News
NPA and MILF to free prisoners
THE NPA and MILF are set to free their prisoners of war as a demonstration of their sincere aspirations for peace. The decision was announced in a dialogue on March 15 joined by MILF Vice Chairman for Military Affairs Al Haj Murad, CPP Mindanao Commission member Ka Allan Juanito, NDF-Mindanao spokesperson Jorge "Ka Oris" Madlos and 15 Catholic bishops, Muslim ulamas, sectoral leaders and others.
The MILF captured seven government troops in Barangay Tingin-Tinginin, Balo-i, Lanao del Norte on March 6. Their release documents are already being processed. Meanwhile, the only requirement remaining for the release of the CPP's prisoners is confirmation from the Party leadership.
Human rights violations in Central Mindanao worsening
THE HUMAN rights situation in Central Mindanao is worsening. There are up to 41,000 evacuees in Pikit, North Cotabato. Sixteen (14 of them children) have died of measles in cramped evacuation centers since clashes resumed between the AFP and MILF.
Karapatan, the Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA) and Bayan Muna discovered after a fact-finding mission conducted from February 28 to March 4 that at least 38,808 persons (or 60% of Pikit's population) have lost their homes.
Five civilians have been listed as victims of extrajudicial killing (two of them children from Datu Piang, Maguindanao); and six were illegally arrested in Barangay Kidama. One-hundred sixty-one houses were burned down by elements of the 40th IB: 84 in North Cotabato and 77 in Sharif Aguak, Maguindanao. All in all, there have been 35 documented cases of forced evacuation where 12 died; four bombing cases; 10 cases of extrajudicial killing; and 44 cases of pillaging. The destruction of religious structures is likewise widespread.
The Diocese of Kidapawan City also said that even before the latest evacuation, 15,445 families or 62,195 individuals were already cramped into 100 evacuation centers. On March 1, some evacuees tried to return to Sitio Galingayon, Barangay Maksabual in Pikit, but soldiers from the 40th IB set fire to 27 of their houses on March 3.
As a result of this pitiful state of affairs, Karapatan, MCPA, Bayan Muna and health associations have urged Congress to investigate these incidents. The concerned organizations will likewise launch a worldwide campaign to urge Macapagal-Arroyo and Sec. Angelo Reyes of the Department of National Defense to put an immediate stop to military operations in Central Mindanao.
Campaign to defend Sison broadens
THE CAMPAIGN to drop the NPA and Comrade Jose Ma. Sison from the "terrorist" list continues to gain broad support overseas. There is also expanding support for defending Sison's rights as a political refugee.
According to Ruth de Leon of Committee Defend, protest actions continue in various parts of the world to advance Sison's rights. They include demonstrations, pickets, letter and petition barrages, signature campaigns, cultural presentations, fora and lobbying at the European Parliament and US government. As of the present, up to 50,000 persons have signed a declaration of support for Sison to be presented before the European Commission on April 15.
Meanwhile, Sison has gained a new volunteer lawyer in the person of Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Clark founded the International Action Center, which is at the core of the huge mobilizations against the US war on Iraq.
Women oppose US military intervention
THOUSANDS of women took a stand and poured out into the streets on March 8, International Working Women's Day, to tell both George Bush and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of their intense anger and loathing at US imperialism and the puppet republic's violation of national sovereignty. Led by Gabriela, the women called for Macapagal-Arroyo's immediate ouster.
Not only will women become the direct victims of war, they said. US military intervention will likewise worsen sex trafficking and the forcible recruitment of women into the flesh trade. When Balikatan 02-1 was launched last year, there were reports of widespread recruitment of young women (age 13-18) in the urban centers of Davao. The women were bound for Zamboanga where the American troops were based.
Aside from the 3,000 women and children who marched towards Mendiola Bridge in Manila, more than 1,000 members of the Bicol Concerned Women for Nationalism (Bicolana) rallied in front of the 19th IB's camp in Pilar, Sorsogon.
In Borongan, Eastern Samar, 2,000 Catholic nuns and priests, seminarians, other religious sectors, peasants and tricycle drivers marched in the rain. Simultaneous with celebrating women's day, they strongly opposed the impending US war on Iraq.
In Bacolod City, 1,500 women workers joined a noise barrage and a march by the Alliance of Youth Against War (AYAW).
Mass actions were also conducted in Baguio City by Innabuyog-Gabriela, Dinteg Alternative Law Center and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.
Eulogies for Stalin continue
THOUSANDS of people visited the grave of Josef Stalin, communist leader of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on his 50th death anniversary on March 5. Bringing flags of the former USSR, they offered red flowers for a great leader and father of the nation. Most of those who came were veterans of the Second World War and soldiers who defended the USSR against occupation by the fascist Hitler.
Many Russians and other citizens of the former USSR, especially the elderly, look up to Stalin as a good and humane leader. Under his leadership, the USSR blossomed as a powerful socialist nation.
Stalin succeeded Vladimir Lenin as secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) upon the latter's death in 1924. Prior to this, he served as editor of the CPSU's official newspaper Pravda. From 1928 to 1941, he implemented a series of five-year plans that caused the growth and development of industry and agriculture in the USSR.
TESDA spreading prostitution
THE ROLE of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in the proliferation of prostitution was bared in an exposé this March. TESDA is the government agency tasked with approving the Artist's Record Book (ARB) which supposedly certifies that overseas performing artist applicants are skilled in performing arts such as dancing and singing. Most of those who would like to acquire ARBs are applicants for entertainer jobs in Japan. Almost all of them end up as prostitutes once they reach Japan.
According to the Development Action for Women Network (DAWN) which exposed this anomaly, applicants without artistic skills pay up to P45,000 just to be able to obtain ARBs. DAWN said that the government serves as a pimp due to this practice.
TESDA Director General Dante Liban's role in this anomaly was likewise exposed. Liban himself bragged that he signed 55,000 ARBs in his first eight months in office. Many of these ARBs, said DAWN, were pre-signed and sold for huge amounts to desperate applicants.
Liban was forced to resign on March 14 due to intense criticism.
| 
