Duterte offers cabinet posts to Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (tags)
On Sunday (17 May 2016), Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines president-elect, announced that his administration, which is due to take office on June 30, would restore capital punishment and issue shoot-to-kill orders to the police and military.
Inequality and Liberal Democracy: A Disturbing Association (tags)
How do we bring fundamental reforms about at a time when organized minorities and disorganized, quiescent majorities appear to be the norm in both the North and the South?
Philippine agrarian reform: Powerful law, ineffectual bureaucracy (tags)
When the original CARP program that was passed under President Corazon Aquino was in danger of unraveling, the peasant movement came together and pushed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms, or CARPER, through Congress in 2009.
Time to act with urgency and determination to improve the lives of Filipino workers (tags)
Philippines: As the country observes the International Labor Day, Akbayan Party would like to draw attention to the inability of the current economic growth to translate into an improvement in the lives of ordinary workers from both the urban centers and the countryside. While the Aquino administration takes pride on the 7.2 % growth rate for 2013, it cannot mask the fact that this growth has been insufficient to curb massive unemployment and poverty.
Filipino Farmers to Aquino: Make Land Reform a Development Priority (tags)
Philippines, March 2014 -- With less than four months remaining before the upcoming “death” of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)’s land distribution component on June 30 2014, 300 farmers from the Save Agrarian Reform Alliance (SARA) today trooped to Malacanang, calling for a drastic acceleration and overhaul of the implementation of the land reform effort.
On Philippine President Aquino's Midterm Year (tags)
Deeper reforms needed to curb inequality
Philippines: Where does the FOI campaign go from here? (tags)
Today, we close our people’s campaign for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill in the 15th Congress. We have, to the extent that our capacities and limited resources permitted, exhausted all avenues that we thought were open to us to get positive, decisive action from the leaders of the House of Representatives and from President Aquino no less.
PHILIPPINES: Akbayan hails farmers’ triumph in Hacienda Luisita decision (tags)
Akbayan Party today congratulates the farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita. The decision of the Supreme Court (SC) to order the total distribution of more than 6,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita unequivocally validates the decades-long struggle of the farmers for agrarian reform. This also serves as an affirmation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-Extension with Reforms (CARPER) and outright repudiation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO).
PHILIPPINES: SC Reversal on Hacienda Luisita, A Triumph of CARPER, Agrarian Justice (tags)
We in Akbayan Party welcome the Supreme Court's reversal of its previous ruling on the Hacienda Luisita case. It is a great victory not only for the beneficiaries but also for every Filipino farmer. Now it is crystal clear, land distribution is the sole, genuine avenue of agrarian reform. Likewise, this decision affirms the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program- Extension with Reforms (CARPER) - farmers must own the lands they till and it is the onus of government to guarantee it.
PHILIPPINES: The Rough and Rugged Road toward Change (tags)
Akbayan Party?s Statement on the First Year of the Aquino Government
Akbayan to PNoy: leave lasting legacy, finish agrarian reform (tags)
Three days before the commemoration of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law (CARL), advocates who campaigned for the extension and improvement of the law banded together to call on President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to finish the just distribution of all agricultural lands.
Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) October 17, 2010 First One Hundred Days of Failure and Broke (tags)
The Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) calls the 100 days of Benigno S Aquino III, the first one hundred days of failure and broken promises. This is a prelude to the tragic six-years we have to suffer under this new dispensation. Just look at what transpired during his first 100 days:
ILOCOS PEASANTS TO MARCH IN LAKBAYAN 2010 (tags)
The Pesante Buletin reported today that Ilocos peasants under the banner of Solidarity of Peasants against Exploitation (STOP Exploitation) shall join the annual Lakbayan 2010 March of the Landless from October 19 to 22 to register their support for Justice and genuine agrarian reform. According to NORDIS , the STOP Exploitation Chairperson Avelino Dacanay said over one hundred peasants from La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Ilocos Norte will march in celebration of Peasant Month this October along with other peasant organizations in Luzon.
PESANTE BACKS HLI FARMERS AGAINST DISPLACEMENT (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network (PESANTE)-USA support Hacienda Luisita farmers in their dispute as Cojuangco family's deadline for them to cultivate the lands,. Pesante is solidly behind the United Luisita Workers' Union (Ulwu) and Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) who are beefing up its forces as they anticipate displacement measures of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc.
GIVE BACK HACIENDA LUISITA TO THE FILIPINO FARMERS! (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network(PESANTE)-USA stands solidly with peasant organizations in the Philippines in their call: GIVE BACK THE HACIENDA LUISITA to the farmers! Pesante supports the call of former KMP chair PAeng Mariano . Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said that Senator Noynoy Aquino’s statement that they will give up Hacienda Luisita is just ruse to further evade his duty to give the land to the farmers. He said the Aquino-Cojuangco family could just convert the estate into other uses (such as the Luisita Mall and the Luisita Industrial Park) to raise money and pay its debts, which do not comply with their obligations under the agrarian reform program. “For generations, the Cojuangcos have benefited greatly from the Hacienda and labor of the farmers. It’s time they give it away, selling it or converting it will only aggravate the problems,” said Mariano.
Filipino peasant leader ambushed! (tags)
Renato Peñas, Vice-President of PAKISAMA (National Movement of Peasant Organizations), was ambushed dead by unidentified gunmen at 11:00 PM Friday, 5 June 2009, on the way to his farm in Sumilao, Bukidnon.
