By Leila M. de Lima
At the heart of this conflict really isn’t the failure of the BJE to materialize, or the breakdown of the negotiations of the MOA-AD. It is not the rogue armies that the AFP must hunt. These are causes. The heart, the heart — bled profusely — of this conflict is the civilian.
By Kang Wu, Fereidun Fesharaki, Sidney B. Westley and Widhyawan Prawiraatmadja
HONOLULU (Aug. 25) — Concerns about energy security affect economic performance and political stability all over the world, but nowhere are these issues more critical than in Asia and the Pacific - and oil is at the heart of the region’s energy challenge.
Countries in Asia [...]
The other day, I found myself walking almost two kilometers from the office to a bus stop along Edsa. I was to go to the printing press to pick up a job. I haven’t commuted along Edsa for a while now, and I was not really surprised with all the rows of steel nets strewn [...]
By Fr. Shay Cullen
Mary Ann, the daughter of a man who migrated from Finland to Australia and after he made a successful business, he came to live and marry in the Philippines. He died in a tragic death and his wife left with another man who wasted the family resources on vice and drugs. The [...]
By Carlos H. Conde
Arroyo has been faced with a dilemma: whether to salvage the peace process, or abandon it and deal with the rebels much more forcefully, as her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, had done. Either way, according to analysts and experts, there are big political risks.
By the Policy Study, Publication, and Advocacy
Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG)
Peace is not just the absence of war. It is the outcome of settling an armed conflict by addressing its fundamental roots toward a just and lasting peace. Unless the causes are addressed, any peace that is forged is just a means of preserving an unjust status quo leading to bigger tensions. The peace process can bring about a simulated peace -– but not the ultimate solution to the Bangsamoro people’s historic and just grievances.
By Carlos H. Conde
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
Given that Arroyo doesn’t have any remaining political capital to work with, the MILF should probably think about suspending negotiations with the government. If the MILF plays its cards well and controls its troops -– it bears repeating that the MILF gains nothing from attacking civilians — the burden of stilling the guns and keeping the peace in Mindanao lies with Arroyo.
By Alan Davis
Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project
The question we need to ask these pundits on the airwaves and in the populist print is how many of them are taking time out to come here to listen, learn and see for themselves at first hand the things they are talking about? How many are platforming their own personal prejudices in place of helping audiences to understand and appreciate more? What are their practical suggestions? War and killing?
By Carlos H. Conde
“Clearly the MILF are really frustrated. After years of back and forth negotiations, breakdowns in talks, etc, they finally reached a territorial deal. But the Supreme Court imposed an injunction, stating that the agreement could be unconstitutional, something that I have warned about. For the MILF, it is not checks and balances of democracy but evidence of a fundamental lack of commitment to the peace process by the government.”
By Carlos H. Conde
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front has to rise above crude, often needless, violence. It has to make sure that its forces are above hooliganism. It must offer a humane alternative to the atrocity of the State that compelled the Moros to revolt in the first place. It has to live up to the ideals of a genuine revolutionary movement.
To those who still entertain the idea that tobacco companies like Philip Morris are benevolent do-gooders (Heck, they’re bringing the Eraserheads back to life, even for just one night! How bad can these companies be?), check out this story. In it, lawmakers are basically going bonkers over how to deal with the tobacco company’s strong [...]
For some reason, because of my rather strong position against Philip Morris for organizing the Eraserheads reunion concert, I’ve been accused of being politically correct. Party pooper probably, but PC? Hah!
Apparently, some people equate railing against a company that peddles a toxic product that, in turn kills, thousands of Filipinos a year — that’s Philip [...]
By Benjie Oliveros
So much controversy has surrounded the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on ancestral domain between the Arroyo government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Instead of engendering peace, it has led to the escalation of the conflict; instead of bringing about unity and the community of peoples, it has led to tensions between the MILF and the affected communities of North Cotabato.
The MOA has conditions that effectively exempt from the ancestral domain and BJE authority the mining, forest, and other resource areas covered by existing laws, executive agreements, and policies in favor of foreign corporations, local landowners, and other non-Muslim stakeholders. Likewise, the central government can always invoke “emergency situation” and “national interest” to exercise authority over energy resources.
