VERA Files
By CHERRY JOY VENILES IN Florencio “Butch” Abad’s book, the national budget is a game—a game, he says, in which “political actors with conflicting demands and competing to get a […]
By JONATHAN DE SANTOS
CLOSE to 3,000 families in Casiguran, Aurora stand to lose land that many of them have been tilling for half a century to make way for the extension of a Freeport zone that critics say does not benefit the community at all.
By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY GIOLAGON
BAGA-IR Panaggulan was on his boat that sunny day of Sept. 8, 2008, fishing in the Pulangi River in Bukidnon in Mindanao when he saw a boatload of soldiers armed for combat. Baga-ir, then 28, hurriedly paddled to shore. He asked his wife Zaida to pack their clothes and get ready to run.
THE UAAP men’s basketball games has ended while the NBA regular season finally opened on Oct. 30. In all these events, a group of basketball players watch on, cheering their favorite teams even as the itch to play grows. But competitions and chances for them to play are scarce, and not everyone knows about their existence. Compared to the more “popular” forms of basketball, wheelchair basketball in the Philippines is in a slump.
By VERA Files
WHEN it comes to disaster preparedness, Filipinos can learn valuable lessons from a seemingly unlikely group: Persons with disabilities (PWDs) at the Tahanang Walang Hagdanan compound in Cainta, Rizal.
SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV acted as the Philippines’ backdoor negotiator with China from April to July this year, communicating with Chinese foreign affairs officials in a role, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, in which he won “minor successes.” But there were other back channels besides Trillanes.
NOT all stories of labor migration in Southeast Asia are bleak and foreboding. Many workers are only too happy to have found employment in the region’s more affluent states—with none of the struggles of their not-so-fortunate compatriots.
CONFLICTING interests of labor-sending countries like Indonesia and the Philippines and of labor-receiving countries like Malaysia and Thailand partly explain why it will likely take years for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to make the regional instrument to promote and protect the rights of labor migrants a reality.
SHORTLY after arriving in Kuala Lumpur early this year to work as a domestic worker, Marissa Santos (not her real name) began complaining of severe stomach pains. Her Malaysian employer promptly returned Santos to her recruiter, also a Malaysian. But instead of getting her medical help, the recruiter subjected Santos to slave-like treatment at his spa.
By VERA Files
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino made history by appointing Lourdes Sereno as the country’s first female Chief Justice, but he also broke tradition by setting aside the seniority rule and naming to the highest judicial post one of the Court’s youngest associate justices, who also happens to be his college schoolmate.