Gerry Albert Corpuz presents

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Pamalakaya wants Secretary Arthur Yap held accountable for signing 36 agreements
Senate asked to probe RP-China fisheries accord, 35 other deals

Leftwing militants belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Wednesday urged senators to cross party lines and conduct a parallel investigation on the RP-China fisheries accord, and 35 other agriculture and fisheries agreements signed by top agriculture officials in behalf of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Malacañang and the Department of Agriculture merely put the RP-China fisheries accord and 35 other deals on hold to pacify the outraged Filipino farmers and fisherfolk and other patriotic sectors of the society. This strategy of Malacañang should not prevent the Senate from probing these 36 rural agreements which are 1,000 times explosive than the ZTE scam and the RP-Spratly offshore mining deal,’ Pamalakaya said in a press statement.

The militant group has recently filed diplomatic protests against the RP-China fisheries accord and the Joint Marine Seismic Understanding (JMSU) before the Chinese Consular Office in Makati.

The House of Representatives yesterday conducted a hearing on the controversial RP-China fisheries, and was told that the accord will allow Chinese fishermen to fish even in municipal waters which are currently reserved for 1.8 million small fishermen and their 8 million dependents.

The congressmen in yesterday’s hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture chaired by Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra were told that the fisheries agreement and 35 other deals in agriculture and fisheries were suspended while consultations are being held with the affected sectors.

Mitra said he is supporting the position of Malacañang to suspend the agreements in view of food crisis. But Pamalakaya said the outright scrapping of these agreements is the best political solution and not just its suspension.

“We appeal to the Senate presidency of Senator Manuel Villar to immediately calendar the investigation of RP-China fisheries agreement and 35 other deals in agriculture and fisheries Malacañang had signed with Beijing government. The 36 agreements are 100 times bigger and scandalous compared to the $ 329 million National Broadband Network deal,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“Secretary Arthur Yap said the Philippine-China fisheries accord was only suspended, along with other 35 one-sided agricultural and fisheries deal courtesy of the controversies created by the ZTE scandal. Therefore, Malacañang is just waiting for an opportune time to let go these agreements. It is still an all systems go for President Arroyo as far as the China deals are concerned,” Hicap added.

The Pamalakaya leader said they want the RP-China fisheries and other agreements scrapped because these will allow Chinese fishing corporations to engage in commercial and aquaculture production all over the country, as well as the corporate takeover of 1.2 million hectares of prime agricultural lands for hybrid rice and corn production, 40,000 hectares for sugar cane and cassava for bio fuels and 5,000 hectares for tropical fruits.

Hicap since the RP-China fisheries accord is so abroad. He said it would allow China’s top fishing and aquaculture corporations to explore the country’s 266,000 square kilometer coastal areas and 1,934,000 square kilometer oceanic waters to the detriment of Filipino fishermen in fish capture sector.

Pamalakaya’s Hicap also said, China, a known as “fishing giant” in aquaculture sector will be entitled to utilize whatever is left in the country’s inland resources.

Hicap said China’s top aquaculture corporations could conduct fishpond and aquaculture production in freshwater swamplands (106,328 hectares), brackish water swamplands (139,735 hectares), and existing fishponds (253,854 hectares) and in lakes (200,000 hectares), rivers (31,000 hectares) and reservoirs (19,000 hectares). #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:34 | link | comments |

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Pamalakaya sees Esperon transfer to defense department as game plan for Arroyo survival
Looming cabinet revamp meant to accommodate Esperon, says critics

The looming shake-up in the Cabinet of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was meant to accommodate outgoing Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. which unconfirmed reports says will be named Secretary of national defense upon his retirement on May 9, 2008.

“It is part of the political game plan. Mrs. Arroyo can’t live without Esperon. They need each other in the name of their respective political survival,” the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a press statement.

In a dinner with reporters hosted by Palace officials in Malacañang sa Sugbo, the Chief Executive confirmed her plans to revamp her Cabinet next but kept mum on who among her present members of her official cabinet would be affected.

“Mrs. Arroyo should stop this endless and senseless guessing game. Her plans and decisions were already known to the public. She will name Esperon as the next defense chief, and DND Secretary Gilbert Teodoro will take over the position of retiring Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. The Filipino people are not born yesterday, they are well informed about this political circus going on in the Macapagal-Arroyo administration,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

The Pamalakaya leader also said President Arroyo will most likely re-appoint former environment secretary and Presidential Management Chief of Staff Michael Defensor and other pro-administration senators who lost in the May 2007 elections to new cabinet posts. The one year prohibition for the appointment to government posts of losing candidates in the May 12 national elections will end on May 14.

“President Arroyo wants the militarist mindset of Esperon to rule in the defense department for the next two and half-years. Her political survival is the main agenda why she will appoint the outgoing AFP chief to the defense portfolio,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

The militant group predicted that Esperon as DND chief will surely face major political obstacles once President Arroyo officially names him as the new defense secretary. Pamalakaya said it is now preparing a position paper against his Esperon’s appointment to defense department and will challenge his appointment before the Commission on Appointment.

“Esperon should prepare for another battle royale. Anti-Arroyo forces from left to right will surely deluge CA with position papers opposing Esperon’s appointment to DND. The AFP chief knows everybody hates him and does not trust him, including the idealistic young officers and decent thinking personnel of the AFP and the Philippine National Police,” Pamalakaya said.

As for Teodoro, the militant group said Malacañang said President Arroyo and the National Security Council will use his legal expertise to build up criminal cases against critics and political foes of the Arroyo administration. “That’s the purpose why he is being eyed to be the next justice secretary. To follow the legal prescriptions of Malacañang against critics of Mrs. Arroyo who want her out of the presidential palace. Again, that is part of the political game plan for survival,” the group added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 01:19 | link | comments |

Japanese Diet accused of pressuring RP senators to OK Jpepa

Anti-Jpepa (Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement) activists on Tuesday accused the Japanese Diet of pressuring the Senate to concur the controversial RP-Japan economic pact.

In a press statement, the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the Japanese Diet, the lawmaking body of Japan consist of 480 members of the House of Representatives and 242 members of the House of Councilors is “discreetly pressuring” the Upper Chamber of the Congress to act in favor of Jpepa.

To prove his group’s point, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap cited a recent event where Senator Richard Gordon, who was two weeks ago in Japan for an official visit, was deluged with questions from Diet members as to why up to now, the Senate has still not ratified Jpepa, despite the fact that it was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Helsinki on September 9, 2006.

The Pamalakaya leader quoted Senator Gordon as saying “they (Japanese lawmakers) are curious why we still have not ratified the treaty, when all other economic partnership agreements with other Asian countries have gone into force.”

“Senator Gordon was told by Japanese lawmakers to have the Senate ratification of Jpepa at the most earliest possible time. It is an indication that the imperial government of Japan will use political and diplomatic pressure to have the economic partnership agreement ratified at all cost,” said Hicap, also the convenor of No Deal Jpepa and chair of the environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment.

“Of course Gordon will neither oppose the observation of Japanese lawmakers nor explain the position of the broad opposition movement against Jpepa, simply because this Subic-bred American boy is also in favor of Jpepa and he does not want to offend the Japanese government in the name of tin cup diplomacy”, Hicap added.

Based on scorecard prepared by No Deal Jpepa, Senator Gordon, along with Senators Miriam
Defensor-Santiago, Edgardo Angara, Juan Ponce Enrile and Manuel Roxas, all administration senators are in favor of Jpepa.

No Deal Jpepa spokesperson Arnold Padilla said based on the latest assessment of their group, only opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal is sure of voting against the RP-Japan economic treaty. The group said Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Pia Cayetano, Manuel Villar, Francis Escudero and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III are most likely to vote against the agreement.

No Deal Jpepa said 12 out of 23 senators are still undecided or have yet to express their position on Jpepa namely Senators Ramon” Bong” Revilla Jr., Manuel Lapid, Loren Legarda, Joker Arroyo, Gregorio Honasan, Francis Pangilinan, Miguel Zubiri, Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes III, Jinggoy Estrada, Rodolfo Biazon and Panfilo Lacson.

Yesterday, 14 activists led by Hicap, Salvador France, Pamalakaya Vice Chairperson for Luzon, Clemente Bautista Jr., national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, Eleanor de Guzman, secretary general of the youth group Anakbayan, Joselito Sosmeño, campaign officer of Promotion of Church People’s Response, Gladez Maglungsod, Alvin Villamor and Medy Montreal of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and No Deal Jpepa staged a 10-kilometer swim from Bacoor in Cavite to Senate in Pasay City.

Factory ships

Pamalakaya asserted that the economic agreement will allow Japanese factory ships to fish inside the country’s territorial waters as provided by the agreement’s provisions pertaining to national treatment and most favored sections of Jpepa.

The fisherfolk group said a 3,000 single-ton Japanese factory ship, accompanied by support fishing fleets can harvest 150 metric tons of tuna a day or 50,000 metric tons per year. A Japanese factory ship will earn at yearly gross income of $ 242.5 million from sales of regular tuna and skipjack tuna which are still rampant in Philippine waters.

According to Pamalakaya, the fishing aspect of Jpepa is meant for the benefit and survival of Japan’s tuna industry at the expense of the P 18-B local tuna industry. The group said, if ratified, Jpepa will displace around 180,000 tuna fishermen and tuna fish workers all over the country.

The militant group said Japan is seeking exploration and exploitation of Philippine waters and its nearby Asian neighbors, mainly for tuna resources, because Japan has been effectively barred from fishing tuna in the Indian and Atlantic oceans courtesy of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas which rebuked Japan’s massive hunt for tuna over the last 10 years.

Japan is known to consume 630,000 tons of tuna per year or 11 pounds of tuna per person per year. With the shrinking catch in Japan seas and in the Atlantic areas, Japanese transnational tuna corporations are targeting the Philippines as its major source of tuna. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 01:18 | link | comments (2) |

14 Pamalakaya, No Deal Jpepa activists crossed 10-kilometer
Manila Bay channel for RP-Japan econ pact rejection

14 ACTIVISTS belonging to the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and No Deal Jpepa (Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement) crossed the 10-kilometer Manila Bay Channel from Bacoor in Cavite to Philippine Senate in Pasay City to show their opposition against the RP-Japan trade pact.

“Our position against Jpepa is non-negotiable. This nation of 88.5 million Filipinos is not for sale to Japan or to any imperialist countries wanting to gobble up the remaining natural resources of this country,” said Pamalakaya national chair and No Deal Jpepa convenor Fernando Hicap.

Hicap said his group, and other colleagues in No Deal Jpepa will go this far, saying the economic agreement between Japan and the Philippines deserved an intensified level of resistance and patriotic action.

“Like shooting stars, we can go the distance and strike the biggest blow against this onerous, one-sided and totally revolting agreement,” said Hicap, also the chair of the environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE).

“We will cross the 10-kilometer Manila Bay channel from Bacoor to the Senate on Monday to prove to senators that this one-sided treaty if ratified will spark a sea wide revolt from Filipino fishers, the most affected sector under Jpepa” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a conference called by the anti-Jpepa alliance No Deal last week.

Hicap was joined by Salvador France, Pamalakaya Vice Chairperson for Luzon, Clemente Bautista Jr., national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE, Eleanor de Guzman, secretary general of the youth group Anakbayan, Joselito Sosmeño, campaign officer of Promotion of Church People’s Response, Gladez Maglungsod, Alvin Villamor and Medy Montreal of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

“The 10-kilometer swim is also in search for Patriotic 8 among the senators of the republic who will stand in the name of national interest, and will reject Jpepa all the way,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap said. The swim protest begun in Barangay Maliksi 3 in Bacoor, Cavite, passed the SM Mall of Asia and reached the Senate ground by 12:30 pm.

