Piercing Pens

Sotero Llamas, former NPA chief in the Bicol region, is the latest victim in the series of killings of activists. He was gunned down in Tobaco, Albay this morning.

Llamas was a victim of the Arroyo goverment’s propaganda, according to Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo. Llamas was killed so that it would appear that the administration’s claim that there is an on-going purge in the communist movement, Ocampo said. This would make it really convenient for the goverment to blame on the Left the spate of killings of activists.

After he left the underground movement, Llamas became a National Democratic Front consultant and later a Bayan Muna founding member and officer. He left the party-list group in 2003 to run for the post of Albay governor under Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s ticket.
fLlamas was a forr

I could imagine the late Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chair Haydee Yorac glaring at Commissioner Ricardo Abcede while he was happily dancing with the remaining half of the Marcos conjugal dictatorship.

The Yorac-led PCGG rejected compromise deals with the Marcoses and their cronies and was determined to send Imelda Marcos in jail for plundering our nation. Yorac and her team worked for the speedy resolution of the cases against the Marcoses and their cronies by hiring more lawyers, devoting more resources to so-called banner cases, and firming up cooperation with other agencies. (more…)

Just learned from GMANews.tv that Taylor Hicks won this year’s American Idol. There was no half-Filipino contestant in the final three this time. Meanwhile, auditions for the the local version, Philippine Idol, is on-going. It is about to air later this year.

Good news: PGMA is leaving the country for Spain by the end of June.

Bad news: She will negotiate with the Spanish authorities for a new labor market here. In other words, pimping our skilled workers to earn dollars.

Good news: PGMA says there could be around 400,000 available jobs for Filipinos in Canada because of its oil potential.

Bad news: Still no jobs in the Philippines.

Good news: PGMA says our workers could earn dollars by working in Australia and Taiwan.

Bad news: Still no jobs here.

When asked by the Sunday Inquirer Magazine about his being labeled as “guru of destabilization” by the injustice secretary, revered constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas just said it does not irritate him “because no intelligent person would take (Raul) Gonzalez seriously.

NUJP Press Statement
May 16, 2006

Saksi Ngayon photojournalist killed in Caloocan City

It is with alarm and great concern to learn that another media practitioner has been shot and killed today.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines deplores this heinous crime. (more…)

Migrant workers issues have always been close to my heart, thus, the reason for me voting for Migrante in my first national elections. My father worked in Saudi Arabia for four years. For a time we lived comfortably but within our means but as the usual OFW story goes, we didn’t invest on anything except for education. He returned home almost totally blind from a strange disease we all think he got from there. My father who’s 62 now is already retired and is receiving a measly P1,000 from his monthly SSS pension.

My eldest brother went to Kuwait with a dream of sending his four kids to private schools. He went home four months after for reasons too heartbreaking to talk about here. He’s waiting for another chance to leave this country and to work overseas.

This week, 179 OFWS who were detained in Saudi Arabia returned home after being detained for crimes, mostly petty, they allegedly committed. Mrs. Arroyo is of course readily taking credit for this but should she? (more…)