There’s been no restraint or second thoughts at all about Duterte’s war on drugs, relaunched this week as “Oplan Double Barrel, Reloaded”. Intensely marked by illegal practices and human rights violations, the campaign has literally become “tok-bang” from “tokhang”.
I am amazed that unlike landlords like the Cojuangcos, these poor farmer couple gave a portion of their meager land to the Salugpungan Learning Center so that they can build a school for their community.
One of four Filipinos are considered poor. Nine of ten Filipino farmer families do not till their own land and are subjected to steep land rents, unfair agricultural trading prices and usury. Almost three million Filipinos are unemployed.
Instead of setting up industries that benefit the nation, adding income to public coffers, and ensuring the creation of jobs for millions of Filipino workers, the President instead continues to implement neoliberal economic policies that fatten only the purses of large-scale foreign companies.
The 3rd of March 2017 marks the 22nd year of environmental plunder under the Mining Act of 1995. Under the act, large-scale, foreign, and destructive mining has spread like wildfire throughout the country.