The 14 activists crossed the 10-kilometer stretch in three stages: the Bacoor-Paranaque toll gate, the Parañaque-SM Mall of Asia and from SM Mall of Asia to Philippine Senate in Pasay City.

No Deal Jpepa spokesperson Arnold Padilla said based on the latest assessment of their group, only opposition Sen. Jamby Madrigal is sure of voting against the RP-Japan economic treaty. The group said Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Pia Cayetano, Manuel Villar, Francis Escudero and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III are most likely to vote against the agreement.

No Deal Jpepa said 12 out of 23 senators are still undecided or have yet to express their position on Jpepa namely Senators Ramon” Bong” Revilla Jr., Manuel Lapid, Loren Legarda, Joker Arroyo, Gregorio Honasan, Francis Pangilinan, Miguel Zubiri, Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes III, Jinggoy Estrada, Rodolfo Biazon and Panfilo Lacson.

The five senators who are sure to vote in favor of Jpepa are Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Manuel Roxas III, Richard Gordon, Juan Ponce Enrile and Edgardo Angara, all pro-administration senators.

“We need eight senators to vote against Jpepa, and we have to convince 7 more senators. That’s the current scorecard. Convincing 7 more senators is a tough job, so we need to intensify the resistance and engaged the fight actively in the parliament of the streets, in the court of public opinion and in the halls of Senate,” No Deal Jpepa said.

Factory ships

Pamalakaya asserted that the economic agreement will allow Japanese factory ships to fish inside the country’s territorial waters as provided by the agreement’s provisions pertaining to national treatment and most favored sections of Jpepa.

The fisherfolk group said a 3,000 single-ton Japanese factory ship, accompanied by support fishing fleets can harvest 150 metric tons of tuna a day or 50,000 metric tons per year. A Japanese factory ship will earn at yearly gross income of $ 242.5 million from sales of regular tuna and skipjack tuna which are still rampant in Philippine waters.

According to Pamalakaya, the fishing aspect of Jpepa is meant for the benefit and survival of Japan’s tuna industry at the expense of the P 18-B local tuna industry. The group said, if ratified, Jpepa will displace around 180,000 tuna fishermen and tuna fish workers all over the country.

The militant group said Japan is seeking exploration and exploitation of Philippine waters and its nearby Asian neighbors, mainly for tuna resources, because Japan has been effectively barred from fishing tuna in the Indian and Atlantic oceans courtesy of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas which rebuked Japan’s massive hunt for tuna over the last 10 years.

Japan is known to consume 630,000 tons of tuna per year or 11 pounds of tuna per person per year. With the shrinking catch in Japan seas and in the Atlantic areas, Japanese transnational tuna corporations are targeting the Philippines as its major source of tuna. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 01:16 | link | comments (1) |

Sunday, 27 April 2008

Palace P 5 B project for the poorest of the poor failed to impress critics:
“How about the poor and the poorer?”

The P 5-B welfare subsidy program called Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy failed to impress rabid critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, dismissing the poverty alleviation project to be handled by the Department of Social Welfare and Development as nothing but a “multi-billion peso publicity blitzkrieg.

“If the P 5-B is for poorest of the poor, how about the poorer and poor people. Are they not entitled to any government help? Is there such thing as bracketing of the poor population of the country into poor, poorer and poorest?” the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a press statement.

“Where did Malacañang get the idea to stratify the poor section of the population into poor, poorer, poorest? What socio-economic standards and indicators they use to come up with this equally incorrigible idea?” Pamalakaya added.

“As far as we are concerned 80 percent of the 88.5 million Filipinos are all poor and they live below the poverty level, and they are all suffering from chronic and intensifying economic crisis,’ said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral said apart from the subsidized rice being sold by the National Food Authority (NFA), the national government allocated P 5 B this year to fund a P 500 monthly welfare subsidy for each of the country’s poorest families.

Each family identified by DSWD would also be entitled to P 300 monthly stipend for each of a child, but the program would restrict this allocation to only three children in each poor household. Thus a maximum subsidy of P 1,400 will be given as aid to extremely poor through the government bank Land Bank of the Philippines’ cash cards.

The entire P 5 billion fund will cover 300,000 families in 20 provinces across the nation according to Cabral. So far, poor families in the provinces of Agusan, Misamis Occidental, Surigao del Sur and Abra, and the cities of Pasay and Caloocan in Metro Manila have received the cash subsidy.

“First the government allowed the construction of casino in Manila Bay to make this country the gambling capital of Asia. Now the government is distributing NFA access cards and subsidy cash cards to poor Filipinos to make this country, a promising Card Republic with gambling cards from casino and NFA and cash cards taking the center stage of national life,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said instead of treating poor Filipinos like round-the-clock beggars begging for alms, public resources must be used to create jobs and homes for them, allocate substantial amount for medical and other basic services and infuse funds for domestic production of food and subsidies to millions of farmers and other food producers in the countryside.

The fisherfolk alliance said the welfare subsidy program appeared more them like a dress rehearsal for the 2010 national and local elections. Pamalakaya said the funds will be channeled through the local government units allied with Malacañang, and this might be used for the election campaign of Palace backed and favored candidates in the May 2010 elections.

“Malacañang is shooting two birds with one stone. It wants to improve the political standing of Mrs. Arroyo and it wants to firm up the political career and election chances of Mrs. Arroyo’s allies and associates at the local government unit level in the 2010 polls,” Pamalakaya added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 03:12 | link | comments |

Friday, 25 April 2008

PANGANDAMAN SAYS HB 3059 A COMMUNIST BILL
Leftists call DAR chief ignorant and incorrigible

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday lashed back at Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman calling the agrarian reform chief ignorant and incorrigible for dismissing the proposed Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill or House Bill 3059 a communist bill.

“Why resort to outdated logic and Jurassic red bashing? Is that because Pangandaman cannot compare CARP to the political, moral and economic superiority of HB 3059? The trouble with Mr. Pangandaman is that he possesses the same mindset of the ruling militarist fiefdom in Malacañang,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Pangandaman on Friday criticized HB 3059 which is principally authored by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran and co-authored by Bayan Muna party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela party list lawmakers Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan, a communist bill because it wants to confiscate lands from landowners without proper compensation.

The DAR chief said the move to confiscate lands from landowners is also unconstitutional because under the constitution, there has to be just compensation. But Pamalakaya’s Hicap rebuked Pangandaman’s claims, saying HB 3059 has enough provisions to ensure due process and just compensation for the landlords provided that their lands are acquired through legitimate and moral means, and not through sheer fraud and terror.

“Did he read HB 3059? If he has read HB 3059 did he analyze what the proposed bill wants to accomplish and achieve? We don’t know what kind or level of comprehension this bureaucrat capitalist need to understand the noble cause of GARB, which is to distribute lands to farmers for free. He is really ignorant of the true meaning of social justice and incorrigible person passing himself off as secretary of agrarian reform,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

Pamalakaya said Article 12 Sections 44 and 45 of the GARB deal mainly on the issue of just compensations. In Section 44, the lands subject for expropriation shall be paid just compensation to be determined in accordance with the following:

• In all landholdings above 15 hectares, the just compensation shall be based on; whichever is lower, the purchase price of the land or the average tax assessment on the land for the immediate last three years prior to the effectivity of the act.
• In case of landowners who own land not exceeding 15 hectares, and landowners with landholdings below 5 hectares, and who are given the option to sell their lands, the just compensation for their lands shall be the price agreed after negotiations with DAR, the tenants or farmers, the farmers organizations and the landowner concerned.

The group said in Section 45, the manner or modes of payment for just compensation shall be done through a combination of the following: cash payment, shares of investment in industrial or commercial enterprise and tax credits which can be used to offset against tax liability and set off any unpaid loans from any financial institution.

HB 3059 intends to cover all agricultural lands of the country, including all private agricultural lands, regardless of crops planted and tenancy relations, lands occupied by transnational corporations and big agribusiness including those utilize for commercial farming, livestock, aquaculture and fishponds and other lands presently under various schemes.

The progressive land reform bill will also cover for distribution all agricultural lands which were previously awarded under previous agrarian reform programs but were passed into the ownership or possession or control of persons or corporations which are not qualified beneficiaries.

HB 3059 also covers all government lands that are agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers or have remained undeveloped, including portions of in excess of their use as penal colonies, and all public agricultural lands and alienable and disposable lands of the public domain that have remained undistributed, including settlement areas and foreshore lands presently occupied by farmers, settlers and fishermen for the last five years.

HB 3059 also covers all private and agricultural lands that have remained idle and abandoned and with potential for agricultural use except necessary to maintain ecological balance.

The proposed progressive land reform law asserts that expropriated lands shall be distributed to the tillers for free, with preference given to those who have been occupying their lands as tenants and leaseholders.

The proposed law asserts that sale, mortgage or any mode of transfer of all expropriated land shall be prohibited, except to the peasant associations or political authority constituted under the initiative of parties concerned in cases where the owner-tillers can no longer till the land for one reason or another. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 23:53 | link | comments |

Pamalakaya, No Deal to kick off 10-kilometer swim against Jpepa
14 activists to cross Manila Bay channel against RP-Japan pact

14 activists will kick off a 10-kilometer swim from Bacoor to Philippine Senate to dramatize their opposition against the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa).

“We will cross the 10-kilometer Manila Bay channel from Bacoor to the Senate on Monday to prove to senators that this one-sided treaty if ratified will spark a sea wide revolt from Filipino fishers, the most affected sector under Jpepa” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a conference called by the anti-Jpepa alliance No Deal this morning.

Hicap who is also a convenor of No Deal Jpepa and chair of the environmental group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) will be joined by Salvador France, Pamalakaya Vice Chairperson for Luzon, Clemente Bautista Jr. also of Kalikasan-PNE, Eleanor de Guzman, secretary general of the youth group Anakbayan and swimmer activists from Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) and the multisectoral alliance Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

“The 10-kilometer swim is also in search for Patriotic 8 among the senators of the republic who will stand in the name of national interest, and will reject Jpepa all the way,” the Pamalakaya leader said.

“Of course it would be ideal to have a 23-0 vote against Jpepa, but given the composition of the Senate today, where majority has political plans in 2010 and who don’t want to offend the Japanese transnational interests in the Philippines, it is a Herculean task to score a 23-0 against Jpepa, anyway we only need 8 votes against Jpepa to defeat the treaty,” Hicap added.

On Monday, the 14 activists will begin the swim protest in Barangay Maliksi 2 in Bacoor, Cavite and are expected to reach Senate by 12 noon. Pamalakaya and No Deal Jpepa said they will be assisted by a coupe of doctors and nurses, at least three life savers during the duration of the 10-kilometer swim.

Pamalakaya asserted that the economic agreement will allow Japanese factory ships to fish inside the country’s territorial waters as provided by the agreement’s provisions pertaining to national treatment and most favored sections of Jpepa.

The fisherfolk group said a 3,000 single-ton Japanese factory ship, accompanied by support fishing fleets can harvest 150 metric tons of tuna a day or 50,000 metric tons per year. A Japanese factory ship will earn at yearly gross income of $ 242.5 million from sales of regular tuna and skipjack tuna which are still rampant in Philippine waters.

According to Pamalakaya, the fishing aspect of Jpepa is meant for the benefit and survival of Japan’s tuna industry at the expense of the P 18-B local tuna industry. The group said, if ratified, Jpepa will displace around 180,000 tuna fishermen and tuna fish workers all over the country.

