“Ito ay wala sa katuwiran at pag-atake rin sa kalayaan sa pamamahayag. Ang ABS-CBN ay isang news organization. Hindi nila kasalanan na mapaso ang kanilang franchise dahil matagal na silang naghihintay na mapag-usapan ang kanilang petisyon para sa renewal. Inipit-ipit ng mga lider ng Kongreso na sumusunod sa kanilang prinsipal kaya inabot na ng ganito.”
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“Sa panahon ngayon, importante ang social connection at psycho-social support sa bawat isa. Ok tayo sa pisikal na distancing pero tuloy dapat ang social connection. Sa social connection papasok ang pagtutulungan ng bawat miyembro ng pamilya para matagalan ang ECQ. Ito ang panahon ng family bonding.”
The post Paano aalagaan ang mental health ngayong COVID lockdown? appeared first on Kodao Productions.
We are not only saddened by the shutdown of ABS-CBN; we are also deeply alarmed. For the shutdown to be done on a day after World Press Freedom Day, the message to “tow the line or suffer the same fate of ABS-CBN,” is a clear threat. We are alarmed that soon, other media outlets would follow. Without the freedom of the press, there is the danger of other freedoms to be lost. God forbid, these are the first ‘test signs’ of curtailing other rights. While the situation limits our option to protest this move, we must do what we can.
The riding public of Region 10 or Northern Mindanao made appeals to buses that they ply their usual routes after President Duterte declared most of Mindanao provinces under the general community quarantine starting May 1 to 15.
As the rules for pardon and executive clemency were reissued and relaxed in a bid to decongest jails in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, human rights group Karapatan reiterated that political prisoners, especially the elderly and the sick who are most at risk of contracting the deadly and fast-spreading virus should not be excluded.
By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
SANTA ROSA, Laguna – A farmer in Quezon province was arrested yesterday, May 7, on his way home after being discharged from a hospital in Lucena.
Leoben Holeto, 19, was on his way home to Lopez, Quezon after undergoing a successful appendectomy. He, however, along with his mother, was barred from passing a military checkpoint manned by the 85th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, where he was accused of being a member of the New People’s Army.
Holeto was later arrested and taken to a TESDA Training Center in Lucena where he is detained as of press time.
Human rights watchdog Karapatan Quezon assailed his arrest, stating that military “should be doing service to the people and assisting them in the fight against the pandemic” instead of going on an all-out attack against them.
A report from Karapatan Quezon also stated that Holeto and his mother were forced to cooperate, threatening them that they will be charged of murder and rebellion.
This is not be the first time that the 85th Infantry Battalion was criticized in recent weeks for harassing farmers in the Quezon province.
On March 16, a soldier harassed a tricycle driver in Barangay Olongtao Ibaba, Macalelon and accused him of being a so-called “NPA sympathizer.” Soldiers took his phone and searched his belongings at gunpoint. Meanwhile, a resident of Magsaysay village in General Lunda, Nomeriano Fuerte, was arrested on April 13 even without a warrant on a mere suspicion that he is a member of the NPA.
Residents, too, are being forced to admit that they are “NPA members.” On March 19, several residents of the municipalities of Lopez, Catanauan, Macalelon, Unisan, Agdangan, Padre Burgos, and Atimonan were presented to the public as NPA surrenderees.
In San Francisco, Lopez, soldiers forced residents to agree to the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program or E-CLIP, which supposedly provides a “complete” assistance to former rebels, including financial aid.
There were also at least three reports of ransacking, such as in the villages of Malabahay and San Vicente in the town of Macalelon and the house of spouses Romeo and Helen Llagas.
Karapatan Quezon and peasant group Tanggol Magsasaka – Timog Katagalugan are demanding Holeto’s immediate release, and for the “AFP and the Duterte regime to actually serve and protect the Filipino.”
The group said, “they have just proven once more than their supposed ‘work’ will never be in the service of the masses,” said Karapatan Quezon in a statement, “but rather for the satisfaction of their fascist overlords.”
The post Farmer illegally arrested in Quezon after surgery appeared first on Bulatlat.
Batay sa kinulumpon na ulat ng mga local government unit (LGU) sa National Capital Region (NCR) pagdating ng Mayo 7, umabot na sa 5,862 ang positibo sa COVID-19 sa rehiyon. Ang naitala ng mga LGU na gumaling ay 1,274 at 598 ang namatay. Nananatiling ang LGU ng Navotas at Mandaluyong ang regular na nag-uulat ng […]
The post Mga kaso ng COVID-19 sa NCR ngayong Mayo 7 umabot na sa 5,862 ayon sa mga LGU (6,709 sa DOH) appeared first on Manila Today.
