Gerry Albert Corpuz presents

This is Gerry Albert Corpuz and this is my life and political journey to the world of class struggle and class emancipation

Pamalakaya urges CBCP to make a stand on Esperon’s extension, four-months of bloody war against Reds

One of the groups opposed to the extension of the term of outgoing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. today asked the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to make a stand against the extension and the Esperon’s plan to launch a bloody war against communist guerillas in the next four mounts.

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) personally appealed to CBCP President and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo to issue a statement rebuking the term extension and Esperon’s all-out war against the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“Esperon’s declaration of all-out war is against the CBCP gospel calling for the resumption of peace talks between the government and communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines. While the Church is asking for peace, Mr. Esperon and Malacañang are talking of a renewed bloodbath,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The NDF leadership expressed willingness to revive the stalled talks, adding that conduct of informal exploratory talks with the Macapagal-Arroyo administration might pave way for the resumption of the peace talks. The communist peace negotiators proposed that the exploratory talks be held in Oslo, Norway, which is the third party facilitator in the peace talks between the government and the communist group.

As a third party resource group in the peace talks that provides inputs for both the government and the NDFP regarding the Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reforms (CASER), Pamalakaya said the resumption of the peace talks is necessary so that the government and the NDFP could start discussing the socio-economic reforms, including the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill or House Bill 3059 filed by militant party list lawmakers in Congress led by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran.

“Esperon’s extension and his senseless and unjust military campaign in the next four months will spoil all the collective efforts seeking to revive the stalled peace talks between the government and the NDFP. Mr. Esperon is a major political obstacle in the peace process, that’s why it is important for the CBCP to denounce his extension and penchant for state terror to clear the smoke and lead the communist rebels back to the negotiating table,” Pamalakaya said.



Pamalakaya said there are 17 written bilateral agreements in connection with the peace talks signed by both parties. They are the Joint Hague Declaration (Sept.1, 1992), The Breukelen Joint Statement (June 14, 1994), the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (Feb.24, 1995), the Joint Agreement on the Ground Rules of the Formal Meetings Between the GRP and the NDPF panels (Feb.26, 1995), the Agreement on Additional Implementing Rules Pertaining to the Documents of Identification (June 26, 1996), the Supplemental Agreement to the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees (March 18, 1997).

The Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (March 16, 1998), the agreement on the Additional Implementing Rules on JASIG pertaining to the Security of Personnel and Consultations in Furtherance of Peace Negotiations (March 16, 1998), the Joint Agreement in Support of Socioeconomic Projects of Private Development Organizations and Institutes (March 16, 1998) and the Joint Statement on the Resumption of Peace Talks (March 9, 2001).

The other agreements were the Joint Agreement on the Formation, Sequence and Operationalization of the Reciprocal Working Committees of the GRP and the NDFP Negotiating Panels (June 26, 1995), the Oslo Joint Communiqué (April 30, 2001), the Oslo Joint Statement (Feb.14, 2004), the Second Oslo Joint Statement (April 3, 2004) and the Partial Supplemental Guidelines for the Joint Monitoring Committee (June 25, 2004).

“If Malacañang is really heeding the Church’s call for peace it should honor all these bilateral agreements and quit from imposing preconditions that would keep the NDFP away from the negotiating table,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 03:29 | link | comments (2) |

Militants dare new Comelec chief Jose Melo : Probe Esperon on Hello Garci scandal

Leftwing militants belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday challenged newly appointed chief of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) retired Justice Jose Melo to revive the Hello Garci election fraud scandal by investigating the alleged participation of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr., whose term was extended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for three months.

“For a fresh start, we dare the former Supreme Court Justice to re-open the Hello Garci scandal and summon General Esperon to the witness stand regarding allegations that he was part of the Palace cheating machinery in the last May 2004 presidential elections,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“This is a tough task to follow, but Justice Melo has to do this to show that he is a credible Comelec chief and not just a willing puppet of President Arroyo, the central figure of that cheating electoral escapade that happened in May 2004 elections,” Hicap added.

President Arroyo has extended the term of Esperon for another three months, while Melo was named by the Chief Executive as the new chairman of Comelec, currently suffering a wholesale credibility crisis for alleged election fraud committed in May 2004 and May 2007 national elections.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap admitted that his group has deep reservation over the appointment of Melo, saying the former Supreme Court Justice absolved the President of her crimes against the people and against humanity in relation to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of leftwing activists over the past six years when he chaired the government-led Melo Commission tasked to investigate the killings.

“We will not engage in wait and see attitude. Chairman Melo has to prove to the highly skeptical public that he is the right man for the job, and the re-opening of the Hello Garci scandal and investigation of Esperon and other key Comelec officials like former Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano is a must,” the Pamalakaya leader said.

Pamalakaya also dared the new Comelec chief to investigate alleged election fraud committed against militant party list groups like Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party, saying hundreds of cases of election fraud, including partisan politics staged by military officials and elements against leftwing party lists were documented by various election watchdogs.

“Melo failed to impress the Filipino public when he led the Melo Commission. He suffered in comparison with UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston as far as ferreting out the truth on the issue of political killings is concern. The re-opening of Hello Garci is a make or break for him,” the militant group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 03:28 | link | comments |

LP 2010 presidentiable insists 6-month suspension of VAT on oil as relief to soaring prices
Senator Roxas still none committal on repeal of oil deregulation law
By Gerry Albert Corpuz, Bulatlat.com

BALAY KALINAW, UP-Diliman, Quezon City- Asserting that the repeal of the controversial oil deregulation law is a long and complicated process, Liberal Party’s top presidential contender and incumbent Senator Mar Roxas over the weekend instead proposed Senate Bill 1962 suspending the 12 percent Value Added Tax imposed on oil to cushion impact of sharp increases in the prices of petroleum products worldwide.

The senator and LP President made the pitch for his pet bill on VAT on oil at the forum billed People’s Response To Rising Oil Prices sponsored by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and the People’s Unity Against Oil Price Hikes.

Speaking before a jampack crowd of sectoral and multisectoral leaders, Senator Roxas admitted that as of now, the legislative measure suspending the VAT on oil is the only concrete measure he could offer to the Filipino people and gravely affected sectors at this point in time to offset the economic impact of rising prices of oil products in the world market.

“Senate Roxas is none committal. More appropriately speaking, he is not supporting the politically correct position of mass organizations to scrap permanently the 12% VAT on oil, the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law and the nationalization of oil industry,” according to one of the leaders who was asked by Bulatlat.com to give his comment on Roxas statement.

However, the activist leader who talked on the condition of anonymity, said the six-month suspension of VAT oil could still provide some economic relief specially to direct consumers of oil like jeepney drivers, liquefied petroleum gas users and small fisherfolk all over the country.

“But it is still not a permanent solution. It is only good for the mid-year episode of 2008. After six months, what’s next?” the militant leader added.

Roxas, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means said the purpose of SB 1762 is to provide immediate relief to millions of Filipinos severely affected by the seemingly unstoppable increases in the prices of oil products in the world market.

The 2010 presidentiable said after six months, the Senate and the affected sectors could start talking about lasting solutions to address the surging of prices of petroleum products and what to do to existing cartel in the oil industry.

The senator rebuked Malacañang economic managers’ doomsday scenario’ once SB 1762 is passed by Congress, stressing that the P 30-B that would slashed from the government’s tax collections merely represent 0.4 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, and such would not have a strong impact on the government.