The militant group said Japan is seeking exploration and exploitation of Philippine waters and its nearby Asian neighbors, mainly for tuna resources, because Japan has been effectively barred from fishing tuna in the Indian and Atlantic oceans courtesy of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas which rebuked Japan’s massive hunt for tuna over the last 10 years.

Japan is known to consume 630,000 tons of tuna per year or 11 pounds of tuna per person per year. With the shrinking catch in Japan seas and in the Atlantic areas, Japanese transnational tuna corporations are targeting the Philippines as its major source of tuna. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 23:52 | link | comments |

Archbishop Cruz asked: Please pray for Sec. Gonzalez’s soul so he could still enter God’s kingdom

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) appealed to Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz to pray for the soul of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, so the tongue-lashing DoJ chief could still enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

“While we condemn the political persecution being orchestrated by Malacañang and its favorite lapdog in the justice department, we still ask the good archbishop of Lingayen to offer prayers to Secretary Gonzalez so he could still have the chance to join his creator in his kingdom, despite the fact that he is not entitled to enter heaven,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap in a press statement.

Hicap added: “Like President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Secretary Gonzalez is the epitome of evil, that’s why he will have a nil chance to enter the kingdom of God. As servant of God, Archbishop Cruz should pray for Secretary Gonzalez’s soul, but before he offer prayers, the DoJ secretary must first admit and atone for his sins and crimes against the people and defenders of people’s rights.”

The tit-for-tat between Archbishop Cruz and Secretary Gonzalez came after Malacañang through the DoJ revived the libel case filed against Archbishop Cruz, which stemmed from the article written by the Lingayen archbishop on June 28, 2004 assailing the government-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) for treating its employees like pitiful Guest Relations Officers (GROs) during a birthday party prepared for First Gentleman Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo.

The case was dropped by the Manila Prosecutor’s Office but was pursued by the DoJ, and was filed this week at the Manila Regional Trial Court. The criminal information was signed by Second Assistant Prosecutor Jessica Junsay-Ong and a P 10,000 bail was recommended for Cruz temporary liberty.

The Pamalakaya leader agreed with Archbishop Cruz that the libel case filed against him was part of the campaign of political persecution against government critics. Hicap said it should be Pagcor, who should be filed with libel case for naming the names of the lady employees who attended the birthday bash prepared for Atty. Arroyo.

“Archbishop Cruz in fact came to the scene to protect of dignity of the lady employees, but Pagcor exposed them to the public by naming their names. If the Justice Secretary is in his sane and legally correct frame of mind, he will charge Pagcor officials with libel and other appropriate charges,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya said, aside from Cruz, the government is reviving old fabricated charges against other critics of the Arroyo administration like Bayan Muna party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño, Gabriela Party list lawmaker Liza Maza and former Anakpawis party list Rep. Rafael Mariano who are all facing criminal raps for the alleged murder of farmers in Nueva Ecija.

“Gloria and Raul, directed by the ruling national security gang in Malacañang are all behind this acts of political persecution. They are all moving heaven and earth to charge staunch critics and political foes and imprison them in the name of Arroyo’s political survival,” the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:41 | link | comments |

Militants fear more trumped up charges against GMA critics
Pamalakaya says Palace on legal offensive to silence anti-Arroyo foes

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday said Malacañang is preparing more trumped up charges against leaders of various leftwing groups and members of the opposition highly critical of the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“The National Security Council is harassing, pressuring and coercing lower courts all over the country to accept all trumped up charges authored by Malacañang against leaders of militant party lists and organizations, and ardent critics of the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“The Palace game plan is to deluge Arroyo’s critics and political foes with fabricated charges, bring these trumped up charges to court and secure warrants of arrests to be able to silence them through imprisonment. That’s the obvious agenda,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Hicap said the first offensive of the ruling national security syndicate in Malacañang this year was the illegal, arbitrary and treacherous arrest of Randal Echanis, deputy secretary general of the left-leaning farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas in the last week of January this year.

The 60-year old KMP leader was arrested for his alleged participation in the killings of suspected government deep penetration agents in Hilongos, Leyte in the early and mid 80s, despite the fact that Echanis, based on court and military’s records was incarcerated by the Marcos government at the time the alleged crime was committed.

Echanis was peasant organizer during Martial Law and was freed during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino. The charges filed against him the military were all dismissed by the regional trial court for lack of merit.

Pamalakaya said the next set of victims were Bayan Muna party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Party list lawmaker Liza Maza and former Anakpawis Party list Rep. Rafael Mariano were charged for allegedly ordering the killing of three farmers in Nueva Ecija sometime in 2001, 2004 and 2006.

The militant group said the same cases were used to disqualify Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Anakpawis in the last may 2007 elections, but the disqualification bid was dismissed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for lack of evidence and lack of merit.

“Reliable sources informed us that Secretary Raul Gonzalez has been pressuring the lower courts to immediately issue warrants of arrest against Ocampo, Casiño, Maza and Mariano, and that elements of the Criminal and Investigation and Detection Group in Palayan City were ordered to stand by and execute the arrest after the DoJ successfully obtain the warrants for the four party list lawmakers,” Pamalakaya added.

Pamalakaya said the third case of political persecution this year is the libel case filed by Secretary Gonzalez against another Arroyo critic- Lingayen Archbishop Oscar Cruz before the Manila Regional Trial Court last Tuesday. The group said Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and known opposition leader is facing warrant of arrest issued by the Office of Ombudsman for alleged graft case, which is unknown to the city mayor.

“Gloria and Raul, directed by the ruling national security gang in Malacañang are all behind this acts of political persecution. They are all moving heaven and earth to charge staunch critics and political foes and imprison them in the name of Arroyo’s political survival,” the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:40 | link | comments |

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Militants score House for railroading CARP extension bill
Pro-CARP solons are afraid of House Bill 3059, says Pamalakaya

Critics of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and the bills extending the implementation of what they called a bogus and pro-landlord land reform program yesterday accused the House Committee on Agrarian Reform of railroading the consolidated extension bill to prevent the public discussion on the merits and superiority of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) or House Bill 3059 principally authored by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran.

“Landlords, pseudo agrarian reform groups and advocates together with their partners in the House of Representatives conspired openly and discreetly to railroad the pro-CARP consolidated extension bill and evade the needed public debates on which between the extension bill and GARB is better and superior and that will best represent the interest of Filipino farmers,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“The landlord-dominated Congress is afraid of GARB, because under GARB all lands will be distributed free to the farmers and there’s no room for political manipulation or maneuver. The centerpiece of House Bill 3059 is free land distribution, while pro-CARP groups led by the Department of Agrarian Reform are still harboring illusions that its extension will still work for the farmers despite the program’s failure to address social justice beginning 1989 up to present,” Hicap added.

“Landlords in Congress should not be afraid of GARB if their lands in possession are not sullied lands or lands obtained through bad means. In fact, if they have good records of supporting progressive land reform program, they will get proper compensation for their lands,” Hicap said.

The Pamalakaya leader said last March, the House Committee on Agrarian Reform initiated three hastily called on-site hearings in San Fernando City, La Union (for Luzon), Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental (for Visayas) and Digos City in Davao del Sur (for Mindanao) ,where DAR and their partner non-government organizations mobilized government resources and ferry thousands of government employees and a handful of so-called agrarian reform beneficiaries to convince the public that CARP is good and should be extended for five years or more.

But Pamalakaya leader said the fight against CARP and CARP extension will continue. Hicap said the unmasking of CARP and the proposed extension will still be challenged in the House of Representatives, in the Philippine Senate, in the parliament of the streets and in the court of public opinion.

“The fight against CARP and CARP extension and the struggle for the passage of a superior agrarian reform law as envisioned by GARB or HB 3059 has just started. It is a long way to go, but history is always on the side of truth and the oppressed and that’s make us more eager to win the cause for genuine agrarian reform,” Hicap added.

Citing the 2002 Census on Agriculture, Pamalakaya said despite there is CARP, tenancy exists in 52 percent of the all farms in the country, increasing the level of 26 percent in 1980, covering 51 percent or some 4.8 million hectares of the total farm area, excluding vast tracts leased to transnational corporations, and commercial lands exempted by the government for distribution under CARP, and other agricultural lands converted for other purposed.

“In reality, still 7 out of 10 farmers are landless and this condition is further exacerbated by the bankruptcy of CARP in nearly two decades. On the other hand, HB 3059 intends to overturn this agrarian figure and reality by promoting free distribution of lands and by widening its scope and coverage in the name of social justice,” Pamalakaya said.

HB 3059 intends to cover all agricultural lands of the country, including all private agricultural lands, regardless of crops planted and tenancy relations, lands occupied by transnational corporations and big agribusiness including those utilize for commercial farming, livestock, aquaculture and fishponds and other lands presently under various schemes.

The progressive land reform bill will also cover for distribution all agricultural lands which were previously awarded under previous agrarian reform programs but were passed into the ownership or possession or control of persons or corporations which are not qualified beneficiaries.

HB 3059 which is also co-authored by Bayan Muna Party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño and Gabriela party list lawmakers Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan , also covers all lands previously declared by various Presidential decrees and proclamations, other laws and issuances as part of reserved or devoted areas for tourism development, military reservations, human settlement projects, special economic zones, export processing zones, regional centers but have remained undeveloped or agricultural dominant in use will still be subjected to free land distribution.

HB 30 59 will also cover for land distribution agricultural lands reclassified as commercial, industrial or residential by local government units and other government agencies but have remained undeveloped according to legislated classification, agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers.

Beltran’s bill will also include for free distribution all agricultural lands with approved land use conversion authority but have not been undeveloped and all agricultural lands with pending applications.

The GARB also includes lands which have been tilled by the farmers and the subject of land distribution claims but were taken away from them by the government or the landowner for use or lease by foreign institutions.

HB 3059 also covers all government lands that are agricultural in dominant use or presently occupied and tilled by farmers or have remained undeveloped, including portions of in excess of their use as penal colonies, and all public agricultural lands and alienable and disposable lands of the public domain that have remained undistributed, including settlement areas and foreshore lands presently occupied by farmers, settlers and fishermen for the last five years.

HB 3059 also covers all private and agricultural lands that have remained idle and abandoned and with potential for agricultural use except necessary to maintain ecological balance. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:14 | link | comments |

Militants reject Yap’s P 250-B proposal vs. rice crisis
Pamalakaya asked: Is it really for rice crisis or for the 2010 polls?

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) rebuked on Thursday the proposal of Department of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap for Malacañang to allot P 250-B in taxpayers’ money to resolve the rice crisis.

“Is it really for the resolution of the rice crisis or in preparation for the 2010 presidential and local elections in 2010? Is Malacañang into fund sourcing at this early in preparation to the major political showdown in 2010?” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“We are talking here of P 250 billion in taxpayers money that would be handled by a government agency currently battered with questionable deals and first-rate crimes of corruption,” Hicap added.

“P 250 billion is P 250 billion. This is a big fortune for the present occupant in Malacañang,” Hicap added.

Yesterday, lawmakers led by Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. tasked Secretary Yap to explain his proposal and make an itemize budget, indicating that the agriculture chief will be summoned the House of Representatives to explain his plans to arrest the present rice crisis.

The Pamalakaya leader instead of entertaining the proposal of Secretary Yap, the agriculture secretary should first reply to unanswered queries about billions of pesos of public funds allegedly lost to corruption, involving President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and top government officials and politicians associated with Malacañang.

“Before we entertain Secretary Yap’s terrible proposal, we suggest the agriculture chief to first reply on a number of issues and controversies that remained unanswered over the last three years beginning with the P 728 million fertilizer scam in 2004,” Hicap said.