The Philippine economy was already weak coming into the COVID-19
crisis, research group IBON said. Growth will remain slow if the government
does not acknowledge pre-existing weaknesses that the pandemic merely
intensified. The group said that recognizing the problem is the first step to
the bold measures needed for long-term growth and development.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported -0.2% growth in
gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2020, marking a
significant drop from the 5.7% growth in the same period last year. The
National Economics and Development Authority (NEDA) attributed this to the Taal
volcano eruption in January, decrease in trade and tourism due to COVID-19 in
February, and the eventual lockdown in March.
IBON said however that the economy was already slowing for three
consecutive years and headed for its fourth such year even before COVID-19 came
into the picture. Official figures show annual GDP growth falling from 7.1% in
2016 to 6.9% in 2017, 6.3% in 2018 and 6.0% in 2019. Year-on-year first quarter
growth also reflects this trend, falling from 6.9% in the first quarter of 2016
to 6.4% in 2017. This slightly increased to 6.5% in 2018 but fell to 5.7% in
2019. In 2020, first quarter growth dove to -0.2%, which is the first GDP
contraction since the fourth quarter of 1998 (-3.4%).
Important accustomed drivers of growth were falling even before
the eruption of Taal Volcano in January and the COVID-19 crisis since February
and especially since the lockdown starting mid-March. Growth in overseas
remittances slowed from 5.3% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2019, and foreign investment
flows from US$10.3 billion to US$7.6 billion over the same period. The
manufacturing sector slowed from 8% in 2017 to 3.2% in 2019, and agriculture
from 4.2% to 1.2% over the same time.
Tourism had also been lackluster, said the group. Growth in gross
value added of tourism industries remained virtually stagnant from 10.1% from
in 2016 to 10.3% in 2017 and 10.6% in 2018.
In terms of expenditure, gross capital formation considerably slowed
from 10.9% growth in 2017 to 2.5% in 2019 and exports from 17.4% to just 2.4
percent. Household consumption spending remained steady at 6% in 2017 and 5.9%
in 2019. Hence, overall economic growth has just been artificially driven by
government consumption spending, which increased from 6.5% in 2017 to 9.6% in
2019 and by public infrastructure projects rather than an underlying dynamism
from vibrant domestic agriculture and industry.
These basic economic weaknesses result in record joblessness and
the proliferation of informal and irregular work. Correcting the official
methodology which underreports joblessness, IBON estimated that the number of
unemployed reached a record 4.7 million in 2019. The group also estimated that
27.2 million or 64% of employment in the same year was really poor quality work
comprised of non-regular and agency-hired, government contractuals, and
informal earners.
Widespread poverty is another indicator of a sluggish economy,
said the group. According to PSA data, some 12.4 million or over half of 22
million families nationwide were trying to survive on less than P132 per person
per day.
IBON pointed out that the last three years of slowing growth has
been despite the Duterte administration’s expanding Build, Build, Build
infrastructure program. Despite annual appropriations for infrastructure
increasing to 4.7% of GDP in 2019, economic growth still fell for a third
consecutive year. The group explained that infrastructure spending is a
short-term stimulus at best and that domestic agriculture and Filipino industry
have to be strengthened for growth to be higher and more sustained.
The agriculture sector has been weakening due to long-time
government neglect. It grew from -0.1% in 2016 to 4.2% in 2017, but steadily
declined thereafter to 1.1% in 2018 and 1.2% in 2019. First quarter growth in
agriculture slid to -0.4% in 2020 from 0.5% the previous year. Continued
agricultural liberalization, such as of the rice subsector, will only weaken
agriculture further.
Growth in manufacturing, which has long been foreign-dominated and
export-oriented, has also been dwindling. The sector registered 6.8% growth in
2016, which increased to 8.0% in 2017. But this dropped to 5.1% in 2018 and
3.2% in 2019. First quarter growth in manufacturing went down to -3.6% in 2020
from 5.2% in 2019.
IBON said that the government will be making this same mistake in
overly relying on infrastructure spending as its response to the unprecedented
COVID-19 crisis. The group stressed that the government needs to implement
bolder measures that prioritize the needs of Filipinos, especially the most
vulnerable, and that genuinely develop the national economy.
These include: immediate emergency relief, and especially with unemployment soaring, extended income support to poorest households; expanding the public health system and providing universal social protection; and repurposing the economy for domestic demand-driven employment and growth by strengthening agriculture and building Filipino industry. The resources needed for these can be raised by imposing a wealth tax, higher personal income taxes for the richest families, and higher corporate income tax for the largest corporations.
IBON said that if the government insists on its old neoliberal policies and does not change course, the economy will be even weaker after the COVID-19 crisis.
