News
Military spies captured by NPA in Sultan Kudarat
The Valentin Palamine Command (VPC) of the New People's Army in Far South Mindanao region took as prisoners four operatives of the Military Intelligence Group and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (MIG-ISAFP).
VPC spokesperson Dencio Madrigal announced the capture of Sgt. Jeremias Rosete, Sgt. Pepito Simbulan, Wilfredo Maldecir and Herminia Sorongon. Rosete is an element of the 3rd Marine Battalion Landing Team of the 2nd Marine Brigade and deployed with MIG-Region 12 as a counter-intelligence operative. Simbulan is an element of MIG 11. Maldecir is a former agent of the 601st Brigade, while Sorongon is a member of various organizations connected with the military. They were seized on September 4 in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat.
According to Madrigal, the agents were posing as NPA guerrillas when they were captured. Confiscated from them were a cal .45 pistol, a cellphone, two motorcycles and various IDs.
Madrigal said that negotiations for the release of the four agents must be coursed through the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
NPA raids Army detachment in Kalinga
An element of the Citizen's Armed Forces Geographical Unit or CAFGU was killed when Red fighters raided a military detachment in Tinglayan, Pinukpuk, Kalinga on September 24. Three others, including detachment commander SSgt. Zaldy Cari�o, were wounded.
Six Garands and three M14s were confiscated by the guerrillas. The raid was launched at around 2:30 in the afternoon. Reinforcement troops from the 21st IB arrived too late to assist the soldiers.
Meanwhile, on August 29, a sergeant belonging to the Charlie Coy of the 21st IB was killed and three others were wounded in an ambush by three fighters of the Lejo Cawilan Command of the NPA. The ambush was launched at around 11:30 in the morning along the Libang-Mabaca-Gawaan boundary in Balbalan, Kalinga.
The enemy forces scampered and hid. Reinforcements from the 21st IB came at around 3:00 p.m. but the Red fighters had already safely retreated. Due to intense fear, the enemy troops were unable to fire back. They thought they were being ambushed by a big group of Red fighters.
Policeman killed in NPA raid in Quezon
A policeman was killed and another was wounded when Red fighters raided a PNP checkpoint in Barangay Talipan, Pagbilao, Quezon on August 31.
The guerrillas arrived at Barangay Talipan aboard four vehicles. Three fighters directed traffic along the highway to keep civilians from being hit in the attack.
Ka Parago freed
Comrade Leoncio "Ka Parago" Pitao was released on September 16 after more than a year and ten months in detention.
Ka Parago was arrested by AFP intelligence operatives in his house at Bago Gallera, Talomo District, Davao on November 2, 1999. This was a few months after he surfaced as the custodian of two prisoners of war, Brig. Gen. Victor Obillo and Capt. Eduardo Montealto, who were captured by the NPA in February 1999.
Ka Parago was detained in Camp Aguinaldo under the custody of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
30,000 rally for P125 Wage Increase
Thirty-thousand workers led by the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) held a rally at Mendiola on September 12 to press for a P125 nationwide across-the-board increase in workers' daily wages. Delegations of workers from Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon and other places participated in the rally. Bayan Muna congressional representatives Crispin Beltran, Satur Ocampo and Liza Masa likewise attended the rally.
Aside from demanding for a P125 wage increase for workers, the rallyists also demanded a P3,000 across-the-board increase in the monthly salary of government employees. The latter were represented by COURAGE and its umbrella organization, the Alliance of Public Sector Employees (APSE).
Rallyists brought an effigy of Macapagal-Arroyo, which portrayed her as having renegedon a promise she had made when she was still vice president-that she would support the workers' demand for a P125 wage increase.
Simultaneous with the big rally at Metro Manila, militant workers and other democratic sectors also launched demonstrations in other parts of the country.
Martial Law Anniversay commemorated
In memory of tens of thousands of people who were tortured, killed and became victims of forcible disappearance under the Marcos dictatorship, hundreds of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan members marched to Mendiola on September 2 to commemorate the 29th anniversary of martial law.