Pamalakaya said aside from the P 728 million fertilizer scam, Secretary Yap should also explain the P 3.1 B missing irrigation funds, the P 4.2 B Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) seed project and the P 5-B swine project, which according to the Commission on Audit is tainted with high irregularities and shades of corruption.

“Secretary Yap has the nerve to ask for 250 billion pesos in taxpayers’ money for his ambitious crusade against rice crisis, the mere fact that his office was used to clinch big time crimes of corruption by Malacañang in the last three to four years,” the militant group said.

Pamalakaya believed that the P 250-B proposal against rice crisis was also meant for massive rice importation the government will undertake in the next two and a half years. The group said since the NFA perceives a P 111-B in total losses starting mid 2008 until 2010, that is why it is asking such huge amount of taxpayer’s money.

The militant group said Secretary Yap will most likely take the P 10-B fund for the procurement of hybrid rice seeds from the P 250-B fund, which Pamalakaya said will only benefit big agribusiness groups controlling hybrid seeds all over the country.

“Malacañang will provide this P 250-B extravaganza to satisfy the search for bureaucratic loot of the ruling party in Malacañang and their business and political associates in and out of the Palace at the expense of the taxpaying public, the farmers and the local consumers,” Pamalakaya added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:13 | link | comments |

Militants to Sen. Santiago on Jpepa: Even if it is conditional, it is still concurrence

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), a hardline anti- Jpepa (Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement) rejected the committee report of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, recommending conditional concurrence of the controversial economic pact between the Philippines and Japan.

“Even if it is conditional, still the mindset of Sen. Santiago is for the Senate to ratify this unfair economic agreement. Please allow us to remind Santiago that a willing slave like the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cannot impose conditions to her master, and such line of thinking is like reviving the career of Alice in Wonderland,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader said Japan will use its’ economic, political and military power and international advantage as an imperialist power to compel the Philippines to follow what are stipulated in Jpepa and scrap all its conditions.

“The politically correct and only remaining option for the country is to score a giant kill against Jpepa and bury this economic pact six feet under,” Hicap said.

“What’s the big difference between conditional concurrence and concurrence? At the end, all these conditions set by Senator Santiago will join the oblivion, and Japan as the world’s no.2 economic giant will emerge as the big winner over the country’s patrimony, national interest and sovereignty,” Pamalakaya added.

Santiago said the condition her committee would recommend will ensure the Japan will observe the constitutional provisions on public health, protection of Filipino enterprises, ownership of public lands and use of natural resources, ownership of alienable public lands, ownership of private lands and use of natural resources, reservation of certain areas of investment to Filipinos, and giving preference in the national economy and patrimony of Filipinos.

Santiago, a staunch ally of President Arroyo also said regulations will cover foreign investments, operation of public utilities, preferential use of Filipino labor and materials, practice of professions, ownership of educational institutions, state regulation of transfer of technology, ownership of mass media and ownership of advertising firms.

The lady senator her condition also make reservations for future exceptions to at least three Jpepa articles pertaining to national treatment clause that accords Japanese the same rights as those accorded to Filipinos, most favored nation clause that accords Japanese same rights as accorded to Filipino citizens and performance requirement which imposes certain requirements for investment activities in the Philippines.

“No amount of makeover will make Jpepa acceptable. From start to finish, this agreement has been made not in heaven, but in the transnational corporate offices of Japan, so we expect things will not work for Filipinos but for the multinational agenda of big capitalists in the Land of the Rising Sun,” Pamalakaya added.

Pamalakaya maintained that the fisheries sector will be one of the vulnerable sectors that would be hardly hit by Jpepa, once the Senate ratifies the bilateral economic pact. The group reiterated that the entry of a 3,000 gross ton Japanese factory ship, backed by support fishing fleets is capable of harvesting 50,000 metric tons of tuna per year, and is already assured of gross income of not less than $ 230 million for one year operation based on industry standard.

If Japan decides to send at last four factory ships per year, Japan’s gross income will amount to 920 million US dollars.

The group said Jpepa will kill the P 18-B local tuna industry and will send 180,000 fish workers and small fishermen in the tuna sector jobless and penniless.

“No decent and rational thinking Filipino will go for an agreement that will push down employment, an economic pact that will further depressed wages and government spending on social services, drain the economy of needed dollar reserves and gobble up state taxes and generate colossal public deficits through blood sucking operations of Japanese transnational syndicates,” the militant group said.

Earlier, President Macapagal-Arroyo sent the marching order to Senate to ratify Jpepa, because the country will eventually lose P 365 billion in foreign direct investments if the Senate failed to ratify Jpepa. “That’s blackmail. We don’t know what appropriate word that would best describe Mrs. Arroyo’s P 365-B pitch for Jpepa but blackmail,” Pamalakaya added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 00:12 | link | comments |

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Leftists to Angara: NFA is powerless from the start

Leaders of the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) contradicted the claim of Sen. Edgardo Angara that the government-run National Food Authority (NFA) enjoys tremendous powers, including trade functions to avoid incurring huge losses for the national government.

“The NFA is loosing billions of taxpayers money not because it helps the farmers and the local consumers, but because of the Jurassic policies of import liberalization and rice trade liberalization,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The militant leader said Sen. Angara is either a poor student of history or merely acting as spokesperson of the rice cartel and private rice importer who want to corner the bulk of rice imported by the Philippine government from other countries.

Hicap added: “At the start, the NFA was empowered to procure 20-25 percent of the local palay produced by farmers to influence and stabilize prices of rice in the local market. That is supposed to be the main basis of NFA existence. But in the late 70s, the policy shift engineered by the Structural Adjustment Program forced the NFA to reduce local procurement between ten to one percent.

“So what powers Sen. Angara was talking about? It seems he is talking on NFA powers that do not exist. The most appropriate measure is to blame the government’s rice importation policy, stop this anarchy of rice importation and re-orient the NFA to its primary function of procuring at least 25% of the local produce palay across the country,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

In his privilege speech yesterday, Sen. Angara said while he is keeping the NFA, he wants to limit its role to its limited role of implementing rice and corn support policy which serves the country’s buffer stock in case of emergency and calamity.

Angara said the NFA should give up its trade functions to private sector which can do a much better job. He said if private rice traders are allowed to import and sell rice without any restrictions, the supply and price of rice will likely stabilize, and that hoarding, smuggling and corruption will be eliminated.

“There is no such thing as free competition and price stabilization in an industry or sector like rice which is 100 deregulated and controlled by the rice cartel and its network and interlocking directorate of unscrupulous traders and rice syndicates. Sen. Angara deserves the bites of reality check,” Pamalakaya added.

Instead of importing rice and settle for P 111 B in total losses, Pamalakaya said the national government should set aside state funds to boost palay production and allocate significant portions of agricultural budget that improve the local procurement of NFA.

Pamalakaya also pressed Malacañang, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture to rollback prices of rice to December 2007 levels, and impose price control to thwart moves of rice cartel to take advantage of the situation.

The group said the government should rollback the average price of premium rice from the current P 35 per kilo to P 28 per kilo, the average of price of well-milled rice from the present P 34 per kilo to P 26 per kilo and the regular milled rice from P 32 per kilo to P 24 per kilo, while the NFA rice should stay at P 18.25 or lower it to P 14 per kilo.

“The present average price of commercial rice sold in the market is generally the product of rice cartel’s manipulation. The rice cartel took advantage of the tight supply of rice in the local market to control the distribution and prepare the general consuming public for high rice prices, and saw an opening to the present global problem on rice supply to justify their day-to-day bloodsucking operations,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said the proposed rollback of rice prices in their December 2007 levels and the imposition of price control will immediately benefit 33.7 million workers and roughly 70.8 million poor Filipinos.

The group said the rice cartel aside from cornering practically 70 to 80 percent of the locally produced palay is engaged in wholesaling, and maintain a huge network of local traders who serve as agents in procuring palay produced by farmers, and the rice cartel also own milling facilities and warehouses that provide socio-economic infrastructures for their day-to-day exploitation of the people.

Pamalakaya added: “But the big trouble here is President Arroyo herself. She is justifying the cartelized operations of the rice syndicate as if she is the principal grandmother of ruling Mafia in the P 80-billion rice sector.”

“It seems to us Mrs. Arroyo and Secretary Yap are held hostage by the rice cartel, that why they are not making any move to confront the rice syndicate and dismantle its dictatorship in the market. Malacañang and Arroyo’s loyalists are scared of getting engaged in a political showdown with the rice cartel,” the group said.

Pamalakaya said instead of rejecting the proposal for price control, the government should investigate and pursue the dismantling of rice cartel otherwise known as the Binondo 7 or Big Seven allegedly composed of Joaquin Go Soliman of JOMERCO Trading, Pio Sy Lato of PNS Grains Center, Ramon Ang Syson of Family Native Supply, Gil Go of Jocardo Merchandizing, Leoncio Tan and Janet Tiu of Leoneco Merchandizing, Santos Sese of Manila Goodyear and Teofredo Co of Teofredo Trading control 45 percent of total rice needs of Metro Manila.

“If they control 45 percent of the rice needs in Metro Manila, that means they practically control everything from distribution, marketing to pricing to realize super profits. But the government is not doing its homework to break the rice cartel. Either Malacañang is in cahoots with and working closely with the rice cartel in highly discreet and de facto manner,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said the rollback of prices of rice should be accompanied with the approval of the P 125-across-the board pay hike to increase the purchasing power of Filipino workers and cushion the unabated increases in the prices of other basic commodities. The group said the repeal of the Expanded Value Added Tax on oil and other necessary needs should also be done to alleviate the sufferings of 88.5 million Filipinos. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 01:34 | link | comments |

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 01:32 | link | comments |

Monday, 21 April 2008

Militants staged “Unity Swim” against Jpepa

From unity walk to unity swim. Activists against the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) on Monday staged a unity swim to drumbeat their opposition to what they called “Japan’s second invasion of the Philippines” through the one-sided bilateral economic pact.

Some 20 anti-Jpepa activists belonging to the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), the broad coalition No Deal Jpepa Movement, the environmentalist group Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) dived in the shallow waters of Manila Bay near the Senate in Pasay City to convince senators to reject the controversial pact.

“The Senate must take a historic and patriotic stand against Jpepa, or else it will face the wholesale condemnation of the Filipino people. We want a 23-0 vote against Jpepa. Those who will follow the transnational agenda of Japan will pay dearly in the 2010 presidential and national elections,” warned Fernando Hicap, chair of Pamalakaya, and one of the organizers of No Deal Movement.

Pamalakaya, No Deal Movement, Kalikasan and Bayan agreed that aside from surrendering the country’s patrimony and national sovereignty to Japan, the main sectors that would be victimized by Jpepa will be the agriculture and fisheries sectors, the local manufacturing industry and the entire local economy and the country’s already fragile environment.

In fisheries for instance, Pamalakaya said the entry of Japanese factory ships will cost the country not less than 200,000 metric tons of its vanishing tuna stocks roughly estimated at
$ 907 million or P 43.5 B per year. The group said Jpepa will kill the P 18-B local tuna industry and will send 180,000 fish workers and small fishermen in the tuna sector jobless and penniless.

“No decent and rational thinking Filipino will go for an agreement that will push down employment, an economic pact that will further depressed wages and government spending on social services, drain the economy of needed dollar reserves and gobble up state taxes and generate colossal public deficits through blood sucking operations of Japanese transnational syndicates,” the militant group said.

Earlier, President Macapagal-Arroyo sent the marching order to Senate to ratify Jpepa, because the country will eventually lose P 365 billion in foreign direct investments if the Senate failed to ratify Jpepa. “That’s blackmail. We don’t know what appropriate word that would best describe Mrs. Arroyo’s P 365-B pitch for Jpepa but blackmail,” Pamalakaya added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:31 | link | comments |

Sunday, 20 April 2008

CBCP asked to invite Pope to RP to see state human of rights

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) appealed to the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to invite Pope Benedict XVI to the country to discover the “true state of human rights and civil liberties” in the Philippines.

