Politics

Backsliders: The 10 countries where press freedom has most deteriorated

New York, May 2, 2007?Two Asian nations?Pakistan and Thailand?are among the countries worldwide where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. Pakistan ranks No. 6 following alarming increases in the murders and abductions of journalists. Thailand comes in 10th because of the new military government?s sweeping effort to control broadcast media.
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KMP to COMELEC: ?Investigate AFP for campaigning for Palparan!?

MANILA — The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the ANAKPAWIS party list group called on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and election watch dogs like Kontra-Daya and Bantay Pondo at Boto ng Bayan to investigate the campaigning of top Armed Forces o the Philippines (AFP) officials for the election of the Butcher retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
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Philippines: Arroyo Orders AFP, PNP to Stop Poll Violence, Dismantle Private Armies

MANILA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered today the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to stop election violence once and for all by reinforcing the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the effort to ensure peaceful and orderly elections under Commission on Elections (Comelec) supervision.

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Poster Child. Gregorio Galacio, the father of Grecil Buya, the nine-year-old New Bataan girl accused by the military of being a child combatant, talks to the press in Manila, where he and his wife Virginia Buya, right, earlier filed complaints against the soldiers who killed Grecil during a firefight with guerrillas on March 31. International human rights groups, including one from Japan, have denounced her death, calling it an atrocity that is connected to the Arroyo regime’s war on terror that have allegedly victimized civilians. (Photos courtesy of arkibongbayan.org)

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Philippines Peace Advocates Decry ‘Humanitarian Quagmire’ in Sulu

SPARE RELIEF OPERATIONS FROM ELECTION INTERESTS, CEASEFIRE NOW!

?From war zone, to economic zone? is the official slogan of the Province
of Sulu.

But it is ?back to war zone again?– that is how civil society describes
the situation in Sulu today. In this tiny, but perennially embattled
island, what is abnormal has become normal. Community life is permeated
with insecurity, suspicions and violence. And with over fifty thousand
evacuees now rendered homeless because of the renewed fighting between the
military and the Moro National Liberation Front, Sulu is embroiled in a
humanitarian quagmire.
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