 percent of the total government budget for the same year at the expense of much needed social services like education, health and housing.

Clearly, the proposition to dare the opposition to develop a platform with the repudiation of debt and IMF conditionalites as its core program is not only politically correct but also morally necessary.

However, we would like to issue a double dare. The framework of debt repudiation must go hand in hand with the popularization of the concept of illegitimate debts— debts that were incurred by dictators to finance ill-conceived development projects or debts that were entered under fraudulent contracts and corrupt practices. Sad to say, a large part of our debt is categorized as such. Generations of Filipinos have been paying such debts for the longest time even if these said debts did not benefit the majority. The truth of the matter is our country's debt has actually been paid many times over in terms of the financial, economic, social, environmental even human costs we've endured because of these debts.

For these reasons, we must use this coming May elections as an arena to once again elevate our country's debt problem and its corresponding solutions to the level of national discourse. No candidate opposition or administration seeking government office this coming election must be excused from having a clear position regarding this significant issue.

Then again, the challenge falls harder on the ranks of the opposition rather than on the current administration, which already distinguished itself as the biggest borrower in Philippine history. If the mainstream opposition wants to be treated as a serious political force of change by the people then they must build a platform committed to the concept of illegitimate debt and its unconditional repudiation. Otherwise, they will just end up as the usual paper opposition composed of recycled politicians using recycled platforms.

NGO urges BPI not to approve Bayer’s LLRICE 62

2007-02-15T23:27:00.000+08:00

The Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE) urges the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant and Industry (DA-BPI) not to approve the application of Bayer for its LLRICE 62 for feed, food and processing. The approval will allow the first genetically modified rice into the country, and would thus set a precedent to the entry of other genetically modified rice in the Philippines.

"Rice is a staple food and source of livelihood of more than 50 million farmers in our country, with roots in our own culture and traditions and thus should be taken with utmost care. Allowing Bayer's LLRICE 62 into the country will completely alter this, especially since we are talking about an important food crop that is synonymous to our country's sovereignty. These should be enough reasons for regulators to prudently pause and prayerfully reconsider." said Ms. Agnes Lintao, Policy Officer of SEARICE.

Liberty Link (LL)RICE 62 is developed by Bayer Cropscience, a German company based in US. This, and two other Liberty Link rice varieties – LLRICE 06 and LLRICE 601 – are genetically modified rice resistant to glufosinate-containing herbicides. LLRICE 601, in particular, has figured in much controversy in contamination issues in the US and Europe, especially since it has not been approved for human consumption anywhere else in the world except for the US. Most recently, it has also been found that the imported rice "Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice" is contaminated with LLRICE 601, and is being sold in the country's leading supermarkets. This poses potential health risk to the general public thus the need to take extra precaution on the approval of LLRICE62.

"The consumer should be cautious and conscious in buying their rice, better yet patronize locally and organically produced rice", Ms. Lintao said.

The BPI is the regulating body in the country, which approves genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for direct use, propagation, and commercialization. Ms. Lintao further stresses that the BPI should look beyond the promises that genetic engineering (GE) has deceivingly portrayed in saving the world from hunger and increasing yields. Officials at the agency should keep in mind that even in the Cartagena Protocol, of which the Philippines is a Party, productivity as the main thrust for the promotion of GMOs, but there has been no productivity evaluation to date.

"The BPI, though mandated in just evaluating the safety of GE crops being applied for approval, should still consider and maintain a higher principle in the approval process. A single approval would signify a devastating impact to the country's food supply in the long term. It is with utmost urgency that we call on the BPI to deny the approval of Bayer's LLRICE 62."

- South East Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE)

Wanted: An opposition with a platform against illegitimate debt and creditors’ conditionalities

2007-02-15T23:25:00.000+08:00

By Ana Maria R. Nemenzo

President, Freedom from Debt Coalition

Free Burma activists picket Burma embassy, demand Suu Kyi's release

2007-02-14T20:35:00.000+08:00

In line with the celebration of the Valentine's Day, Filipino activists
today launched their own version of "Lovapalooza" infront of the Burma
embassy in Makati City but this time kissing not their loved ones but
photos of the most prominent political prisoner of Burma Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi.

Bringing with them heart-shaped red ballons and placards members of the
Free Burma Coalition-Philippines and Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition
(APSOC) reiterated their demand to free Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
National League for Democracy in Burma who is still under house arrest
despite of the series of international protests against the military
regime in Burma. FBC-Phils and APSOC also said that the UN Security
Council should now act immediately because of the deteriorating
political and social conditions in Burma.

WHERE IS THE LOVE?

The groups also surrounded the embassy with "red roses" which according
to them symbolizes their love for democracy and justice which are
clearly absent in Burma for the past four decades. One of the protester
is holding a placard with a slogan: Where is the Love in Burma?
obviously derived from the popular song Where is the Love of the band
Black Eyed Peas who also called for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release
through a concert in Thailand last year.

Some Asean leaders including UN undersecretary for Political Affairs
Ibrahim Gambari have already echoed support for Suu Kyi's immediate
release but the junta simply ignored this.

DOUBLE-VETO OF CHINA AND RUSSIA

Last 12 January , on a vote of 9-3 with three abstentions, the UN
Security Council rejected a non-punitive resolution seeking to press the
Government of Burma to speed up democratic reforms. Despite having the
requisite nine votes required for the resolution to be adopted, it
failed because of a double-veto by permanent Council members China and
Russia and joining them was South Africa.

"It's Valentine's Day. We just hope that Cupid's arrows will hitthe
hearts of the Chinese, Russian and South african governments for them to
realize that supporting the illegal regime of Burma is not at all worth
it. They should reverse their position and side with the peoples of
Burma,"Egoy Bans, FBC-Philippines spokesperson said.

"The double-veto of China and Russia is an open endorsement of military
rule in Burma. This double-veto is like signing the death warrant of the
already suffering peoples of Burma. It's sad that number game reigns
over the supposed democratic aspirations inside UN Security Council that
brags to protect the world from any threats,"Bans added.

Bans stressed,"The Burmese regime is still in power because of the
support of a few powerful states like China and Russia. China is the
biggest supporter of Burma. Other states, because they cannot afford to
severe economic ties with China, have decided to remain silent on the
Burma question."

CONTINUING ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN IN BURMA

The group also slammed the continuing military offensive in Karen State
Burma that has already displaced more than 20,000 people. In a report
launched yesterday by the Karen Women's Organization the group have
provided graphic evidence of the widespread terror tactics being
employed bythe military regime's troops against women across Burma's
Karen State.

The report documents over 4,000 cases of abuse, including rape, murder,
torture and forced labour, mainly over the past few years, in over 190 villages by
troops from over 40 Burmese Army battalions.

FBC-Philippines claimed that 44 years of military rule simply has made
the Burmese regime more brutal. The junta resists international pressure
and is more concerned to maintain its grasp on power than to serve its
impoverished population largely because of continued support from China
and Russia. Bringing Burma in the UNSC is a major and crucial step to
jump start genuine democratic reforms in that country, the group
explained.

http://www.iidnet.org

Pass Renewable Energy Bill Senate Asked

2007-02-08T22:47:00.000+08:00

The Responsible Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy, RISE, asks the Senate through Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to pass the Renewable Energy Bill.

In a last minute effort before Congress adjourns for the campaign period, the Ilonggo environmental group wrote Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago as Energy Committeee Chairperson to sponsor the passage of Senate Bill No. 2562 entitled: An Act Promoting and Enhancing the Development, Utilization and Commercialization of Renewable Energy Resources.

Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo certified the bill as urgent citing the need to institute concrete steps to address global warming and climate change. President Arroyo said that it is very important "to address public emergency arising from the urgent need to achieve sustainable development of our country through environmental sustainability and energy self-sufficiency with the increasing demand for energy need to sustain the country's economic growth."

RISE raised the horrible impact of global warming particularly of the sea level rise to the small islands in the Visayas. Melvin Purzuelo a Co-Convener of RISE and Coordinator of Green Forum - Western Visayas said that our cities and towns are mainly located in the flood plains. "An increase of one meter in the sea level will perennially flood cities like Iloilo, Roxas and Bacolod," he said.

The Visayas has been declared by the Department of Energy as the country's Renewable Energy Center with more than 80% of electricity demand in the region supplied by geothermal energy. Since the mid 1990s, the provinces of Negros Occidental, Antique and Iloilo have successfully rejected applications for coal-fired power plants. Burning of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum is the primary contributor to greenhouse gasses emissions that cause global warming.

Farmers’ group hit DA, DAR, DENR for onerous RP-China deals

2007-02-08T19:20:00.000+08:00

The Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS), a network of farmer organizations and peasant support NGOs and individuals which campaigns for food security based on achieving genuine agrarian reform and rural development, has staged a successful picket/rally in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) around 9:00 in the morning to 12:00 noon today February 8, 2006.

More than two hundred farmers gathered as early as 9:00 a.m. in front of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and marched towards DAR. The group called for the scrapping of the farm agreements signed by and between the Philippine government and China that promote investments of Chinese corporations at the expense of the rights of the landless peasants and poor farmers and fishers in the Philippines.

The group tried to seek audience with DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman but was prevailed upon by security men who had the steel gate closed and secured upon seeing the protesters. The marchers had intended to ask Pangandaman why he agreed to ink anti-farmer deals with China considering that DAR still struggles to distribute more than 1.3 million hectares of the remaining target for land distribution and faces more than 700,000 hectares of backlogs in its land acquisition and distribution.

In an outburst of fury, the agitated farmers led by Eduardo Mora of the Pambansang Kaisahan ng mga Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP) climbed the iron gate of DAR to force it open. Surprised employees of DAR went out of their offices and watched in alarm as angry protesters insisted on entering the DAR grounds. In an interview by GMA Channel 7, Ka Ed Mora, the PKMP leader asserted, "Ang kasunduan ng RP sa Tsina ay magluluwal ng lalo pang kawalang pag-asa ng magsasaka sa kawalan ng lupa. Nais naming makausap si Pangandaman dahil mas matindi pa sa JPEPA ang kasunduang ito dahil dito sa MOU with China, lupa na natin talaga ang ipapamahagi sa dayuhan. (The agreement would bring deeper hopelessness to farmers who have been landless for a long time. We want to talk to Pangandaman because these MOUs with China are far worse than JPEPA considering that what is being given up by our own leaders in favor of foreigners are lands intended supposedly for local farmers."

Disgusted by the non-appearance of Pangandaman, the farmers finally marched towards DA where they staged the main program. A group of media people followed the crowd and interviewed farmer leaders including TFFS lead convenor Arze Glipo who marched with the farmers from PCA to DAR to DA.

TFFS leaders from Aniban ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (AMA), SANLAKAS, LIGA MANGGAGAWA, AKTIB and PKMP took turns in lambasting Secretary Arthur Yap as lead signatory of the deals including the President for their anti-poor and anti-farmer stance. The leaders expressed their anger that the government prioritizes the interests of Chinese investors over that of protecting the rights of landless Filipino farmers. The deals will allow big Chinese conglomerates to lease lands in the Philippines to establish their own grains production and processing base. On top of this, government will use its own funds to build farm-to-market roads and irrigation in support of these foreign projects.

The farmers peacefully packed around past noontime. A representative from DA's Office of the Secretary talked with the farmer leaders and promised to discuss TFFS' position to Yap on the controversial issue.

Justice for Joseph Matunding! Justice for peasants

2007-02-05T14:40:00.000+08:00

On January 30, 2007 at 10:00 in the evening, another
peasant leader of PASAMAKA (Pagtingob Sang Mangunguma
Kag Mamumugon Sa Kaumhan) named Joseph Matunding was
gunned down while on his way home together with his
wife in Barangay Manduawak, San Dionisio, Iloilo by
two unidentified armed men using 45 caliber pistols.
Joseph died on the spot due to several gun shot wounds
on his chest. Five empty shells of 45 caliber pistol
were recovered at the site of the incident. His wife
named Teresita Matunding was rushed to the nearby
hospital due to gun shot wound sustained on her feet.

Joseph Matunding of PASAMAKA led a campaign to place a
120-hectare landholding owned by Eusebio Lopez under
the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP),
benefiting a total of 90 poor farmer beneficiaries.
The property was covered under the Operation Land
Transfer (OLT) in 2004. The beneficiaries were
awarded with Certificates of Land Ownership Award
(CLOAs) in February 2006 by the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR). However, in realizing that the DAR had
no concrete plan for their installation in the
landholding, the farmer CLOA holders initiated to
self-install themselves in the same month.
Understandably, the beneficiaries had no other source
of income but farming.

Joseph Matunding was also the Chairman of Alliance of
Public Lands Peoples Organization (CAPLPO) calling for
the coverage of public lands under CARP for
distribution to the landless poor peasants in the
province. The CAPLPO is member of PASAMAKA. He was
also the Chairman of Paglaong Agricultural Lands
(CPAL) in the same province.

UNORKA condemns in the strongest terms the killing of
Joseph Matunding on 30 January 2007, another unknown
hero of the poor landless peasants in the province.

UNORKA holds the DAR accountable for the death of
Juanito because of its failure to immediately install
the farmer beneficiaries and giving them protection
from harassment from the camp of the landowner. In the
same vein, the perpetrators of Ka Joseph's murder must
be brought to justice.

Justice for Joseph Matunding! Justice for peasants
killed in the name of authentic agrarian reform!

- UNORKA Filipinas

CMA Statement on DOLE-POEA's Policy Reforms in Recruiting and Deploying Filipino "Household ServiceWorkers"

2007-02-01T18:55:00.000+08:00

The Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA) and its affiliates abroad welcome the intent of DOLE-POEA (Department of Labor and Employment, and the Philippine Overseas Welfare Administration) behind this policy to institute reforms to improve and uplift the working and living conditions of domestic workers and caregivers also now referred to as "household service workers" (HSWs)¹.

We have serious concerns, however, on the following aspects of the DOLE-POEA policy and its guidelines:

The Context The reforms were prompted by a number of factors, the recent of which was the "sudden" realization of our government during the height of the war in Lebanon last year, that we have women domestic workers in Lebanon who were receiving a meager US$100 monthly salary. It is common knowledge that this has been the going rate for many domestic workers in the Gulf and elsewhere. What this typifies is the reactive character of government's response to issues on labor migration. But most importantly, it shows the lack of a comprehensive platform to address the issues and concerns surrounding labor migration primordial of which should have been protection and upholding the dignity of labor.

