“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 [...]

Pulling a 21-foot effigy of a sinking ship, members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan marched from Tandang Sora Avenue to just beyond EVER Commonwealth to join other anti-Arroyo groups in a “People’s SONA”. The counter-SONA described the state of the nation as “a sinking ship with the captain even robbing its passengers”.

By Fr. Shay Cullen

The selfless commitment Christians of all denominations to live, risk their lives and suffer for the gospel values, human rights and to live out the mission of Jesus Christ to save the poor and the oppressed from pain and exploitation inflicted on them by the irresponsible rich and powerful, is at the [...]

While the Big Three oil firms in the Philippines claim losses due to under-recoveries, their mother companies abroad continue to report record billions in profits, according to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation.

There is a growing clamor for the removal of the VAT on petroleum products to ease local prices, especially since it adds from P4 to P6 peso to pump prices. Just recently, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines echoed the same demand. But the Arroyo government flatly rejected it. What is it with the VAT that the Arroyo government is so adamant at rejecting all proposals to remove this form of taxation on petroleum products?

In the guise of fighting terrorists and extremists, Australia wants to get a foothold in the southern Philippines through the Status of Forces Agreement. The presence of the Abu Sayyaf, or any bandit group for that matter, is a convenient reason for the Australian government to engage in military intervention, in partnership with the United States, in areas around Mindanao.

So far, events have proven the optimists to be correct. The dialogue between Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the PRC’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) has resumed. As the basis, the Taiwan side only pledged adherence to the “1992 consensus,” and Beijing did not object to President Ma Ying-jeou’s formulation of [...]

The ABS-CBN team and their fixer deserve credit for keeping focus on a story and going where the story is to see for themselves and not simply reporting from Manila and helping perpetuate stereotypes through ignorance. The day Sulu or any other place becomes a no-go zone for journalists will be a black day indeed. That said, while ordinary people and critical issues and challenges deserve the oxygen of publicity always, we should also ask whether the same applies to a renowned group of kidnappers.

Several years ago, I was able to get inside several highly secured jails for the first time. I was so shocked by what I saw I couldn’t sleep for nights after. The jail visits revealed children as young as ten were being held in detention with adults and many suffered degrading physical and sexual abuse, [...]

A pet shop at the Metrowalk mall in Ortigas uses an eye-catching name that can be offensive to some conservative Filipinos but, when you think about it, apropos. (Photo by Carlos Conde/pinoypress.net)

Many people with heart disease do not know the symptoms of a heart attack, even though their risk of suffering one is five to seven times higher than those with no such history, researchers reported on Monday. Read the full story here.

A military man as peace adviser? A hawk for the dovish tasks of peace negotiations? It shouldn’t surprise anyone. The Arroyo regime of ironies and mockery has done as badly and even worse. It’s a national security regime disguised as a democracy, a reign of assassins cloaked in legal cloth. It’s a regime of mockery in which an Hermogenes Esperon for peace adviser makes as much sense as a Raul Gonzalez for justice secretary.

By Fr. Shay Cullen
It’s good to know that there are idealistic and well-meaning military officers ready to oppose corruption and speak the truth. Some wrongly took up arms to oppose the government corruption last year and were conditionally pardoned recently by the President. Other military officers of conscience in the Armed Forces of the Philippines [...]

The New York Times called it a “rambunctious, noisy film.” One critic thought it was “a shabby piece of video verite from the Philippines” and wondered why it “inexplicably” competed in Cannes. The critic of cinematical.com headlined her review “Live from Cannes: Gratuitous Yuckiness…”and goes on to narrate why, for the first time, she walked out of a screening at a festival. And, according to the critic, it was not just because of the sight of a boil being popped using a Coke bottle — no pun intended — but also because of the gratuitous and exploitative sex scenes in the movie. Yet another critic called it the worst film in competition in Cannes in recent memory.

It would be so easy to dismiss the accidental death of Rep. Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran as senseless, silly even, as one blogger put it. What a way to go — falling off a roof! — for a man who fought and survived repressive regimes. The thinking by some seems to be that dying by an assassin’s bullet, like many of Ka Bel’s friends and comrades, would have left a deeper impact on the public and would have lend Ka Bel’s death that profound political, perhaps heroic, significance fitting for somebody who raised hell against oppression and inequality practically all his life.

Amado Hernandez (Photo courtesy of tinig.com)

A mini-controversy has erupted in the blogosphere. It involves blogger Connie Veneracion who, in a recent column in the Manila Standard Today newspaper, trashed Amado V. Hernadez’s “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” because she, her daughter and her husband didn’t get it.

Blogger Exie Abola wrote what Newsstand has called a “cogent” response to Veneracion’s tirade (”a complete evisceration” of Veneracion, Newsstand says). Others have weighed in, but of course. There’s Stuart Santiago, calling Veneracion “lazy,” “stupid” and “anti-Filipino.” Ouch.

Analysis | Time and again, the specter of inflation and factory closures are being raised every time a wage increase is in the offing. And it is terribly insulting to workers that this is again being raised even if the wage-and-allowance hike being floated for workers in Metro Manila is a mere pittance at P20 per day.