ARROYO's SON LED LOBBY AGAINST LAND REFORM (tags)
The eldest child of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Rep. Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga province, was the leader of the landlord lobby in the House of Representatives that resulted in the demise of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), a militant party-list congressman claimed Friday. Rep. Satur Ocampo of the Bayan Muna party-list group said, “In the first all-party caucus in the middle of the year, [Speaker Prospero Nograles] called for an initial straw vote by asking the representatives to stand up. Mikey Arroyo led those who voted against CARP extension.”
PHILIPPINES: Open Letter to the NPA General Command and the NDF (tags)
We, the undersigned, condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent spate of killings of farmers and farmer-leaders in Masbate, perpetrated by individuals identified as belonging to the local command of the New People’s Army.
AGRARIAN REFORM 29 bishops urge Congress to extend CARP (tags)
Twenty-nine Catholic prelates, including Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, have asked the House of Representatives to immediately extend through legislation the 20-year-old Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The CARP expires on June 10 this year.
Philippine Protest Marks The First Senate Hearing On The JPEPA (tags)
14 September 2007, Manila, Philippines. – A crowd of more than 300 workers, farmers, fishers, and environmentalists from the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA Coalition (MJJC) today called on the Senators of the 14th Congress to look beyond the rosy projections and government hype surrounding the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), and to carefully assess its short-term and long-term implications. The group’s call came on the day of the first scheduled Senate hearing for this historic, precedent-setting treaty.
Toxic Treaty Favors Japan, Not the Philippines (tags)
August 14, 2007. Manila, Philippines. Senate Forum Bares Legal Traps and Empty Promises of the JPEPA
It was announced that the CIA would be declassifying hundreds of pages on illegal actions that included plans to eliminate the leaders of foreign governments. Suddenly the publication is halted and it is delayed one day. No coherent explanation was given. Perhaps someone in the White House looked over the material...
Philippine farmers demand reform and extension of agrarian reform program. (tags)
Philippine farmers demand reform and extension of agrarian reform program. Asian farmers join rally in solidarity with their struggle
KMP-Negros revive calls to scrap ‘flawed’ agrarian reform law (tags)
With the recent death of two farmer beneficiaries and the wounding of several others in Hacienda Velez-Malaga, La Castellana town, Negros Occidental, calls for the scrapping of the “flawed” agrarian reform law has been revived. Claiming that it has not benefited poor farmers but consolidated the stronghold of big landowners, militant groups’ Kilu sang Mang bubukid Pilipinas-Negros, Pamalakaya, and the biggest labor group in the sugar industry, the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), slammed the “fake” CARP law and will oppose plans to extend it. The three groups also condemned the killing of the two members of Task Force Ma palad (TFM) last Monday saying this shows a “glaring failure” of CARP. However, they also criticized TFM for giving “false hopes” to their members in owning land.
Low Intensity War in Chiapas (tags)
The situation in Chiapas is very tense and everyday it worsens. This letter is an invitation for all of us, in each of our places and in our own way, to do everything possible to stop paramilitary aggressions in Chiapas. Here in Northern California we are organizing ourselves to spread the word as much as possible and pressure the Mexican government through international public opinion. Below you will find an article explaining the situation. Please send it out to as many people as possible. There is also, in Radio Zapatista's webpage (www.radiozapatista) audios from Morelia's Good Government Council and from the autonomous Municipal Council of Vicente Guerrero, as well as recent programs (in English and in Spanish) on the situation.
An Appeal to Philippine President Arroyo (tags)
Stop agrarian violence and killing of farmers! Implement agrarian reform in contentious landholdings!
Philippines: AKBAYAN holds successful 3rd Congress (tags)
Amidst escalating repression and political crisis, the Akbayan Citizens Action Party recently held its Third Regular Congress last October 14 and 15, 2006, at the Riverbend Hotel in Marikina City. With the theme "Ipaglaban ang Dangal ng Pilipino, Ipaglaban ang Kinabukasan Ngayon" (Claim the Future Now), Akbayan marked its more than eight years existence as an alternative national political party in the Philippines.
Pesante-USA Condemns Mass Arrest of Peasants in Quezon. Support ANAKPAWIS Solon call (tags)
The Philippine Peasant Support Network-USA vehemently condemns the mass arrests of peasant leaders in Quezon and support he just call of ANAKPAWIS representative Rafael Marinao’s call that asked the House of Representatives’ committees on agrarian reform and human rights to investigate the arrest of 48 activists and the violent dispersal here on Saturday of protesting tenants.
Philippines: Agrarian violence claims more lives under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Regime (tags)
Agrarian violence claimed two more lives this month. A leader of Task Force Mapalad (TFM), Rico Adeva, 39, was gunned down by three men as he and his wife Nenita were walking to their home in Barangay Dos Hermanas, Silay City, Negros Occidental on Black Saturday. He suffered seven bullet wounds – in the head, stomach, chest, and hand. Meanwhile, in Davao, the Secretary General of the National Coordination of Autonomous Local Rural People’s Organizations (UNORKA), Eric Cabanit, was assassinated by two masked men while he was in a public market in Panabo last April 24, 2006. His daughter, who was with him when the shooting happened, was also wounded and is still in critical condition.