The Process CMA seriously questions the lack of consultation of POEA with migrant workers and advocates. They were left out in the dark in the entire process. We can only recall the vague invitation for a consultation on domestic workers issued by POEA governing board member Ms. Mina Gabor to some migrant NGOs sometime August last year. The next meeting was during the forum of the CCOFW^² (Consultative Council for OFWs) on November 23 when POEA finally made the presentation on the package of reforms. We would like to stress the point that the process is as important as the decisions arrived at. The voice of and participation by parties who will be affected by such decisions are important ingredients in good and responsible governance.

Redress Mechanism and Enabling Environment for (Overseas Filipino Workers) OFWs  Migrants are not simply helpless victims of their dire situation. They should be empowered to become active direct participants in improving their lot. Alongside policies should be clear effective and responsive redress mechanism for migrants. This should be complemented with an environment to enable the migrants to assert and protect their rights and well being.

Enforcement and Enforcement Mechanism Since the decisions were arrived at unilaterally by the Philippine government, we anticipate problems and confusion in the implementation of such policies and decisions. For one, the transition period proves too short. Time should have been allotted to enable the wide dissemination of information on the new policies to migrants and prospective migrants; government personnel at the forefront of its implementation and governments in countries of destination.

Specificities of receiving countries Migration issues cannot be addressed unilaterally as migrants move across national borders, from the Philippines to other destination countries. Similarly, migration policies vary from country to country, as dictated upon by their own "national agenda and interest". We believe however that trade, economic, diplomatic and security agenda with other countries should complement, rather than undermine, negotiations for better deal for our migrant workers.

Notwithstanding these fundamental concerns, we see specific merits as well as problems in the DOLE-POEA package of reforms, to wit:

Objective of the Reforms We welcome this initiative. The new policies may discourage migration for domestic work under exploitative conditions unless the standards set herein are met. We have always expressed concern for our women domestic migrant workers being the most vulnerable to abuses and exploitation because of the very "nature" of the job, i.e. unregulated by law because the "work sites" are the private homes of the individual employers. This is compounded by domestic work still not being officially and formally recognized as of the labor sector in many countries thus out of reach by existing labor and social laws.

Name hiring. Stringent requirements as outlined in the new policies must also be complied with by employers under the name hire system and should extend to diplomatic corps either of the Filipino and foreign missions. We have reports on file in CMA of our own Filipino diplomats being accused (and one was found guilty by a foreign court) of maltreatment by their own Filipino domestic workers.

Pre-qualification of Foreign Placement Agencies . We view this as a positive measure. But do we have enough POLOs (Philippine Overseas Labor Offices) and competent personnel to handle this? On site, on the negotiating table, this job requires faith and confidence in our own strength and capabilities. We only have 34 POLOs in 24 countries and destinations^³. We are even closing down two. We do not have a POLO in Cyprus, one of the top ten destinations of domestic workersThere should be a clear monitoring and periodic reporting back mechanism for POLOs to report on compliance with this. This will also entail periodic performance audit of POLOs.

Verification of Additional Job Orders for HSWs and low/ semi-skilled female workers and their individual employment contracts. We consider this too as a positive measure. We would like to register the same concerns as in item 3.

5. Pre-qualification of the Applicant HSW The vulnerabilities to abuses of women domestic workers are primarily due to societies' low regard, low valuation and almost non-recognition of women's domestic work as work. Hence the possession of skills by the migrants may not guarantee the ultimate protection from abuses and exploitation. The trainings however or their equivalencies are welcome provided that these are done FREE of CHARGE to the worker and that the curriculum as well as the trainors will prove competent and sensitive to the needs and realities of OFWs. Unfortunately, we have yet to see improvements in the way OWWA is managing the PDOS program.

We welcome the exemptions of experienced HSWs from training but we are concerned that the assessment which they still have to undertake to be qualified for exemption will be done haphazardly. We would like to see the standards opened for scrutiny by competent HSWs themselves.

We are likewise concerned that this pre-qualification procedure will be taken advantage of by TESDA-accredited agencies to exact additional exorbitant fees from the migrants. Hence, we would like to see clear implementing and monitoring guidelines from TESDA and POEA in this regard.

6. Minimum age requirement of 25 years The POEA's rationale for the raising of the minimum age requirement is maturity and better psycho-social preparedness of the worker based on biological age. It may be partly valid, but age is no guarantee that domestic workers who fulfill this requirement will be better treated. As again, we reiterate that the vulnerabilities of migrants go with the very "nature" of the job and the discriminatory attitudes of societies in general. Hence, advocacy and trainings should also be geared towards changing attitudes and perceptions of individuals and society towards women's work in general and domestic work in particular.

7. Increase in Salary to US$400 as the Entry Level or the minimum monthly salary While this may be laudable especially for many Gulf countries where the prevailing salary rate is between US$150-200, we would like to know how POEA intends to enforce this. Singapore and many countries where this prescribed minimum wage would certainly benefit our migrant workers are far from accepting a minimum standard for wages of domestic workers. In countries where the minimum or going wage rates are higher than US$400 like Taiwan (NT$185,840), Hongkong (HK$3,400), Israel (US$950); and Greece (600 Euros), it looks logical that the Philippine government would encourage and support enjoyment of these higher wages by Filipino domestic workers . Unfortunately, we have reliable information of OFWs being shortchanged because the minimum wage as prescribed by the POEA is already stamped on the standard employment contracts thus depriving the worker from availing of the higher minimum legislated wage in that particular receiving country.

8. Exemption from the POEA Placement Fee Policy . This is long overdue and is not a new policy as this only reverts back to the previous practice in the early years of the labor export industry where placement fees were borne by employers and employment agencies abroad. This is also consistent with International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 181 on no-fee charging by private placement agencies. Again, however, we would like to know what mechanisms are being put in place to monitor compliance with this provision by the recruitment and placement agencies.

9. No license issuance for applicant-recruitment agencies with HSWs as new market which implies a moratorium in the issuance of new POEA license for applicants using domestic workers as its new market. We welcome this but we would like to see the strengthening of POEA's anti-illegal recruitment task force and effective coordination between the POEA and the Presidential Task Force against Illegal recruitment. We are concerned that the current unclear and overlapping of functions between these two bodies will render both ineffective in the performance of their vital functions to stamp out illegal recruitment.

10. POEA On-Line Verification System. This is also a positive measure. POEA however, together with the other agencies of government should also strive to work for the fulfillment of section 20 of RA 8042 and establish a shared government information system for migration. More than eleven years have passed since the passage of RA8042 and this is still not realized.

Other Proposals from POEA . We also welcome these proposals. We consider them as relevant to the effective implementation of this policy:

Inclusion of domestic work in the national labor and social legislation
Bilateral agreements on terms and conditions governing the recruitment
Selection and hiring of Filipino workers
Adoption of jointly approved Standard Employment Contract
Sharing of Data base and adoption of the alternative "corporate servicing scheme" or live out arrangements for HSW

To allow for broad consultation and wide information dissemination, we earnestly ask the POEA for a 90-day moratorium on the implementation of these policies. This will provide adequate time for concerned groups to give their input to the improvement of the policy. We at CMA together with our affiliates abroad remain committed to a constructive participation in this process with the best interests of the Filipino migrant workers in mind.

The ensuing dialogue and exchanges around this new policy will offer both the Philippine government and us, concerned stakeholders, to take a closer and deeper look at the plight of overseas Filipino workers to address long term and outstanding migration issues as they relate to poverty, employment, governance and national development.

1 This is an updated version of the Statement. The original was submitted on January 31, 2007 to POEA Admin. Baldoz, Governing Board Member Ms. Mina Gabor, DOLE Sec. Art Brion and House Committee on Overseas Workers Affairs. The essence of the two versions remains the same.

2 CCOFW is a GO-NGO forum on policy issues on labor migration.

3 2005 DOLE ILAS Figure. To cite, Kuwait, top country destination of domestic worker in 2005 has 1 POLO. Saudi Arabia, which ranked 4^th for the same period, has 4 POLOs. Hongkong, has 1 POLO.

- www.pinoy-abroad.net

Senate approves Roxas's affordable medicine measure

2007-01-31T21:38:00.000+08:00

The Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading Senate Bill 2263, the bill authored by Sen. Mar Roxas that seeks to amend specific provisions of the Intellectual Property Code to make medicines more affordable in the country.

The Upper Chamber voted 20-0 to approve of the measure which, after it becomes a law, Mar Roxas says would herald an era when Filipinos would be able to buy their medicines at more affordable costs similar to medicine prices in Thailand, India, Japan, and other countries.

"I sincerely thank my colleagues for their support to the bill," Roxas said, adding:

"This is just a first step toward promoting competition in the local pharmaceutical market that would increase people's access and lead to lower prices of medicines to ensure our people's health."

Senate Bill 2263 seeks to address the three major obstacles to the people's access to affordable, quality medicines, namely:

1) Structure of the pharmaceutical industry – "[…] unlike other countries, the industry here is characterized by extreme concentration of market power, in short, controlled by a handful of players. In technical terms, what we now have is what's known as an uncontested market. Whatever these players charge, the market will bear, because of the relative absence of competition and alternatives. Kung ang gamot ay tubig, ang pagdaloy nito ay nagmumula lamang sa iilang gripo at kontrolado din ng iilan lang ang hose."

2) Behavioral orientation of consumers, doctors and public health institutions – "Our consumers have yet to fully appreciate the value for money offered by generic substitutes. Our doctors and public health institutions must not negate the spirit of the (Generics) law by failing to live up to their duty to inform their patients, particularly the poor, about generic substitutes."

3) Protectionist provisions of the existing law – "Certain provisions of the Intellectual Property Code (IPC) have been misused over time such that profit trumps public interest. Because of the highly technical and abstruse nature of the intellectual property system, the multinational pharmaceutical companies have dominated the application of the intellectual property law to the detriment of public welfare."

The bill, as approved by the Senate seeks to:

Amend Section 72.3 of the IPC to expressly adopt the "early working" doctrine to allow generic producers to get ready earlier so that they can start the production and sale of a generic drug shortly after its patent expires. "This proposed amendment is known internationally as the Bolar amendments after such were entered into US Law. Many other countries have adopted similar provisions, such as, Canada, Argentina, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Moreover, this principle has been recognized by the WTO in a case involving Canada vs. the European Union member states."
Amend Section 72.1 of the IPC by adopting "the doctrine of international exhaustion of intellectual property rights" from the present domestic exhaustion principle currently applied in the Philippines. "Under the international exhaustion regime, once a product has been introduced anywhere in the world by the patent owner, then anyone may buy and import the same for resale in the Philippines without risk of patent infringement. Consequently, this amendment will allow the parallel importation of medicines so that anyone, whether a trader or an individual, can shop beyond our shores for better prices."
Amend Section 159 of the IPC for an exception to the application of trademarks and tradename restrictions when applied to parallel imports.
Amend Section 26 of the IPC by disallowing the issuance of another patent for new uses of an existing substance that has already been patented. "This enables generic companies to aggressively market their own versions without threats of law suits arising from newly-discovered uses for previously patented products. The committee adopted this approach from the Indian Patent Act."
Amend Section 74 of the IPC, "Use of Invention by Government", to remove the requirement for government to undergo the long and tedious compulsory licensing process so that government may avail of the medicine for public health reasons in a more timely manner. "The health of our people cannot be made to wait especially in times of emergencies. The government must have the power to do this outright without need for a lengthy process."

Senator Roxas stressed that Filipinos should not be made to pay quality medicines at prices that are five times or more than those available in other countries.

With Senate approval, the bill goes to a bicameral conference committee where its conflicting provisions with the counterpart bill in the House will be reconciled. It will then go back to the plenary of both Chambers for approval before it is sent to the President for her signature.

Senate inaction on RE Bill not an option, Greenpeace says

2007-01-26T13:18:00.000+08:00

Manila, PHILIPPINES — Greenpeace today intensified their call on the Senate to fast-track the passage of the Renewable Energy (RE) Bill, in a press conference in Quezon City with other pro-renewable energy groups, contending that renewable energy can-and must-play a leading role in the world's energy future if we are to secure the planet for the next generation.

The press conference, which included speakers from World Wildlife Fund-Philippines and the Klima Climate Change Center of the Manila Observatory, came at the heels of the launch of Energy [R]evolution: A sustainable World Energy Outlook, a groundbreaking new report produced by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace. The report details how renewable energy, combined with the smart use of energy, can deliver half of the world's energy needs by 2050, and effectively help stop climate change and its disastrous consequences.

"The Senate must realize that the massive uptake of renewable energy is both urgently necessary and technically possible. All that is missing is urgent policy support. The Philippines' RE Bill would be the first of such policies in our region-if the Bill is enacted before the 13th Congress adjourns. Otherwise, the bill, which took 10 years before it was passed in the Lower House, can face another long wait-time which our country can ill afford," said Greenpeace Climate & Energy campaigner Jasper Inventor.

"We need a renewable energy law with clear targets which would allow Filipinos to benefit from the country's vast wind and solar energy potential. It is just unacceptable that this potential remains mostly untapped, especially given the daunting challenges we face in the areas of energy security and climate change," he added.

The Philippines, along with other developing nations across the region, have been bearing the brunt of the disastrous consequences of climate change. Last year, the country was battered by three strong typhoons which left entire regions in a state of calamity with the tragic loss of lives and property. Early this week, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) admitted that damage to agriculture from typhoons have adversely affected economic growth in 2006. Meanwhile, climate change impacts are expected to worsen in the coming years, likely to trigger fresh rounds of economic disasters.

The massive uptake of renewable energy is the key to the fight against climate change. At the same time it also addresses other challenges, such as energy security and the increasing volatility of fossil fuel prices, which are crucial to developing countries like the Philippines.
"Inaction is not an option. The RE Bill is a measure to protect the people and the economy. For the sake of a sound environment and economic growth, the Senate must immediately ensure the passage of this bill, and in doing so commit to a truly secure and sustainable energy future," said Inventor.

http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/

No way, young voters tell trapos and political butterflies

2007-01-26T00:09:00.000+08:00

Voters from AKBAYAN Youth today expressed disgust over the political circus taking place as politicians scramble to place themselves in winnable senatorial slates. As it launched its "Boto Ko, Anti-trapo!" campaign, young voters were reminded to be vigilant and observe who among the self-proclaimed senatorial candidates should be avoided at all cost.

The group said that it is sickened by the horse-trading and indecent maneuverings of politicians from different colors just to get a position in a slate that they deem would deliver the much-needed resources for their campaign. AKBAYAN Youth lamented that "from the Opposition to the Administration and even the so-called 'Third Force', the basis of unity if money, machinery, and fame, not platform or concrete programs."

