Features
Automated Polls: Privatized elections, foreign-controlled democracy (Part 2)
May 2, 2016
Second of Two Parts By Arnold Padilla Why Smartmatic prevails Why Smartmatic keeps on winning Comelec contracts boggles the mind especially considering the numerous and major malfunctions by the machines and services that Smartmatic provided in the past two elections. To illustrate, while the AES law mandates a 99.995% accuracy rate, Smartmatic’s PCOS machines […]
Automated polls: privatized elections, foreign-controlled democracy (Part 1)
April 28, 2016
First of two parts By Arnold Padilla IBON Features | #BeyondElections2016 | In the Philippines, you know that it is election season again not only when political scandals are at a fever pitch but also when criticisms against the Commission on Election (Comelec) are highly agitated as well. These criticisms – like most politically motivated scandals – […]
Di lumingon: The economics of the next administration
April 26, 2016
By Sonny Africa IBON executive director #BeyondElections2016 | The leading candidates for the presidency project vastly different images: plain but competent technocrat, earnest would-be mother of the nation, beleaguered man of the masses, and of course the coarse yet effective strongman. Filipino voters seem to have a variety of choices in the May 9 […]
Bracing for El Nino
April 2, 2016
We are reposting this article in the wake of the massacre of 3 farmers in Kidapawan who were among those who collectively sought rice support from government amid the El Nino drought. By Arnold Padilla IBON Features—El Niño is not expected to occur until late June or July, with its impact likely to be felt by […]
Day of the Landless: Deepening foreign control over PH farmlands thru financialization
March 31, 2016
Peasant and indigenous people’s groups in the region mark 29 March as the Global Day of the Landless. Initiated by the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC), it highlights the rural communities’ continuing struggle for land. In the Philippines, such struggle remains meaningful amid widespread landlessness still gripping its countryside. Decades of attempts at land reform have […]
“No home birthing” policy: burden to Filipino mothers
March 8, 2016
A mother in the town of Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro who belongs to the Mangyan tribe recalled how her husband had to pay a penalty at the municipal hall so that he could get their child’s registration of live birth. Meanwhile, another mother in the hinterlands of Eastern Samar had to borrow money to rent a house for […]
Not the future we want: 4 Marcos-era socioeconomic problems that live on
March 2, 2016
IBON FEATURES – The late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos’ martial law legacy figured in the various ways that the EDSA People Power uprising’s 30th anniversary was commemorated recently. What darkened this period aside from the gross human rights violations were socioeconomic woes that were compounded by the Marcos regime’s policy decisions and action. Of these, […]
Tatanda Ka Rin: Social Security for Lolo and Lola
February 3, 2016
Hard to imagine that Pres. Aquino and Social Security Service (SSS) officials would have opposed the Php2,000 pension hike if they were low-income senior citizens on the receiving end of meagre SSS pensions By Sonny Africa Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, at the recently concluded International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) in Cebu City, lamented individualism […]
Presidential bets vow PPP continuity amid business, foreign lobby
January 18, 2016
The PPP program’s fate is one of the main concerns of the business community as the country transitions from the current administration to the next by Arnold Padilla IBON Features – Some of those challenging the incumbent regime in the coming polls have raised issues on the public-private partnership (PPP) program. This as the Aquino […]
