By Claire Delfin |  Mary Grace Pulido, 17, is from Ermita. She was born there, grew up there, and lives there. She even found her man there. Her life is on the street.

The prospect of serious renewed fighting breaking out in Mindanao after the end of Ramadan has got Christian and Muslim organizations trying to work out how best to help keep the peace and kick-start renewed talks while helping out in the huge relief effort needed.

Across Asia, millions of people are pouring into crowded and often unmanageable urban areas in search of a better life. To some, particularly those who are tasked with running cities, these denizens of the “informal sector” represent a social and planning nightmare.

David Cay Johnston, a prize-winning reporter of The New York Times, urges his colleagues in the press to “start your skepticism.” The coverage of the bailout, Johnston says, “focuses on the edges, on the details. The focus should be on the premise.”

By Michael Hudson | What happened on September 18-19 took years of preparation, capped by a faux ideology crafted by public-relations think tanks to be broadcast under emergency conditions to panic Congress — and voters — right before the presidential election. This seems to be our September election surprise.

“The BI is practically saying toFiipino citizens,” pag di kayo pumirma dito, problema niyo na iyan, bahala na kayo mag-isa niyo” Migrante spokesperson Garry Martinez declared. “This is precisely the kind of response we expect from a self-serving government who cares little, if at all, for its citizens.”

According to research group Ibon Foundation, Philippine banks are merely a conduit of foreign capital, and being in a liberalized and deregulated environment, are vulnerable to the current volatility of global finance.

Farmers decry the sharp decrease in the buying price of palay citing losses in their farming livelihood as the cost of production has gone up particularly this planting season due to increase in fertilizer prices and other cost of production inputs.

“Time and again, the CHR has persistently and consistently asserted that the constitutional mandate of the CHR is completely clear in its meaning and intention and, hence, no amount of preconditions or restrictions may be imposed to bring to life its powers. The CHR’s powers, as expressly enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, are self-executory, requiring no enabling law or compliance with prior conditions.”

Activists spanning several generations converged at the foot of the Mendiola Bridge today to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos. The groups are demanding justice for the victims of the Marcos dictatorship.

Greenpeace has been actively campaigning against the commercialization of GMOs in the country and is currently questioning the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) regulation process for GMO crops, which, aside from being unconstitutional, lacks transparency and appears to be heavily influenced by corporate interests rather than the protection of consumers and farmers.

New legislation adopted on September 15, 2008 will permit the United States to prosecute foreign military commanders who recruit child soldiers abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. The Child Soldiers Accountability Act passed the House of Representatives unanimously on September 8 and was adopted by the Senate today.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downgraded its economic growth forecasts and raised its inflation projections for the Philippines in 2008 and 2009.
The Asian Development Outlook 2008 Update (ADO Update) forecasts that the economy will expand by 4.5% this year and 4.7% next year, down from 6.0% and 6.2% projected in April. [...]

HONG KONG, CHINA - Developing Asian countries must implement structural reforms that support the agricultural sector or else face another dramatic rise in food prices, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warns in a new major report.
The Asian Development Outlook 2008 Update (ADO Update), released today, says that even though the price of food staples, like [...]

HONG KONG, CHINA - Developing Asia will face a prolonged period of high and volatile oil prices that will temper growth and force governments around the region to make painful adjustments to policy to encourage increased energy efficiency among consumers, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a new major report.
The Asian Development Outlook 2008 [...]

Developing Asian economies will revert to a more moderate growth outlook of 7.5% this year and 7.2% next year after posting its fastest growth of 9% in nearly two decades in 2007, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a new major report.

International and national non-government organizations urge the government to ensure a strong Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008 to ensure that the real intents of the law to uphold public health interests will prevail.
The proposed IRR that seeks to prevent abuses by pharmaceutical companies of [...]

New York, September 16, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor courageous journalists from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, and Cuba with its 2008 International Press Freedom Awards at a ceremony in November.
Bilal Hussein of Iraq, Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad of Afghanistan, Andrew Mwenda of Uganda, and Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez of Cuba have all risked imprisonment, [...]