Isn’t the profit of Philip Morris from existing smokers not enough, so that they had to lure more smokers, younger smokers? Is their any hope that a company like Philip Morris would be decent enough to exercise some amount of responsibility?
“Today’s teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer, and the overwhelming majority of smokers first begin to smoke while in their teens…. It is during the teenage years that the initial brand choice is made.” — Philip Morris internal document, March 1981
I’m happy not because I may have been proven right (sort of) but because at least some eheads fans, it would seem to me, have been illuminated (or have conceded defeat in this debate) and are now singing a different tune about this whole event. They are now faced with the real possibility that the concert might not push through if the Department of Health, which issued the warning on Wednesday that Philip Morris was violating the Tobacco Regulation Act in sponsoring the concert, made good on its promise to sue the company.
We Filipinos needed to re-calibrate our understanding of what’s usual or normal, the instant we began to move out into the world en masse. Unfortunately, that has been difficult, because of the re-feudalization accompanying migration, particularly for women.
“The Arroyo government, like its predecessors, is led by big landlords and compradors who have vast and entrenched economic and political interests in most of what the MOA defines as the Bangsmoro homeland. It is inconceivable that the national government as well as the local warlords and other vested interests who benefit tremendously from the present set-up would easily give up the Bangsamoro homeland to the Moro people.”
By Fr. Shay Cullen
While a young girl was recovering from a horrific life of sexual abuse and trafficking, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo gave the state-of-the-nation-address to the Philippine congress last week and list the many achievements of her government for the past year curtailing the trafficking of women and children is not among them. She is [...]
Major US Gov’t Report Concludes Tobacco’s Media Promotion Leads to Smoking 11:16 am
‘Tagaytay 5′ Freed, ‘Trumped-Up’ Charges Dropped 09:38 am
CHR’s De Lima: ‘Civilians Are Suffering Immensely’ 08:26 am
MILF Counts the Cost of War 08:22 am
Arroyo Negotiated with MILF in Bad Faith: Bayan 08:11 am
‘Miss, Extra (GMO-Free) Rice, Please’ 08:07 am
Offensives Vs MILF Won’t Stop During Ramadan: Gov’t 08:02 am
Peace Process Fraught with Peril for Arroyo 09:50 am
Peace in Mindanao: At What Price? 09:38 am
As the MOA Unravels, What Now? 09:30 am
US Anti-Tobacco Group Hails Philip Morris’s Withdrawal from Eraserheads Concert 11:24 am
‘Disarm, Dismantle Ilaga Vigilantes Now,’ Solon Dares Arroyo 06:54 pm
Health Advocates Hail Pullout of Philip Morris from Eraserheads Concert 04:23 pm
Moro Youth Leaders Push for Peace and Justice 08:15 am
Six Steps Toward Increased Energy Security in Asia Pacific 08:13 am
Fighting worsens in Philippines, displacing 300,000 on Mindanao
Mindanao’s Wrecked Peace Deal
Suspicions of Arroyo helped sink Muslim peace deal
Murders of 2 Filipino journalists alarm media groups
Grim scene greets rescue divers in Philippines
Malacañang‘s Proposed Budget, Anti-Poor - GABRIELA
Gov't Employees' Group Says Malacañang is Behind Meralco Ownership Mess
Oil Firms Must Reveal Pricing Mechanisms - Solon
Shield of War
On National Heroes' Day
Photos: Stop state terrorism!
US ambassador Kenney is lying about us involvement in moa-ad sham
PNP targets at least 21 personnel per station
NDF-southern Mindanao warns vs barangay defense system
Lawyers condemn use of MOA and federalism to justify charter change
Welfare armor sa loob ng badyet para 2009 ni Arroyo
Huling Lagapak ng Kandado
Di pa makauwi
Arroyo sinisi sa pagbuhay ng Reform Ilaga Movement
Pag-deadma ni Arroyo, pagpronta ng anino