The humanitarian appeal stemmed from the landmark address of 81-year old German pontiff to the United Nation General Assembly who said that human rights are the common language and ethical substratum of international relations and promoting these rights is the best way to eliminate inequalities.

Pope Benedict said victims of hardship and despair, whose human dignity is violated with impunity, become easy prey to call to violence, and they can then become violators of peace. By contrast, he said, recognition of human rights favored conversion of the heart, which then leads to a commitment to resist violence, terrorism and war.

Benedict said the international community sometimes had the duty to intervene when a country could not protect its own people from “grave and sustained violations of human rights”.

“We strongly appeal to archbishops and bishops of CBCP and to CBCP President and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo to invite and convince Pope Benedict XVI to come to the country so he could listen to the voices of the grassroots people and their defenders who are suffering from state-sponsored terrorism, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and political persecution,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“We will officially write the CBCP and the Vatican to formalize our request for Pope Benedict XVI about our request for the latter to have an audience with the surviving victims, relatives of victims and persecuted defenders of human rights, civil liberties and people’s interests in the country,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Hicap told the CBCP about the strong recommendations of the United Nations Human Rights Council to the Philippine government during the Universal Periodic Review deliberations of the UN body on the state of human rights across the globe.

In a meeting held last week in Geneva, Switzerland, the Philippine government was tasked to completely eliminate tortures and enforced disappearances, intensity efforts at investigating, prosecuting and punishing perpetrators of extrajudicial killings.

“For CBCP and Pope Benedict’s information, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, tortures, political persecution and other forms of human rights violations are part of the government’s counter-insurgency program and policy known as Bantay Laya 1 and 2,” Hicap added.

Citing the date provided by the human rights watchdog Karapatan, Hicap said from 2001 up to present, the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was responsible for the summary executions of 902 leftwing activists and enforced disappearance of 180 political activists during the last seven years.

Pamalakaya said Malacañang, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police under the command of the National Security Council are also engaged in fabrication of rebellion and criminal charges against top leaders of the open mass movement to effectively stop and silence them from advocating the people’s issues and basic human rights

The militant group was referring to fabricated charges filed against Randal Echanis, Deputy Secretary General of the left-leaning peasant alliance Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). Echanis is currently detained in Palo Provincial Jail in Leyte for his alleged participation in the Hilongos killings of former communist rebels.

Pamalakaya said Bayan Muna Party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela party list lawmaker Liza Maza and former Anakpawis party list Rep. Rafael Mariano are facing possible arrests within this week for three cases of alleged murder committed in Nueva Ecija province.

“Pope Benedict XVI should be informed that the Macapagal-Arroyo government and the pro-Arroyo chain of command in the military are also resorting to fabrication of criminal and murder charges against human rights defenders and advocates of genuine reforms to be able to contain them from exposing and opposing the crimes of the ruling de facto Martial Law in Malacañang,” the group added.

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:51 | link | comments |

Militants accuse National Security Council behind looming arrest of Satur Ocampo, 3 other militant party list lawmakers

The militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez, Department of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez and outgoing Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. behind the looming arrest of Bayan Muna party list Rep. Satur Ocampo and three other activist lawmakers.

In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said the pending arrest Ocampo and colleagues Bayan Muna party list Rep. Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Party list Rep. Liza Maza and former Anakpawis congressman Rafael Mariano, current chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) emanated from fabricated murder charges filed by the military in separate courts in Nueva Ecija last year.

“The National Security gang in Malacañang is behind this brazen attempt to imprison the real servants of the people. It wants to stop them from exposing and opposing the President’s long-running crimes against the people,” Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader added: “Malacañang just waited for the Universal Periodic Review finished its assessment of President Arroyo’s human rights performance over the last six years before deciding to push through with the filing of criminal charges against our party list lawmakers based on fabricated and concocted accounts of civilian mercenaries working for the National Security Council.”

Last week Ocampo was on a speaking tour in Canada to tackle the human rights performance of President Arroyo, while Rep. Casiño was part of the six-member delegation dispatched by the Philippine UPR Watch to contest the human rights report of the 44-men delegation team sent by Malacañang last week to report the human rights records of the Philippine government over the last seven years before the United Nations Human Rights Council currently reviewing the human rights status in the country.

“The criminal elements under the payroll of Malacañang under the command of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police so hungry and starve to get Ocampo, Casiño, Maza and Mariano as their political trophies to the national security syndicate in Malacañang,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap said after receiving report that armed men were allegedly staking out the house of Rep. Ocampo in Quezon City.

“Arroyo and Ermita and the national security adviser, and their running dogs in the national security council, in the AFP and PNP are prepared to score another grand project of political persecution by sponsoring the arrest of Ocampo and his colleagues for the third time around,” Pamalakaya said.

In 2006, Ocampo, Casiño, Maza and Mariano, together with Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran and Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador, then known as Batasan 6 were held under custody of the House of Representatives on charges of rebellion in connection with the failed coup on Feb.24, 2006.

In 2007, Ocampo was arrested over his alleged participation in the killings of former colleagues in Hilongos, Leyte in connection with the purging of government spies who infiltrated the ranks of the Communist Party of the Philippines in early and mid 80s. The Supreme Court dismissed the rebellion case against the Batasan 6, and allowed Ocampo to post bail on the Hilongos case. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:50 | link | comments |

Critics chide GMA over deputy ombudsman for agri post
“What kind of political animal is that?—Pamalakaya

The decision of Malacañang to appoint a deputy Ombudsman for Agriculture in response to the surging rice crisis all over the country drew jeers from the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya).

“What kind of political animal is that?” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“We don’t think that appointive post is necessary to address the rice crisis. The government is just creating another layer of bureaucracy, and that means another layer for betrayal of public trust and triple platinum crime of corruption,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Presidential Management Chief of Staff Cerge Remonde over the weekend announced that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will soon announce the name of deputy spokesman for agriculture, after Malacañang has ensured the release of billions of pesos for projects aimed to boost local food production in the country.

Remonde said the post is important because the agricultural sector will receive more government funds than the military, stressing that the decision was made in response to calls for transparency over agriculture funds.

Remonde who was in Iloilo City last week to attend the awarding ceremonies for best practices in governance said the government has earmarked billions of pesos until 2010 to boost agricultural production development and address food security concerns under the FIELDS program—fertilizer, irrigation, extension and education, loans and insurance, dryers and other post harvest facilities, and seeds and other genetic materials.

The funds include P 500 million for fertilizers, P 6 billion annually until 2010 for irrigation and another 6 billion for infrastructure. Some P 2 billion will be alloted for research and development and P 1 billion for capacity building, training and other technical needs.

Also under the program, the government will allot P 15 billion for loans and insurance and another 5 billion pesos for loans to farmers, P 2 billion for dryers and post harvest facilities, another 2 billion pesos for hybrid seeds and P 6 billion for certified seeds.

But the Pamalakaya leader said until now the government has yet to explain where and how the national government spent P 3.1 B fund for irrigation projects last year. Hicap also said the government failed to account the P 4.2 B seed project in 2007 on top of the P 728 million fertilizer fund scam in 2004.

“These funds are still unaccounted and missing. And now the government has the nerve to tell the people that they are creating the post of Deputy Ombudsman for Agriculture to fight corruption and in the name of transparency. Please give us a break,” Hicap added.

Pamalakaya said Malacañang is merely engaged in public image building, saying that the deputy ombudsman post for agriculture was made to cover up the crimes of bureaucrat capitalist sharks in the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and fast track the national raid of state funds by the ruling syndicate in the Palace and close associates of Macapagal-Arroyo.

“To Mrs. Arroyo and Mr. Remonde please tell that to the marines. Malacañang is a certified bailiwick of corruption in the country, and the role of deputy Ombudsman for agriculture is wash the finger prints of corruption left by the ruling gangland in the presidential Palace,” the group said. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 07:49 | link | comments |

Saturday, 19 April 2008

Leftists: Better use P 50-B for palay production, not to rice imports to avoid losses

Instead of importing rice and settle for P 46 B to P 50 B losses, the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday urged Malacañang to use half of the money to boost palay production this year, and other half to palay procurement in the third quarter of the year.

“P 50 billion is P 50 billion. The government should utilize public funds for domestic production and allocations of significant and productive subsidies to palay farmers, rather than proceed with its anarchy of rice importation at the expense of local producers and the tax paying public,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap said instead of allowing the county to lose 50 billion pesos in people’s hard-earned taxes, the government should allot at least P 25-B for the repair and construction of more irrigations, support funds for farm implements and fertilizers, support infrastructures such as post-harvest facilities and farm-to-market roads and utilization of public lands and idle lands for rice production.

“But this should be done in close cooperation and tight supervision of farmers’ cooperatives and associations to prevent Malacañang and local government officials from corrupting the funds, given the track records of corruption of the present Palace occupant and her allies in the local government units,” Hicap added.

Hicap said the other P 25-B should be allocated for the procurement of locally palay produced in time for the third quarter harvest this year.

The Pamalakaya leader said the National Food Authority (NFA) should not follow the prescription of the International Grains Center (IGC), because the advice is not correct and will only worsen the present rice crisis and the prevailing food insecurity among 88.5 million Filipinos.

“Incurring P 50 billion losses is not in the name of public service. That’s a misnomer. The money can be invested in the implementation of genuine land reform and honest-to-goodness development of the agricultural and rice sectors,” Hicap said referring to NFA spokesman Tomas Escarez earlier statement that the NFA is prepared to incur more losses in rice importation to provide cheap government-subsidized rice to the Filipino public.

Last Friday, Darren Cooper, a senior economic analyst connected with the London-based IGC said the government was expected to pay around $ 1,000 per metric ton of imported rice at this week tender and might pay $ 1,500 per metric ton to $1,600 per metric ton at is next tender in May.

Pamalakaya also pressed Malacañang, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture to rollback prices of rice to December 2007 levels, and impose price control to thwart moves of rice cartel to take advantage of the situation.

The group said the government should rollback the average price of premium rice from the current P 35 per kilo to P 28 per kilo, the average of price of well-milled rice from the present P 34 per kilo to P 26 per kilo and the regular milled rice from P 32 per kilo to P 24 per kilo, while the NFA rice should stay at P 18.25 or lower it to P 14 per kilo.

“The present average price of commercial rice sold in the market is generally the product of rice cartel’s manipulation. The rice cartel took advantage of the tight supply of rice in the local market to control the distribution and prepare the general consuming public for high rice prices, and saw an opening to the present global problem on rice supply to justify their day-to-day bloodsucking operations,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said the proposed rollback of rice prices in their December 2007 levels and the imposition of price control will immediately benefit 33.7 million workers and roughly 70.8 million poor Filipinos.

The group said the rice cartel aside from cornering practically 70 to 80 percent of the locally produced palay is engaged in wholesaling, and maintain a huge network of local traders who serve as agents in procuring palay produced by farmers, and the rice cartel also own milling facilities and warehouses that provide socio-economic infrastructures for their day-to-day exploitation of the people.

Pamalakaya added: “But the big trouble here is President Arroyo herself. She is justifying the cartelized operations of the rice syndicate as if she is the principal grandmother of ruling Mafia in the P 80-billion rice sector.”

“It seems to us Mrs. Arroyo and Secretary Yap are held hostage by the rice cartel, that why they are not making any move to confront the rice syndicate and dismantle its dictatorship in the market. Malacañang and Arroyo’s loyalists are scared of getting engaged in a political showdown with the rice cartel,” the group said.

