In his radio broadcasts, Aresio Padrigao attacked city hall, the local government and, too, the local police and the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources office for what he saw was a failure to catch illegal loggers. On Nov. 17, he was shot dead.

PRESS FREEDOM   By Carlos H. Conde |  A Right of Reply law will undermine the Bill of Rights. It will intimidate journalists and prevent them from performing their watchdog functions because the potential cost of doing their job is rather high – fine, imprisonment or closure.

HUMAN RIGHTS  By Fr. Shay Cullen |  A stronger, better-armed UN force is urgently needed to protect the hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children and youth in the Eastern Congo. Five millions have died over the past several years and the world hardly noticed.

MANILA – Philippine Airlines cancelled its morning service to Bangkok today and is closely monitoring developments in the Thai capital before deciding whether to operate its evening service.
Flight PR 730, scheduled to depart Manila at 10:30 a.m., was called off, as was the return flight, PR 731, which was scheduled to depart Bangkok at 2:00 [...]

OFWS AND MIGRATION   By Nora O. Gamolo |  OFWs call for an end to racism and xenophobia; sex trafficking; violence against women; unpaid or low wages; domestic work; lack of proper documentation; labor contract violations; and political persecution — just some of the many abuses faced by the international migrant community.

NEW DELHI — Coordinated terror attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, Wednesday night, killing dozens in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a movie theater and a hospital.

The Mumbai police said the attacks killed at least 75 people and wounded 240, according to preliminary reports. There were also reports that hostages had been taken in at least one of the hotels, with Americans and British nationals being singled out. READ THE STORY

POLITICS   By Benjie Oliveros |  What do the Senate coup, the fertilizer and Euro generals scams, and the continuing extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and filing of trumped up charges against activists have in common? These show the rottenness of politics in the Philippines.

STATEMENT OF JOEY DE VENECIA III DISMISSAL OF IMPEACHMENT CASE DUE TO INSUFFICIENCY OF SUBSTANCE
November 26, 2008
This is a sad day not only for us the complainants and the minority lawmakers, but more so for the Filipino people. Our right to take President [...]

POLITICS | CORRUPTION  The House Justice committee on Wednesday junked the fourth impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, declaring the complaint “insufficient in substance.” Read the story

Reaction: Joey de Venecia Calls Junking ‘Sad Day,’ Vows to Bring Case Vs Arroyo ‘Straight to the People’

POLITICS | CORRUPTION  The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that “a resolution extending the term of (President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo beyond that year has quietly found its way into the powerful House committee on constitutional amendments.”

HEALTH | BUSINESS  By Carlos H. Conde |  What convinced me that aspartame is not safe are not just the studies that have found its link to cancer but also the efforts of Donald Rumsfield and the biotech giant Monsanto in ramming this product down our throats.

POLITICS   By Ninotchka Rosca |  Semantical analysis will show it’s all driven by fear of a strong intelligent woman. Will she take orders? Whose foreign policy will it be – hers or Obama? Will she be working for him or for her own political interests? Blah, blah, blah.

HUMAN RIGHTS   By Ronalyn V. Olea |  The United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded that the Philippine government violated the rights of Eden Marcellana, then secretary general of Karapatan-Southern Tagalog, and Eddie Gumanoy, a peasant leader, who were allegedly murdered by state security forces in Mindoro in 2003.

ECONOMY  By Sonny Africa  |  While the Philippines has been made vulnerable to external financial shocks as a result of the US crisis and made internally weaker by globalization, the Arroyo administration is still pushing for more of the same through the constitutional amendments.

BUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY   Consumer group TxtPower said today that Smart’s move could “end the e-loading businesses of at least 3,000 dealers and their tens of thousands of partners.” There is a possibility that Smart’s plan would affect Smart subscribers, it added.

POLITICS | CORRUPTION  “For refusing to endorse a sham and bogus impeachment complaint against the President and for supporting my son’s call for truth and justice, I was removed as a Speaker of the House of Representatives,” former House speaker Jose de Venecia said. Read the story

ECONOMY   By Carlos H. Conde |  The Philippines appears to be walking an economic tightrope again. Three of the pillars of its economy – call centers, electronics exports and inward remittances — are all deeply exposed to the US economy, which is going into the tank.

POLITICS   By Carlos H. Conde  |  Ignorance, or not being in the loop, has become a requisite for the job. Plausible deniability is a key part of the press secretary’s job. As such, he should be the least informed, not to mention the least loquacious, member of the cabinet.