The group also launched the "Vote-O-Meter", a political barometer of candidates based on their position on concrete issues to guide young voters in determining who's trapo and who's not. The "Vote-O-Meter" seeks to help young voters to veer away from personality-oriented politics and categorizes candidates that have no concrete platform, who are corrupt, and who uses violence and fraud to win elections as trapos and thus should not be voted.

AKBAYAN Youth lambasted the likes of former Tessie Aquino-Oreta and Tito Sotto whose party-switching demonstrates traditional politics at its worst. They also challenged the so-called "Third Force" to demonstrate their independence and autonomy by presenting a distinct platform.

The launching was attended by AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros, youth activist Patsy Abad, and UP College of Law Professor Barry Gutierrez.

According to AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros, young voters should constantly remind candidates of their obligation to treat elections as a sacred pact between a sovereign people and those who seek to represent them. "Traditional politicians have reduced our electoral process into an arena of who could cheat the most. We need to restore what is essential – the politics of fair play and the free market of ideas. We have to put politics and elections within the realm of programs, platforms, and meaningful political ideologies," Rep. Hontiveros said.

AKBAYAN Youth vowed to conduct a series of voters' education activities to ensure that young voters would bring back idealism in our politics.

Debt-ridden Napocor needs the P2.6 billion dividends more than the National Government

2007-01-25T23:10:00.000+08:00

Is there really a need for the National Power Corporation (Napocor) to give P2.6 billion to the National Government or it needs the money more than the government?

The National Power Corporation (Napocor), although it posted P86 billion net earnings in 2005 – the only positive gains in the past ten years and allegedly the highest so far in the past seventy years –, incurred losses again in 2006. In its first six months last year alone, it had a net loss of P8.32 billion and an estimated net loss of some P50 billion by end that year if peso continued to depreciate and could be due to price manipulation at the wholesale electricity spot market. The $500 million bonds it floated last year and the $450 million fresh loan from the Asian Development Bank further illustrated Napocor's dire financial position as it needed additional funds to pay off its long-term debts amounting to almost P400 billion as of end-2005. Its total debts and liabilities already stood at about P1.3 trillion that year – equivalent to about twenty-five percent of the total NG debt as of June 2006 amounting to P4 trillion.

Napocor has been the single highest contributor to the NG debt because of its huge long-term debts and liabilities. But when in had recovered, the government wanted to claim its dividends immediately even when trends last year had indicated that the positive gains in 2005 was shortlived.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition is thus puzzled that with the sorry fiscal position of Napocor, the government still collected from it dividends amounting to P2.6 billion. Mrs. Gloria M. Arroyo even had to issue Executive Order 599 on 18 January 2007 adjusting the dividend rate of Napocor on its net earnings in 2005 to three percent (3%). The losses incurred and the strings of borrowings by Napocor last year including the planned borrowings this year only show that the power company needs money and whatever gains it had in 2005 cannot be sustained.

Instead of remitting the P2.6 billion to the National Government, Napocor could use the earnings to reduce its debts, either interest or debt stock. However, FDC still maintains that all debts should still be scrutinized and eliminate the onerous ones from the list of accounts to be paid.

Napocor's borrowings are guaranteed by the national government. In the event it fails to meet its obligations, the government assumes the responsibility of paying these off. This could mean additional debt burden to the Filipino people.

We cannot help but wonder why given the dire need for additional funds by Napocor, the government was still interested in getting the dividends from the state-owned power corporation, and was collected only a year after the power company posted its only positive gains. Why only now?

EO 599 states that the dividends will be collected in the interest of national economy and general welfare. But, the government itself boasts that it has already attained a "rosy" fiscal and economic situation. Then why does it still need to get money from the debt-ridden Napocor that has been continuously borrowing to service its maturing financial obligations? Where will the government use the money?

Again, in the context of unresolved misuse of government resources and scandals that have plagued the Arroyo Administration, the use of these extraordinary dividends from a debt-ridden agency can only lead to strong suspicion that the fund maybe used for election-related activities.

- www.freedomfromdebtcoalition.org

Greenpeace launches first comprehensive global energy strategy for tackling climate change Calls on Senate to fast track RE Bill

2007-01-25T11:08:00.000+08:00

Manila/Brussels, International — Renewable energy, combined with efficiencies from the smart use of energy, can deliver half of the world's energy needs by 2050, according to one of the most comprehensive plans for future sustainable energy provision, launched today. The report: 'Energy [R]evolution: A sustainable World Energy Outlook', produced by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace, provides a practical blueprint for how to cut global CO2 emissions by almost 50% within the next 43 years, while providing a secure and affordable energy supply and, critically, maintaining steady worldwide economic development.

Notably, the plan takes into account rapid economic growth areas such as Southeast Asia, China, India and Africa, and highlights the economic advantages of the energy revolution scenario. It concludes that renewable energies will represent the backbone of the world's economy—not only in developed countries, but also in developing countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, India and Brazil. The plan states that renewable energies have the potential to deliver nearly 70% of global electricity supply and 65% of global heat supply by 2050.

"The report demonstrates that a massive uptake of renewable energy is not only urgently necessary but is also technically possible. It correctly points out that all that is missing is the right policy support. The Philippines' Renewable Energy Bill would be the first of such policies in our region, if it is immediately enacted. Our country's renewable energy potential is vast. The report shows we can, and must, harness these solutions now," said Greenpeace Climate & Energy campaigner Jasper Inventor.

The report also highlights the urgency of making the right decisions in energy infrastructure, which will have to be made by governments, investment institutions and utility companies. Within the next decade, many of the existing power plants in the developed countries will come to the end of their technical lifetime and will need to be replaced, while developing countries such as Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, India, and Brazil are rapidly building up new energy infrastructure to service their growing economies.

Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Renewable Energy Industry Council (EREC) said: "The global market for renewable energy can grow at a double digit rate till 2050, and achieve the size of today's fossil fuel industry. With wind and solar markets worth US$ 38 billion and doubling in size every three years, their growth follows the path of the internet or mobile technology. We therefore call on decision makers around the world to make this vision a reality. The political choices of the coming years will determine the world's environmental and economic situation for many decades to come. Renewable energy can and will have to play a leading role in the world's energy future. There is no technical, but a political, barrier to make this shift."

The report was developed in conjunction with specialists from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and more than 30 scientists and engineers from universities, institutes and the renewable energy industry around the world. It provides the first comprehensive global energy concept which gives a detailed analysis of how to restructure the global energy system based only on a detailed regional assessment for the potential of proven renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and the utilization of efficient, decentralized cogeneration. The Energy [R]evolution scenario is compared in the report to the effects on CO2 emissions (and, thereby climate change) of carrying on with a 'business as usual' scenario, that scenario being provided by the International Energy Association's breakdown of 10 world regions, as used in the ongoing series of World
Energy Outlook reports.

- http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/

FDC hits compromise deal on 2007 budget, lauds Senate’s move to scrap North Rail project counterpart

2007-01-24T00:12:00.000+08:00

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) today hit the trade-off between Malacañang and lawmakers following the scrapping of the P4.7 billion School Feeding Program from the proposed P1.126 billion national government budget in exchange for the retention of the P400 million intelligence fund under the Office of the President.

"While we laud the scrapping of that dubious fund, we are disappointment over how the issue was settled," said FDC president Ana Maria R. Nemenzo.

"Time and time again, we have pointed out the danger of an incumbent occupant in Malacañang wielding too much discretionary power over intelligence funds that are being used to harass, intimidate and even kill legal political dissenters," she said.

She added that under Mrs. Gloria Arroyo's six-year 'rule,' several hundred activists, civilians and media people were tortured and killed in a systematic effort to squash the peoples' right to political remonstration.

"With the May 2007 elections around the corner, the President's intelligence funds will almost certainly be used to crush the political opposition as well as party-list groups, which are being maliciously branded as 'leftists' or 'communists,'" said Nemenzo.

The proposal to delete the School Feeding Program was part of the alternative budget proposed by various civil society groups, including FDC.

They argued that the lessons from the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani rice program in 2004 should not escape every Filipino at this point, referring to the P728 million fertilizer scam wherein the Department of Agriculture allegedly dispersed funds even for non-agricultural areas.

The country's debt watchdog, however, expressed support to the reallocation of the scrapped fund to the building of additional classrooms and to the funding of a sensible Nutrition Feeding Program incorporated in the Department of Education (DepEd) Budget.

In addition, FDC likewise commended the Senate panel for scrapping the country's counterpart to the controversial North Rail Project in the 2007 budget pending a full review of its alleged anomalies.

"This proposition will surely contribute in averting the implementation of anomalous contracts that could have a big impact in our country's future indebtedness. We hope this initiative by the Senate will be reflected in the final version of the 2007 budget," said Nemenzo.

In an unprecedented move, FDC along with several minority congressmen, party-list groups, Social Watch Philippines, Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) Philippines, E-Net and Youth Against Debt (YAD) crafted an alternative budget for 2007 that will ensure the financing of significant social services and the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-related programs.

Nemenzo said that although there are gains from this engagement, a lot has still to be done to achieve a genuine people's budget.

This early, Nemenzo revealed, they are preparing their budget engagement for 2008 national government budget.

- www.freedomfromdebtcoalition.org

CARP implementation worst under DAR Sec. Pangandaman

2007-01-23T19:23:00.000+08:00

Zero installation record, very low land distribution, cowardice in the face of resisting landowners, and bowing to pressure frominfluential officials, all resulting in very poor implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

These are some of the accusations hurled by the peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) against Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and his Undersecretary for Field Operations Narciso Nieto.

"Pangandaman and Nieto are the two most important DAR officials in terms of ensuring the implementation of CARP at field level. Unfortunately, these two officials have practically done nothing despite their numerous pronouncements about fast tracking land distribution and the installation of farmer-beneficiaries who have been holding titles for years," TFM president Jose Rodito Angeles said.

TFM made the statement as top officials of DAR throughout the country gather in Davao City for a three-day assessment of CARP accomplishments last year.

"Contrary to usual practice, DAR until now has not made any official announcement about how many hectares of land it has distributed last year. We will not be surprised if DAR fails to meet its measly target of 100,000 hectares. If it reports accomplished target, we have reason to assume that it is doctored and padded," Angeles said.

He added that in terms of installation of farmer-beneficiaries who have been holding certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) for years, DAR under Pangandaman has zero record.

"Pangandaman and Nieto have not exerted efforts to install the thousands of CLOA holders in the land already awarded to them. Their orders for installation are being ignored by local DAR officials, and they are not doing anything. At field level, the frustration of uninstalled FBs is growing," Angeles said.

He said that CARP implementation is particularly worst in Negros Occidental, where overall accomplishment is only 46 percent last year, with only 5,191 hectares of land acquired from the revised target of 15,314 hectares, which was finally reduced to 11,310 hectares.
In terms of regional accomplishment, Region VI, which includes the province of Negros Occidental, has the worst performance of only 66 percent, with only 13,366 hectares acquired.

"We are doubtful if the lands reportedly acquired in Region VI and in Negros Occidental have been distributed," Angeles said.

Angeles said that the reason for poor CARP implementation is Pangandaman's weak and indecisive leadership.

"He was afraid to confront landowners who resist CARP. Even when the law is clearly on the side of DAR, and even when the courts have decided in favor of the FBs, Pangandaman did not dare to act in favor of the FBs because he was too afraid of the landowners," he said.

Angeles also scored Nieto for joining Pangandaman in his cowardice. "Nieto only goes through the motion of issuing orders for installation of CLOA holders, but does nothing if the local DAR officials ignore his order. He is as boneless as Pangandaman," he said.

Angeles cited the case of Tuzon estate in Cagayan province where the local DAR officials recommended the cancellation of CLOAs instead of obeying his order to install the FBs.
Angeles also said that the 122 FBs in Hacienda Velez-Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental have lost hope that they will ever be installed in their land with Pangandaman and Nieto at the helm of DAR.
"One day, the 122 FBs of Hacienda Velez-Malaga, who have been CLOA holders for four years, might decide to install themselves in their own land. If something untoward happens, the responsibility should rest with Pangandaman and Nieto," he said.

- Kilusan para sa Pagsulong ng Repormang Agraryo

Groups call anew junking JPEPA deal

2007-01-23T13:26:00.000+08:00

Environmental activists rallied senate to ask the legislators not to ratify the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), a treaty that will "legalized" the dumping of toxic waste in the Philippines.

Members of the Ecological Waste Coalition dramatized in front of the Senate the mismatched but determined struggle of our country in the arena of the looming toxic battle against Japan posed by the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

The environmental activists also highlighted the mounting call of different local and international groups to the Senate to finally reject the lopsided treaty that will make the country a dumping site of toxic waste.

In the action prepared by the ecogroup and youth from the November 17 Movement, the menacing sumo wrestler from Japan, joined by Pres. Macapagal-Arroyo wearing the wartime "makapili" bayong, assaulted Inang Bayan with toxic wastes inside a wrestling arena. Shored up by the Filipino people, Inang Bayan rose up to resist the toxic onslaught.

"With JPEPA, our government is allowing the Philippines to be kicked around, exploited, and made into a waste colony by Japan. It is trying to dupe and mesmerize our people into accepting all these by dangling dubious promises of economic gain. We must fight this hypnosis. We must open our eyes to see the ugly deal for what it is, roundly reject it, and keep our dignity and integrity as a nation," said Marie Marciano, spokesperson of the EcoWaste Coalition.

The environmental group finds the controversial agreement fraudulent due to the absence of open, transparent and meaningful public consultation and participation in the negotiation process.

Last week, 30 groups from 14 countries of Asia voiced concern over toxic waste and dirty technology transfer from Japan to developing countries, in the guise of economic partnership agreements.

These groups, delegates of the Waste Not Asia conference last January 15-18 in Kerala, India, called on the Philippine government to refuse the ratification of JPEPA and stop the waste trade.

A broad multi-sectoral coalition named Magkaisa Junk JPEPA is also pressing the senate to reject the treaty.

"International groups are supporting our collective local efforts at asserting the right of the Filipino people to a clean and safe environment. It is now in the hands of the Senate to unequivocally uphold these rights. It is their business, their sworn duty, to do so," said Marciano.

- EcoWaste Coalition, ecowastecoalition (at) yahoo.com

Solon accuses big pharma group of misinformation, hypocrisy

2007-01-23T00:08:00.000+08:00

AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros chided today the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) for claiming that a bill amending the Intellectual Property Code to lower the cost of medicine would be more detrimental. "Claiming that the bill 'could open the floodgates to fake drugs' is grossly misleading. The entrance of fake drugs is a different issue altogether. What they want to do is to demonize cheaper medicines acquired through parallel importation," Rep. Hontiveros said.