Pamalakaya said instead of rejecting the proposal for price control, the government should investigate and pursue the dismantling of rice cartel otherwise known as the Binondo 7 or Big Seven allegedly composed of Joaquin Go Soliman of JOMERCO Trading, Pio Sy Lato of PNS Grains Center, Ramon Ang Syson of Family Native Supply, Gil Go of Jocardo Merchandizing, Leoncio Tan and Janet Tiu of Leoneco Merchandizing, Santos Sese of Manila Goodyear and Teofredo Co of Teofredo Trading control 45 percent of total rice needs of Metro Manila.

“If they control 45 percent of the rice needs in Metro Manila, that means they practically control everything from distribution, marketing to pricing to realize super profits. But the government is not doing its homework to break the rice cartel. Either Malacañang is in cahoots with and working closely with the rice cartel in highly discreet and de facto manner,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said the rollback of prices of rice should be accompanied with the approval of the P 125-across-the board pay hike to increase the purchasing power of Filipino workers and cushion the unabated increases in the prices of other basic commodities. The group said the repeal of the Expanded Value Added Tax on oil and other necessary needs should also be done to alleviate the sufferings of 88.5 million Filipinos. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:17 | link | comments |

Big landlords, not regional wage boards determine pay of agricultural workers, says union

Big landlords representing owners of hacienda and big sugar plantations determine the wages receieve by part-time and full-time agricultural workers across the country, according to six-month research conducted on July to December 2007 by the Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa Sa Agrikultura (UMA), the largest agricultrual workers organization in the country.

”The Regional Wage Boards, which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo hypes as the government authorities in charge of determining the wage of non-agricultural and agricultural workers, merely exist in government documents and Malacañang praise releases, but in reality, these wage boards are toothless tigers ,white elephants and partners in crime of big business and big landlords,” said Rene Galang, UMA national chairperson.

”For instance in Central Luzon, where there are 20,000 agricultural workers, the actual wage receive by farm workers is P 120 per day, which is below the P 273 daily wage set by the Regional Wage Board,” Galang stressed.

The UMA chair added: ”All over the country, agricultural workers are treated slave workers pooled in big labor concentration camps like haciendas, plantations and sugar farmlands. The wage they receive is only a token recognition by the ruling fiedom that they employ workers , and this is further misrepresented by the government as daily wage earners to improve its labor employment records from time to time.”

UMA also found out that in Batangas province, where there are over 50,000 agricultural workers, sugar workers in large sugar plantations receive a daily take home pay ranging from
P 35 to P 150 per day, way below the P 211 set by the regional wage board in Southern Tagalog.

In Negros, which is home to 680,000 sugar workers, the regional wage board has approved
P 203 for the daily take home pay of private and agricultural workers, but the actual wages farm workers receive varies from P 30 to P 200 per day.

UMA said in Far South Mindanao actual wages range from P 80 to P 130 per day, which is 40 to 60 percent lower compared to the minimum wage of P 205 prescribed by the regional wage board. In Northern Central Mindanao, where there are 39,000 recognized agricultrual workers, the prevailaing actual wage rate is between P 60 to P 100, which is way below the P 217 to
P 227 set by the regional wage board.

The agricultural workers group said it is also throwing its collective support to the proposed legislation of P 125-across-the-board wage increase, saying if approved by Congress, the increase in the daily take home pay, shouyld be added quickly to the actual wage receive by agricultural workers at present.

UMA said the national government should recognize that all agricultrual workers are all minimum wage earners, despite the fact that majority of them work part time or seasonal workers spread over a period of six months.

”As agricultural workers and in recognition of their contribution to the national economy, they deserve to receive minimum wage of P 350 per day ,as well as pay increases, social benefits and decent housing,” the agricultrual workers union said.
Fishlords

For its part, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said fishworkers in commercial fishing vessels and aquaculture fishponds, though reflected as part of the country’s total labor force are also paid way below the prescribed minimu wage.

In a study conducted by Pamalakaya in 2004 and 2005, fish workers in trawl fishing receive a dauly pay hike of P 100 to P 150 in 20 hours work, while the fishworker captain and 2nd fish worker captain receive P 150 to P 180 in 20 hours work.

”The fishlords in commercial and aquaculture sectors are dictating the take home pay of fishworkers. The wage boards and its’ so-called political authority as far as wage determination is concerned is wholesally ignored and violated by big commercial and aquaculture owners and operators,” said Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chair.

The Pamalakaya leader said in aquaculture fishponds, seasonal workers employed in aqua farms measuring 125 hectares to 200 hectares are paid P 200 per day., while those working in fishponds measuring 12 hectares and below are paid P 120 per day.

”President Arroyo should get in touch with reality before rejecting the P 125 across the board wage increase proposed by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran and other militant lawmakers. Her outright rejection is a monumental blunder and a classic act of betrayal which is unforgivable and worthy of national condemnation,” Hicap said.

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:16 | link | comments |

Friday, 18 April 2008

Militants want rice prices rolled back to December 2007 levels

The leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday pressed Malacañang, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Agriculture to rollback prices of rice to December 2007 levels, and impose price control to thwart moves of rice cartel to take advantage of the situation.

In a press statement, Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap suggested that the government should rollback the average price of premium rice from the current P 35 per kilo to P 28 per kilo, the average of price of well-milled rice from the present P 34 per kilo to P 26 per kilo and the regular milled rice from P 32 per kilo to P 24 per kilo, while the NFA rice should stay at P 18.25 or lower it to P 14 per kilo.

“The present average price of commercial rice sold in the market is generally the product of rice cartel’s manipulation. The rice cartel took advantage of the tight supply of rice in the local market to control the distribution and prepare the general consuming public for high rice prices, and saw an opening to the present global problem on rice supply to justify their day-to-day bloodsucking operations,” Hicap said.

The Pamalakaya leader said the proposed rollback of rice prices in their December 2007 levels and the imposition of price control will immediately benefit 33.7 million workers and roughly 70.8 million poor Filipinos.

Hicap said the rice cartel aside from cornering practically 70 to 80 percent of the locally produced palay is engaged in wholesaling, and maintain a huge network of local traders who serve as agents in procuring palay produced by farmers, and the rice cartel also own milling facilities and warehouses that provide socio-economic infrastructures for their day-to-day exploitation of the people.

The Pamalakaya leader added: “But the big trouble here is President Arroyo herself. She is justifying the cartelized operations of the rice syndicate as if she is the principal grandmother of ruling Mafia in the P 80-billion rice sector.”

“It seems to us Mrs. Arroyo and Secretary Yap are held hostage by the rice cartel, that why they are not making any move to confront the rice syndicate and dismantle its dictatorship in the market. Malacañang and Arroyo’s loyalists are scared of getting engaged in a political showdown with the rice cartel,” Hicap said.

Pamalakaya said instead of rejecting the proposal for price control, the government should investigate and pursue the dismantling of rice cartel otherwise known as the Binondo 7 or Big Seven allegedly composed of Joaquin Go Soliman of JOMERCO Trading, Pio Sy Lato of PNS Grains Center, Ramon Ang Syson of Family Native Supply, Gil Go of Jocardo Merchandizing, Leoncio Tan and Janet Tiu of Leoneco Merchandizing, Santos Sese of Manila Goodyear and Teofredo Co of Teofredo Trading control 45 percent of total rice needs of Metro Manila.

“If they control 45 percent of the rice needs in Metro Manila, that means they practically control everything from distribution, marketing to pricing to realize super profits. But the government is not doing its homework to break the rice cartel. Either Malacañang is in cahoots with and working closely with the rice cartel in highly discreet and de facto manner,” Pamalakaya said.

Pamalakaya said the rollback of prices of rice should be accompanied with the approval of the P 125-across-the board pay hike to increase the purchasing power of Filipino workers and cushion the unabated increases in the prices of other basic commodities. The group said the repeal of the Expanded Value Added Tax on oil and other necessary needs should also be done to alleviate the sufferings of 88.5 million Filipinos. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:07 | link | comments |

Pamalakaya sees Esperon transfer to defense department as game plan for Arroyo survival
Esperon’s appointment as next defense chief raised eyebrows

The reported appointment of outgoing AFP chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has raised eyebrows of critics of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the soon-to-be-retired military chief.

The leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Thursday opposed the reported plan of Malacañang to install Esperon as the next Secretary of the Department of National Defense to replace incumbent Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who will be renamed Justice Secretary next month.

“This is part of the game plan of the pro-Arroyo chain of command in the AFP. It is meant for the political survival of the President and Esperon, two of key figures in the 2004 Hello Garci scandal,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“It seems to us GMA and Esperon are inseparable as partners in crime. They will stay with each other till death does them apart,” Hicap added.

Secretary Teodoro said yesterday he was not ware of the reported plans of Malacañang to transfer him to DoJ and Esperon will become his successor as the chief of the defense department. The former Tarlac Rep. and a protégée of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco said President Arroyo has not mentioned anything about his transfer to the justice department.

Teodoro, a reserve Air Force colonel who at 43 is the youngest to hold the defense portfolio said press reports about his purported transfer to DoJ have not affected his work as DND Secretary. But when asked if Esperon would make a good defense secretary, Teodoro said he had no doubt about the outgoing chief capability to rule the civilian post.

“President Arroyo wants the militarist mindset of Esperon to rule in the defense department for the next two and half-years. Her political survival is the main agenda why she will appoint the outgoing AFP chief to the defense portfolio,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

Teodoro was named Defense secretary last year replacing National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez who took the defense portfolio in two months in acting capacity. On the other hand, Esperon will retire on May 9, and will be replaced by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano.

The militant group predicted that Esperon as DND chief will surely face major political obstacles once President Arroyo officially names him as the new defense secretary. Pamalakaya a position paper against his Esperon’s appointment to defense department is being readied and will be submitted to the Commission on Appointments in the second week of May.

“Esperon should prepare for another battle royale. Anti-Arroyo forces from left to right will surely deluge CA with position papers opposing Esperon’s appointment to DND. The AFP chief knows everybody hates him and does not trust him, including the idealistic young officers and decent thinking personnel of the AFP and the Philippine National Police,” Pamalakaya said.

As for Teodoro, the militant group said Malacañang said President Arroyo and the National Security Council will use his legal expertise to build up criminal cases against critics and political foes of the Arroyo administration. “That’s the purpose why he is being eyed to be the next justice secretary. To follow the legal prescriptions of Malacañang against critics of Mrs. Arroyo who want her out of the presidential palace. Again, that is part of the political game plan for survival,” the group added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:06 | link | comments |

200 fisherfolk, urban leaders predict uprising vs. “Laguna Lake 2000”

Some 200 leaders representing fisherfolk and urban poor organizations, environmental groups, church based associations, small fishpen operators and academic experts from Rizal and Laguna provinces and in cities of Pasig, Cainta, Taytay and Muntinlupa warned Malacañang of a looming lakewide uprising if the government will push through its development projects in the lake.

“President Arroyo should expect a gigantic lakewide uprising in the very near future, unless she recalls all her destructive projects under the ambitious Laguna Lake 2000,” said Fernando Hicap, chair of the activist fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya and convenor of the newly established Save Laguna Lake Movement.

At today’s launching of movement in Calamba City in Laguna, Hicap said the first phase of the ambitious Laguna Lake 2000 which envision the lake to be the model of industrial and commercial development in 2025, involves reclamation and construction of road dikes that will initially displace 32,000 fisherfolk and urban poor families in Pasig, Cainta, Taytay and Muntinlupa, all in National Capital Region.

