KMU chairman Elmer Labog, in a statement, said the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was responsible for the deteriorating health of AnakPawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, which may have been a factor in the accident that led to his death. “It cannot be denied that the arrest and detention of Ka Bel at Camp Crame and Philippine Heart Center last 2006 due to fabricated cases of rebellion was a cause for his physical deterioration,” Labog said. (Click here to read the statements and tributes to Ka Bel.)

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.

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.

For Mohagher Iqbal, the chief negotiatior of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Malaysia’s pullout from the International Monitoring Team (IMT) in the peace talks with the Philippine government means the negotiations are “shaky on the ground.” In this Q&A with Bulatlat, he explains the implications.

BREAKING NEWS | Celso Pojas was the secretary-general of the Farmers’ Association of Davao City and spokesman of the KMP in Davao.

Pojas during a press conference in October last year. The words on his hat reads “Land, not bullet.” (davaotoday.com file photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Related story: Satur Slams Arroyo for Killing of Davao Peasant Leader

Read the ICG’s report here.

The International Crisis Group says the U.S. and the Philippines “need to refocus energies on peace processes in Mindanao or they risk new hostilities between government forces and insurgents.” In a report today, it warns that security operations in Mindanao “are confusing counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism and risk pushing the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) – their target — into the arms of the broader insurgencies.”

A consumer group estimates that electricity customers in Metro Manila paid P84.6 billion to Meralco for so-called “system losses” from the period of 2003-2007. It says Meralco should not be passing on the cost of system losses to consumers and the government should not even be taxing it.

In his column today, Neal Cruz provides an interesting rundown of the items in the electric bill that consumers receive from Meralco, the power distribution company owned by the Lopezes. Most households routinely ignore these items, but Cruz enumerated and explained these in such a way that, after reading his column, you probably wouldn’t look at Meralco and the Lopezes the same way again.

Analysis | Without the IMT, or even if it is still there but with reduced personnel, the risks of increased violent encounters between GRP and MILF forces will be high. Past experiences also shows the possibility of another major war to happen is something that cannot be dismissed.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today expressed serious doubts over the Arroyo government’s efforts to lower power rates by applying pressure on the Lopez-owned distribution firm Meralco.

Certainly not the patients, who stand to gain much if prices of much-needed medicine are immediately reduced to low, very inexpensive levels. Definitely not the doctors, who will finally see their patients able to comply and adhere to their medical treatment. And absolutely not the general public, who may yet enjoy a better life when even the most essential and life-saving drugs become affordable.

Proposal is embodied in Joint Resolution No. 10, introduced by Pimentel and supported by 15 other senators, which calls for the convening of Congress into a Constituent Assembly that will amend the 1987 Constitution to establish a federal system of government.

By JOEL SIMON and SHEILA CORONEL | Committee to Protect Journalists | The nearly perfect record of impunity in the Philippines has had a devastating impact on the free flow of information and has inhibited coverage of human rights and corruption issues in the communities affected by violence.

Malacanang warned today against possible outbreak of the deadly Avian Flu if exotic fowl meat from other Asian countries continued flooding the local market due to corruption in the Bureau of Customs.

The OFWs said that instead of helping them, them Filipino officials in Saudi Arabia caused them problems and hardship.

Among the recommendations put forth at the UNHRC’s review of human rights in the Philippines is the intensification of efforts to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.

“God’s policy is antiquated and it cannot help the people who are reeling from poverty,” Duterte said during his weekly television program in Davao City. “We should study the situation of our country. There are families who have 10 or 12 children but their parents cannot feed them because they don’t have jobs.”

Senator Pimentel said the grant of bail to Trillanes will enable him to perform his duties as elected senator of the republic. Majority of senators had signed a resolution last year urging the courts to allow Trillanes to attend Senate sessions and hearings while his case is being tried.