"To say that lowering the price of medicines would be harmful is to ignore the fact that the high cost of drugs is killing many Filipinos," Rep. Hontiveros said. "Lower the price of essential medicines, and we will at least have greater chances of combating diseases and illnesses that are already preventable and treatable."

The solon, who is one of the principal authors of the bill amending the Intellectual Property Code (HB 6305), also corrected the image that big pharmacies are trying to create. "Branded medicines are more expensive not because big pharmaceuticals are spending more resources for safeguards and quality control. Much of the cost actually goes to marketing: the money they spend for advertising and the perks that they give to doctors to encourage them to prescribe branded products," Rep. Hontiveros said.

She also accused PHAP of hypocrisy. "Big pharmas are abusing the flaws of our patents law. They commit evergreening by indiscriminately applying for several patents for one product to extend its protection. They are now using their propaganda machinery to block the passage of a bill that would boost our own healthcare programs. They are concerned that this would curb profiteering in the industry," she said.

The solon added that imported drugs will have to go through the Bureau of Food and Drugs for quality control. She said that the entrance of fake medicines in the country is a different issue altogether, and should be addressed by strengthening BFAD and customs regulations. "Imported or not, we are obliged to check the quality of all medicines being sold to the public," according to the solon.

Yesterday, Rep. Hontiveros urged the House of Representatives to act of HB 6305, which has already been certified as urgent by Malacañang. She said that it's one of the social reform bills that Congress must prioritize before the session adjourns for start of the campaign period.

STOP THE KILLINGS!

2007-01-21T09:58:00.000+08:00

Opinion

by Bill Mitsuru Shimizu

It's my usual practice every time I log in to the internet to first go to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for the latest news from home and this morning was no different and what caught my eye is the breaking news about a former broadcaster slain in Albay by suspected NPA members, his former comrades in the movement.

Another killing in the never- ending cycle of violence in the Philippines where both protagonists (read: AFP and NPA) have added another dimension in their war of attrition by shifting to another front and away from their traditional battlefield by killing or liquidating people perceived to be unsympathetic to their cause or unarmed supporters of each side reminiscent of the Philippines in the waning years of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1980s.

The spate of killings of perceived Leftist supporters and Military assets done treacherously by elements of both sides is not only sad and lamentable for it only shows that the decades- old war which has claimed thousands of lives is far from over- a war that has destroyed the lives and extinguished the dreams of so many young and brilliant Filipinos.

The list is endless and their potentials could have been immense and at what cost to a nation that has been dubbed as the sick man of Asia?

You can only imagine of what a difference those young people could have made to our nation's present situation and the future.

No matter what their spin- masters will concoct to justify their actions, it still leave a bad taste in the mouth and an uneasy feeling in the gut.

The war has gone on for too long now for an ideology that has been proven to be a bust by the rest of the world with just a few holdouts like North Korea and Cuba. Some people with ties to the left have even shifted their approach by participating in the elections and having them in Congress have shown that the people have spoken that they welcome their cause to be fought in a peaceful manner.

But some of them have other designs on their minds for you can't talk about justice and peace on one hand and have a gun on the other. This smacks of a Jekyll and Hyde strategy which has no place in our society.

If they want the people to believe in their cause I think it is about time to abandon the armed struggle and participate in the democratic process no matter how we perceive the system to be imperfect but it has to start somewhere if we want change to happen and in the process rendering the Philippine military and their well-publicized abuses against civilians unjustified. Their relevance will become moot for most of the military abuses stemmed from the fact that it is usually committed in the guise of their search and destroy operations against the communist rebels especially in the countryside.

Too much blood has been spilled and too many lives have been taken in years of fighting between blood- brothers that in the end the only loser is the Filipino nation and its people from whatever angle you look at it.

I have been to the mountains of the Cordilleras and far- flung barrios in the Visayas as well as to the remote parts of Mindanao on a Medical Mission with some NGOs and other well- meaning Organizations during the time of my youthful idealism years ago and I admit that the fire is still there burning and the dreams of serving the people and the common good will always be with me.

I have experienced being asked and questioned by armed men in those places regarding the purpose of our presence there; one group asked us if we were leftist sympathizers while the other group asked us whether we were government spies.

I have met and talked to people in those places and have understand their situations and predicaments of being in the crossfire of two opposing forces that they have to contend with in their every day lives. It is a choice between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea if you ask me. It is really an irony for it is always the people who suffer whenever these two contending forces clash in spite of the fact that both sides have sworn and uphold to protect them.

I have once upon a time believed in the cause that our brothers in the mountains espoused and I still believe in them. I have once upon a time sympathized with the plight of our brothers in uniform and I still support them. I have lost some really good friends on both sides through the years which to this very day I still rue the loss of their young lives to an unjust war being fought between brothers.

Let us stop the killings. Let us stop the senseless war.

Let's us give Peace a chance.

http://bms70.blogspot.com/2007/01/stop-killings_20.html

GMO rice unapproved for human consumption still in local supermarket shelves

2007-01-20T11:09:00.000+08:00

Manila, PHILIPPINES — Sacks of "Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice" confirmed last November to be contaminated with a GE(genetically-engineered) strain unapproved for human consumption continues to be sold in supermarket shelves in Metro Manila, Greenpeace revealed today. The environment organization also expressed shock and disgust over the Department of Agriculture's (DA) serious failure to recall the GE-tainted rice from supermarkets to protect consumers, despite the government agency's pronouncements last December that they are vigilantly inspecting US rice meant for export to the Philipines to block the entry of the unapproved GMO (genetically-modified organism).

"This is utter negligence. Once again, the Department of Agriculture has proven itself inutile in preventing and containing the threat of illegal GE products entering the country. The DA is fully aware of the US rice contamination scandal that affected global rice markets last year. They are also fully aware that "Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice" has tested positive for GMO contamination. But aside from merely issuing a statement that they will be checking future rice imports for GE contamination, they have not taken any steps to prevent the continued sale of this illicit product in the market," said Greenpeace campaigner Daniel Ocampo.

"Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice," distributed by Purefeeds Corp. of Sta. Cruz, Manila, was tested last year by an independent laboratory to be positive for Bayer LL601. Bayer's LL601 is rice genetically-altered to survive the powerful herbicide glufosinate. It was field-tested under permits granted by the USDA (Department of Agriculture) from 1998 to 2001 but development was stopped by Bayer in 2001 for unclear reasons. On July 31, 2006, Bayer informed the USDA of LL601 contamination in the food chain, but neither Bayer nor the USDA was able to tell how much rice was contaminated, which rice products were involved, or where the contaminated rice was found. Bayer LL601 is illegal (not approved for commercial distribution or human consumption) in any place in the world except in the US where the company applied for marketing approval only after it illegally contaminated the food chain, presumably to limit its legal liability for the episode.

The widespread Bayer LL601 contamination scandal was the most significant demonstration of GE rejection in a global scale last year. The news elicited strong reactions from rice farmers and processors, as well as governments. Bayer faced a class-action lawsuit filed by
hundreds of US farmers, and Japan, EU, and Russia responded with import restrictions. The incident also prompted rice producers and exporters in the US, EU, and Asia to commit to GMO-free production and trade. In the Philippines, the National Food Authority prohibited future GMO rice imports, and assigned a team in the US to test possible contamination in
shipments to the Philippines.

"But, the DA should also not neglect to address the contamination already in our shores. For starters, the distributor of this contaminated rice in the country should be made to account. The concerned agencies should investigate and trace how this rice, unapproved for human consumption, ended up in our supermarkets," added Ocampo.

Greenpeace held a press conference last November to warn the public about the presence of the GMO-contaminated rice product, as well as to demand the government for its immediate recall. The contaminated rice was at that time sold in branches of Robinson's, Shopwise, and SM supermarkets. The DA, as well as the retailers, were informed of the contamination. But, to this day, the said GMO-contaminated rice continues to be sold openly in branches of SM supermarket (Megamall and SM City North EDSA), and Robinson's Galleria.

"There is irrefutable evidence that governments, farmers and consumers throughout the world recognize that GMOs are unreliable, unviable or downright dangerous. The global GE rice scandal involving Bayer's LLR601 impressed on farmers, exporters, retailers, consumers, and governments, the uncontrollable nature of GMO crops," said Ocampo. "Clearly, this
technology is unsafe as it can neither be controlled nor regulated. The government must therefore take concrete steps to protect consumers—-and not just render lip service and empty statements. To continue to neglect the matter is unacceptable."

Greenpeace campaigns for GE-free crop and food production that is grounded in the principles of sustainability, protection of biodiversity and providing all people to have access to safe and nutritious food. Genetic engineering is an unnecessary and unwanted technology that
contaminates the environment, threatens biodiversity and poses unacceptable risks to health.

- http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/

EDSA I, EDSA Dos veterans vow to bring spirit of EDSA in the ballots

2007-01-19T10:33:00.000+08:00

Several youth activists, EDSA Dos young leaders, and first time voters gathered today in front of the Faculty Center of UP Diliman to commemorate EDSA Dos and relive "a promising moment that was betrayed and degraded by traditional politics."

The gathering was initiated by AKBAYAN Youth and the First Time Voters Project to call on young Filipinos to re-launch the spirit of People Power in the country by exercising their right to vote conscientiously. The event was attended by AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros, a veteran of the earlier People Power I that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, and by Patsy Abad, the daughter of Rep. Henedina Abad who held the bible used when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as President during the 2001 popular uprising.

"EDSA Dos should be remembered as the victory of the Filipino youth's exuberant and righteous indignation. It's a good reminder to politicians, GMA in particular, where sovereignty and power really reside. It is a refreshing proof, too, against the cynicism and apathy of young Filipinos these days. Their collective passion is their strength, and their transformative power is their birthright," Rep. Hontiveros said.

"However, as we commemorate the strength of our unity, we should not also fail to forget those who betrayed the spirit of EDSA Dos, especially those who have benefited from the people's indignation. We should continue to exact accountability from politicians like GMA who merely exploited the gains of the people to advance their personal interests," she said.

She added that the spirit of EDSA Dos is not that it was able to topple a corrupt regime, but that it promises of complete transformation and political rebirth. "Reliving the spirit of EDSA I or EDSA Dos should happen everyday," Rep. Hontiveros stressed.

During the gathering, young voters were urged to use their votes to hold the GMA administration accountable for fraud and human rights violations.

FTV Coordinator Machris Cabreros said that young voters to bring the spirit of EDSA in the ballots. "Casting one's vote in favor of truth and new politics is a form of revolution. When young voters speak out for decency and dignity in their ballots, they are proving that the spirit of EDSA Dos is very much alive," Cabreros said.

TRO sought against MMDA, DPWH to stop eviction

2007-01-18T00:30:00.000+08:00

Fighting for their right to put roofs over their heads, informal settlers are seeking a temporary restraining order against Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Dir. Josefino Rigor of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to prevent their eviction and the demolition of their houses located under San Andres Bridge 1 along South Super Highway, Paco, Manila.

The settlers composed of 54 families who live for more than 14 years at the community located along Estero Tripa de Gallina, a jurisdiction of Brgy. 734 and Brgy 735, filed their petition for a TRO and preliminary injunction January 12 at the Manila Regional Trial Court.

Based on a raffle held last Monday, the presiding judge who would handle the case is Judge Tita Bughao Alisuag of RTC Branch 1, according to the Urban Poor Associates (UPA) in a statement.

Led by Alberta Abenaza, president of Samahan ng mga Taga Ilalim ng Tulay Neighborhood Association (SAINT), ten petitioners have executed their sworn statements that beginning in October 2006 MMDA and DPWH threatened and continue to threaten to demolish their homes without offering relocation sites.

"Ang aming pamilya ay nangangamba na baka sa anumang oras ay sapilitan kaming paalisin sa aming tinitirhan. Mahigit anim na taon na naming nilalakad ang ibat-ibang ahensya ng ating pamahalaan para mabigyan na kami ng relokasyon subalit wala kaming nakuha kundi puro pangakong walang kasagutan. Hirap na hirap na po kami. Nawawalan na po kami ng pag-asa," said Abenaza.

Through petitioner's representations with its officials, MMDA has deferred its plan to evict plaintiffs but with a promise and assurance that it will pursue its plan to demolish and evict the plaintiffs pursuant to its beautification program "Metro Gwapo".

DPWH, on the other hand, without any written notice and dialogue with the petitioners, has verbally informed the residents that it will demolish the petitioner's houses due to the repair of the bridge.

"Respondents intended action to demolish and evict the petitioners without consultation and more importantly, without any provision for adequate relocation as mandated by the Constitution and Republic Act 7279 also known as Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) is gross violation of the law and it runs afoul with the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)," said Atty. Bienvenido A. Salinas 2nd, coordinator of UPA's legal unit, St. Thomas More Law Center.

UPA is a non-government organization established to educate families in housing rights matters and assist communities in eviction crises. It has helped thousands of families to relocate in-city or at least prevent the never-ending cycle of homelessness.

- Urban Poor Associates (UPA)

Detained solon and veteran labor leader turns 74

2007-01-17T21:17:00.000+08:00

The Free Ka Bel Movement, Anakpawis Party-list and Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) held a 'birthday picket' last January 7, 2007 in honor of Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran in front of the Philippine Heart Center where Beltran remains under incarceration after almost 11 months on the charges of rebellion and sedition. Beltran celebrates his 74 th birthday today, and 50 of these 74 years he spent being a respected labor leader and beginning 2001, a progressive people's law maker.

FKBM, Anakpawis and KMU members and leaders and other supporters held their 'birthday picket' in front of the PHC because they were not allowed inside the building. They came bearing balloons, birthday cards, and a cake decorated with a sign for a P125 across-the board nationwide wage increase. Beltran is one of the main authors of the legislated wage hike bill in the House of Representatives passed last December prior to the Christmas break. A similar bill is being deliberated upon in the Senate under the Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's Committee on Labor.

"We are most grateful to Ka Bel for all that he has done to serve and protect the interest of workers and the rest of the working people," they said. He is a true servant of the poor and exploited. He should be released immediately."

FKBM spokesperson Dennis Maga said that it was an outrage that a convicted rapist such as US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith has been essentially freed from jail while Rep. Beltran, a renowned labor leader, internationalist, and patriotic congressman, remains incarcerated.

"Where is the justice in this? Ka Bel has been incarcerated for almost 11 months, and it's appalling that he has had celebrated the holidays in detention and under the close watch of government security men. He is now 74 and the greater part of his past year he spent under arrest. He should be released immediately. We won't have him spend another year of his life under detention. The charges against him are all false and fabricated," he said.