The march began at 10:30 in the morning. Demonstrators carried an effigy of Macapagal-Arroyo clad in military attire and with an iron fist. According to the demonstrators, this signifies how the Filipino people remain in the clutches of state militarism and terrorism. The rallyists criticized the pervasiveness of "remnants of martial law" like Panfilo Lacson. They exposed the intensifying violation of human rights, such as the summary execution of Wilfredo Mananghaya, head of BAYAN in San Miguel, Bulacan. They cried for justice for all human rights victims from the time of martial law to the present. They also condemned the "counter-terrorist" war led by the US.
Planting of Bt-CORN in South Cotabato and Isabel opposed by farmers
Mass protest actions against the planting of Bt-corn and other GMO (genetically modified organisms) crops are spreading in various parts of the country.
At the end of August, around 500 farmers and others led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Masipag and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan entered a 1,700-square meter experimental farm in Barangay Maltana, Tampakan, South Cotabato and uprooted Bt-corn crops planted there. The Bt-corn variety has been transplanted with a gene from the Bacillus thurigensis (Bt) bacteria, which generates a toxin that is lethal to the Asian corn borer pest. Because of this, Bt-corn is capable of producing a pesticide against this insect. But researches indicate that Bt-corn was created without due considerion for the safety of consumers. It is also harmful to the environment. Bt-corn was created by Monsanto, a US imperialist agribusiness company. Monsanto is also the leading cultivator of soybeans (also genetically modified) in Brazil. Monsanto is attempting to penetrate and dominate agribusiness in the Philippines by planting and selling Bt-corn seeds and other types of GMOs in the country.
Prior to this, a rally was held in Koronadal City to oppose the government's grant of a permit for the conduct of GMO experiments. After the rally, the demonstrators proceeded to Barangay Maltana, Tampakan to inspect the place where Monsanto's experiment on GMOs was being conducted. The rallyists discovered that the experiment was being conducted on an open farm. The plantation was bounded only by a wire fence, contrary to guidelines from the National Committee on Bio-safety of the Philippines that experimental farmlands must be surrounded by no less than a 10-foot screen made of synthetic cloth to prevent plants from contaminating crops in other farms in the area. Angered, the people spontaneously entered the farm to uproot the plants.
In Echague, Isabela, 800 people launched a caravan to protest Monsanto's experimental planting of Bt-corn in Barangay Carulay, Echague. The protest action was led by the Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon iti Isabela (Association of Peasants in Isabela). The Diocese of Ilagan, Isabela also issued a pastoral letter on the issue. To coordinate the province-wide struggle against GMOs, the Anti-GMO Multi-Sectoral Alliance of Isabela (AGMAIS) was also formed.
Indigenous Peoples and National Minorities Week commemorated in 3-day protest in Manila
More than 500 national minorities from various parts of the country and 400 supporters launched three days of colorful protest actions, camp-outs and pickets in commemoration of Indigenous Peoples and National Minorities (IP-NM) Week. IP-NM was celebrated in the country for the very first time, in accordance with the United Nations declaration in 1993 marking August 11 as "Indigenous People's Day".
The Katipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP or Federation of Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines) led the three-day protest. The Cordillera People's Alliance, Innabuyog-Gabriela (organization of women in the Cordillera) , Dumagat and Agta from Cagayan Valley, members of the Central Luzon Aeta Alliance (CLAA), Dumagat from Southern Tagalog and Mangyan from Mindoro attended the protest. The mass action was supported by Anakbayan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Bayan Muna and its representatives in Congress.
From August 13-15, the demonstrators expressed their firm opposition to and struggle against various policies of the reactionary regime that are antipeople and anti-national minority. Among these are the grabbing of their ancestral lands and destruction of their livelihood brought about by antipeople and anti-national minority policies and "development projects", widespread militarization of their communities and other forms of oppression and discrimination against them.
They firmly demanded the scrapping of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) because these are deceptive instruments that merely conceal and further their oppression and exploitation. They assailed the support given by IPRA and NCIP to the Philippine Mining Act, giant dam projects such as the San Roque Multipurpose Dam, National Integrated Protected Area Systems (NIPAS) and agroforestry projects that advance the interests of big private foreign and local companies and deprive the national minorities of their right to their ancestral lands and traditional livelihoods.
For three days, the national minorities marched and protested in front of Camp Aguinaldo, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples national offices as well as Malaca�ang. Their request to dialogue with high-ranking government officials was not taken seriously. They were instead faced by lower-ranking officials who scoffed at and belittled them.