In a joint statement, Pamalakaya and Save Laguna Lake Movement said in preparation for the entries of foreign investments, the government will first execute the North Laguna Lakeshore Flood and Drainage System that will involve construction of road and dikes from Taguig to Taytay (9.8 kilometers), Bicutan to Taguig (9.5 kilometers), Sta. Rosa to Calamba City section (28 kilometers) Bay to Sta.Cruz in Laguna (32 kilometers), Siniloan to Kalayaan section (28 kilometers) and Tanay section (10 kilometers).

The groups said aside from road and dike construction, the LLDA will proceed with the reclamation of lake waters in Taguig (3,000 hectares), Muntinlupa (5,000 hectares) and Los Baños in Laguna (500 hectares). The multisectoral alliance also said the government plans to reclaim thousands of hectares of lake waters from Taytay to Binangonan.

“The LLDA said it wants to save the lake from biological destruction. But the government projects facilitated by the lake authority has further exposed the falsity of President Arroyo’s long running claims that it is really after protection of Laguna Lake and the welfare of the people,” Pamalakaya and Save Laguna Lake Movement added.

Earlier, General Manager Edgar Manda said the demolition of 32,000 fisherfolk and urban poor homes in Laguna Lake will save Asia’s second largest lake from becoming biologically dead.

The LLDA head said the increase in population in Laguna Lake contributed mainly to pollution and degradation of lake waters, stressing that residents are the main contributors of pollutants and wastes directly thrown to the lake.

Pamalakaya also chided the LLDA’s pedal power caravan on the 200-kilometer stretch around the lake that will be participated by 1,000 riders and cycling advocates on April 26-27. The government sponsored bike tour is aimed to call the attention of stakeholders on the dismal state of the country’s biggest lake and one of its most important natural water basins.

“Laguna Lake is dying and on the brink of biological death because of the government and the LLDA’s policy of offering the lake resources at bargain prices to foreign and domestic business clients at the expense of the people and the environment,” the group added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 04:05 | link | comments |

A monumental blunder, colossal treason, militants say of GMA rejection of legislated pay hike

The leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Friday denounced the announcement of Malacañang rejecting the proposal for a legislated wage increase a monumental blunder and a colossal act of treason

“It is a monumental blunder and a colossal treason rolled into one,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement. The Pamalakaya leader said the rejection of legislated pay hike should agitate the Filipino working class to stage a “class and patriotic war” against the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.

Hicap added: “The decision of Malacañang to kill the proposed P 125 across-the-board legislated pay hike further exposed the falsity of President Arroyo’s long-running claims that she wants to alleviate the present poor economic condition of the working people. She is indeed the no.1 enemy of the labor sector in this country.”

Malacañang reiterated its stand on the wage hike issue, saying the Regional Wage Boards are in the best and legal position to determine pay increases, as opposed to legislated pay hike calling for P 125 wage increase in the daily take home pay of private workers nationwide.

“President Arroyo, the principal agent of big business groups merely re-echoed the irrevocable position of her clients, which is to further keep wages at very depressed levels. The labor front in the country has no option but to engage Mrs. Arroyo in bolder and daring militant actions to press wage hike,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Hicap said the decision of Malacañang rejecting the proposed legislation of P 125 wage hike also killed the desire of 600,000 fish workers in commercial land aquaculture sector to receive additional wages from the current average of P 150 they receive from their employers.

Pamalakaya’s staunch ally, the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said the Palace rejection of legislated pay hike will automatically ease out 28.37 million workers from the long-deserved pay increase, adding the government’s plan to let the wage boards decide on pay increase will only benefit some 5 million workers out of the 33.7 total labor force.

UMA national chairperson Rene Galang, said the wage hike order of President Arroyo will not cover agricultural workers all over the country. “Mrs. Arroyo merely gave false hopes out of her empty promise, anyway agricultural workers do not believe her, because for every 10 promises she made, 11 are broken according to her track record as enemy of labor and willing puppet of foreign and local capitalists,” the Hacienda Luisita sugar worker said.

The NWPC official said the wage increase will not be across the board, saying only the minimum wage earners will get pay hikes determined by the regional wage boards. The official said those earning above the minimum wage of P 350 per day will not be covered by the wage increase to be determined and approved by the wage boards.

Pamalakaya and UMA reminded President Arroyo and Ciriaco, that based on own findings of the NWPC, each family of six needs P 852 per day to survive in Metro Manila and that the current
P 350 minimum wage which is regularly received non-agricultural workers is way, way below of the required amount for a family of six to survive.

Both groups said the P 350 minimum wage is actually worth P 245.61 today based on the present inflation rate. In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), this has the lowest minimum wage pegged at P 200 a day, a family of 6 needs P 1,008 a day to survive. However, the nominal basic pay of P 200 if translated to a real wage would only be P 136.71 today. #

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

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Leftists: “28.37 million workers will not benefit from GMA’s pay hike”
Fish workers, agricultural workers insist P 125 across the board pay hike

The leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) said 29 million workers, including 600,000 fish workers in commercial and aquaculture sectors, out of the 33.7 million labor force will not benefit from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s order to regional wage boards to grant increase in the daily take home pay of workers.

Pamalakaya said President Arroyo is only amenable to wage hike of some 5 million workers or merely 15 % out of the 33.7 million total labor force in the country, and this will not include the bulk of minimum wage earners representing organized and unorganized labor.

“Once again, President Arroyo is taking the Filipino workers to another roller coaster ride, and to her world of make believe. Her call for a wage hike last Monday is fake and was meant to counter the sharp drop in her approval rating,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

Hicap was referring to negative trust and approval ratings according to the latest survey released by the Social Weather Stations, which showed that President Arroyo’s ratings dropped to the same level when the Chief Executive was implicated in the Hello Garci scandal in 2005.

“Mrs. Arroyo merely wants to divide the labor sector by announcing wage increase for 15 percent of the population, and denying 85 percent of the country’s labor force of their much needed pay hike,” Hicap added. The Pamalakaya leader said the 33.7 million labor force both private and state workers badly need a P 125 across-the-board pay hike to cope up with the rising prices of food and other basic necessities. Hicap said President Arroyo also denied the rights of 600,000 fish workers in the commercial and aquaculture sectors to wage increase.

For his part, UMA national chairperson Rene Galang, said the wage hike order of President Arroyo will not cover agricultural workers all over the country. “Mrs. Arroyo merely gave false hopes out of her empty promise, anyway agricultural workers do not believe her, because for every 10 promises she made, 11 are broken according to her track record as enemy of labor and willing puppet of foreign and local capitalists,” the Hacienda Luisita sugar worker said.

Yesterday, Ciriaco Lagunzad, executive director of the National Wage and Productivity Commission revealed that only 5 million of the nearly 34 million labor force in the country will benefit from President Arroyo’s order for regional tripartite wage boards to grant pay hikes to minimum wage earners.

The NWPC official said the wage increase will not be across the board, saying only the minimum wage earners will get pay hikes determined by the regional wage boards. The official said those earning above the minimum wage of P 350 per day will not be covered by the wage increase to be determined and approved by the wage boards.

Pamalakaya and UMA reminded President Arroyo and Ciriaco, that based on own findings of the NWPC, each family of six needs P 768 per day to survive in Metro Manila and that the current
P 350 minimum wage which is regularly received non-agricultural workers is way, way below of the required amount for a family of six to survive.

Both groups said the P 350 minimum wage is actually worth P 245.61 today based on the present inflation rate. In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), this has the lowest minimum wage pegged at P 200 a day, a family of 6 needs P 1,008 a day to survive. However, the nominal basic pay of P 200 if translated to a real wage would only be P 136.71 today. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 08:45 | link | comments |

Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Leftists reject Palace call for ceasefire amid rice crisis

Leaders of the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday rejected the appeal of Malacañang for a ceasefire to enable President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to address the rice crisis with the help of responsible opposition.

"No way. There will be no respite. President Arroyo is at the center of the current rice crisis, and
therefore she, her anti- people policies and political flirtation with the rice cartel should be held at the center of the brewing social volcano," Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The Pamalakaya leader said the “immoral call of Malacañang for a ceasefire will further embolden the people to stage across-the-country protest actions to indict the Arroyo presidency of denying the people their right to food, and for state abandonment of food security of 90 million Filipinos.

Cerge Remonde, Presidential Management Chief of Staff on Saturday asked the foes of Mrs. Arroyo to refrain from attacking the president, and instead offer solutions to the present rice predicament.

Remonde admitted that the problem could get worse in the coming weeks as prices of fuel and other food stuff such bread and processed meat could go up in the next few weeks.

"President Arroyo should be held on political trial for denying the food rights of the people. The
starving folks reject Mrs. Arroyo's cosmetic reforms and lip service; they want cheaper rice and food stuff, not the Arroyo presidency. This should be clear to Malacañang," Pamalakaya's Hicap added.

For his part, Pamalakaya vice-chairperson Salvador France said he was wary of the P 25-B subsidy project of President Arroyo to poor families under the “Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino” program.

Earlier, President Arroyo promised 10,000 poor families in Abra and Apayao monthly stipends to ease poverty in the two-poverty stricken provinces in Northern Luzon.

The subsidy, worth P1,400 (P500 for each household and an additional P900 for a maximum of three children), will be farmed out to 300,000 poor families in the 20 poorest provinces before the year ends, said Porfiria Bernardez, Cordillera director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

She said the selection of the 300,000 beneficiaries was based on several government studies of poverty trends, including the 2000 national census report.

"This is terrible, really terrible. President Arroyo is further exploiting the poverty of the people to
justify the release of billions of taxpayers’ money. Is this part of the fund raising for the 2010 elections?” France asked. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 08:31 | link | comments |

Militants to GMA: Certify P 125-wage hike bill
Congress not wage boards should determine pay hike

Instead of directing the inutile regional wage boards across the country, the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and staunch ally Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to certify and fast track the approval of the pending bill in Congress calling for a P 125-across-the board increase in the daily take home pay of all workers in the country.

“The Filipino fish workers and agricultural workers all over the country are demanding President Arroyo to certify as urgent the passage of P 125 across the board wage hike or House Bill 345 authored by Anakpawis party list Rep. Crispin Beltran, Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño and Gabriela Party list Reps. Liza Maza and Luzviminda Ilagan in Congress,” Pamalakaya and UMA said in a joint statement.

“Mrs. Arroyo should instead dismantle the unproductive and anti-worker wage boards and send marching order to Congress to pass HB 345 on or before May 1. The law can be passed and signed in less than a week’s time if President Arroyo is really sincere in her wage hike proposal,” both groups said.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap and UMA national chair Rene Galang said the regional wage boards, by orientation and by design, are meant to further keep the daily take home pay of Filipino at depressed levels.

“The regional wage boards are forever white elephants to workers and chiefly serve the best interests of capital. The passage of P 125 wage hike bill is very material, very urgent and the most politically, legally and morally correct way of addressing the pressing need of the working class of this country,” Hicap and Galang said in a joint statement.

Pamalakaya said the passage of P 125 wage increase has become a political and economic necessity for the country given the seemingly unstoppable increases in the prices of rice and other basic needs which are further compounded and complicated by the weekly increases in the prices of petroleum products.

Citing the recent study made by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) that each family of six needs P 768 per day to survive in Metro Manila, Pamalakaya said the P 350 minimum wage which is regularly received non-agricultural workers is way, way below of the required amount for a family of six to survive.

Pamalakaya also said the P 350 minimum wage is actually worth P 245.61 today based on the present inflation rate. In the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), this has the lowest minimum wage pegged at P 200 a day, a family of 6 needs P 1,008 a day to survive. However, the nominal basic pay of P 200 if translated to a real wage would only be P 136.71 today.