At the age of 74, Ka Bel has gone through a lot of challenges in his entire life as a labor leader, a former political detainee under the Marcos dictatorship, and as a people's lawmaker in an institution dominated by business and elitist political interests. The Macapagal-Arroyo administration continues to incarcerate Ka Bel despite of the firm knowledge that he is innocent of the charges against him and that he is being used by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration as a mascot-deterrent against those who dare to oppose the government are taking a toll on him," he said.

Initially, the PNP requested for a court order that Ka Bel be transferred to the Makati City Jail. In a letter dated October 23, 2006, PSupt. Dexter G. Rellora, chief of the PNP Custodial Center requested the issuance of a Commitment Order from RTC Branch 150 for Ka Bel's transfer to the Makati City Jail.

Rep. Beltran has been recommended to undergo the following tests on a regular basis as part of his health monitoring: complete blood count, blood chemistry (including lipid profile), urinalysis, electrocardiography , chest x-ray, 2D Echodoppler, carotid duplex scan, and possible stress thallium; and treatment for hypertensive cardiovascular disease. "Given the overall health condition of Congressman Beltran which is the primary concern of the court, it is imperative that his attending physicians be required to submit their report," according to the Makati RTC 150.

Dr. Reginald Pamugas, MD, Health Action for Human Rights, one of the doctors attending to Ka Bel said that to transfer Ka Bel to Camp Crame would be to sign his death certificate. "If the Courts are really concerned about Ka Bel's health, then should release him at once. It's the stress of being illegally incarcerated that's taking a toll on his health and causing it to deteoriorate, " Dr. Pamugas said.

Dr. Pamugas said that Ka Bel's vital blood pressure fluctuates with highest at 160/90 and lowest at 110/70. His respiratory and heart rate are within normal range. For the past months there was no record of infection and fever.

Latest laboratory examinations on Complete Blood Count (CBC) which show a slightly decrease or low red blood cells, hemoglobin, hematocrit and platelet count. Other laboratory examinations like Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), Total Cholesterol Level, and Uric Acid were within normal range.

"Cong. Beltran's relatively stable health condition doesn't come so easy, there is the financial burden, maintenance medications and mental stress that sometimes shaking him up. He is taking about 10 assorted medicines in order to keep his health condition in good shape. And lately, he is doing some exercises like skipping rope and push ups. But despite of the incarceration and his relatively stable health conditions, the strong support of mass movement here and abroad makes him stronger to fight the brutal force of Macapagal-Arroyo administration," Maga concluded.

Malacañang getting ready to appoint ‘new’ Garci

2007-01-17T10:31:00.000+08:00

AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros warned today that Malacañang is on the move to cheat in the 2007 election. She revealed that "Malacañang is about to appoint a new COMELEC Commissioner who will be groomed as the new 'Garci'."

"We have heard from reliable sources that Malacañang is choosing between Judge Moslemen Macarambon of Iligan City or Maguindanao Provincial Prosecutor Salick Panda to replace retired Commissioner Mehol Sadain. Both Macarambon and Panda are from the judiciary, but they're also known in Mindanao as politicians. This last minute and silent appointment in the COMELEC will complete the administration's cheating machinery. This also contradicts GMA's statement that the government will be transparent with its COMELEC appointments," Rep. Hontiveros said. "What is alarming is, why the hush?"

She also revealed that the new appointment will take place "right before the campaign period starts."
She added that the 'Hello Garci' men have actually been promoted in COMELEC.

"Francisco Pobe, for instance, was recently promoted as assistant regional director for the CARAGA region and is now under Cirilo Naja Jr., one of Garci's friends. In 2004, he was the provincial elcetion supervisor of Surigao del Sur and he talked to Garci to give updates on the votes from Cotabato City that President GMA was keen on 'protecting'," Rep. Hontiveros said.

"Renato Magbutay, who in one of the conversations tried to convince Garcillano to have a woman election official kidnapped because she refused to cheat for GMA, is now the regional director for Region VI. Ray Sumalipao, who headed the Board of Canvassers for Lanao del Sur, where massive cheating allegedly took place, is now the regional director for ARMM. Renault Macarambon, who talked to Garci to ensure the victory of a senatorial candidate, now heads the Election and Barangay Affairs Department of COMELEC," she added.

According to the AKBAYAN solon, this, as well as the reported sale of party-list seats and the mass suspension of local government officials, fit in the administration's strategy.

"They are aware that they will most likely lose in the senatorial election. They also want to ensure to retain their control in the House of Representatives and the LGUs. They will cheat to do that and they will cheat to give administration senatorial bets a chance to win," she warned.

"While we have nothing against the implementation of our anti-corruption measures, the recent mass suspension of LGU officials is clearly an electoral strategy. Otherwise, why are they implementing this only now? Despite what DILG Sec. Puno is saying, this clearly favors the administration candidates in key local positions," she said.

She likewise slammed the reported sale of PL seats to increase the number of pro-administration members in the Lower House. "This destroys the essence of the PL system, which is to give voice to marginalized sectors. We challenge the pro-administration PL groups to be transparent in the selection of their nominees," Rep. Hontiveros said.

ASEAN for the People: Statement of the 2nd ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC II) 10-12 December 2006 Cebu City, Philippines

2007-01-15T18:16:00.000+08:00

We are more than 300 participants from countries in the ASEAN region, together with guests and partners from all over the world, who gathered for the 2nd ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC II) organized by the Solidarity for Asian People's Advocacy (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN and its partners, in Cebu City, Philippines on 10-12 December 2006. We come from various community-based organizations, civil society groups, NGOs, social movements, people's organizations and trade unions that work on critical social, political and economic issues in the ASEAN region. Together, we deliberated on the theme "Creating a Caring and Sharing Community - Enhancing People's Participation in Governance and Development".

The ACSC II consolidates our inputs and proposals to the ASEAN processes including the ASEAN Charter process. Equally important, the ACSC II is an expression of our collective aspirations and commitment for the ASEAN region.

REGIONAL TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

Our work and experience in the region that was consolidated during the ACSC II identifies the following key issues that require the immediate attention of ASEAN Members individually as well as ASEAN regionally:

§ Contraction of Democracies and a Volatile Peace. We call on ASEAN to actively enrich and deepen democracy by critically examining its cultural base by extending citizenship within the region and guaranteeing free and honest elections, participatory governance, basic liberties, and a free and plural media. We also challenge the ASEAN principle of non-intervention to address the human rights concerns and conflict prevention mechanisms that prioritize dialogue and cooperation especially in the case of Burma.

§ Human Rights: Violation and Impunity without Redress. We call on ASEAN to put an immediate remedy to the grave human rights situation in the region by creating a regional human rights body, and by promoting communication rights of peoples and communities through ensuring citizens' access to information and upholding freedom of expression.

§ Economic Integration: Negative Impacts of Integration and Neo-liberal Globalization. The ASEAN Members should protect essential public services, and create mechanisms towards cooperation in regional public goods and services. We call on ASEAN to explicitly ratify, fulfill and promote the ILO conventions on core labor standards. ASEAN should adopt a Social Charter enshrining workers' rights, and institutionalizing participation of workers in mandatory social dialogue and consultation.

§ Population Movements: Displacement, Forcible Migration and Migration Insecurity. We call on ASEAN to uphold the principle of equal treatment, and to create an instrument for the protection and promotion of the rights of all migrant workers. We emphasize the need to establish a regional mechanism to protect the healthcare of migrants, and to move away from mandatory towards voluntary health testing. We advocate for the mutual recognition of skills of workers within the ASEAN region.

§ Sustainable Development Concerns and Increasing Health and Environmental Volatility. The diverse natural and ecological resources of the ASEAN region are being threatened that results in environmental insecurity, displacement from places of livelihood and health concerns. We challenge ASEAN to clarify environmental bottom-lines, and identify and protect no-go zones/options in highly sensitive sustainable development areas in the region. ASEAN should do this in consultation with all sectors but with clear preference for the interests of the poor.

§ Prevailing Asian Patriarchies: Gender Inequalities. It is imperative that the level of awareness and understanding of women's issues through consciousness raising and capacity building is increased within ASEAN. We challenge ASEAN to achieve and surpass the universally agreed minimum targets on women's participation in decision making and leadership. The planned Commission on Women and Children should be used as a platform for discussing socio-cultural issues as well as for expressing women's rights and views.

§ Exclusion and Insecurity of Children and Youth. A growing number of children and youth face precarious conditions in ASEAN. We call on ASEAN member states to recognize the youth as a specific majority group that needs special and urgent attention. The ASEAN should invest in youth education and resources, job opportunities and capacity building, and should respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and ratify the optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts.

§ ASEAN Economic Community: Limited Vision of Regionalism. The transformation of the region into a single community should go beyond economic integration and must be people-centered, humane and rights-based at all times, and must reinforce environmental sustainability. We call for an alternative regionalism that is anchored on people's participation at all times and that truly represents a community of people of diversity, with different political and economic systems and historical backgrounds. This should be bound by an undivided commitment to the universal principles of human rights, justice, peace, democracy, tolerance, and solidarity.

CIVIL SOCIETY COMMITMENT AND CALL TO ACTION

We, participants of the ACSC II, commit to work together to build a people-centered and people-driven community in the ASEAN region based on the principles of human rights and dignity, human security, a just and lasting peace, participation and social dialogue, social and economic justice, cultural and ecological diversity, environmentally sustainable development, and gender equity.

We resolve to continue to engage with and challenge the ASEAN at all levels, making use of all available spaces and opportunities to defend and advance the rights and interests of the marginalized and excluded people in the region. We further resolve to strengthen our ranks and expand our initiative in solidarity and movement building, challenge ourselves to be more inclusive and participatory, and respond to issues of urgent concern in a timely manner. We commit to build an ASEAN People's Charter that reflects the rights, interests and aspirations of all peoples in the ASEAN region.

We demand that the ASEAN create effective mechanisms for transparency, accountability and people's participation. In particular, we demand for automatic civil society seats in all decision making processes of the ASEAN.

We demand that ASEAN includes automatic review clauses in all its initiatives and agreements internally and with partners outside of the region.

We demand that the ASEAN guarantee the full participation of civil society in the ASEAN Charter drafting process, and that the final draft be subject to national referendum.

We resolve to meet again at the ACSC III in Singapore in 2007 in conjunction with the 13th ASEAN Summit, armed with new challenge, renewed energy and greater determination to advance the kind of regionalism we aspire for.

ASEAN roadmap to fisheries integration strengthens capitalist intervention in the fisheries sector

2007-01-14T15:36:00.000+08:00

The ASEAN is currently promoting and selling the concept of a "Roadmap to Fisheries Integration." The Fisherfolk Movement-Philippines believes this is nothing but an illustration of the desperate attempt of ASEAN governments to systematize the flow of capital and goods amongst ASEAN member countries in the fisheries industry.

It is clear that the document "Roadmap" does not serve the interests, or the welfare of the artisanal fisherfolk all over Southeast Asia.

First, it is becoming more evident that management of fisheries resources is not among the priorities of the ASEAN. The ASEAN is only concerned on how to ensure the smooth and free flow of imported fish products in its member countries. This is reflective of the Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) at Hazard Analysis Critical Point (HACP) provisions, which both aim to monitor if exported and imported products pass quality and safety control standards.

Second, no fishery law or policy at the regional level was indicated in the "Roadmap" document. In the event that the implementation of laws concerning the fisheries sector in any of the countries in the region is still very weak and even laws/policies which are still being formulated are likewise ineffective, the flooding of imported fish products, vessels and capital will continue to drown the already helpless fisherfolk, domestic market and industry.

Third, it is obvious that the only sector that has a stake in the "Roadmap" document is the private or commercial sector primarily or mostly engaged in commercial fishing and aquaculture. Not even a single organization or group of the artisanal fisherfolk was consulted on ASEAN discussions regarding the fisheries sector, its issues and demands. The artisanal fisherfolk cannot rely on the private sector to defend and struggle for their rights and welfare versus the huge profits that capitalists will gain from these agreements.

Lastly, this framework only follows the worldwide trend of strengthening aquaculture methods and strategies as a primary tool to develop the fisheries industry in most ASEAN member countries and in the process lead towards barrier-free and smooth trade of fish products amongst ASEAN nations. In the final analysis, the document "Roadmap" is only a regional translation of the Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) agreement being imposed by the WTO to developing countries such as the Philippines wherein the fisheries and other products such as auto parts, etc. are included.

Kilusang Mangingisda

APL denounces brutal dispersal of rally in Cebu

2007-01-12T22:19:00.000+08:00

The Alliance of Progressive Labor condemns the violent dispersal of protestors belonging to the Laban ng Masa coalition in Cebu during the ASEAN summit being hosted there.

"Members of the different protesting organizations numbering about 500 were 50 meters away from the international convention center, a distance that was clearly honored by our ranks, but the police violated. We were yet to finish the program when the police started moving in. They were not positioning themselves to secure the area, they were in dispersal mode," said APL-Cebu Chairperson Jose Tomongha.

"The policemen, numbering 200 dispersed the rally and as a result, scores of protestors were injured, and two arrests were made," Tomongha added.

Meanwhile APL Secretary-General Josua Mata said that "This is yet another intolerable example of this government's deep-seated hatred of opposition and dissent. It is paranoid and oblivious to the interests of its own citizens all for the sake of pleasing its international guests."

"This is not only an affront to the rights of citizens to seek redress and express themselves, but a critical example of the lengths that this government will go to in order to project an image of stability and order," Mata added.

"We demand an investigation into this incident and that the police officials involved be immediately sacked," Tomongha said.

"This dispersal could not have occurred without the go signal of higher ups and we demand that those responsible be charged and made to pay for their violations of the rights of workers and ordinary people to peacefully assemble and express their sentiments against the hypocrisy of the host government and the inaction of the ASEAN in matters concerning the poorest of its citizens," Tomongha said.

Asian People's Declaration on ASEAN Conference

2007-01-12T13:27:00.000+08:00

We, various organizations and social movements representing the landless peasants, small farmers, indigenous peoples, artisanal fishers, women, workers, small and medium business, consumers, and marginalized peoples in South and Southeast Asia, gathered together on the occasion of the International Conference on Alternatives to Corporate-led Globalization and Regional Integration this December 9-10, 2006 in Cebu City, express our grave concern, as follows:

· The recent proliferation of bilateral and regional free trade agreements pushed by developed countries such as the ASEAN- Japan Economic Partnership Agreements, US-ASEAN Trade and Investment Framework (TIFA), the Australia-Thailand FTA, Japan-Malaysia FTA, Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) and in particular the surge in negotiations for US FTAs in the region such as the US-Thailand FTA, the US-Malaysia FTA, and the US-Korea FTA and preparations for such in the Philippines and Indonesia pose grave threats to people's livelihoods, public health, biodiversity and environment. Bilateral and regional free trade agreements aim for a more rapid and comprehensive liberalization of economies of developing and least developing countries, which we have seen to have exacerbated poverty as well as class and gender inequalities for the last two decades.

