Piercing Pens

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…)

Manila — Swathed in nothing but red hot chili peppers next to the tagline “Spice Up Your Life—Go Vegetarian!” Filipino supermodel Isabel Roces appears in a brand-new ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia-Pacific touting the many benefits of a meatless diet. Isabel wants people to know that going vegetarian is the best way to stay trim, fight animal abuse, and avoid life-threatening illnesses. The ad was shot in Thailand by ace photographer Amat Nimitpark. (more…)

OUR FIGHT FOR PRESS FREEDOM CONTINUES

We commemorate World Press Freedom Day today anguishing over the lack of genuine freedom of expression in our country and girding our loins to resist yet other attempts to muzzle the Philippine Press.

The statistics are grim enough:

Seventy-six of our colleagues were lost to the ultimate form of censorship – murder – in the past two decades since the supposed restoration of democracy in the country in 1986. Thirty-nine of the killings happened only in the past five years during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, making her administration the deadliest for Filipino journalists. (more…)