Roxas also said the government has no credibility in spending people’s taxes and it is be better if the P 30-B VAT on oil would be spent by the people and consumers, rather than spent by the Arroyo presidency.
Four bills

While Senator Roxas has kept himself satisfied with SB 1726, militant lawmakers belonging to Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela Women’s Party last year filed four separate bills that address comprehensively the issues and concerns on rising prices of oil products and the oil industry in general.

In his 15-minute power point presentation, Bayan Muna party list Rep. Teodoro Casiño said he and Reps. Satur Ocampo, Crispin Beltran, Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan last year filed four house bills aimed to stop the transnational plunder and exploitation of the cartel in the oil industry.

The first bill filed was House Bill 1724 repealing Republic Act 8479 otherwise known as the Downstream Oil Deregulation Act of 1998. Under the bill, the repeal of the oil deregulation law would be followed by immediate steps such as the reversal of the privatization of Petron, centralized procurement and the establishment of a buffer fund in connection with the institution of price controls on petroleum products and the funds would be used to mitigate the impact of sudden price hikes and replenish using earnings from its centralized procurement, refining and retailing operations.

On November 6, 2007, the militant party list lawmakers filed the other three bills, namely House Bill 3029 known as an Act Regulating the Downstream Petroleum Industry and For Other Related Purposes that would lead to the creation of Petroleum Regulatory Council and the establishment of the Oil Price Buffer Fund, House Bill 3030, an Act Instituting Centralized Procurement of Petroleum in the Country that would lead to the establishment of Philippine National Oil Company-National Petroleum Exchange.

The PNOC-National Petroleum Exchange would assure that the indigenous petroleum and petroleum-based resources shall be primarily for the benefit of the general welfare, as well as proper, adequate and continuous supply of crude oil and refined petroleum products under the most economic and competitive terms possible considering all available sources of supply, while ensuring the public reasonable prices, prevent monopoly from exploiting the people and minimize cost and outflow of foreign exchange involved in the operations of oil industry.

Meanwhile, House Bill 3031 or an Act Rationalizing Petron Corporation is meant for the full-blown nationalization of Petron to effectively and decisively control and stop the oil cartel and monopoly pricing.

“We expect a major political battle royale with these pro-people four bills in Congress, so we should rally the people behind these bills authored and dictated by the people’s interest and welfare,” Casiño said.






Effects and benefits




The left wing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday said around 710,000 out of 1.3 million small fisherfolk or nearly 55 percent of Filipino fisherfolk population is severely affected by soaring prices of petroleum products.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said the seemingly uncontrollable hikes in the prices of petroleum products has become an “across the nation nightmare” among small fishermen who use an average of 5 liters to 10 liters of regular gasoline everyday to enable them to sail and fish to rough seas within the municipal fishing waters.

“A mere report about the prices of oil petroleum products could breach the $ 100 per barrel mark has become a terrible psychological thriller among our poor fishers, what more if prices of petroleum products, specifically regular gasoline reaches an average P 50 per liter? We have a social volcano here that is ready to explode anytime,” Hicap said.

Based on Pamalakaya study said fisherfolk owners of 177, 627 motorized small fishing boats across who employ 2-3 small fishermen could no longer bear the brunt of rising prices of petroleum products, and such scenario may soon compel small boat owners either to reduce hours of fishing from an average of 8 to 12 hours to 4 to 8 hours or abandon their 4 to 16 horsepower motors, and go back to paddles because of high and unaffordable prices of petroleum products.

"That's because they could no longer afford the cost of fuel, particularly regular gasoline now pegged at more than P 40 per liter," the group said. At present, there are 292,180 non-motorized boats out of 469,807 registered bancas in all the country's municipalities or 62% of all registered municipal bancas all over the country.

Small Filipino fisherfolk use at least 5 liters to 10 liters of regular gasoline, costing them P 200 to
P 450 per fishing operation based on current prices of petroleum products in the country. As per fishing operation, the normal average fish catch is 5 kilos to 10 kilos at P 40 per kilo of fish or roughly P 200 to P 400 a day.

"The oil cartel is making money from our fisherfolk oil consumers, by making them slaves and perpetual buyers of their overpriced and highly taxed regular gasoline, courtesy of their cartelistic operations, the Oil Deregulation Law, and their patented practice of corporate exploitation," the group said.

Pamalakaya pressed the government to immediately impose price controls on prices to caution the impact of rising prices of petroleum products in the world market and remove the 12 percent expanded value added tax levied on petroleum products.

The group said the next step is to repeal the Oil Deregulation Law that allows oil companies like Petron Corp., Shell and Caltex Corp. to jack up prices of petroleum products whenever these oil companies want. Pamalakaya said after repealing the deregulation law, the government should proceed with the nationalization of oil industry to make it service oriented, rather than super profit oriented. Pamalakaya said all the three steps can be done in less than a month if the government has political will to confront the oil cartel. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 03:27 | link | comments |

Militants asked George Clooney, other UN messengers of peace to back revival of peace talks between GRP- NDF

A top official of the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday asked Hollywood actor George Clooney and other messengers of peace named by the United Nations (UN) to support the call for the resumption of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the communist-led National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap appealed to Clooney, as well as to another Hollywood great Michael Douglas, musicians Daniel Barenboim, Midoro Goto and Yo-Yo Ma, authors Paulo Coelho and Elie Wiesel ,naturalist Jane Goodall and Olympic equestrian Princess Haya of Jordan to support the revival of the stalled negotiations between the Philippine government and the NDF- an umbrella organization of underground organizations, that include the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and its armed wing- the New People’s Army.

Clooney, 46, was named messenger of peace by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for his active involvement in the cases of internal refugees in Darfur, Sudan. The actor-director who was won an Oscar for his role in “Syriana” was noted for his advocacy focusing public attention on crucial international political and social issues.

The multi-awarded actor has used his status to raise funds for internal refugees through his campaign “Not on Our Watch” and draw attention to the crisis in Darfur and Western Sudan.

“As messengers of peace and citizens of the world concerned on the plight of internal refugees in every corner of the globe, the revival of the peace talks between the GRP and the NDFP will provide the venue to discuss the sorry plight of internal refugees in the Philippines,” Hicap said.

The Pamalakaya chair said his group will write Clooney and the rest of UN peace messengers asking for their support for the resumption of the talks between the GRP and the NDFP, adding it would include the recent development about the initiative of the influential church groups in the country led by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP0 and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) to act as mediators for talks resumption.

Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said during the meeting of various catholic organizations and the NCCP in Tagaytay in November last year, said that one of the key issues that would resolve the current armed conflict is the address on land problem by giving land to the tillers.

“We will tell this welcome news about the church people’s move to convince the two opposing belligerent forces in the ongoing civil war to meet and talk peace again,” Hicap said.

Citing the annual report prepared by the human rights watchdog Karapatan, the militant group said from January 1 to October 31, 2007, some 7,542 individuals mostly rural women and peasant children were forced to become internal refugees after they were forced to leave their farming villages because of intense military counter-insurgency operations conducted by the government to defeat the communist guerillas in the countryside.

Pamalakaya said the report excluded cases of internal refugees recorded from 2001 to 2006, which is covered by the first six years of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“The mass evacuation of rural people like farmers, indigenous people and fisherfolk has been going on for the last six years courtesy of Mrs. Arroyo’s penchant for bloodbath and all-out war. We hope the UN stable of peace messengers could bring this concern before members of the international community for proper action,” the militant group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 10:51 | link | comments (1) |

Leftists assail GMA entourage of 90 people to Switzerland
Very Imeldific, says Pamalakaya

Leftwing activists belonging fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Wednesday described President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s seven-day trip to Switzerland as “very Imeldific” and a “brazen waste of taxpayers’ money”.

