MANILA — The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the ?barefaced and shameless lying it has done to cover up the murder of another activist.?
Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said that claim of the AFP spokesman that the latest casualty, Siche Gandinao of Bayan Muna, was a victim of a communist purge is ?patently stupid.?
MANILA — Local and national candidates should publicly declare their respective disaster prevention plans in preparation for the typhoons, floods, and other natural disasters expected to come with the La Nina phenomenon, environmental activists from Kalikasan-Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) said today.
MANILA — Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran today said that Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should dismiss the false charges and accusations against Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo as well as the other progressive lawmakers Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano, Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) Rep. Liza Maza and Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino unless she wants to cement her burgeoning reputation in the international community as a clone of dictators and fascist presidents throughout history.
In its testimony to the US Senate yesterday, Amnesty International cited the Philippine government’s weak responses to the political killings, the ineffective investigations, the McCarthyist mentality in the military and the government, the abuses of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. It made several recommendations, among them that the human rights laws and agreements, among them the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law that the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front signed, be respected. It also asked Washington to send a “strong and clear message” to Manila that U.S.?Philippines relations “will suffer if the current trend in political killings continues and if Philippine authorities fail to bring past abusers to justice.”
Greenpeace demands immediate withdrawal, moratorium on GMO approvals
Manila/Berlin/Paris, 14 March 2007–A genetically-modified (GM) corn
strain approved for food, feed and processing in the Philippines shows
signs of toxicity to mammals, a new study released today reveals. The
study, and written by a panel of three independent scientists in France,
showed that laboratory rats fed with the GMO corn Monsanto (MON) 863
YieldGard Rootworm displayed kidney and liver toxicity. MON 863 is corn
genetically manipulated to produce its own insecticide called ‘modified
Cry3Bb1’ to kill rootworm insects in the soil, and contains gene coding
for antibiotic resistance.