Lessons from Manila floods on climate change, responses (tags)
As the Philippine government dithered and made excuses for its grossly inadequate response to the catastrophic floods — which inundated 80% of the country's capital, Manila — Sonny Melencio was leading a grassroots relief effort that brought the first food supplies in days to some of the poorest and most badly affected communities.
We in the Sisters' Association in Mindanao, an aggrupation of some 360 nuns coming from more than 40 congregations in Mindanao, renew our call for Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down. We have been unequivocal in the past. We continue to be unwavering in spite of the perceptible absence of a uniting spirit within the Church. But we are inspired by the Church as people of God where the Spirit permeates to bring about righteousness and morality in governance and in our communal life.
ISAFP ADMITS THEY DONT HAVE ABDUCTED NDF CONSULTANT (tags)
The daughter of abducted NDF (National Democratic Front) consultant Leo Velasco yesterday went "camp hopping" in search of her father but failed to locate him. She however said that their conversation with the intelligence agent at ISAFP (Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines) strengthened her suspicion that her father is under military custody. Lorena Santos, Velasco's daughter who sought the help of Karapatan, was accompanied by Fr. Dionito Cabillas of Karapatan, Linda Cadapan and Lolita Robiños, mothers of two desaparecidos who also inquired with the military about their children's whereabouts.
Trillanes probe asked to open safehouses, secret detention places in the Philippines (tags)
The Philippine human rights alliance KARAPATAN welcomed the planned probe on extrajudicial killings of former soldier and now senator-elect Antonio Trillanes. KARAPATAN Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez said, "We laud Senator Trillanes for this move to put the Arroyo administration to task for the unabated extrajudicial killings." KARAPATAN likewise welcomes the pronouncements made by top anti-Arroyo military officials who said that they will provide the detained senator-elect with evidence once he begins work in the Senate next month.