“We don’t know how much the Philippine Airlines will charge Malacañang for its chartered plane tapped to bring GMA and 89 others from Manila to Zurich and vice versa,, but based on our computation, the prevailing rate for a round-trip ticket to Europe is over 1,500 US dollars, and that means each person will be charged roughly P 75,000 or P6.75 M in taxpayers’ money,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“Excluding hotel accommodations and pocket money for all members of the presidential group, the amount Malacañang would spend for this unproductive trip would cost not less than P 20 million in public funds. It is very Imeldific,” Hicap said alluding Mrs. Arroyo’s latest travel to Europe to those many trips conducted by former First Lady Imelda Marcos during the 14 years of Marcos dictatorship.

“What will a group of 90 people will do in Zurich? Are they going to hold a pre-Valentine party there? We don’t see any rational or logical justification of such a huge entourage, unless they are hired by the Swiss government as observers to the yearly Ski racing event in the mountains of Switzerland. But then again, it is impossible,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Palace top officials said the reason why President Arroyo is going to Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland is part of the government’s strategy of global engagement to cushion the impact of weakening US economy on the Philippines.

In her departure statement, Mrs. Arroyo vowed to entice more investments, trade and cooperation by showcasing the advantages and economic upsurge of the Philippines due to the reforms her government had initiated.

“While President Arroyo and company are enjoying a seven day Swiss holiday courtesy of the people’s hard-earned taxes, 70 million Filipinos are left struggling to survive on P 110 per day. Their wholesale misery is further compounded by problems of landlessness, injustice and almost nil basic social services,” Pamalakaya said.

“Mrs. Arroyo is using her official trip to Switzerland to reward her close political associates for their loyalty to her at the expense of people’s money,” the group added.

Pamalakaya said while Mrs. Arroyo is spending taxpayers money to pleasure trips to Europe and the United States, her government does not care even if real income of average Filipino family had dropped P 20,400 between 2000 and 2006.

The militant group was even puzzled why Malacañang is withholding the names of those who joined the President in her 7-day trip to Switzerland. Pamalakaya said if there’s nothing to hide, President Arroyo will be the first one to reveal the names of her entourage consisting of government officials, pro-Arroyo lawmakers, security officials and members of the First Family.

Neither airport nor Malacañang media officers has a copy of the entourage roster, but seen boarding with President Arroyo yesterday were husband Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo and daughter Luli Arroyo, along with Cabinet members and security officers. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 06:32 | link | comments |

Pamalakaya dares PNP Chief Razon to sack NCRPO chief Barias over placards waving cops in yesterday’s peasant rally

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Wednesday urged the chief of the country’s police to sack Director Geary Barias, head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for greeting marching farmers yesterday with placards waved by policewomen bearing slogans such as “ Policemen are partners in keeping peace and order,” Express your sentiments peacefully to ensure national peace” and Warped minds to do not help national interest”- all in Filipino.

“In the name of public interest, we strongly recommend PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr. to sack Barias, as the head of the police force in Metro Manila. His political arrogance displayed in last Monday’s farmers’ rally clearly showed he is not an officer and a gentleman, but a psy war actor of Malacañang tasked to provoke the land and justice seeking peasants in this country,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“The ball is now in Razon’s court. Let us see what he will do with Barias. Will he keep him, order his relief or just let the incorrigible act praised and hailed to high heaven? The public guess is good as ours,” Hicap said.

Barias argued that it was not only the marchers who had the right to freedom of expression, adding that the public have the right to know what’s on the mind of “Mamang Pulis”. According to Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), the NCRPO Chief barged himself into the rally site, “blowing his whistle with his own placards and cheering squad, acting as if he is the “Mamang Pulis” mascot.

“Under the current system, the police are treated as mercenaries and partners in crime of the ruling political syndicate in Malacañang and on the other side of the equation, the police force in this country are also exploited by the same government they serve through low wages, almost zero benefits and other forms of social deprivation. If Barias wants the police to speak what is on their mind, they should allow them to organize and fight for their rights and respect the rights of the people,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap said.

Like his colleagues in the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Pamalakaya’s Hicap, who acted as one of the emcees in yesterday’s rally was not amused, and in fact, was felt insulted when he saw from the stage, the policewomen coming from nowhere and started marching in front of the police ranks while waving the PNP placards.

“Is Director Barias deaf? Is he dumb? He is so insensitive to the plight and collective sentiment of landless peasants. Why he has to do this cheap trick in order to please the national security gang in Malacañang? Does Director General Razon know this is going to happen?” Hicap asked.

“We are fortunate and at the same time we are very proud our farmers are politically matured to deal with this kind of political provocation that’s why the rally commemorating the 21st year of Mendiola Massacre was peaceful,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Pamalakaya said Malacañang, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP failed to achieve their objective in provoking the farmers and spark trouble to discredit the marchers and the organizers of the weeklong march to Mendiola.

“The rural people will again go back to the main capital to protest the betrayal of national interest and widespread landlessness and poverty across the country. Mrs. Arroyo will be at the center of this ongoing peasant revolt for land, truth and justice and against corruption and extrajudicial killings,” the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 06:31 | link | comments |

Marching farmers want HB 3059 to replace CARP
A fitting tribute to Mendiola Massacre victims, says KMP

Some 5,000 militant farmers who marched several hundred kilometers from Bicol, Southern Tagalog, Cordillera, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon to the National Capital Region on Tuesday start what they called a class battle for the passage of Genuine Land Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059 that seeks to distribute all agricultural and farmlands to landless peasants for free.

“House Bill 3059, otherwise known as the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill reflects the collective striving of the Filipino peasantry. On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of Mendiola Massacre and in the name of peasant land rights and search for truth, justice and class emancipation, we offer this proposed piece of legislation to the martyrs of Mendiola,” the leftist peasant alliance Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said in a press statement.

The controversial HB 3059 is authored principally by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran and co-authored by Bayan Muna party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño and Gabriela Women Party Reps. Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan.

KMP national chair and Anakpawis president and former party list Rep. Rafael Mariano said the landmark piece of legislation that seeks to replace the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and thwart efforts to extend the government land reform program is also a fitting tribute to all victims of Hacienda Luisita Massacre and all farmers who were massacred and executed by this government in the name of US-war on terror and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political survival.

“Twenty one years ago, struggling farmers trooped to Mendiola to demand land and justice, but the government security forces peppered them with bullets, and later the government passed a fake land reform law that further exacerbate the problem of landlessness in the country,” Mariano said, one of the survivors of Mendiola Massacre on January 22, 1987.

Not a single centavo compensation for Arroyos, Cojuangcos under HB3059

KMP’s Mariano said HB 3059 if passed by Congress will subject the landholdings and agricultural estates of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her landlord family, the Hacienda Luisita of former President Corazon and the landholdings of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco to compulsory appropriation without compensation, and would eventually be distributed to land reform beneficiaries.

“The Arroyos, the Cojuangcos and other landlords who acquired lands through sheer use of state violence, fraud, and other exploitative schemes will not even get a single centavo for their land holdings that would be subjected to automatic expropriation without compensation under the proposed Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill,” the peasant leader stressed.


Mariano said the vast landholdings subject for compulsory acquisition without compensation will include those hectarages of lands leased to foreign corporations and those haciendas owned and maintained by big landlords across the nation.

The KMP said the 1,000 hectare of sugar lands in Negros Occidental owned by the family of First Gentleman Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo, including the 157-hectares of sugar land in Hacienda Bacan, Guintubhan, Isabela, Negros Occidental will be subjected to expropriation without compensation.

