Author: DAVAO TODAY

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Philippines: Arroyo Asks SSS to Hike Pensions By 10%

MANILA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo asked the Social Security System (SSS), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, to once again increase the pension of SSS members and beneficiaries by 10 percent.

Speaking at the agency?s 2nd National Account Officers (AO) convention at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City, the President said the proposed increase comes on the heels of an earlier 10 percent raise that she had also requested last September.

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Philippines Saddened by Death of Peace Corps Volunteer

MANILA — Malacanang expressed sorrow today over the death of Julia Campbell, an American Peace Corps volunteer who was found dead in Ifugao province.

“Ikinalulungkot natin na siya ay namatay pero harinawa hindi sa anumang pamamaraan other than just pure accident,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said during his regular press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon.

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Renewed Fighting in Philippines Will Not Affect elections — Gov’t

MANILA — Malacanang assured the public today that the ongoing conflict between government troops and a breakaway group of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Sulu would definitely not affect the forthcoming elections in the province.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his regular weekly press briefing in Malacanang the government is doing its best to ensure that the renewed fighting in Panamao town between the military and the group of MNLF commander Uztads Habier Malik will not affect other municipalities in Sulu.

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Philippines: KMP Says Govt, World Bank Wrong — More Filipinos Poorer By the Day

News Release
April 19, 2007
References: Ka Willy Marbella, internal deputy secretary general, KMP and ANAKPAWIS party list nominee
Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer

?Both the World Bank and Malacanang are wrong!?-KMP
More Filipinos are getting poorer by the day

At the Rural People?s Endorsement of ANAKPAWIS held at the Plaza Miranda today the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that more and more Filipinos are getting poorer by the day because of the policies of globalization that the Macapagal-Arroyo government is implementing.

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Thailand: Government-Backed Militias Enflame Violence

Thailand: Government-Backed Militias Enflame Violence
Abuses and Impunity Fuels Reprisal Attacks in the South

(London, April 18, 2007) ? The Thai government?s growing reliance on abusive militias for security as it fights a growing insurgency in the southern provinces places civilians at increasing risk, Human Rights Watch said today.

On April 9, government-backed village defense volunteers in Ban Pakdi village of Yala province?s Ban Nang Sta district fired on a crowd of Muslim funeral goers, killing four students and injuring at least five other people. The incident occurred after Unit 4202 of the Army rangers, an army-trained and equipped paramilitary force, fired on a civilian vehicle in Ban Ta Seh village of Yala?s Muang district on March 9, killing Abukari Kasoh, a 15-year-old student, and seriously wounding his brother-in-law, Afandi Pohma.

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