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Arroyo to 14th Congress: Prioritize bill on human rights victims

MANILA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is renewing her call to the incoming 14th Congress to prioritize the passage of a bill that would provide compensation to victims of human rights violations during the martial law regime, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced today.

The President, for the second time, certified as urgent Senate Bill No. 1745, otherwise known as the Human Rights Victims Compensation Act of 2004, Ermita said.
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Bayan Muna leader in Koronadal abducted

Jing Cardino

Gilbert Rey "Jing" Cardino was abducted at around 11 a.m. today at Crossing, Barrio 2, Koronadal City. At 27, he is the youngest member of Bayan Muna's national council. House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo quickly denounced the abduction and demanded that the military, whom he suspected of being behind the kidnapping, surface Cardino. Joel Virador, also a Bayan Muna congressman, urged Arroyo to order the military and the police to stop these enforced disappearances. "Without such an explicit, publicly stated order, more activists will either be killed or abducted," Virador said.

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Philippines pushes for sealing of EU-Asean FTA

LISBON, Portugal (via PLDT)—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed confidence Tuesday that the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the economic power bloc of the European Union (EU) and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) can be concluded during the Asean Summit in November.

The President said that as the present chair of the Asean, her two-day visit here was timely since Portugal will assume the presidency of the 25-member EU in July.
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Farmers belie police report that argument led to killing of Negros farmers

MANILA — Task Force Mapalad (TFM) belied reports that a heated argument between farmer-beneficiaries and security guards of Hacienda Velez-Malaga in La Castellana, Negros Occidental ensued prior to the shooting last Monday that left two farmer-beneficiaries killed and six others wounded.
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