FARMERS ROMNICK Vargas, Juan Dikino and Alden Javier were arrested by 2nd IB and police elements in Barangay Cabas-an, Aroroy, Masbate on Abril 10. The three were apprehended after an encounter between the said troopers and an NPA unit. The victims were accused of being members of the people’s militia. On the same day, the […]
“We’ll die from either two things: hunger or the virus. I think we’ll die earlier because of hunger.” It’s been a month since Rodrigo Duterte implemented the militarist Luzon lockdown. The number of Covid-positive individuals rapidly increased during the period. On April 20, the total number of infections and deaths reached 6,459 and 428, respectively. […]
The Armed Forces of the Philippines is relentlessly fabricating stories to justify its counterinsurgency campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic. Among its biggest lies was the false information peddled by the 8th ID that Red fighters “robbed” the food aid intended for residents of Sitio Bangon, Guinmaayohan in Balangiga, Samar on April 7. Even town officials […]
WORKERS’ PROTESTS FOR wage increases, job security and protection on workplaces are erupting across the globe, amid reports of Covid-19 outbreaks in factories and businesses allowed to operate during the pandemic. In the US, workers from Amazon, Wholefoods and Instacart protested last March to demand that they be given just wages, additional hazard pay and […]
At least 26 provinces in Visayas and Mindanao declared their respective lockdowns simultaneous with the Duterte regime’s implementation of a Luzon lockdown. Commerce and trade in these areas are paralyzed as the transportation of people and products is restricted. Farmers were also forced to halt production in the countryside. Even areas without lockdowns are also […]
The Covid-19 spreads rapidly in the cities because of congestion and close interlinks among its residents. Eventually, it will reach the countryside as peasants leave their areas to sell their harvests and buy necessities in the cities. Workers and investors of mining, plantations and other commercial operations also come and go. Experts believe that the […]
THE FILIPINO NURSES United demanded the Duterte regime to immediately carry out mass hiring and training of nurses instead of just asking them to volunteer amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The group demanded that nurses must be accorded with just wages and benefits with job security. They also called for the regularization of thousands of contractual […]
State forces continued to perpetrate cases of human rights violations even amid the public health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From April 6-19, at least 19 farmers were arrested in various parts of the country. A peasant was killed and a community was bombed in Mindanao during the same period. Residents of Sitio Kapanal, […]
SUCCUMBING TO THE pressure of US Pres. Donald Trump, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other oil-producing countries agreed on April 12 to cut production by 10% or 9.7 million barrels per day from May to June. This will be the highest oil production cut in history. The reduction aims to arrest […]
Relatives of vulnerable political prisoners filed a formal petition before the Supreme Court on April 8 to call for their immediate release amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak, there has been a mounting clamor for the release of prisoners especially the elderly, sick, pregnant and nursing mothers, even temporarily, as they are highly vulnerable […]