Likewise, the 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino will be placed under expropriation without compensation and shall be nationalized and subsequently distributed for free to agricultural workers union and peasant associations and cooperatives, while Danding’s more than 3,000 hectares in Negros Occidental and other land holdings in Isabela, Palawan, Batangas and other parts of Mindanao will also be expropriated without compensation.

CARP which started in 1988 under the administration of former President Corazon Aquino was supposed to distribute 10.3 million of hectares of land to farmer beneficiaries across the Philippine archipelago. The law mandates the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to undertake distribution of 3.8 million hectares and 6.5 million hectares of land respectively.

In 1995, the national government reduced CARP scope to 7.5 million hectares, with the agrarian reform department tapped to distribute 4.3 million hectares and the environment department 3.5 million hectares. The CARP, which was extended from 1998 to 2008, merely achieved a poor 57 percent performance rating, according to Ibon Philippines, an independent think tank by the end of 1997.

From 1987 to 1992, the Aquino administration distributed a total of 1,104, 380 hectares, the Fidel Ramos administration from 1993-1998, distributed 1,778, 371 hectares and the Joseph Estrada administration distributed 242, 547 hectares from 1999-2000. The present Arroyo government distributed 548,916 hectares of agricultural lands from 2001 to 2005. The total aggregate number of hectares distributed over 18 years of CARP was 3,584,214 hectares from the scope of 10 million hectares of land eyed for distribution in 1988.

On the other hand, the KMP said 65.9 percent of the total 12 million agricultural lands in the Philippines were exempted from the government’s land reform program. Worse, the government is engaged in left-and-right and continuous confiscations of land reform awards such as emancipation patents, certificate of land ownership awards and certificate of land transfers to pave way for land remonopolization and land refeudalization and land use conversions for industrial and commercial purposes. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 06:30 | link | comments |

Militants will never forget, forgive Gloria over betrayal of Edsa 2
Pamalakaya leaders accused Malacañang of distorting history

Leaders of the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday accused Malacañang of distorting history by urging the Filipino people to forget the second People Power Revolution in order to heal the wounds of Edsa.

“We will not buy this forgive and forget politics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. We will not allow the psy war agents of Malacañang to distort history or re-write history in accordance with the prevailing agenda and narrow interest of the ruling mafia in Malacañang,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Another Pamalakaya leader, Salvador France, the fisherfolk alliance Vice Chair for Luzon slammed Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita for regarding Edsa 2 as “memories of the fateful day should be tossed to the dustbin of history”.

“We were in Edsa 2 and risked our lives to remove the morally bankrupt regime of President Joseph Estrada. The entire Filipino nation swarmed the streets of the national highway with warm bodies to effect change and denounce the betrayal of national interest. And now, Mr. Ermita wants this historic event to be thrown to the dustbin of history. He is incorrigible,” the Pamalakaya leader said.

Palace top officials said there would be no dancing on the streets or partying in Malacañang to mark the seventh anniversary of People Power II. They said the commemoration of Edsa 2 anniversary was never discussed during Cabinet meetings , unlike the celebration of 1986 People Power 1 revolt that led to the downfall of former President Ferdinand Marcos which is yearly spearheaded by the People Power Commission.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap said President Arroyo will be at the center of political storm when farmers and fisherfolk activists from Cordillera, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions march on January 22 to Mendiola to commemorate the 7th anniversary of Edsa 2 and 21st anniversary of Mendiola Massacre.

“The rural people will again go back to the main capital to protest the betrayal of Edsa 2 and widespread landlessness and poverty across the country. Mrs. Arroyo will be at the center of this peasant revolt for land, truth and justice and against betrayal, corruption and extrajudicial killings,” he said.

Pamalakaya said aside from unabated killings and enforced disappearances of leftwing activists, journalists and critics of President Arroyo, the regime betrayed the people’s thrust by staging the biggest election fraud ever conducted in Philippine history referring to the outcome of the May 2004 national elections.

Pamalakaya said President Arroyo betrayed Edsa 2 by engaging in high crimes of corruption including but not limited to $ 14 million bribery emanating from the rehabilitation of Kalayaan-Caliraya-Botocan hydropower plants, the alleged pay-offs in PIATCO-NAIA Terminal 3 project, the P 1.4 B Peace Bonds, the Jose Pidal account amounting between P 300 million to P 400 million in laundered wealth, the alleged pay-offs in PIATCO-NAIA Terminal 3 project, the P 1.4 B Peace Bonds, the Jose Pidal account amounting between P 300 million to P 400 million in laundered wealth, the P 728 million fertilizer scam, the $ 50 million commissions from the overpriced $ 503 million North Luzon Railways Project, the overpriced P1.1 billion Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, the P 500,000 cash gifts to governors and congressmen allied with Mrs. Arroyo, the alleged P 500 million overprice of vote-counting machines, the $ 329 million National Broadband Network deal with China ZTE and the unstoppable corruption in the military which was exposed by junior military officers. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 03:35 | link | comments |

Militants dare GMA: Let’s debate Jpepa in Mendiola

A top official of the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday challenged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other senators favoring the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) to a debate on the economic agreement in Mendiola.

“To her Excellency but not excellent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, we challenge you to a national debate on Jpepa right at the foot of the historic bridge of Mendiola. We are very much willing to face you and your company of puppets in a principled debate on this concern which is a matter of great importance to the Filipino people,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The militant leader proposed the date of the debate anytime between January 23 to February 22. “Just tell the time when it would be and we will be there provided it is Mendiola. The issue of the venue is non-negotiable, we want it on Mendiola at any given time and day, except Saturdays and Sundays,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap said.

The Pamalakaya leader issued the challenge to President Arroyo, a day after the President urged the Senate to ratify Jpepa. The President made the appeal in a speech during the traditional Vin d’ Honeur for the diplomatic corps in Malacañang with Senate President Manuel Villar and Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Makoto Katsura in the audience.

Arroyo said: “In the international arena, we had hoped by now to have a trade agreement singed, sealed and delivered with Japan. We remain optimistic that our Senate the wisdom of approving this vital agreement.”

Pamalakaya said the pro-Jpepa pitch of President Arroyo came along with the announcement of the National Development Authority (NEDA) of Japan’s approval of a $ 174.6 M loan to the Philippines to support land reform and finance the construction of flood control structures in seven towns and cities that surround Mt. Pinatubo.

The militant group said the approval of Japanese fresh loans to the Philippines was meant to sweetened the Jpepa deal and convince the Senate to ratify the agreement within the first quarter of 2008. “Again the 175 million dollar loan to the Philippines is dangled to compel the puppet regime in exchange for the country’s national sovereignty and patrimony,” Pamalakaya said.




The militant group, along with other anti-Jpepa alliances and coalitions had brought the fight against Jpepa before the international community. Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz said his group is planning an East Asia wide campaign against Jpepa and 15 other economic trade pacts signed by Japan with 15 other countries in East Asia region.

According to Corpuz, aside from Jpepa, the Japanese government in cahoots with Japanese transnational corporations had signed Jpepa like economic pacts with Singapore (2002), Malaysia (2005), Thailand (2007) and Brunei (2007). He said Japan had begun negotiations for economic agreements with South Korea (2003), Indonesia (2005), Vietnam (2007), India (2007), Australia (2007) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole in 2005.

Pamalakaya’s Corpuz said Japan is holding exploratory talks with China and New Zealand for bilateral trade agreements, and at the same time, is exploring a trilateral Japan-China-South Korea deal as a “model” for the targeted East Asia-wide economic agreement.

“Next to the United States, Japan is the next imperialist power who wants to dominate the trade of goods and investments in the region and Jpepa and all other economic agreements the Tokyo government wants to seal is part of this regional offensive aim to revive Japan its economic dominance in East Asia and Oceania,” he said.

