CORRUPTION, DEFPRETRATION. LANDSLIDES. DEATH AND MEA CULPA (tags)
“The reasons for the degradation of our forests are corruption and our own shortcomings,” admitted Secretary Lito Atienza of Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in a New Year message to his department personnel. A common knowledge among Filipinos, Atienza's admonishment, hardly created a ripple in Manila were ordinary citizens had almost but accepted corruption is an integral part of governance in the island nation.
Missing sisters and missing credibility (tags)
The daughters of slain Filipino peasant activist Eddie Gumanoy – Rose Anne, 21, and Fatima, 17 – were traveling to the city of Cavite on the morning of July 3 when they realized they were being followed. They sent a text message to their mother Maria to meet them at a mall in Muntinlupa, but the two sisters never arrived. They later sent a second text message saying they had been intercepted by soldiers. The family and members of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) thus began looking for the two women. On July 4, they went to the office of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo, which denied that the military was holding Rose Anne and Fatima. They also filed a complaint with the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame in Quezon City. That afternoon army spokesman Col. Ernesto Torres denied that the military had abducted Rose Anne and Fatima, but did admit that the two women were under the care of the army. He refused to disclose where they were, however, stating that the young women had voluntarily sought protection from the military as they were afraid of Karapatan.
Militarisasyon sa kanayunan ng Pilipinas lalong tumitindi-AJLPP (tags)
Patuloy ang pamamaslang ng mga berdugo ni Arroyo sa mga lider-masa at tagasuporta ng progresibong kilusan. Nitong Disyembre, isang makamasang konsehal ng bayan ang binaril sa loob ng kanyang upisina sa Masbate. Sa Quezon at Surigao, biktima ng dislokasyon ang libu-libong mamamayan kabilang ang maraming bata dahil sa militarisasyon. Sa Compostela Valley, isang lider-manggagawa ang pinagbantaang papatayin. Samantala, dalawang pinaghihinalaang kadre ng Partido ang dinukot at tinortyur sa Nueva Ecija noong huling linggo ng Nobyembre.