Philippines: Time to punish pork plunderers and reform the budget system (tags)
Akbayan Partylist welcomes the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court declaring unconstitutional the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as well as all forms of congressional insertions with the aim of creating lump sum funds for projects primarily determined by lawmakers.
Pork barrel scam scandalizes the Philippines (tags)
Five senators who were linked to the scam are the following: Ramon Revilla, Jr. – P 1.017 billion, Juan Ponce Enrile – P 641.65 million, Jinggoy Estrada – P 585 million, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – P 100 million, Gregorio Honasan – P 15 million
Philippine political dynasties must end (tags)
MANILA, Philippines – Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño on Tuesday urged voters to use the upcoming 2013 elections to end political dynasties by voting for new faces and new names.
On Philippine Cybercrime Act of 2012 (tags)
Technological developments, nay, social progress must lead to increased democratization and not to more curtailment of freedoms. The advent of the Internet and related technologies has opened a wide and free access to democratic space wherein ordinary citizens, including the oppressed workers and, in general, the laboring and propertyless masses, could participate in studying and gathering information and discussing social and political issues.
CORY SEEKS ESTRADA'S FORGIVENESS FOR EDSA 2 (tags)
For the first time since the coup d’etat of 2001, former President Corazon Aquino, during the book launching of ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia (JdV), yesterday publicly apologized to former President Joseph Estrada for her role in the elite-led Edsa ll revolt which saw the toppling of Estrada and his government.
The global crisis is a crisis of capitalism (tags)
It is time for the workers and the poor in the Philippines to prepare for the worse the moment its government keeps on repeating the mantra that the economic fundamentals remain good and thus there is little to worry about effects of the global recessionary trend. The world found itself in the present mess precisely because of such blind faith in neoliberal fundamentalism.
December 17 Mass Rally in Manila:Unresolved issues justify protest, say bishops (tags)
AJLPP -USA and Philippine news sources reported today that the December 17 prayer rally in Manila will push through. AN “escalation of crises” that the leaders of the country’s Roman Catholic Church can no longer take sitting down prompted the Church to spearhead tomorrow’s planned huge prayer rally at Manila’s Rizal Park. News reports also confirmed that top officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines yesterday rebuffed calls from administration stalwarts for them to abandon the rally at the Quirino Grandstand in the wake of the decision by Ms Arroyo’s allies to scrap plans to convene a constituent assembly. The CBCP secretary general, Msgr. Juanito Figura, said the CBCP could no longer ignore the escalating problems facing the country, including the questions surrounding President Macapagal-Arroyo’s disputed victory in the 2004 elections. Figura specifically cited the “Garci” tapes, which set off the election controversy, the P728-million fertilizer fund scam and the so-called Mayuga report on the alleged involvement of military officials in election fraud as among the issues unresolved to this day. “The Church cannot play blind, deaf and mute to the sufferings that these issues have brought,” Figura said in a press conference.