Citing the study paper penned by Ibon Foundation entitled Jpepa: Surrendering Sovereignty and Development, Pamalakaya said Jpepa and 15 other bilateral trade agreements which Japan wants to accomplish this year is part of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in East Asia (CEPEA), which is reminiscent of the “Greater East Asian Co-Partnership Sphere that Japan aimed to establish in invading countries during the Second World War.

The fisherfolk alliance said the fishing aspect of Jpepa and other Japanese partnership agreements among countries in East Asia and Oceania region was meant for the survival of Japan’s fishing industry and is being pushed against the sovereign will of the East Asian people to allow Japan’s tuna industry to regain the no.1 spot among the top tuna producing countries in the world.

Pamalakaya asserted that Jpepa and other Japanese economic agreements in Asia will allow Japanese factory ships to enter and fish tuna inside the Philippines exclusive economic zone and East Asia. Based on the group’s estimates, medium-sized Japanese factory ships are capable of harvesting 200,000 metric tons of tuna per year or roughly 200,000 metric tons of tuna per year equivalent to $ 970 M or P 43.5 B in gross profits per year.

On the other hand, Japanese factory ships intrusion in the waters on Philippine waters would mean the devastation of the P 18-B tuna industry in the country, and loss of jobs to among 180,000 small tuna fishermen and tuna workers in General Santos, Sarangani and other parts of Mindanao.

The militant group said aside from Jpepa, it will also provide previews of other bilateral trade agreements the country has entered into with foreign countries like the RP-China agreement, the RP-India agreement, the RP-Australia free trade agreement and the upcoming US-RP Free Trade Agreement during the scheduled meeting expected to be attended by fishing groups from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, India and Brunei. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:01 | link | comments (1) |

Freedom House urged to further lower RP democracy rating

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday asked the New York-based Freedom House to further pull down the Philippines standing in an annual monitor of world democracies from between 3 to 4 to seven, the lowest rating from a scale of 1 to 7.

“In order to reflect the real situation in the country, the Freedom House should further lower the democracy rating for the Philippines from 3 to 7 because the country is not free, the basic political rights are absent and the basic civil liberties are grossly and systematically denied in the name of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s political survival,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader said aside from widespread denial of basic human rights and civil liberties, the Macapagal-Arroyo government is also guilty of high crimes of corruption, election fraud, gross violations of press freedom and unabated extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of leftwing activists, journalists and members of the opposition critical of the Arroyo administration.

“The 3 to 4 democracy rating which calls us partly free does not reflect the political situation in the country. It should be lower than that. It must be 7, the lowest rating, nothing more, nothing less,” Hicap said.

Pamalakaya said the situation today is comparable if not worse compared to the 14 years of Martial Law under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. “Mrs. Arroyo is both Marcos and Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany trapped in a woman’s body. It is therefore, necessary for Freedom House to add this political description of the Philippines under the rule of President Arroyo,” the militant group said.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye had dismissed the Freedom House report as black propaganda of unseen forces working to embarrass the Arroyo presidency. At the traditional Vin d’ Honeur in Malacañang this morning, President Arroyo told foreign diplomats that significant progress has been made to address the issue of extrajudicial killings in the country.

But Pamalakaya slammed the President’s declaration on the improvement of human rights across the country citing the fresh resurgence of political killings in the country, with the murder of Masbate peasant leader Teldo Rebamonte last January 16 by alleged members of Regional Mobile Group.

“The military and police in the province are now escalating the campaign of terror and political assassination and abduction against leaders and active members of all militant groups in the island province. Mrs. Arroyo is again in extreme state of denial,” the militant group said.

The group said Rebamonte’s death happened, few days after Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez alleged that the farmers and fisherfolk nationally coordinated protest action on January 22 were part of a fresh attempt by anti-Arroyo soldiers to oust the President from Malacañang.

“The killing of Rebamonte and the crackdown of KMP, Karapatan and Pamalakaya activists in Masbate has the blessings of Malacañang, the national security syndicate and the justice department. Something must be done to stop the government and the military establishment from transforming the province into a Mindoro of Region 5, where extrajudicial killings and political persecution have become a routine work for the AFP”, Pamalakaya said.

“That is an Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 script, nothing more, nothing less. The killing was carried out by the RMG in close collaboration with the Bicol AFP. They are planning to execute more of leftwing activists in the province in the name of the military’s counter-insurgency program and in the name of Mrs. Arroyo’s political survival,” the militant group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:46 | link | comments |

Pamalakaya tells Atienza: Explain 41 day extension to Tañon oil hunt

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday has asked environment Secretary Joselito Atienza to explain why his office has extended the exploratory oil drilling in Tañon Strait without consulting the affected sectors and other interest groups opposing the corporate oil hunt in said protected seascape.

“The Filipino public, especially the affected sectors were not inform about the latest corporate escapade of Japan Petroleum Exploration Company or Japex and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“I was shocked, the fisher people were shocked, everybody was in the state of shock when they learned that DENR allowed Japex to search for oil and destroy more in the process. This is unpardonable,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

The DENR through Antonio Labios, director of Department of Energy in Region VII said the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) approved the request of Japex last Monday to extend the period of the drilling project’s Environmental Compliance Certificate (CEC), after Japex convinced the DENR that it needs more days to complete the exploratory drilling process.

The Japanese oil exploration firm said it encountered technical difficulties on its mobile offshore drilling platform Hakuryu V. The Japex suspended drilling operations last December when its drilling rod broke due to intense rock formations upon reaching a drill depth of 2,700 meters.

Drilling resumed last week after replacement parts arrived from Singapore, but the drill had to resume from a drill depth of 2,400 meters to allow it to find another course around the rocks that stopped the first drill.

Sources said Japex will not stop its exploratory operations, adding that the Japanese oil exploration firm has been spending $ 400,000 or roughly 16 million pesos a day for the exploratory drilling.

“We don’t care how much this Japanese corporation has lost. That’s the price for them to pay for destroying the marine environment. In fact, they have to pay the people more for killing their main source of livelihood and the marine biodiversity, period, period, period,” Pamalakaya said.

The militant group said they might soon file a case against owners of Japex, officials of DENR and DoE, including Labios and Atienza in violations of the 1987 Constitution and pertinent environmental laws such as abuse in issuance of ECCs to Japex.

“We will sue Atienza to one of the environmental courts put up by the Supreme Court if his department will not cancel the 41-day ECC extension to Japex. It is better for him to shape up or ship,” Pamalakaya said.

The militant group also complained that Japex has imposed a fish ban near the site of the to oil exploration activities in Tañon Strait, a protected seascape separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.

“It is a virtual takeover of Tañon Strait, as if Japex has put up its own Republic in this part of the Visayan Sea. Nobody is allowed to fish near the exploratory drilling site,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:45 | link | comments |

CHR asked to probe police killing of peasant leader in Masbate
Masbate is new Mindoro according to AFP’s counter-insurgency plan-- Pamalakaya

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to immediately investigate the killing of peasant leader in Masbate allegedly perpetrated by operatives of Regional Mobile Group in the Bicol region.

Likewise, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap urged the CHR to investigate the police’ massive crackdown against officers and members of militant groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Pamalakaya and the human rights watchdog Karapatan.

“It seems to us that the province of Masbate has officially become the Mindoro of the Bicol Region following the killing of KMP leader Teldo Rebamonte. The military and police in the province are now escalating the campaign of terror and political assassination and abduction against leaders and active members of all militant groups in the island province,” Hicap said.