Even if high-ranking officials of government refused their request for a serious dialogue, the demonstrators were able to express to the government and the public that the significant voice of 12 million minorities could not be ignored. They stressed that their struggle will intensify for as long as their rights are not recognized and their just demands remain ungranted. They were heartened by the vast support given them by a large number of non-minority progressives.
GMA displays puppetry to Japanese imperialism
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shamelessly displayed her puppetry when she visited Japan on September 12-16. She boasted that her regime will make "certain" that Japanese capitalists would earn profit should they invest in the Philippines.
"We will do all that is necessary. for you to succeed. because we want you to stay with us" was Macapagal-Arroyo's affirmation to the Japanese capitalists who attended the Philippines-Japan Economic Cooperation at Hotel New Otani in Tokyo.
Macapagal-Arroyo assured the Japanese capitalists that her government favors capitalists over workers. She boasted that the recent strike at the Toyota Motors Philippines was resolved in favor of the capitalists.
Foul smell of Lacson's crimes reeking
Sen. Panfilo Lacson and his minions' notoriety continues to be exposed. Angelo "Ador" Mawanay and Mary Ong, former civilian agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), named Lacson as the brains, and the PAOCTF as the center, of the drug, kidnap for ransom and other bigtime crime syndicates in the country. Lacson's connections with international drug syndicates were also revealed.
This was followed by Col. Victor Corpus' accounts regarding millions of dollars in deposits in US and Hongkong banks under the name of Lacson, his wife Alice and spouses Joseph and Luisa Estrada.
In related news, the Court of Appeals has dismissed Lacson's case on the salvaging of 11 suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng syndicate.
TXTPOWER formed against Globe and Smart's avarice
Cellphone users and cyberactivists (those who use the internet to further their activism) recently launched TXTPOWER, a coalition of individual cellphone users. TXTPOWER's immediate objective is to oppose and struggle against the plan of the Globe and Smart cartel to reduce free text messages in prepaid plans by 40-60%.
Included in the consumer group's agenda is the struggle against Globe and Smart's greed for additional profits, condemnation of these companies' inefficient service and exposition of the companies' false claims of bankruptcy. The group said that the latter runs contrary to claims in the two companies' websites, where Globe declared a P1.07 billion net profit and Smart P1.8 billion for the first six months of 2001.
With the lapse of the 20-day TRO (temporary restraining order) issued by the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City against the reduction of free text messages by Smart and Globe, their plans are set to be implemented.
Estrada continuously delaying his trial
Estrada's lawyers continue to delay the speedy opening and conduct of the trial for the plunder case against Joseph Estrada, Jinggoy Estrada and Atty. Edward Serapio.
On September 13, Estrada's lawyers repeatedly delayed the signing of the pretrial agreement which states the rules to be followed during the trial. Along with this, Estrada's lawyers are figuring out ways to nullify one by one the cases filed against him. Lately, they have asked for the invalidation of the case against the illegal use of alias. Prior to this, the Sandiganbayan had issued a series of decisions favoring Estrada. This includes the ban against freezing the operations of Estrada's dummy corporations. The Supreme Court has also banned the live coverage of the trial, which suppresses the right of the people to monitor it closely.
ABU SAYYAF-AFP connivance exposed
Witnesses from Lamitan, Basilan emerged one after the other to support Fr. Cirilo Nacorda's testimony on the connivance between the AFP and the Abu Sayyaf. Due to this conspiracy, the Abu Sayyaf has consistently escaped despite the deployment of thousands of troops against them. Most of the arms used by the Abu Sayyaf come directly from the AFP. Nacorda and other witnesses also insisted that they had proof that the ransom money paid to the Abu Sayyaf for the release of some captives were coursed through the high-ranking officers of the AFP and that these AFP officers got their share of the money.
According to Nacorda, the bandit group escaped from the AFP cordon in Lamitan on June 2-3 after officers ordered the retreat of military troops from the Abu Sayyaf's escape route. This testimony was supported by other witnesses. Nacorda pointed at Brig. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, former commander of the 1st Infantry Division and Col. Juvenal Narcise, former commander of the 103rd Infantry Battalion as some of those who received bribe money from the Abu Sayyaf.
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