· Furthermore, through the ASEAN, the negotiations for regional and bilateral free trade and investments agreements with rich industrialized countries are being fast-tracked on top of its existing economic initiatives like the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement(AFTA), ASEAN Industrial Cooperation Scheme (AICO) and ASEAN Investment Area (AIA). Envisioned to create a single market for more than 500 million Southeast Asian people, these free trade agreements and regional economic integration project is coated in rhetoric of "creating equitable access to opportunities." However past and present episodes of liberalization and economic integration have shown that they merely expand and facilitate market and investment opportunities for developed countries' transnational corporations. Thus, the creation of an ASEAN single market within the rubric of free trade will only result to worsening the economic, social, political and environmental crisis faced by many developing and LDCs in the region, in particular, the aggravation of landlessness and dislocation of small farmers, fishers and indigenous peoples; more virulent import surges destroying local livelihoods and enterprises; stagnation of national industries leading to more unemployment and lower wages and exploitative working conditions, rising out-migration and increased environmental destruction.

· There are no indications that the key issues related to the full operationalization of the Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) for developing countries through the Special Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Measure (SSM) in agriculture will be resolved even with the soft resumption of the negotiations. Instead, given the ambitious agenda for fuller liberalization in agriculture, NAMA and services under the Doha Round, its resumption and conclusion may push more peoples in the region into impoverishment and hunger.

· Food sovereignty is clearly undermined under WTO, the bilateral and regional free trade agreements and the ASEAN's neo-liberal concept of economic integration. All these agreements are aimed at "harmonizing" trade, investments, intellectual property, sanitary and phyto-sanitary and environmental policies and standards of developing and least developed countries. This clearly violates the inherent rights of peoples, communities and governments to determine their own policies on food and agriculture that are appropriate to their specific circumstances.

· Meanwhile, states and national governments in both South and Southeast Asia, instead of protecting their national sovereignty in order to promote the interests of their small farmers, fishers, workers, indigenous peoples and local businesses have acceded and embraced neo-liberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization. In consequence, their domestic policies have greatly facilitated or hastened the rapid entry of cheap imported products into the local markets unfairly competing with domestic commodities; food aid that destroy local livelihoods; product and toxic wastes dumping; exploitation of cheap labor; extraction of natural resources through mining, commercial fishing and expansion of plantations like palm oil, banana, etc.; commodification of land and the commons and the increased entry and commercialization of genetically-modified crops. Likewise, there's a gaping lack of political will on the part of governments to address lingering structural inequalities in many countries, in particular landlessness and land concentration.

· Moreover, most governments in the region have failed to represent the democratic interests of their people and have addressed the rising tide of resistance and struggles of peoples for survival with intensifying repression and human rights violations. In many cases, governments have initiated political reforms such as constitutional changes to further align their national policies and legislations with the neo-liberal corporate agenda of the WTO and the international financial institutions.

· Finally, the current surge towards intensifying neo-liberal globalization, regional integration and trade liberalization through free trade agreements and domestic policies and regulations are clearly driven by the trade and economic as well geo-political interests of developed countries and their transnational corporations and thus openly undermines human rights, food sovereignty, social rights, environment, and democracy in the region.

In this context we, participants of this conference and members of the Asia-Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty demand and call for the following:

1. DEFEND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND RECOGNIZE the freedom and rights of peoples and their governments to set their own policies that will protect their political, social, economic and cultural rights towards attaining food sovereignty and sustainable development.

2. STOP BILATERAL AND REGIONAL FREE TRADE talks and reject existing free trade agreements like AFTA, SAFTA, US-Thai FTA, US-Korea FTA, Thai-China FTA, Philippines-China FTA and the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that result to greater political, social, cultural, and economic deprivation of the common people; environmental degradation; displacement/migration and human rights abuses.

3. NO RESUMPTION of the DOHA Round unless and until existing implementation issues have been addressed (e.g. subsidy reduction), the negotiating agenda has been radically altered in favor of the interests and demands of developing and least developing countries' interests and demands and decision-making processes in the WTO have been reformed/ democratized, i.e. stopping green room negotiation practices and other manipulative /indirect threatening practices of developed countries.

4. New trade rules should/shall/must be able to regulate international trade in order to correct inherent asymmetries between the powerful rich countries and their TNCs and the economically weaker developing and least developed countries. Such rules should/shall effectively curb agriculture dumping by developed countries, eliminate their direct and indirect export subsidies and curb overproduction through innovative instruments like supply management; allow developing countries to use import protection like quantitative restrictions to address import surges; allow countries to support their state trading enterprises and marketing and producer cooperatives or associations; and enforce legislations to regulate TNC operations or investments.

5. STRENGTHEN farmers', fishers' and indigenous peoples' OWNERSHIP, CONTROL and or ACCESS to their land, water, seeds, forests, and other productive resources through the speedy implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program, recognition of ancestral domain of indigenous peoples, and a land use legislation that prohibits or prevents effective ownership or appropriation of large tracts of lands by TNCs and agri-business firms. PRIORITIZE FOOD SECURITY in land use and stop entry of large- scale commercial plantations and extractive industries.

6. REJECT the neo-liberal market model of regional integration in Asia; PROMOTE a Southeast and South Asian social pact/ alliance based on the principles of fair relations, respect of sovereignty and mutual cooperation and that seeks to promote economic justice, the people's social and economic rights and in particular the recognition of ancestral domain of indigenous peoples, democracy, and the balanced development of agriculture and national industries based on sustainable technologies and practices.

7. NO to corporate-led agenda on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In this regard, governments should RECOGNIZE, SUPPORT and PROTECT the traditional knowledge of farmers and farming communities in relation to plant genetic resources (PGR) for food and agriculture, as well as the basic right of farmers to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed and/or propagating materials, equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of PGR for food and agriculture, and participate in making decisions on matters related to the conservation, development, access and sustainable use of PGR for food and agriculture.

8. STOP the commercialization of genetically modified crops, undo the patent on life forms and encourage public research instead of corporate-led research.

9. NO to IMF-WB-ADB and corporate-led agenda on harmonization programs/PRSP and other forms of structural adjustments programs that promote full economic liberalization, privatization and deregulation. No to loan conditionalities.

10. RECOGNIZE and PROMOTE women's role in ensuring food sovereignty, and create gender-responsive policy reforms that will empower women. Stop policies that push women to vulnerable positions.

11. STOP extra-judicial killings and other forms of human rights abuses being perpetrated by governments and their military institutions to suppress the struggles of social movements in the region.

12. UPHOLD genuine democracy and protect civil and political rights to ensure active people's participation in national and local decision and policy-making.

TASK FORCE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY –APNFS PHILIPPINES

PKMP

PKSK

AMA

KPMK

KASAMA-KA

WOMANHEALTH

PKKK

Liga Manggagawa (LM)

Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF)

PHILNET-RDI

SEARICE

MODE, INC.

National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA), Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines

Appropriate Technology Resource Center (ATCRD)

RESOURCE CENTER FOR PEOPLE'S DEVELOPMENT (RCPD)

AKBAYAN

KAGAN PEOPLE'S FORUM

IDIS, Inc.

ALLIANCE OF PROGRESSIVE LABOR -DAVAO

Fair Trade Alliance (FTA)

KAISAMPALAD

Urban Missionaries (UM)

AKTIB

Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD)

CONZARRD

ASIAN FARMERS ALLIANCE (AFA)

KRKP – FOOD SOVEREIGNTY NETWORK INDONESIA

VECO Vietnam

BARCIK (Bangladesh)

Unnayan Dhara Bangladesh

Alternative Agriculture Network - Thailand

CARITAS – Sri Lanka

CARITAS - Bangladesh

Asia Partnership for Human Development (APHD, Thailand)

COASTAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP/APNFS-BANGLADESH

LAJUSUAR, Indonesia

Sawit Watch, Indonesia

SPKS, Indonesia

INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE, Indonesia

International Gender and Trade Network-Asia (IGTN)

FTA-WATCH (Thailand)

FSPI-Via Campesina Asia

TNC-WATCH (Thailand)

CEDAC - Cambodia

Local Act Thailand

WALHI – FOE Indonesia

SANSAD- India

Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC) - India

LRC – FOE Philippines

HOMENET

ASIADHRRA

APWLD

WAC

KAFF –Korea

RRAFA - Thailand

Rights groups urge Asean to include Burma in summit agenda

2007-01-11T16:06:00.000+08:00

Alarmed with reports that Burma, will likely escape strong pressure to
implement democratic reforms when the ASEAN holds its annual summit in
Cebu this week, rights groups Free Burma Coalition-Philippines and the
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) today urged the regional
bloc to include Burma in the agenda of the 12th Asean Summit.

The Philippines will be hosting the 12th Asean Summit from January
10-13 which was postponed last December reportedly due to a typhoon. The
summit plans to forge new bilateral agreements between states and
strengthen cooperation inside Asean. Asean is composed of 10-member
countries that include Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar),
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei.

FBC-Phils and IID said that the region should exhaust all necessary
avenues to compel Burma to reform as the issue has now reached the
agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) because of Burma's
deteriorating human rights record.

The groups said that there are reports saying that Asean ministers
indicated that they will not raise the issue of Burma during the summit
and that the Asean will just let the United Nations handle the issue.

Gus Miclat, IID executive director and FBC-Phils convenor said, "What a
way to justify its inability to castigate its rogue member. If the Asean
decides to keep quiet on the issue of Burma during the summit, its
silence would mean protecting Burma again and it may jeopardize the
current efforts of the UNSC to bring reforms inside that country. If
that happens, Asean should prepare itself to face more protests."

"The situation shows that it is no longer possible, by any means, for
the Asean to defend Burma especially now that the world is watching more
closely what steps the security council will take. We suggest to Asean
that instead of keeping mum on the Burma issue, it should echo the
resolution of the council during the summit and come up with a clear
time-table for reforms in Burma," Miclat added.

LET US NOT BE TAKEN FOR A RIDE

IID and FBC said that the Burmese regime will also give a briefing on
progress made toward implementing its roadmap to democracy during the
summit. The groups however said that they expect the military junta to
fabricate lies on the real status of the roadmap.

"First of all, we don't think there is an iota of progress on the
implementation of the roadmap to democracy which for us is nothing but
an empty slogan designed to again fool the international community.
Besides, how could we expect an utterly undemocratic military junta,
unelected and unwanted, to lecture us about democracy?" Miclat stressed.

"Asean should not let itself be taken for a ride. It is playing a
fool's game if it would believe that junta's roadmap to democracy could
show some results. But if the Asean would find some entertainment
listening to the report of the junta during the summit, then Asean is
fooling not just the peoples of Burma but more so it is fooling itself,"
Miclat argued.

"Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands of political prisoners are still
languishing in Burmese jails whose sole crime is to defend democracy,
hundreds of women and girls are being raped on a regular basis, people
suffering from forced labor and Burma now produces millions of drug
addicts because of its opium trade—now, could the Asean afford to just
sit back and relax in Cebu while these crimes continue to happen?,"
Miclat concluded.

Terminate the VFA now : Joint Statement of FLAG and Diokno Foundation calling for Immediate Termination of the VFA

2007-01-11T09:15:00.000+08:00

Daniel Smith was tried and convicted by a Philippine court for raping a Filipina in Philippine territory. He actively participated in the trial, and has even appealed his conviction. Like any other convict, Daniel Smith should have been transferred to a Philippine prison. Instead, he was surreptitiously transferred to the U.S. embassy.

There will be more Daniel Smiths for as long as the Visiting Forces Agreement remains in force. To us, the real issue here is not the proper interpretation of the VFA but the validity and wisdom of the VFA itself. The case of Daniel Smith shows us exactly why the VFA should be terminated immediately.

The VFA is not a treaty. No less than Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno of the Supreme Court, in his dissenting opinion in Bayan v. Executive Secretary (G.R. Nos. 138570, 138572, 138587, 138680 & 138698, 10 October 2000), has said so:

"In conclusion,…I respectfully submit that the Court will be standing on unstable ground if it places a sole executive agreement like the VFA on the same constitutional plateau as a treaty. Questions remain and debate continues on the constitutional basis as well as the legal effects of sole executive agreements under U.S. law. Xxx

With the cloud of uncertainty still hanging on the exact legal force of sole executive agreements under the U.S. constitutional law, this Court must strike a blow for the sovereignty of our country by drawing a bright line between the dignity and status of a treaty in contrast with a sole executive agreement. However we may wish it, the VFA, as a sole executive agreement, cannot climb to the same lofty height that the dignity of a treaty can reach. Consequently, it falls short of the requirement set by Sec. 25, Art. XVIII of the 1987 Constitution that the agreement allowing the presence of foreign military troops on Philippine soil must be "recognized as a treaty by the other contracting state."

I vote to grant the petitions." (Dissenting opinion, pp. 30-31)

The VFA is unconstitutional. The Constitution mandates that only a treaty can allow the presence of foreign military bases, troops or facilities in the Philippines, and that the treaty should also be "recognized as a treaty by the other contracting party" (Sec. 25, Art. XVIII). This provision was included in the 1987 Constitution to prevent the same kind of disparity that existed when the 1947 Military Bases Agreement was still in effect.

"MR. OPLE. xxx…xxx [W]e have acknowledged starting at the committee level that the bases agreement was ratified by our Senate; it is a treaty under Philippine law. But as far as the Americans are concerned, the Senate never took cognizance of this, and therefore, it is an executive agreement. That creates a wholly unacceptable asymmetry between the two countries. Therefore, in my opinion, the right step to take…is that we must begin with a clean slate; we should not be burdened with the flaws of the 1947 Military Bases Agreement.

XXX

FR. BERNAS. When I say that the other contracting state must recognize it as a treaty, by that I mean it must perform all the acts required for the agreement to reach the status of a treaty under their jurisdiction."

—1986 Constitutional Deliberations (Record, pp. 780-783)

The VFA is one-sided. Daniel Smith was found guilty by a Philippine court of raping a Filipina on Philippine soil. He was duly charged, arraigned, tried and convicted, and has now appealed his conviction. Like anyone else convicted of raping a Filipina in Philippine territory, Daniel Smith should have been transferred to a Philippine prison. Instead, he is in the custody of the United States, in the U.S. Embassy, on U.S. territory.

