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Special Report
Conflicting human rights picture in RP
UN review in April
By PURPLE S. ROMERO
abs-cbnNEWS.com/
Newsbreak
Reports submitted by the Philippine government and various human rights groups paint a conflicting picture of the country’s human rights situation. These reports are up for evaluation in next month’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC).
The UPR is scheduled to kick off with its first session next month in Geneva, but advance reports of human rights situation in member-countries have been made public recently.
It is largely significant for the Philippines not only because it is one of the first 16 states up for review in the first session in April, but because it has to prove in the UPR that it was able to meet the pledges it made when it vied for re-election in the HRC last May 2007.
The Philippines is a member of the HRC.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/10/2008 12:33 PM
RP knew Spratlys exploration ‘too close’ to Palawan
Energy officials were aware as early as 2004 that the bilateral agreement they signed with China to explore the Spratlys for oil deposits covered an area that was within Philippine waters and should not have been allowed.
Click here to download Tripartite Agreement for Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking in the Agreement Area in the South China Sea (JMSU)
abs-cbnnews.com 03/08/2008 6:10 PM
Mindanao Still Poorest Island in Nearly A Decade
Anti-poverty official says progress in the South impossible with the conflict and lack of infrastructure.
By JESUS F. LLANTO
abs-cbnNEWS.com/
Newsbreak
Mindanao has remained the poorest of the three island groups in the Philippines in nearly a decade, and the government's anti-poverty agency is blaming it on the war and the lack of basic infrastructure in parts of the South.
Officials statistics gathered in 2006 and released this week by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that Mindanao had the highest poverty and subsistence incidence among the major island groups in the country.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/07/2008 9:58 AM
Mindanao Still Poorest Island in Nearly A Decade
Anti-poverty official says progress in the South impossible with the conflict and lack of infrastructure.
By JESUS F. LLANTO
abs-cbnNEWS.com/
Newsbreak
Mindanao has remained the poorest of the three island groups in the Philippines in nearly a decade, and the government's anti-poverty agency is blaming it on the war and the lack of basic infrastructure in parts of the South.
Officials statistics gathered in 2006 and released this week by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that Mindanao had the highest poverty and subsistence incidence among the major island groups in the country.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/07/2008 9:44 AM
Expert says fake DVDs fund terrorists in RP
By MANNY MOGATO
Reuters
Proceeds from the sale of counterfeit cigarettes, medicines, CDs and DVDs that are regularly smuggled into the southern Philippines could be helping fund al Qaeda-linked militants in the region, a security expert said on Thursday.
Jeffrey Williams, managing director of private security and investigation firm Orion Support Inc., warned innocent purchases from Internet sites and street markets of fake Nike merchandise, counterfeit CDs and DVDs could be funding militant attacks.
"Terrorist organizations are attracted to counterfeiting and piracy because it's a lucrative business, but also allows terrorists to remain anonymous," Williams told an anti-terrorism forum in Manila.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/06/2008 6:26 PM
Guide to the Ombudsman’s preliminary hearing on the NBN-ZTE controversy
By CARMELA FONBUENA
In January, the Office of the Ombudsman was about to decide whether or not to endorse to the Sandiganbayan two complaints filed last year on the botched broadband deal. One was filed by Rep. Carlos Padilla against Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza. The other was filed by the National Bureau of Investigation against other DOTC officials involved in the project and responsible for the missing broadband contracts.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/06/2008 12:59 AM
'Nat'l psyche is not for Muslim empowerment'
Through his art, Abraham Sakili tries to counter the 'historical conditioning' of the majority that Muslims are a threat to national security.
Interview by CRISELDA YABES
Abraham Sakili, professor of Islamic Art at the University of the Philippines, thinks the Moro problem is, more than anything else, cultural. Real autonomy -- not the kind that the Muslim region has now, where the power is still dispensed from the center in Manila – he says, can address this. But while the Muslims in Mindanao are waiting for the expectedly long process toward federalism to start, Sakili hopes to use his art to make both Muslims and non-Muslims understand the problem and work for solutions.
An ethnic Tausug, Sakili was raised in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province. He fled his home town after its burning in the 1970s and spent his time in Tawi-Tawi and, later, in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, where he was a scholar at the Mindanao State University.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/05/2008 4:11 PM
'Nat'l psyche is not for Muslim empowerment'
Through his art, Abraham Sakili tries to counter the 'historical conditioning' of the majority that Muslims are a threat to national security.
Interview by CRISELDA YABES
Abraham Sakili, professor of Islamic Art at the University of the Philippines, thinks the Moro problem is, more than anything else, cultural. Real autonomy -- not the kind that the Muslim region has now, where the power is still dispensed from the center in Manila – he says, can address this. But while the Muslims in Mindanao are waiting for the expectedly long process toward federalism to start, Sakili hopes to use his art to make both Muslims and non-Muslims understand the problem and work for solutions.
An ethnic Tausug, Sakili was raised in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province. He fled his home town after its burning in the 1970s and spent his time in Tawi-Tawi and, later, in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, where he was a scholar at the Mindanao State University.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/04/2008 10:28 PM
So that the children may learn
Former Finance Undersecretary and quality public education advocate Milwida ‘Nene’ Guevara is the 2nd Gawad Haydee Yorac Awardee.
The Manila Electric Co., in cooperation with the University of the Philippines, will confer this award to Guevara today, March 4, the birthday of the late model public servant, Haydee Yorac.
Yorac, who won major battles against warlordism and corruption in government, failed to win her struggle against cancer. She died September 13, 2005. Antonio ‘Tony’ Meloto, the face of Gawad Kalinga’s (GK’s) community building effort, was the first recipient of the Gawad Haydee Yorac for Outstanding Public Service.
Newsbreak magazine once featured Synergia Foundation’s work in promoting “education governance”. We are republishing the article to explain Guevara and Synergia’s advocacies. – Editorsabs-cbnnews.com 03/04/2008 12:47 PM
Gold upstream, poison downstream in Philippine 'fairy mountain'
By CECIL MORELLA
AFP
MOUNT DIWATA, Philippines - Fortune favors the brave in this gold rush region of the southern Philippines, but the poison that goes with the new wealth spares no one.
Drawing thousands of dreamers and desperadoes into its honeycomb of tunnels for a generation, the logged-out mountain 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Davao City has yielded some 2.7 million ounces of the precious metal, according to official estimates.
Franco Tito, a former hired gun who is the senior elected official in this village named after a woodland fairy, awards honor students with gold medals and packs a .45-caliber gun, a stark reminder of the region's violent past.
abs-cbnnews.com 03/03/2008 2:08 AM
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