The spate of extrajudicial killings of left-leaning activists begun in Mindoro provinces between 2001 and 2004, where retired Army Major Gen. Jovito Palparan was the top head of the military counter-insurgency operations. In Mindoro, five leaders of Pamalakaya were allegedly executed by government troops under the direct command of the controversial army official known as the Butcher of Mindoro.

The Pamalakaya leader issued the appeal to CHR after learning yesterday that Rebamonte was executed on January 16, few hours after the victim was last seen in the custody of police regional mobile group who abducted him last January 12.

Hicap said Rebamonte’s death happened, few days after Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez alleged that the farmers and fisherfolk nationally coordinated protest action on January 22 were part of a fresh attempt by anti-Arroyo soldiers to oust the President from Malacañang.

“The killing of Rebamonte and the crackdown of KMP, Karapatan and Pamalakaya activists in Masbate has the blessings of Malacañang, the national security syndicate and the justice department. Something must be done to stop the government and the military establishment from transforming the province into a Mindoro of Region 5, where extrajudicial killings and political persecution have become a routine work for the AFP”, Pamalakaya said.

Karapatan-Bicol spokesperson John Concepcion said Rebamonte was found dead in Claveria town, five days after members of RMG abducted him last January 12. The body of the peasant leader who was found by villagers in the hinterlands of Barangay Nabasagan showed signs of torture, Concepcion said.

The human rights group said witnesses saw the wife of the victim pleading to RMG to release her husband in the morning of January 16, but few hours, on the same day, Rebamonte’s body was found dead by villagers. Karapatan-Bicol also said the members of RMG also forcibly entered houses of leaders of Karapatan-Masbate and Pamalakaya-Masbate in the area to arrest them, but failed to locate the leaders of the groups.

Pamalakaya denied that Rebamonte was killed during an encounter between the military and members of the New People’s Army in the area at around 5:00 a.m on January 16. The militant group said Rebamonte is a peasant leader and was abducted on January 12 by members of the RMG.

“That is an Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 script, nothing more, nothing less. The killing was carried out by the RMG in close collaboration with the Bicol AFP. They are planning to execute more of leftwing activists in the province in the name of the military’s counter-insurgency program and in the name of Mrs. Arroyo’s political survival,” the militant group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:44 | link | comments |

DoJ chief asked to undergo psychological test, kidney check up to arrest anti-Left psy war addiction

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday dared Department of Justice (DoJ) Secretary Raul Gonzalez to undergo a thorough psychological test and have his kidney examined a new for insisting the scheduled peasant protest in the 21st anniversary of Mendiola Massacre is part of the fresh destabilization campaign against the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap asked Gonzalez to voluntarily submit himself to a series of psychological and medical examinations, adding that mental and physical deterioration of the controversial justice secretary is producing a kind of political paranoia and addiction to anti-Left bashing.

Hicap issued the challenge to Gonzalez, a day after government security forces have arrested five active and dismissed soldiers, which Malacañang identified were part of the anti-government forces that were out to grab power between today and Tuesday to mark the seventh anniversary of the Edsa II revolt that ousted former President Joseph Estrada and installed President Arroyo in Malacañang.

The arrests were made on Tuesday and the those arrested soldiers were brought last Wednesday to DoJ office in Manila and charged with illegal possession of firearms which Supt. Michel Filart of the Philippine National Police said were to be used in an unspecified destabilization plot against the Macapagal-Arroyo government.

But Pamalakaya’s Hicap dismissed the arrest as part of the long-running script to justify the political persecution of all anti-Arroyo forces and critics calling for her resignation, impeachment or ouster from power.

“Secretary Gonzalez is totally infected by the disease known as the GMA political survival syndrome. It is like a terminal cancer eating everything of this puppet official of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Somebody must compel him to undertake appropriate medications to bring his sanity back if it still possible,” Hicap said.

Hicap added that arrests were made and the destabilization story was up for bargain sale among the Filipino public. “But sad to say, there are no takers, no buyers of this predetermined political telenovela of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration,” he added.

The Pamalakaya leader said the January 22 Mendiola Massacre protest is a yearly mass action staged by rural activists since January 1988 to commemorate the martyrdom of 13 farmers, fisherfolk and workers murdered by government troops on January 22, 1987.

“It is Secretary Gonzalez and the ruling national security syndicate in Malacañang that is behind this script to justify the extension of AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and the possible declaration of full-blown Martial Law all over the country to start the fresh crackdown not only against the Left, but also against ardent critics of President Arroyo,” Hicap said.

Pamalakaya is one of the groups that will join peasant activists in Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon who would stage a one day protest action in Mendiola to demand justice for the victims of Mendiola Massacre and other victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances across the country.

The militant group said aside from justice, the other agenda of rural based activists is the declaration of support for the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), a progressive land reform bill that seeks to oppose the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and on the other hand replace the 19 year old land reform bill which they said is bogus, anti-farmer and pro-landlord and pro-agribusiness. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:43 | link | comments |

Militants eye East Asia wide campaign against Jpepa, other Japanese economic agreements

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday said it is planning to kick off an East Asia wide campaign against the controversial Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) and 15 other economic trade pacts signed by Japan with 15 other countries in East Asia region.

The idea was brought out by Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz during an anti-free trade and economic partnership agreement meeting in Dijon, France last January 11-13.

Corpuz, who represented the Sri Lankan-based World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) in the seminar called by ARDER Bourgogne, a French peasant federation opposed to any kind of lopsided trade agreement, said his group is planning to hold a conference against Jpepa and other Japanese economic partnership agreement in May or in June this year.

According to Corpuz, aside from Jpepa, the Japanese government in cahoots with Japanese transnational corporations had signed Jpepa like economic pacts with Singapore (2002), Malaysia (2005), Thailand (2007) and Brunei (2007). He said Japan had begun negotiations for economic agreements with South Korea (2003), Indonesia (2005), Vietnam (2007), India (2007), Australia (2007) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole in 2005.

Pamalakaya’s Corpuz said Japan is holding exploratory talks with China and New Zealand for bilateral trade agreements, and at the same time, is exploring a trilateral Japan-China-South Korea deal as a “model” for the targeted East Asia-wide economic agreement.

“Next to the United States, Japan is the next imperialist power who wants to dominate the trade of goods and investments in the region and Jpepa and all other economic agreements the Tokyo government wants to seal is part of this regional offensive aim to revive Japan its economic dominance in East Asia and Oceania,” he said.

Citing the study paper penned by Ibon Foundation entitled Jpepa: Surrendering Sovereignty and Development, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said Jpepa and 15 other bilateral trade agreements which Japan wants to accomplish this year is part of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in East Asia (CEPEA), which is reminiscent of the “Greater East Asian Co-Partnership Sphere that Japan aimed to establish in invading countries during the Second World War.


Hicap said the fishing aspect of Jpepa and other Japanese partnership agreements among countries in East Asia and Oceania region was meant for the survival of Japan’s fishing industry and is being pushed against the sovereign will of the East Asian people to allow Japan’s tuna industry to regain the no.1 spot among the top tuna producing countries in the world.

The Pamalakaya leader asserted that Jpepa and other Japanese economic agreements in Asia will allow Japanese factory ships to enter and fish tuna inside the Philippines exclusive economic zone and East Asia. Based on the group’s estimates, medium-sized Japanese factory ships are capable of harvesting 200,000 metric tons of tuna per year or roughly 200,000 metric tons of tuna per year equivalent to $ 970 M or P 43.5 B in gross profits per year.

On the other hand, Japanese factory ships intrusion in the waters on Philippine waters would mean the devastation of the P 18-B tuna industry in the country, and loss of jobs to among 180,000 small tuna fishermen and tuna workers in General Santos, Sarangani and other parts of Mindanao.