Would a Filipino soldier convicted for the same offense in the United States be given the same treatment?

Terminate the VFA now.

Quezon City, 4 January 2007.

(sgd) (sgd)

JOSE MANUEL I. DIOKNO ZENEIDA QUEZON-AVANCEÑA

Chair Chair

Free Legal Assistance Group The Jose W. Diokno Foundation, Inc.

Rallyists burn US flags, demand return of Smith to RP jail

2007-01-10T21:30:00.000+08:00

Scores of protesters burned American flags and tried to march to the US Embassy on Wednesday, to demand that a US Marine convicted of raping a Filipino woman be handed back to Makati jail.

About 80 activists from the leftwing umbrella group Bayan, the women's alliance Gabriela, and migrant workers' group Migrante denounced the transfer last month of Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the Makati City jail to the US Embassy without a court order.

The protesters also demanded an end to joint US-Philippine military exercises and called for the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement to be scrapped. The bilateral pact governs the conduct of US troops in the Philippines.

"The VFA must be terminated if we are to uphold what little is left of our avowed national sovereignty," said Bayan chairwoman Carol Araullo.

"The government ... has been a party to the escape of a convicted criminal, a rapist of a Filipina," Araullo said, adding that the VFA has been used as justification to ignore Philippine laws and rulings.

Anti-riot policemen stopped the protesters about a block from the embassy, where they burned giant US flags and pictures of US President George W. Bush and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Makati regional trial court sentenced Smith -- from St. Louis, Missouri -- to 40 years imprisonment and ordered him to be detained in Makati jail in December. Later that month, the Foreign Affairs Department agreed to move Smith to the US Embassy, following an announcement by US authorities they were canceling the 2007 military exercises, citing as reason Smith's continued detention in Philippine jail.

The transfer has elicited protests and prompted lawyers of the rape victim to file petitions in court seeking to hold in contempt Smith and officials concerned, and to declare the VFA unconstitutional. (AP)

Wage increase now!

2007-01-09T08:53:00.000+08:00

2007-1-7

We, members of the Solidarity of Unions and Labor Organizations for New Government (Sulong), urge the Senate to give workers the fair chance to get what is rightfully due to them. We challenge the Senators to rise from the wreck of the Executive's 'social payback rhetoric by enacting without delay the P125 wage increase bill.

On New Year's Eve in Baguio City, President Arroyo proclaimed 2007 the time for 'social payback' -- the time ordinary people will begin to enjoy the fruits of her administration's painful economic reforms the past few years.

If indeed the pledge is true then 2007 could be a promising year for the toiling people. We have strong doubts, however, that this 'social payback' sound bite was just another shot at the back of Dr. Jose Rizal, notably when the proclamation was made during the same season and place where the national hero was once betrayed by PGMA in 2004. More likely so when after the proclamation, the President and her lieutenants simply wore back their old hats.

The issue of a legislated wage increase is a vivid example of this. On this raging issue, her labor chief Arturo Brion, merely echoed the line of ECOP and other business groups in opposing the P125 wage increase bill now pending before the Senate. In trying to destroy the arguments and block the passage of the P125 bill, both have raised the specter of "economic disaster" and painted other catastrophic scenario once the measure is enacted into law.

With the position taken by Brion ECOP has effectively won the government into its side, leaving the workers on their own in waging the fight for P125. But we will not cower. We will win the fight.

Hence, if Brion is already sold out to capital does his boss hold a different stand? Unfortunately, it was PGMA who first sold out on this issue. After the passage of the EVAT law last year, she urged Congress to pass the P125 bill only to retract later after business groups have threatened to withdraw their support to charter change – a decision made clearly on the basis of politics and not of economics. That is why, on the record, the measure was passed in the Lower House not out of the goodwill of the majority who were then very much preoccupied with con-ass but by the smartness of the bill's proponents.

It is therefore to our interest that the P125 bill or another legislated wage increase measure be enacted into law on the basis of its merits. In fact, the country's working class majority, as well as policy makers, deserves more than just official public hearings but wider national discussions and public debates on this issue.

Workers have not been asking for more than what is just and fair. We are not asking too much. The staggered P125 bill passed by the Lower House is already a compromise formula. In fact, a living wage is the ultimate demand of every worker in order for his/her family lives a decent life.

At the moment, workers deserve a wage increase to recover lost value of their wages over years. They deserve a wage increase in the face of the rising cost of living which is now at P746 a day. They deserve a wage increase as fair share from that much daunted economic growth; the big part of it, in fact, indisputably came from their hard labor.

Moreover, workers deserve a wage increase in the form of legislation to put an end to the harm and injustice done to the millions of workers, organized and unorganized, by the inutile regional wage boards the past 17 years!

We understand where the strong opposition to the P125 bill is coming from. It is clearly class instinct coming from the capitalists who always turn doomsayers when faced by clamor for wage increase. They who had always equated that anything that hurts their pockets hurt the economy. They, who regardless of whether or not their apocalyptic economic forecast are supported by empirical data or proven by practical experience, nonetheless use them brazenly mainly to disempower the workers.

To them we say: Enough of your blackmail! Workers deserve a better treatment. We deserve a better deal.

SULONG - Solidarity of Unions and Labor Organizations for New Government : AGLO, APL, ASAP, BMP, Fildem, KPMP, Lagman, Liga ng Manggagawa, Makabayan

Arroyo blamed on Smith's custody transfer

2007-01-04T20:58:00.000+08:00

AKBAYAN Party-list today said that the Arroyos numerous crimes against the Constitution and the country's sovereignty, the latest of which is the patently illegal transfer of Smith's custody to the US Embassy, will tried through the ballots in the 2007 elections. "Smith's illegal transfer and GMA's servility to the US have made the administration slate more distasteful and vile," AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros said. "Why vote for candidates who are willing to represent and work for an administration whose track record consists of fraud, abuse of power, and subservience to US' interests?"

The group held a noise barrage in Welcome Rotonda to remind voters in the 2007 polls of how unworthy this administration is to represent the interest of the public.

AKBAYAN leader and UP Prof. Walden Bello added that voters should commit to memory the administration's unconstitutional acts and use it as the basis of their votes in the forthcoming election. He slammed what he described as a severe betrayal of the country's dignity and chided Macapagal-Arroyo for claiming that preserving the US-RP ties is beneficial for the country.

"The US government has consistently promoted its interest, not ours. If Macapagal-Arroyo has consistently violated the Constitution, the US government has consistently worked against Philippine democracy and sovereignty. What happened on December 29, 2006, is just a repetition of how the US has treated the Philippines as if it were its servant and how the Philippine elite, this time represented by a fraudulent administration, has given in to the US," Bello said.

Both Bello and Rep. Hontiveros called for the immediate revocation of the Visiting Forces Agreement. "The Senate should immediately reconvene to rescind the VFA. Under this fraudulent administration, a flawed agreement will the VFA will always be implemented against the national interest," they said.

Globalization in Retreat

2006-12-31T19:10:00.000+08:00

2006-12-31
By Walden Bello*

(This column appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus on Dec. 27, 2006: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3826.)

When it first became part of the English vocabulary in the early 1990s, globalization was supposed to be the wave of the future. Fifteen years ago, the writings of globalist thinkers such as Kenichi Ohmae and Robert Reich celebrated the advent of the emergence of the so-called borderless world. The process by which relatively autonomous national economies become functionally integrated into one global economy was touted as “irreversible. ” And the people who opposed globalization were disdainfully dismissed as modern day incarnations of the Luddites that destroyed machines during the Industrial Revolution.

Fifteen years later, despite runaway shops and outsourcing, what passes for an international economy remains a collection of national economies. These economies are interdependent no doubt, but domestic factors still largely determine their dynamics.

Globalization, in fact, has reached its high water mark and is receding.

Bright Predictions, Dismal Outcomes

During globalization’s heyday, we were told that state policies no longer mattered and that corporations would soon dwarf states. In fact, states still do matter. The European Union, the U.S. government, and the Chinese state are stronger economic actors today than they were a decade ago. In China, for instance, transnational corporations (TNCs) march to the tune of the state rather than the other way around.

Moreover, state policies that interfere with the market in order to build up industrial structures or protect employment still make a difference. Indeed, over the last ten years, interventionist government policies have spelled the difference between development and underdevelopment, prosperity and poverty. Malaysia’s imposition of capital controls during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98 prevented it from unraveling like Thailand or Indonesia. Strict capital controls also insulated China from the economic collapse engulfing its neighbors.

Fifteen years ago, we were told to expect the emergence of a transnational capitalist elite that would manage the world economy. Indeed, globalization became the “grand strategy” of the Clinton administration, which envisioned the U.S. elite being the primus inter pares -- first among equals -- of a global coalition leading the way to the new, benign world order. Today, this project lies in shambles. During the reign of George W. Bush, the nationalist faction has overwhelmed the transnational faction of the economic elite. Nationalism-inflected states are now competing sharply with one another, seeking to beggar one another’s economies.

A decade ago, the World Trade Organization (WTO) was born, joining the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the pillars of the system of international economic governance in the era of globalization. With a triumphalist air, officials of the three organizations meeting in Singapore during the first ministerial gathering of the WTO in December 1996 saw the remaining task of “global governance” as the achievement of “coherence,” that is, the coordination of the neoliberal policies of the three institutions in order to ensure the smooth, technocratic integration of the global economy.

But now Sebastian Mallaby, the influential pro-globalization commentator of the Washington Post, complains that “trade liberalization has stalled, aid is less coherent than it should be, and the next financial conflagration will be managed by an injured fireman.” In fact, the situation is worse than he describes. The IMF is practically defunct. Knowing how the Fund precipitated and worsened the Asian financial crisis, more and more of the advanced developing countries are refusing to borrow from it or are paying ahead of schedule, with some declaring their intention never to borrow again. These include Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. Since the Fund’s budget greatly depends on debt repayments from these big borrowers, this boycott is translating into what one expert describes as “a huge squeeze on the budget of the organization.”

The World Bank may seem to be in better health than the Fund. But having been central to the debacle of structural adjustment policies that left most developing and transitional economies that implemented them in greater poverty, with greater inequality, and in a state of stagnation, the Bank is also suffering a crisis of legitimacy. This can only be worsened by the recent finding of an official high-level expert panel headed by former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff that the Bank has been systematically manipulating its data to advance its pro-globalization position and conceal globalization’s adverse effects.

But the crisis of multilateralism is perhaps most acute at the WTO. Last July, the Doha Round of global negotiations for more trade liberalization unraveled abruptly when talks among the so-called Group of Six broke down in acrimony over the U.S. refusal to budge on its enormous subsidies for agriculture. The pro-free trade American economist Fred Bergsten once compared trade liberalization and the WTO to a bicycle: they collapse when they are not moving forward. The collapse of an organization that one of its director generals once described as the “jewel in the crown of multilateralism” may be nearer than it seems.

Why Globalization Stalled

Why did globalization run aground?

First of all, the case for globalization was oversold. The bulk of the production and sales of most TNCs continues to take place within the country or region of origin. There are only a handful of truly global corporations whose production and sales are dispersed relatively equally across regions.

Second, rather than forge a common, cooperative response to the global crises of overproduction, stagnation, and environmental ruin, national capitalist elites have competed with each other to shift the burden of adjustment. The Bush administration, for instance, has pushed a weak-dollar policy to promote U.S. economic recovery and growth at the expense of Europe and Japan. It has also refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol in order to push Europe and Japan to absorb most of the costs of global environmental adjustment and thus make U.S. industry comparatively more competitive. While cooperation may be the rational strategic choice from the point of view of the global capitalist system, national capitalist interests are mainly concerned with not losing out to their rivals in the short term.

A third factor has been the corrosive effect of the double standards brazenly displayed by the hegemonic power, the United States. While the Clinton administration did try to move the United States toward free trade, the Bush administration has hypocritically preached free trade while practicing protectionism. Indeed, the trade policy of the Bush administration seems to be free trade for the rest of the world and protectionism for the United States.

Fourth, there has been too much dissonance between the promise of globalization and free trade and the actual results of neoliberal policies, which have been more poverty, inequality, and stagnation. One of the very few places where poverty diminished over the last 15 years is China. But interventionist state policies that managed market forces, not neoliberal prescriptions, were responsible for lifting 120 million Chinese out of poverty. Moreover, the advocates of eliminating capital controls have had to face the actual collapse of the economies that took this policy to heart. The globalization of finance proceeded much faster than the globalization of production. But it proved to be the cutting edge not of prosperity but of chaos. The Asian financial crisis and the collapse of the economy of Argentina, which had been among the most doctrinaire practitioners of capital account liberalization, were two decisive moments in reality’s revolt against theory.

Another factor unraveling the globalist project derives from its obsession with economic growth. Indeed, unending growth is the centerpiece of globalization, the mainspring of its legitimacy. While a recent World Bank report continues—amazingly--to extol rapid growth as the key to expanding the global middle class, global warming, peak oil, and other environmental events are making it clear to people that the rates and patterns of growth that come with globalization are a surefire prescription for an ecological Armageddon.

The final factor, not to be underestimated, has been popular resistance to globalization. The battles of Seattle in 1999, Prague in 2000, and Genoa in 2001; the massive global anti-war march on Feb. 15, 2003, when the anti-globalization movement morphed into the global anti-war movement; the collapse of the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003 and its near collapse in Hong Kong in 2005; the French and Dutch peoples’ rejection of the neoliberal, pro-globalization European Constitution in 2005 -- these were all critical junctures in a decade-long global struggle that has rolled back the neoliberal project. But these high-profile events were merely the tip of the iceberg, the summation of thousands of anti-neoliberal, anti-globalization struggles in thousands of communities throughout the world involving millions of peasants, workers, students, indigenous people, and many sectors of the middle class.

Down but not out

While corporate-driven globalization may be down, it is not out. Though discredited, many pro-globalization neoliberal policies remain in place in many economies, for lack of credible alternative policies in the eyes of technocrats. With things not moving at the WTO, the big trading powers are emphasizing free trade agreements (FTAs) and economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with developing countries. These agreements are in many ways more dangerous than the multilateral negotiations at the WTO since they often require greater concessions in terms of market access and tighter enforcement of intellectual property rights.

However, things are no longer that easy for the corporations and trading powers and the corporations. Doctrinaire neoliberals are being eased out of key positions, giving way to pragmatic technocrats that often subvert neoliberal policies in practice owing to popular pressure. When it comes to FTAs, the global south is becoming aware of the dangers and is beginning to resist. Key South American governments under pressure from their citizenries derailed the Free Trade of the Americas (FTAA) -- the grand plan of George W. Bush for the Western hemisphere -- during the Mar del Plata conference in November 2005.

