CPP Founding Chairperson Jose Maria Sison’s 85th Birthday celebrated
- Published: 16 February 2024 16 February 2024
The 85th birthday of the late Jose Ma. “Joma” Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Founding Chairperson, was celebrated by the revolutionary movement, allies and local and international friends last 8 February. Ka “Joma” passed away last December 16, 2022 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Read more: CPP Founding Chairperson Jose Maria Sison’s 85th Birthday celebrated
Filipino workers to mobilize vs Cha-Cha, for wage increase
- Published: 16 February 2024 16 February 2024
National labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno launched a nationally coordinated action on 16 February carrying the banner call “Wage Increase, not Charter Change,” and asserted that wages can and must be raised significantly without need to amend the Constitution. The group stated that Marcos’ Cha-cha would, in fact, lead to further depression of wages contrary to government promises of economic development.
Read more: Filipino workers to mobilize vs Cha-Cha, for wage increase
UN experts recommend dissolution of ‘outdated’ NTF-ELCAC
- Published: 16 February 2024 16 February 2024
Two Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations (UN) recommend the dissolution of the National Task Force to Eliminate Local Armed Communist Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for the harm it has caused to the rights of the Filipino people, reports Ang Bayan, on 7 February, 2023.
Read more: UN experts recommend dissolution of ‘outdated’ NTF-ELCAC
Chacha to worsen land dispossession and poverty, rights groups say
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
Amid the circulating advertisements to change the constitution, several groups argue that it would worsen poverty in the country. On 15 January 2024, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that the Charter Change (Chacha) initiative would expose the country’s alienable and disposable lands to 100% foreign ownership.
Read more: Chacha to worsen land dispossession and poverty, rights groups say
Groups call for resumption of peace talks, push for genuine agrarian reform
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and other groups voiced out its support for the resumption of peace negotiations in a gathering in Manila on 22 January 2024, to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre. The first peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) started immediately after Corazon Aquino was installed as president after the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. The talks however collapsed after Aquino's security forces opened fire on farmers and allied groups who were demonstrating near the presidential palace to demand for genuine land reform.
Read more: Groups call for resumption of peace talks, push for genuine agrarian reform
UN experts seek Marcos Jr. explanation over ‘unchecked antiterror powers’
- Published: 29 January 2024 29 January 2024
Days before the full implementation of the antiterrorism law, six United Nations experts made public a letter they wrote in October last year asking the Marcos Jr. administration to explain cases of “judicial harassment, office raids and targeted financial sanctions” on rights watchdogs and its “seemingly unchecked powers.”
Read more: UN experts seek Marcos Jr. explanation over ‘unchecked antiterror powers’
Transport strikes force GRP to delay jeepney phaseout, modernization
- Published: 16 January 2024 16 January 2024
The series of transport strikes in the last quarter of last year pressured the Manila government to delay the implementation of its much criticized Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).
House Speaker Martin Romualdez pressed the Department of Transportation (DOTr) to review and extend the enforcement of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) that the government has been trying to implement since 2013.
Read more: Transport strikes force GRP to delay jeepney phaseout, modernization