News
CPP assails Palparan promotion
THE Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) assailed the promotion to major general of Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan, dubbed the "butcher of Mindoro."
In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said that Palparan's promotion typifies the Arroyo regime's terrorist war: "It victimizes the people and rewards its fascist dogs." Palparan is among 16 military officers promoted effective October 20.
Aside from Palparan's bloody record in Mindoro, he also has cases of summary killings and other human rights violations in the Cordillera.
Ka Roger said that the revolutionary movement will ensure that the thousands of victims of Palparan's brutality will realize their long sought-after justice.
NPA in Southern Mindanao refutes military's lies
THE Merardo Arce Command (MAC) of the New People's Army (NPA) in Southern Mindanao refuted claims by the 404th Infantry Brigade that the NPA in Compostela Valley would be crushed in six months because the guerrilla army was supposedly running out of leaders and was suffering from low morale. The military had claimed that Ka Lando, a well-known and respected NPA commander had left the revolutionary movement after embezzling Party funds and was now enriching himself by engaging in illegal gold mining operations.
In a statement dated October 11, MAC spokesperson Rigoberto Sanchez said that Ka Lando as well as the unit of the Pulang Bagani Command that he leads continue to actively carry out their revolutionary tasks.
Sanchez also refuted the military's claim that nine guerrillas were killed in a defensive battle on September 22. He said only two fighters were killed in the encounter and that the military also captured and tortured Ka Jun-Jun Acog, a Red fighter, forcing him to act as their guide during that operation.
NPA slips through military, police cordon in Tarlac
RED fighters under the New People's Army Nelson Mesina Command (NMC) successfully slipped through a cordon of 250 military and police troops in an eight-hectare sugarcane plantation after clashes in Sitio Umangan, Barangay Balite, Pura, Tarlac from October 18 to 19.
According to NMC spokesperson Serafin Magdiwang, all of the Red fighters were able to return safely to their guerrilla base without sustaining a single casualty with the help of the people. This is contrary to claims by 69th IB commander Lt. Col. Ricardo Visaya that they had killed seven guerrillas in the encirclement operation conducted by troops from the 69th IB and 703rd Brigade and the 312nd and 313rd Provincial Mobile Group of the Tarlac PNP.
Police disperse workers�, farmers' rally in Cavite
POLICE and firefighters violently dispersed a rally of about 1,000 peasants, workers and members of other militant organizations on October 18 in Trece Martires, Cavite. The rally held in front of the Cavite capitol was launched to assail Gov. Ireneo Maliksi for allowing massive land-use conversion and repressive management in the province's industrial enclaves.
According to the Kamagsasaka-Ka, an association of peasants in Cavite, farmers were losing their livelihood because Maliksi allowed big businessmen to convert agricultural lands into subdivisions and industrial and commercial enclaves. On the other hand, the Cavite Solidarity Workers blasted Maliksi for his failure to protect the interests of workers in industrial enclaves.
The demonstrators also demanded the pullout of Philippine Marines and Philippine Air Force troops from Maragondon town, saying they were unleashing terrorism in the area.
Meanwhile, thousands of peasants led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas held rallies in Metro Manila, Masbate, Lepazpi City and elsewhere in the Philippines on October 21 to assail policies of the Arroyo regime causing widespread hunger in the country.
Leyte Anakpawis leader murdered
LEYTE Anakpawis party regional coordinator Samuel Bandilla, 45, was ambushed and killed on the night of October 15 in Tacloban City. Bandilla is the sixth Anakpawis coordinator killed since November 2003.
Engr. Bernardo Devaras, 42, one of Bandilla's companions, was seriously wounded and is now confined in a hospital. Devaras was driving a motorcycle with Bandilla at the back seat when they were both shot by two unknown assailants. They were on their way home from a picket conducted by employees inside the compound of the Leyte Metropolitan Water District (LMWD) in Barangay Mabini.
The picket, which had been going on for days, was being held to protest the LMWD management's termination of 25 employees in the first week of October. The wounded Devaras was one of the terminated employees.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno-NAFLU, of which Bandilla was also the coordinator for Metro Tacloban, supported the employees' action. Bandilla and Devaras strongly assailed the LMWD management during the picket, particularly lambasting the anomalous dealings of its manager Ranulfo Feliciano, who was also known to maintain many goons.
Prior to this, continuing mass actions had also been launched against Feliciano to protest a series of water rate hikes and the LMWD's poor services.
Increase in support price for palay pressed
MEMBERS of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) trooped to the regional office of the Department of Agriculture in San Fernando, Pampanga on October 15 to demand an increase in the government support price for palay (unhusked rice) from P8 to P15 per kilo.
According to the AMGL, the support price for palay has been pegged at P6 to P7.50 per kilo for about a decade now while fertilizer prices continued to rise. On the other hand, the government allows members of rice cartels to sell rice at prices of up to P24 per kilo.
Instead of supporting local agriculture by providing subsidies for rice farmers, the government has been promoting rice importation and the use of hybrid seeds, which, though high-yielding, are nonetheless more costly because peasants are obliged to buy a new set of seeds with each planting.
In related news, over 50 peasants picketed the office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) in Sto. Tomas, Pampanga on October 13 to demand compensation for their lands that have been inundated since the Cong Dadong Dam began operation in 2002. The dam, whose name derives from that of Gloria Arroyo's father Diosdado (Cong Dadong) Macapagal, flooded 93 hectares of land previously planted to tomatoes and corn by 81 tenants. The tenants said they were promised a compensation of P15 per square meter or P75,000 per hectare but were paid only P5 per square meter (or P50,000 per hectare).
NDF condemns media repression in Eastern Visayas
THE National Democratic Front in Eastern Visayas (NDF-EV) strongly condemned the military's suppression of media people who attended an NDF-EV press conference in April.
In a statement dated October 7, NDF-EV spokesperson Fr. Santiago Salas assailed the 8th ID for accusing the press people of "dancing with the enemy." Maj. Neneveigh Alcovindas, civil relations chief of the 8th ID, also banned media people from communicating with "enemies of the state."
Fr. Salas called on the mass media in the region to take a stand for press freedom and oppose the AFP�s repressive moves.
39 million Americans live below poverty line
UP to 39 million Americans, including 20 million children, live below the poverty line. This is according to a study made by the Annie E. Casey, Ford and Rockefeller foundations released on October 12.
The study said that those living below the poverty threshhold had incomes below the $8.84 per hour needed for a family of four to live decently. The current minimum wage in the US is $5.15 per hour.
Conditions are certainly much worse today since the data used in the study were based on US census results for 2002.
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