The militant group said aside from Jpepa, it will also provide previews of other bilateral trade agreements the country has entered into with foreign countries like the RP-China agreement, the RP-India agreement, the RP-Australia free trade agreement and the upcoming US-RP Free Trade Agreement during the scheduled meeting expected to be attended by fishing groups from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, India and Brunei. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:42 | link | comments |

Militants call for boycott of GMA summit on energy

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday urged stakeholders in the oil industry to boycott the energy summit proposed by Malacañang to address the impact of rising world oil prices on the economy days after oil prices in the United States broke the psychological barrier of $ 100 per barrel.

“Let President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo talk to her own shadow. We will not attend that super roadshow presentation being cooked by Malacañang,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader said the “summit of energy stakeholders” deserve an all out political boycott, and instead should be met with across-the-nation protests to denounce Palace slavery to the oil cartel.

“We call on the Filipino people to fill the streets with their warm bodies on the day Malacañang launches this energy summit of stakeholders. Let Mrs. Arroyo taste the collective rage and fury of the general public for offering their interest and welfare at the altar of corporate exploitation and transnational plunder,” Hicap asserted.

Pamalakaya said the Filipino fisherfolk, which is one of the major users of petroleum products; particularly gasoline should do a political snub of the President’s summit, saying Mrs. Arroyo will just use those would attend the summit as audience for her propaganda offensive in defense of the oil cartel.

“Mrs. Arroyo is the submissive political client of Shell, Caltex and Petron. This is not an opinion or a motherhood statement, but a fact. Mrs. Arroyo’s political existence as a rabid political animal is courtesy of her puppetry to the oil cartel, period, period and period,” the militant group said.

Based on Pamalakaya study said fisherfolk owners of 177, 627 motorized small fishing boats across the country could no longer bear the brunt of rising prices of petroleum products, and such scenario may soon compel to abandon their 4 to 16 horsepower motors, and go back to wood paddles to fish.



"That's because they could no longer afford the cost of fuel, particularly regular gasoline now pegged at not less than P 40 per liter," the group said. At present, there are 292,180 non-motorized boats out of 469,807 registered bancas in all the country's municipalities or 62% of all registered municipal bancas all over the country.

Small Filipino fisherfolk use at least 8 liters of regular gasoline, costing them P 350 to P 400 per
fishing operation based on current prices of petroleum products in the country. As per fishing operation, the normal average fish catch is 10 kilos at P 40 per kilo of fish or roughly P 400.

"The oil cartel is making money from our fisherfolk oil consumers, by making them slaves and perpetual buyers of their overpriced and highly taxed regular gasoline, courtesy of their cartelistic operations, the Oil Deregulation Law, and their patented practice of corporate exploitation," the group said.

Pamalakaya pressed the government to immediately impose price controls on prices to caution the impact of rising prices of petroleum products in the world market. The group said the next step is to remove the P 3-4 tax per liter imposed petroleum products courtesy of R-VAT and then repeal the Oil Deregulation Law that allows oil companies like Petron Corp., Shell and Caltex Corp. to jack up prices of petroleum products whenever these oil companies want.

The next step is to proceed with the nationalization of oil industry to make it service oriented, rather than super profit oriented. Pamalakaya said all the three steps can be done in less than a month, if the government will exact political will.

Quoting data from the research think tank Ibon Foundation, Pamalakaya said oil companies Petron, Shell and Caltex have taken advantage of the oil deregulation law and had used the developments in the sharp increases in the prices of oil products abroad as a price barometer to justify successive oil price increases since 1996.

Quoting the same data from Ibon, Pamalakaya said from April 1996 to January 2007, there had been 81 rounds of oil price hikes for diesel or an average of 8 oil price hikes per year. In 2005 and 2006, at least 36 rounds of oil price hikes for diesel have been recorded. Using the same Ibon data, Pamalakaya said the three oil companies still owe the public P 1.39 liter in overpricing in January 2007, and P 1.28 per liter in overpricing in 2006. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:59 | link | comments (1) |

VP Noli not even a formidable bet for 2010 polls, says militant group
Pamalakaya sees race among anti-GMA wannabes

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday said Vice President Noli de Castro is not the most formidable contender that the administration can field in the May 2010 presidential elections.

“The May 2010 elections will be a hotly contested race for presidential wannabes who are anti-Gloria and with clear economic and political blueprint that would produce meaningful reforms for the people. Sad to say, VP de Castro is not one of them,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader said the Vice-President is the male alter ego of President Arroyo, dismissing him further as Mrs. Arroyo trapped in a woman’s body. “VP de Castro will be the biggest casualty of the May 2010 elections because the Filipino electorate will reject for his close association and first-rate puppetry to the ruling political mafia in Malacañang,” Hicap stressed.

Hicap agreed that VP de Castro as administration bet in 2010 is beatable. “Anyone can beat Mrs. Arroyo’s anointed one. The people will use the upcoming presidential derby as a political event to get even with Mrs. Arroyo and her criminal regime in Malacañang,” he added.

Pamalakaya said politicians eying the presidency in 2010 should go all-out against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, instead of entertaining thoughts of accepting the nomination as Malacañang’s standard bearer in the hotly contested race two years from now.

“If one of them agrees to be President’s Arroyo’s anointed one in 2010, then he or she should not expect to get votes from the electorate. A mere association with Mrs. Arroyo is a kiss of death, “the group said.

In the last May 12, 2007 senatorial elections only three administration candidates survived the onslaught of anti-Arroyo sentiment- Joker Arroyo, Gregorio Honasan and Miguel Zubiri who won their senatorial bids together with 9 other candidates of the Genuine Opposition led by Senate President Manuel Villar, Senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson and Alan Peter Cayetano.





Earlier, Palace Chief Presidential Counsel Sergio Apostol said Malacañang is considering three of the President’s closest allies- Defense secretary and former Tarlac congressman Gilbert Teodoro of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte and Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chair Bayani Fernando of Lakas-CMD as potential candidates of the administration party.

“If they have plans to run for the presidency in May 2010, they better start disassociating with Mrs. Arroyo. No one would want somebody associated with the corrupt and criminal president to win the presidency” said Pamalakaya.

The militant group said Belmonte, Teodoro and Bayani would have big chances of winning the 2010 presidency if they tackle the people’s issues against Mrs. Arroyo and transform themselves as genuine opposition candidates.

“The Filipino electorate will reject any presidential candidate who will be selected by the ruling Arroyo camp from the long list of presidential hopefuls in 2010. Money and machinery that will be offered by the criminal regime of Mrs. Arroyo to any taker in exchange for his or her loyalty to GMA will be condemned and defeated by the Filipino people,” Pamalakaya said.

The militant group said in the 1998 presidential election, former President Joseph Estrada handily won the election over his rival Jose de Venecia who was chosen by former President Fidel Ramos as the administration candidate.

“The people’s wrath against Ramos enabled Mr. Estrada to generate the strong and decisive protest votes. The same case applies to Mrs. Arroyo. Anybody who wants to fight GMA’s anointed one is capable of beating Malacañang’s standard bearer in 2010, and that’s the political reality,” Pamalakaya said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:58 | link | comments |

Militants believe Palace is behind recall bid vs. Pampanga Gov.Panlilio

The left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday said Malacañang’s political strategists are behind alleged efforts to oust Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said the priest-turned-politician who defeated two of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s staunch allies in the province- incumbent Gov. Mark Lapid and Lilia Pineda caught the ire of the President and pro-Arroyo politicians in Pampanga when Panlilio exposed the P 500,000 cash gift last year.