For his part, Galang of UMA said the real value of workers’ wages had also seriously been eroded. Citing the study made by independent think tank Ibon Foundation, the union leader said the purchasing power of the peso in Metro Manila fell to 70 centavos from 72 centavos from April 2006 to April 2007. “This means that a worker has lost P 2 of actual buying power for every P 100 he or she earns. This is despite fact that the workers productivity has increased from P 9,265 per month to P 9,560 per month from April 2006 to April 2007. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 08:29 | link | comments |

Monday, 07 April 2008

Militants want Chinese firm in NBN scam ban in RP

One of the groups which filed a diplomatic protest against the Chinese government and the Chinese firm ZTE Corporation over the controversial $ 326 million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal dared President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ban the Chinese firm from doing business in the country.

In a press statement, the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) issued the challenge a day after it learned that the Malacañang had entered another deal with ZTE Corp, this time involving mining operations in 8,100 hectares of rich tract of land in Mt. Diwalwal covering the municipalities of Monkayo and Cateel in Davao del Norte and Davao Oriental provinces respectively.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Malacañang and ZTE Corp. was signed on July 2006, and was later confirmed by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila.

“It is legally and morally appropriate for Malacañang to rescind the MOU, unless President Arroyo and her clique of bureaucrat capitalists in the Palace want to pursue their illegitimate and corruption-driven engagements with China’s ZTE Corp.,” Hicap said.

On September 24, 2007, Pamalakaya along with staunch allies Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) and the Amihan-National Federation of Peasant Women filed a diplomatic protest against the Chinese government and the ZTE in connection with the highly scandalous RP-China Agricultural Agreement and the bribe-ridden NBN deal.

Last February this year, Pamalakaya filed another diplomatic protest against the Chinese government over the controversial Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU), which the fisherfolk group said was the mother of all corrupt agreements entered by the Manila government with China.

Pamalakaya asserted that the Chinese government agreed to award $ 8-billion loan to the Macapagal-Arroyo government to finance questionable projects like the NBN deal, the Cyber Education deal and the North and South Railway projects in exchange for China’s rights to explore 142,886 square kilometers for oil, which encompass the island of Palawan and other Philippine claimed territories in the Spratly.

“China’s ZTE Corp should be banned from conducting monkey business in the Philippines. Mrs. Arroyo has no option but to do this. Failure on her part would mean she’s is really part of the high crimes of corruption and national betrayal emanating from the Spratly deal and the unscrupulous loans tied to the deal to fund equally corrupt projects like NBN,” the group said.

Pamalakaya also noted that a mining firm currently embroiled in litigation over the Mt. Diwalwal gold rush area has asked the Supreme Court to reverse its 2006 ruling that paved the way for the Macapagal-Arroyo government to deal with ZTE.

The Southeast Mindanao Gold Mining Corp. said while the status of the 8,100 hectare of mineral lands in Mt. Diwalwal is still unsettled, the Macapagal-Arroyo government quickly entered into MOU with China’s ZTE, officially granting the right for the Chinese firm to explore, develop and operate in the still disputed mine areas.

On November 25, 2002, President Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 297 placing the 8,100 hectare as mineral reservation area, and therefore, off to any mining activity. This was the time, when the high tribunal was still determining which companies have the right to operate in Mt. Diwalwal.

But on June 23, 2006, the Supreme Court issued a ruling which states that the issue on who has the priority right over the 8,100 hectare of mineral lands had been overtaken by the President’s proclamation, which effectively stopped all mining activities in Mt. Diwalwal.

Pamalakaya said in July 2006, Malacañang violated its own proclamation by entering an agreement with ZTE Corp over the exploration, development and operation of Mt. Diwalwal.

“If Mrs. Arroyo is the luckiest bitch in town, ZTE Corp. is the luckiest foreign plunderer in the world. This is for a fact, that President Arroyo has to violate her own proclamation in favor of ZTE Corp.”, the group added. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:20 | link | comments |

Critics say Las Vegas style casino in Manila Bay will result to crimes, moral problems
Pamalakaya cites experts’ findings on impact of casinos to people

Critics of the multi-billion dollar Las Vegas-style gaming and entertainment center on reclaimed land on Manila Bay said the ambitious $ 15-B Bagong Nayong Pilipino-Manila Bay Integrated City will result to crimes that are costlier and beyond repair compared to the benefits the government would gain from the gambling project.

“So what if the government will earn hundreds of million of dollars in tax revenues, that is not the point here. The real point is casinos usually produce an array of crimes like prostitution, breaking up of families, theft, embezzlement of funds, issuance of bad checks and aggravated burglary, including increasing cases of child abuse and family abandonment,” the militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said in a press statement.

The militant group whose members in Pasay Reclamation area and Parañaque City were evicted in the mid 90s to pave way for the construction of 15-year old proposal to develop the 92-hectare reclaimed land into a gambling and entertainment city said the cost benefit analysis shows that the government will gain revenues at the expense of moral and cultural degradation of the Filipino public.

Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said between 1990 to 1995, not less than 8,000 families, mostly urban-based fishermen and urban poor were summarily demolished by the Public Estate Authority (PEA) to give way to the conversion of thousands of hectares of reclaimed land along Roxas Boulevard to shopping complex, gaming centers and entertainment hubs.

To illustrate the exact impacts of casinos to the public, Pamalakaya’s Hicap cited the report made by US Senator Paul Simon to the US Senate Committee investigating the effects of casinos to the American public.
Quoting Simon’s report in the US Senate in the early 90s, Hicap said “costs to society of the problem gambler vary from the most conservative estimate of $13,200 to $30,000 per year."

Hicap added: “According to a study cited in Senator Simon’s report, "Overall, the state gains $326 million in net revenue from the presence of the casinos. However, this figure is reduced substantially -- to $166.25 million -- when even the lowest estimated social costs of compulsive gambling are included in the calculations. With mid-range estimated social costs, the overall impact becomes negligible, while with higher social-cost estimates, the impact becomes clearly negative."

The Pamalakaya leader further stressed the presence of casinos would attract more people to gamble as in the case of Illinois: “The Simon report points out that "Nationally, less than 1 percent 0.77 percent of the population are compulsive gamblers, but when enterprises are located near a population, that number increases two to seven times."

Pamalakaya likewise cited the findings of Donald Trump, a Miami-based financial analyst on casino about the impact of high cost gambling. Citing Trump’s report, the group said promoters of the casino often stress the benefits of introducing casino operations.

Pamalakaya said: “People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they'll lose customer dollars to the casinos."

According to “Legalized Gambling as a Strategy for Economic Development” authored "Vernon George, an economic consultant for the casino industry, who also provides feasibility studies for communities contemplating riverboat gambling, says private developers usually exaggerate public benefits in order to make their proposals more attractive.

Pamalakaya also cited the testimony delivered by prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Bloomberg of Lawrence County, SD during a U.S. House committee hearing on his experiences dealing with Deadwood, SD, a small community that became the first place outside of Atlantic City and Nevada to legalize casino gambling.

Pamalakaya said Bloomberg said host communities were promised with "economic development, new jobs and lower taxes." Instead, casinos flourished, but other businesses did not.
Based on Bloomberg’s own account, businesses that provide ‘the necessities of life’ such as clothing are no longer available . . . and customers of the town's only remaining grocery store walk a gauntlet of slot- machines as they exit with their purchases. For the most part, the jobs which were created earn minimum wage or slightly better and are without benefits. As for the claim that gambling brings tax relief, this simply has not proven true. Real property taxes for both residential and commercial properties have risen each and every year since gambling was legalized.

“The devastating impact of these casinos in Manila Bay will center not only on the economic aspect of the Filipino public, but also to their political, moral and social beings. The project of Pagcor will send us to national destruction,” Pamalakaya said.

“As to the effect of the casino and entertainment city project to small fishermen, time will come fishing in Manila Bay will be banned by the national government, and it would only allow tourist cruise ships to navigate in Manila Bay to ferry big time gamblers to the Manila Bay casino complex from their high end condominium units and resorts located in Metro Manila and nearby Cavite province,” the militant group said.

Pagcor said the actual development of the 90-hectare casino and resort complex will begin in the third quarter of the year. The stat-owned gaming corporation said companies with approved proposals must invest at least one billion US dollar for their projects, with initial $ 400 million investments in the first two-years.

One of the investors, the Azure Corporation proposed to develop the Okada Resort Manila Bay, an integrated casino resort with 2,000 standard rooms and 300 VIP suites. Its main features include the biggest oceanarium, theaters and giant Ferris wheel similar to the “London Eye” and would be called the “Manila Eye”.

For its part, Genting Berhard, with its partners Star Cruises and Alliance Global Incorporated, plans to build several hotels with a minimum room capacity of 2,000 rooms and a world-class theme park.

The SM Holdings of Henry Sy, owner of SM Mall of Asia in Manila Bay is also planning to pout up a gaming facility and will tie up with Asia-Pacific Gaming of Australia, and a major luxury hotel to be managed by Radisson Hotels and Resorts at the Mall of Asia Complex side of the Manila Bay Integrated City.

On the other hand, Bloombery Investments Ltd. is planning to construct three luxury hotels with a total capacity of 1,500 rooms, with high-end retail shops, celebrity-themed dining, and a major entertainment and sports center that could rival the best in Las Vegas.

Pagcor chair Efraim Genuino said the $ 15- B Manila Bay Casino project will raise the gaming company’s income by at least 30 percent once it becomes fully operational, and it is expected to generate 250,000 fresh jobs to accommodate 3 million foreign and domestic guests per year. #

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 02:19 | link | comments |

Sunday, 06 April 2008

Defense chief told: Teach troops human rights and humanitarian law, not paralegal skills

Stressing that paralegal work is best reserved for defenders and advocates of human rights, the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Wednesday told Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilbert Teodoro that government troops should be taught to respect for human rights and international humanitarian law instead of paralegal skills.

“They don’t need paralegal skills as long as government troops understand and have full realization as to why and how to respect and uphold basic human rights and international law,” Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

The fisherfolk leader issued the statement in response to Secretary Teodoro’s plan to train soldiers on paralegal work in strict compliance with the revised Defense Planning Guide that was recently approved by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Please don’t give a bad name to this noble thing known as paralegal work. It is an advocacy close to the hearts of genuine human rights defenders and advocates. Training government troops oriented with the national security and political survival doctrine of Malacañang is not the correct thing to do,” Pamalakaya’s Hicap added.

Hicap added: “The best way to make these government troops responsive in humanizing the war is to get involved in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Law signed by the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.”

Pamalakaya was referring to the human rights agreement signed by the government and the communist led NDFP during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada. The agreement puts importance on the respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, which the group said was a landmark product of the peace negotiations since 1992 before it was stalled in 2004.

Secretary Teodoro said the program for paralegal training is important in the light of accusations that military men are involved in extrajudicial killings of leftwing activists, journalists and critics of President Arroyo. The DND Chief said the department is eying trainers from the AFP Judge Advocate General Office (JAGO).

“Secretary Teodoro is giving the wrong signal here. It is like telling government troops to kill and kill more leftwing activists, and they don’t have to worry because they can defend themselves with their paralegal knowledge. That’s the message of the Secretary,” Pamalakaya said.

The DND said the training of government troops for paralegal work will last for a few months because law grounding and drafting of pleadings will require enough time. But Secretary Teodoro was confident the soldiers could easily learn paralegal matters due to their exposure to legal works of the AFP.

But Pamalakaya said it would be better for Secretary Teodoro to discuss the report of Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

“Why not discuss the Alston report? It is an eye opening material for the men and women of AFP,” the group said.

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