Also, one of the reasons many people resisted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the months before the recent coup in Thailand was his rush to conclude a free trade agreement with the United States. Indeed, in January this year, some 10,000 protesters tried to storm the building in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where U.S. and Thai officials were negotiating. The government that succeeded Thaksin’s has put the U.S.-Thai FTA on hold, and movements seeking to stop FTAs elsewhere have been inspired by the success of the Thai efforts.

The retreat from neoliberal globalization is most marked in Latin America. Long exploited by foreign energy giants, Bolivia under President Evo Morales has nationalized its energy resources. Nestor Kirchner of Argentina gave an example of how developing country governments can face down finance capital when he forced northern bondholders to accept only 25 cents of every dollar Argentina owed them. Hugo Chavez has launched an ambitious plan for regional integration, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), based on genuine economic cooperation instead of free trade, with little or no participation by northern TNCs, and driven by what Chavez himself describes as a “logic beyond capitalism.”

Globalization in Perspective

From today’s vantage point, globalization appears to have been not a new, higher phase in the development of capitalism but a response to the underlying structural crisis of this system of production. Fifteen years since it was trumpeted as the wave of the future, globalization seems to have been less a “brave new phase” of the capitalist adventure than a desperate effort by global capital to escape the stagnation and disequilibria overtaking the global economy in the 1970s and 1980s. The collapse of the centralized socialist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe deflected people’s attention from this reality in the early 1990s.

Many in progressive circles still think that the task at hand is to “humanize” globalization. Globalization, however, is a spent force. Today’s multiplying economic and political conflicts resemble, if anything, the period following the end of what historians refer to as the first era of globalization, which extended from 1815 to the eruption of World War I in 1914. The urgent task is not to steer corporate-driven globalization in a “social democratic” direction but to manage its retreat so that it does not bring about the same chaos and runaway conflicts that marked its demise in that earlier era.

Walden Bello is professor of sociology at the University of the Philippines and executive director of the Bangkok-based research and advocacy institute Focus on the Global South. An extended version of this piece titled “The Capitalist Conjuncture: Overaccumulation, Financial Crises, and the Retreat from Globalization,” appears in the latest number of Third World Quarterly (Vol. 27, No. 8, 2006).

Smith's illegal transfer to the US embassy: A case of multiple rape

2006-12-30T14:24:00.000+08:00

Like serial rapists who stalked the streets of Metro Manila in the dead of night not too long ago, Philippine government forces at 11 pm last night barged into the Makati City Jail and illegally pulled out rape convict Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of the US Marines for transfer to US Embassy custody in complete defiance of Philippine courts and judicial system.

This shameful and detestable act was deliberately timed with the three-day holiday from December 30 to January 1 of the new year obviously to frustrate any possible counter-action by the courts. It was also intended to avoid outbreaks of protests in the streets because people are busy preparing for the coming of the New Year. The timing is also outrageous in another sense—it was the eve of the annual commemoration of the martyrdom of the national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal.

The illegal and forcible transfer to US government custody of the US Marine rape convict is tantamount to multiple rape committed by both the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) regime and the US government. It is a rape of the Philippine judicial system and its courts. It is a rape of the Philippine government's own Constitution. It is a rape of Nicole once again. Above all, it is a rape of the nation's dignity and sovereignty.

Nothing like this could ever happen without the knowledge and approval of Malacanang, the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs, and the Philippine Police. US Embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop confirmed this when he told media last night that Smith's transfer was upon "orders of the Philippine government" and "in cooperation with the Philippine police".

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her entire regime must be held fully accountable for betraying our nation's sovereignty and making a mockery of the constitution under which she holds office.

LABAN NG MASA (Struggle of the Masses) calls on the entire Filipino people, including those in government, in particular those in the judiciary, the legal professions and law enforcement agencies, to rise in collective indignation and demand the ouster of a President and a regime that has demeaned our national dignity and broken the very laws which they are sworn to uphold, on top of such other high crimes as electoral fraud, plunder, widespread political killings, and pro-globalization policies which pauperized the majority of our people.

www.labanngmasa.org

Smith Transfer : Erosion of the Independence of the Philippine Judiciary and of the Justice System

2006-12-30T11:12:00.000+08:00

The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) condemns the illegal transfer of convicted rapist American serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith from the Makati City Jail to the U.S. embassy around 11 p.m. last night. This act perpetrated with intended impunity erodes the independence of the Philippine judiciary and of the justice system.

The decision to by-pass the judicial process was done in connivance with both the Philippine Executive and the U.S. government and the implementation, according to U.S. Embassy spokesperson Matthew Lussenhop, "was in cooperation with the Philippine police." Bereft of any court order, the "transfer" can only be a legalized "break-out" of Makati jail. Smith is essentially a "fugitive" of the law.

Makati regional trial court Judge Benjamin Pozon has already ruled against the insistence of Smith's lawyers, the US embassy and the Philippine Executive with the Departments of Justice and of Foreign Affairs that Smith's detention violates the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). The latter cite a provision in the said agreement that says any accused American serviceman shall remain in US custody until all judicial proceedings are exhausted. Judge Pozon said the provision applies only during "the judicial proceedings in the trial court" and expires upon a defendant's conviction, regardless of a pending appeal.

PAHRA perceives that the "transfer" and perhaps eventual "freedom" of Smith is an "exchange of gifts" between Ms. Gloria M. Arroyo and the U.S. government for the latter to keep the Balikatan schedule in February, as well as an extension of support to the former despite the questioned legitimacy of her presidency. The exchange was a repeated rape of Philippine dignity – the independence of the Philippine judiciary and of the judicial system for a convicted rapist.

It is doubly ironic that for a while, Ms. Arroyo and other defenders of the VFA protested that violation of the VFA would cast doubt on the Philippine government's sincerity to honor its international commitments or treatises, the Philippine government has not drawn from the full force of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), particularly on the independence of the judiciary and on due process.

By giving in to the arm-twisting of the U.S. government, this administration is becoming an obstacle to the Philippine State's compliance of its obligations to respect, protect and fulfill human rights of the peoples of the Philippine Archipelago.

UPHOLD INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY. RETURN SMITH TO MAKATI JAIL.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 January 2007 )
http://philippinehumanrights.org

Enough politicking! Pass the wage hike and other pro-worker laws!

2006-12-22T01:21:00.000+08:00

Release: 2006-12-21

The House leadership adopted HB 345 providing for a legislated, nationwide and across-the-board wage hike of P125 for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, we welcome this as a positive development.

HB 345 was passed by the House leadership not because they believe it is an overdue and much deserved relief for workers everywhere, but as part of its intramurals with the Senate and its efforts to prop up its image after the ConAss fiasco.

P125 will not suffice, much less alleviate workers' plight caused by policies pursued by government, but it is a welcome change in policy direction. It is after all a step, albeit a very small step, towards ensuring a "living wage" for the working class.

The National Wages and Productivity Commission estimated that as of October this year, a family of six in the National Capital Region would require a living wage amounting to P764 a day.
The challenge now is for the Senate to prioritize the bill for urgent passage.

We warn both chambers from diluting the spirit of the bill by turning it into another political chip for propaganda points, and instead do the right thing and give workers some semblance of hope for a better life.

We do not want the P125 wage hike bill to suffer the same fate as the public sector pay hike bill which was tossed around in an ego game between the Senate on the one hand and the House and the Executive on the other.

We also demand that Congress do overtime work to ensure the passage of the public sector wage hike bill and other measures that would strengthen workers' and trade union rights. This includes bills on the right to organize, particularly SN2466, the right to collectively bargain and the right to hold concerted actions. These bills have gathered dust due to inaction and disinterest!

After all, any wage hike can never be fully implemented if workers do not have unions that can enforce their collective interests.

NGOs urge bicam to spare education budget; support Senate version

2006-12-18T00:13:00.000+08:00

Various non-governmental organizations today asked the House Panel to the Bicameral Conference Committee to spare the Senate's version of the education sector in the proposed 2007 national government budget from deletion or decreases. They also asked both Houses of Congress for a bigger budget in education, as their "gift for the Filipino youth" this Christmas.

"Instead of asking the Senate to let go of their increases in various agencies under the education sector, the House panel should instead consider the idea of increasing the education budget. That would be a very thoughtful Christmas gift for the Filipino youth," said Aaron Pedrosa, spokesperson of Youth Against Debt.

Pedrosa aired this in reaction to reports that the Lower House is pushing their Senate counterparts to let go of the increases they made for the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).

Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones, Social Watch Philippines' Co-Convenor and Former National Treasurer, said that their group finds the Senate version as "laudable as it supports the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially in basic education."

Briones explained that the Senate version provided an increased of P4 billion for the construction of school buildings to erase classroom shortage; increased the funding for the hiring of new teachers by P873 million to erase shortage in teachers; increased GASTE by P700 million to support greater access to free secondary education." The Senate version also provided P30 million funding for Technical-Vocational High School Program, and increased the funding for the School Health and Nutrition Program to P250 million to addressed malnutrition and improve attendance and participation rate.

The Senate version, however, deleted the controversial and graft-prone Food for School Program, and replaced it with the Malusog na Simula, Yaman ng Bansa Program with sufficient guiding provisions on how it would be implemented to prevent abuse.

Briones added that the Senate version also increased the scholarship fund of the CHED to improve access and completion rate in tertiary education, and provided more funding for SUCs to improve the quality of tertiary education.

"These increases in education budget are necessary and urgent if we are to move forward as a country," Briones explained, adding: "If we are to address poverty, we must improve access to education, and enhance employability of our graduates by providing them with responsive and quality education -- and these are the things which the Senate version provides for, so we urge the Bicam to support these items instead of having them deleted or decreased."

Briones' group (22 NGOs) was the partner of 10 congressmen from the minority and the progressive bloc of the majority which came up with the NGO-Legislators alternative budget entitled, "Imperatives of Real and Equitable Growth: An Alternative Proposal for Financing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the 2007 Budget" which the Senate adopted.

- www.freedomfromdebtcoalition.org

The road to Cha-Cha leads to Gloria

2006-12-17T16:50:00.000+08:00

Release: 2006-12-17

Joining hundreds of thousands of anti-charter change protestors in Luneta Park today, AKBAYAN reminded the public that unresolved allegations on the legitimacy of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are at the core of the derailed charter change. The group warned that insidious attempts to tinker with the constitution shall be made again and again by the administration in order to survive the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy.

AKBAYAN Rep. Etta Rosales said that GMA was the main target beneficiary of the thwarted moves to amend the Constitution through the people’s initiative and the Constituent Assembly. “It was mainly for her political survival, and Cha-cha was designed so that the unholy interests of Malacañang, local politicians and members of the House of Representatives are achieved in one political project,” said Rosales.

Despite the scrapping of the proposed Constituent Assembly, AKBAYAN Rep. Mayong Aguja warned the public to be consistently vigilant. He said Cha-Cha is not yet dead, and it will not be buried six feet under by the administration as long as the political survival of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is in doubt. “As far as Malacañang is concerned, charter change is still an option,” AKBAYAN Rep. Aguja said. “It ditched the idea temporarily to appease the public, but it is still an odious trump card that they are willing to use. But the infrastructure to revive it is very much present, as evidenced by the House majority’s decision to archive Resolution 197, which merely freezes the Con Ass. Section 105 of the House Rules is still enforced, which means that the same questionable process can be deployed by the House majority to force the approval of Con Ass or a Con Con.”

For her part, AKBAYAN Rep. Risa Hontiveros urged the public to channel their moral outrage against the convening of a Constituent Assembly to revive righteous indignation over Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s illegitimacy. “What should be realized is that this administration is using a range of alarming strategies, from extrajudicial killings to undeniably illegal moves to amend the constitution, to evade the ‘Hello Garci’ controversy. Democratic constitutional reforms can only happen when this administration is no longer in power. Thus, inside or outside Congress, or even during the 2007 elections, the voice of the people should resonate with the loudest repudiation of traditional politics and corruption,” said Rep. Hontiveros.

Militant group twits Justice Secretary's colonial mentality, Lauds Pozon for Integrity

2006-12-14T16:46:00.000+08:00

Release: 2006-12-14

Youth Members from AKBAYAN Partylist trooped to the Department of Justice today to denounce Secretary Raul Gonzales' 'Amboy' stance on Judge Pozon's refusal to turn over an American soldier convicted of rape to the US embassy. The group said that it was outraged by Gonzales' attack against the integrity of Judge Pozon.

"Secretary Gonzales is behaving as if he is under the payroll of the US embassy. He seems to have forgotten his mandate as the Secretary of the Justice Department. He has subsumed his duty to ensure the fair administration of justice to this government's colonial obligations to the US ," AKBAYAN President Ronald Llamas said.

Llamas added that no one would believe Gonzales' claim that Judge Pozon is biased and is simply courting attention and popularity from certain groups. "Judge Pozon stood up and ruled according to the merits of the case, while it was very clear from the start whose interests Secretary Gonzales was defending. He just seems bitter that despite the state prosecutors' attempt to bungle the case, Judge Pozon still ruled in favor of Nicole," said Llamas.

"This is not really surprising, since as the alter-ego of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Secretary Gonzales should simply mirror the sentiments of Malacañang. In other words, only a tuta can effectively represent another tuta," he added.

While the group lauded the recent order of Judge Pozon on the custody issue, it stressed that the ultimate goal should lead to the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement. "The Senate must act immediately to rescind the treaty, since it is clearly favors the Americans. Although we are generally happy with Judge Pozon's ruling on Nicole's case, there will be other incidents and cases that may not be as positive. Ultimately, the Senate must follow what Judge Pozon did: break away from the clutch of American interests and stand up for the nation," said Llamas.

...and hails Judge Pozon as Defender of Philippine Sovereignty

A delegation of AKBAYAN members led by Rep. Etta Rosales is set to pay tribute to Judge Benjamin Pozon at the Makati RTC this afternoon. AKBAYAN will honor Judge Pozon with a “People’s Medal of Valor” for standing up to defend the sovereignty of the nation amidst the pressures from Malacanang and the US government.

“His integrity and steadfast determination to deliver justice in the Subic Rape Case deserve the admiration and gratitude of the nation,” declared the AKBAYAN solon. According to Rep. Rosales, “our tribute to Judge Pozon is aimed at showing the public’s appreciation of his efforts to defend the honor of the nation especially now that he is being criticized by Justice Secretary Raul Gozales and the US embassy.”

AKBAYAN will give flowers to the Subic Rape Case judge and will hold a short program for the man whom they call as “Tagapagtanggol ng Dangal ng Pilipino.”