“The ouster of Panlilio is in the political agenda of Malacañang because the governor exposed the horrible crime of corruption of the Macapagal-Arroyo ruling mafia. His removal from public office is part of the liquidating process, in which all anti-Arroyo incumbent officials will be removed from power in preparation for the 2010 national elections,” said Hicap.

Another issue which offended Malacañang, Pamalakaya’s Hicap said is the collection of multi-million peso quarry operations in the province, which the militant leader believed wants to be cornered by Malacañang and local government officials identified with the Arroyo camp.

Under Gov. Panlilio’s watch, the provincial government collected at least P 80.61 million in quarry revenues in 81 working days. The amount reportedly dwarfed the amount collected under Gov. Lapid’s term.

Weeks before Panlilio’s expose on cash gift scandal, he had clashed with the provincial board over an ordinance regulating the multi-million peso quarry operations in the province. He vetoed the ordinance, but was reversed by the provincial board.

“Malacañang sees Pampanga as the bastion of politics and money in Central Luzon being the hometown of President Arroyo. As long as Panlilio is there, Malacañang will always feel threaten as if someone is watching their bad guys in the province,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya believes the mayors of the province, including members of the provincial board are just performing their roles to the hilt as support actors to Mrs. Arroyo’s political show in Pampanga.

“They are just bit players to this Palace orchestrated dirty game against Panlilio. Mrs. Arroyo and her ruling associates in Malacañang are the real political operators of this move to recall Panlilio and subvert the people’s will,” the militant group said.

Panlilio last week said he has gotten information the recall move would be based on his alleged “incompetence”. He admitted that he can’t function properly because he does not enjoy the support of other local officials, and that out of the 21 mayors of Pampanga; it is only San Fernando City Mayor Oscar Rodriguez who supported him.

A member of Ang Kapatiran party, who is a supporter of Panlilio, said the initiative was being cooked up by people identified with politicians that the governor had defeated in the last May 12, 2007 elections. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:57 | link | comments |

Fishers group says Japan’s $ 173 million loan to RP
grease money for Jpepa approval

One of the groups opposed to the ratification of the controversial Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) on Thursday said the $ 173 million loan granted by the Japanese government to the Philippines courtesy of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) was meant to speed up the Senate concurrence of the economic agreement.

“It is not really an economic aid. It is more of grease money that seeks to fast track the Senate ratification of Jpepa,” the left leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a press statement.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said Japan is desperate and it is using its financial institutions like JBIC to court the Philippine government and the Senate, which is the approving authority to ratify Jpepa within the first quarter of 2008.

“The 173 million American dollar loan of Japan to the Manila government is show money and at the same times a financial statement that all those who will go for Jpepa will reap juicy dividends and fat kickbacks from Japanese multinationals. That’s the message Japan wants to deliver in extending such huge loan to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,” Hicap asserted.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) brokered the news about the Philippines and JBIC had recently signed loan agreements worth $ US 173 million or about 18.4 billion yen for the country’s agrarian reform program and Pinatubo rehabilitation.

According to DFA, the agrarian reform program will receive $ 108.61 M, while the Pinatubo rehabilitation program will receive $ 65.5 million. These programs are covered by the 27th Yen Loan Package which supports the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project (ARISP) I and II.

Under these programs, integrated package of support of services that include the building of small-sized irrigation facilities, farm to market roads, and market information centers, as well as providing trainers for farmers are covered.

Earlier, the Department of Finance (DoF) said the Philippine will lose P 4.75 B in revenues money in 2008 if the upper chamber ratifies the pact.

Finance undersecretary Gil Beltran said Jpepa will result in foregone revenues ranging from
P 3.2 B to P 4.75 B on the first year of the implementation. But the DoF official said the benefits the country will gain from Jpepa would be felt after the first year.

Beltran said the anticipated loss in revenues will be compensated later by the outpouring of Japanese investments, employ generation and the taxes that will be raised from these economic activities.

But Pamalakaya corrected Beltran’s estimates, saying the country is stand to lose P 43.5 B in potential earnings in the tuna industry alone with the invasion of Japanese factory ships that would search for tuna in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The group said the total loss in income for the two sectors—revenues from collections of tax duties and tuna would be P 48.5 B if Jpepa is ratified by the Senate this year. “We are giving away practically everything to Japanese multinationals courtesy of Jpepa. This treaty must be confronted with a patriotic war,” Pamalakaya said.

“The ratification of Jpepa is a national suicide. Senators pushing this modern-day economic enslavement should set aside their allegiance to Japanese monopoly capital and instead, uphold the national interest and collective wisdom of the Filipino people,” the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:56 | link | comments |

Jpepa foes renewed patriotic war to stop Senate concurrence
Senators told: RP will lose P 4.75 B in first year of Jpepa

Opponents of the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) renewed their patriotic vows against the economic agreement between the two countries as they warned senators that the country is set lose P 4.75 B in tax payers money in 2008 if the upper chamber ratifies the pact.

In a press statement, the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) the Senate must go for a giant kill against Jpepa after the Department of Finance revealed yesterday that the first year of the economic agreement if ratified will cost the economy nearly five billion pesos in foregone revenues.

“The ratification of Jpepa is a national suicide. Senators pushing this modern-day economic enslavement should set aside their allegiance to Japanese monopoly capital and instead, uphold the national interest and collective wisdom of the Filipino people,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

Finance undersecretary Gil Beltran said Jpepa will result in foregone revenues ranging from
P 3.2 B to P 4.75 B on the first year of the implementation. But the DoF official said the benefits the country will gain from Jpepa would be felt after the first year.

Beltran said the anticipated loss in revenues will be compensated later by the outpouring of Japanese investments, employ generation and the taxes that will be raised from these economic activities.

But Pamalakaya’s Hicap said the country is stand to lose P 43.5 B in potential earnings in the tuna industry alone with the invasion of Japanese factory ships that would search for tuna in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

The militant leader said the total loss in income for the two sectors—revenues from collections of tax duties and tuna would be P 48.5 B if Jpepa is ratified by the Senate this year. “We are giving away practically everything to Japanese multinationals courtesy of Jpepa. This treaty must be confronted with a patriotic war,” Hicap added.

Earlier the Sri Lankan- based international fishers group World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) on Wednesday urged the Philippine Senate to reject the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) stressing that the Philippines will surrender its national sovereignty and patrimony to Japan through the one-sided agreement.

The forum issued and approved a resolution against the Senate approval of Jpepa, after Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz, a member of WFFP, presented the ill effects and devastating impact of Jpepa on Filipino fisherfolk’s livelihood and marine environment during WFFP 4th General Assembly held in Negombo, Sri Lanka in November last year.

Among those who signed the resolution were the National Fish Workers Forum in India, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Southern Fisherfolk Organization of Thailand, Sustainable Development Foundation (Thailand), the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement, Women Development Foundation, the United Fishers and Fish Workers Congress, United Federation of Labor, Southern Fisheries Organization, the Ruhunu Diriya, Dheewara Organization, Puttlam
District Fisheries Solidarity all in Sir Lanka, the Union des Professionnels de la Peche Artisanale in Benin, the Budalangi Health and Development in Kenya.

Also those who signed the resolution were the Association des Pecheurs Et Du in Mali, the Federation Nationale de Peche in Mauritania, the Union National Des Pecheurs in Guinea, Sierra Leone Artisan Fishers Union in Sierra Leone, the Comite para la Defensa y Desarrollo de la Flora y Fauna del Golfo de Fonseca in Honduras, the Bear River First Nation in Canada and
other fisher groups in Indonesia, Australia, United Kingdom, Spain, Guadalupe, France, Martinique, Mauri