Migrants, including our OFWs, won’t be joining state governments and big business in their second Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). They will usher in their own conference, the International Assembly of Migrants and Refugees (IAMR) and they cite good reasons in choosing to do so.
Category: Commentary
Today is the 35th day since hoodlums abducted James Balao in broad daylight in Baguio City. He has not been found and nobody knows whether he is dead or still alive.
The Government Service Insurance System‘s earlier assurances that its investments are not endangered in the midst of the global financial crisis have come under a dark cloud of doubt.
Inquirer.net reports today that the GSIS
may have incurred more losses due to the sharp decline in stock prices around the world in recent weeks, an examination of its portfolio of stock holdings revealed.
The “global property securities” held by the GSIS also showed marked drops in their values in the weeks following the GSIS declared profits from its overseas investments.
On Blog Action Day regarding poverty, forbes.com released its list of the top 40 richest Filipinos, headed by mall mogul Henry Sy with a net worth of $3.1 billion.
Lucio Tan is second in the list with $1.5 billion. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, last year’s richest, dropped to third place with $1.2 billion.
The total net worth of the Philippines 20 richest people is $12.670 billion or a whooping P594 billion!
The sobering news is a new United Nations report also came out the next day, pointing to a very problematic occurrence — income inequality is worsening worldwide, including the Philippines.
Its Blog Action Day 2008 today in the Philippines and elsewhere in the world. Imperialism, or the monopoly […]
Poor Filipinos have always been caricatured so badly, with some of the well-off and well-to-do deceiving themselves that the “masang Pilipino” are individually and collectively ignorant, pathetic, gullible, indolent and unproductive. They forever link the “masa” to Joseph Estrada, in an apparent bid to discredit them as no different from their idol who has been found to be a fraud and a plunderer.
Sixteen senators — including four presidential and vice presidential aspirants in 2010 — voted last night to ratify the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
Bayan and the No Deal! Movement said that the 2010 aspirants who voted for JPEPA were “definitely found lacking in nationalist credentials” and vowed to take block the treaty’s implementation via street protests and by asking the Supreme Court to trash it.
No one disputes the President’s power to give pardon to offenders of the law. But we can all criticize and question the wisdom of each pardon and what better example could there be than the one given to Claudio Teehankee Jr., the convicted murderer of Maureen Hultman.
In Bacolod City, farmers who launched a daring lightning protest during President Arroyo’s recent visit, have been frivolously charged in court, while in Southern Tagalog, prominent activists are being tagged as “arsonists” by both the military and a telecommunications company.
Had the British comedians poked fun instead on President Arroyo, nobody would have cared or — I suspect — Filipinos themselves would have given them ringing applause.
But the “Harry and Paul” show dissed our decent, hardworking domestic helpers. The BBC must apologize to all Filipinos, especially the thousands who the Brits have recruited as domestic helpers and caregivers.
Yes, folks, the Philippine government wants to be known as such, according to a GMANews.tv report.
But what the government did not say is that this future health and wellness capital will cater to foreigners, first and foremost.
The US House of Representatives has given its stamp of approval to the bailout bill which the US government thinks will help stem the economic crisis that struck Wall Street, the very heart of world capitalism.
Today’s text tax proposal is hideous, unintelligent and insulting to everyone. Speaker Prospero Nograles, Senator Richard Gordon and Finance Secretary Margarito Teves should be ashamed of themselves that they even entertained the idea of a tax even as the entire world are looking for ways to avert economic disasters, both personal and national.
UPDATE: Correction! Correction! Ms. Jessica Zafra sent an email to clarify that she did not write this letter. Kevin Allman is the real author.
My apologies to Ms. Zafra, Mr. Allman and everyone.
To Madame Jessica Zafra: Bravo (for this good find)!
Allman‘s Zafra’s reaction to the US economic meltdown will put to shame each and every spammer from Nigeria, they who send us endless pleas for assistance in exchange for gazillions of dollars.
Thanks to Ms. Zafra for the heads up.
A few hours ago, this blog you are reading — tonyocruz.com — received the trophy for Best News and Media Blog in the 2nd Philippine Blog Awards held at the 1Espalanade near SM Mall of Asia.
Ian Bell of The Herald declared: Capitalism has proven Karl Marx right again.
With news continuously dominated by stock crashes and US government efforts to rescue AIG, we have yet to hear progressives view the US economic meltdown. Progressives are the leftists, national-democrats, socialists and even communists who have a stridently critical view of the world capitalist system and who aspire to replace it.
Parasitic capital took advantage of advances in information and communications technology not just to facilitate its global production networks but also to fashion complex financial instruments for creating profits outside of any actual productive activity.
Wondering about the effects of the meltdown on the IT industry?
In a special CNN commentary, Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz has come out with suggestions viz. the economic meltdown centered in the US.
The “cataclysmic” events that hit major US companies is sending shockwaves across the world.
Advocates of “laissez faire” and neoliberal policy are surprised over the US treasury department’s rescue of global insurance firm AIG. The rescue has reportedly been inadequate to calm markets across Asia.
17 years ago, the Philippine Senate voted to reject a treaty that would have prolonged the existence of US military installations in the Philippines, notably the Clark and Subic bases. Outside the Senate on that day, there was dancing in the streets to celebrate a triumph for Philippine sovereignty.
Perla Asis, city veterinarian of Cagayan de Oro, should face charges over violations of the Animal Welfare Act after she admitted that her department used drowning and an “improvised gas chamber” to put down stray animals.
Dr. Carol P. Araullo, chair of the progressive multisectoral alliance Bayan, has this to say about the issue of renewed US military presence in the country, an issue which rightly comes out as the world marks the 7th anniversary of 9/11:
It all sounds clean and aboveboard: the US oozes with altruism for a long-time ally and the Philippines is the lucky beneficiary of this no-strings-attached, we’re-just-doing-our-bit-for-world-peace mission of the lone Superpower and Global Policeman. However, in the light of historical and current world events such as the US-instigated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is much too good to be true.