Features
Raising the bar: Demanding a decent minimum wage
June 22, 2018
Before being retrenched for protesting condiments manufacturer NutriAsia for its various labor rights violations, Alvin Lascano, a machine operator, used to receive Central Luzon’s (Region III) minimum wage of Php380.00. According to the government, wages in the country have to vary because of varying costs of living in the different regions. “Pero hindi naman nagkakalayo […]
First quarter of TRAIN: A preview of the worse to come for the poor
April 20, 2018
Nanay Inday joins the many ordinary folk in bearing the brunt of price hikes upon the January 2018 implementation of the first package of the Duterte administration’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN). A resident of the urban poor community in San Roque North Triangle, she laments that there are no longer Php5.00 bundles […]
What You Need to Know About Charter Change and its Possible Effects on the Education Sector
April 4, 2018
By Jose Lorenzo Lim (In a series of articles, IBON tackles proposals to amend the 1987 Philippine Constitution*, focusing on social and economic provisions. These touch on agrarian reform for industrialization, and full foreign ownership and control of Philippine lands and natural resources including agricultural lands, public utilities, labor rights, educational institutions and mass media. […]
Unsolicited projects for favored business interests to rise under Pres. Duterte?
March 2, 2018
By Arnold Padilla When President Duterte said last month that “all projects of the Philippines would be something like a Swiss Challenge”, media attention has focused on the Swiss Challenge and its implications. But what the presidential statement implied was that in order to supposedly fast track his ambitious Build Build Build program, the administration […]
From stalled WTO to a new world order
December 18, 2017
Trade deals were stalled mainly due to large developed countries’ differences at the recently concluded World Trade Organization (WTO) 11th ministerial conference (MC-11) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The bigger powers especially the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) pushed their own development agendas and set aside that of the lesser economies, while accusing the […]
With Duterte’s TRAIN, poor pay higher taxes so rich can take home more
December 13, 2017
By Sonny Africa The Duterte administration’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) bill reportedly due for ratification by Congress this week burdens the poor with higher consumption taxes so that the rich can have higher take-home pay. The Department of Finance (DOF) used income tax gains for a few middle-class families as a smokescreen […]
Economic rights violations also worsen under Duterte admin
December 10, 2017
IBON Features – Contempt for human rights is fast becoming a Duterte administration trademark. Over 10,000 people, mostly poor, have reportedly been executed in its war against drugs. Extrajudicial killings, harassment and intimidation, illegal arrests and forced evacuation of communities have continued and recently started escalating. The victims include many opposing the government’s anti-people policies. Authoritarianism […]
Peace talks a casualty of the Trump-Duterte meeting?
November 24, 2017
By Arnold Padilla IBON Features – President Rodrigo Duterte’s hosting as chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and related meetings solidified the sort of foreign policy that his administration will chart throughout its term. It is one that critics have already pointed out as still dependent on the patronage of the […]
Will amid woes: Dismantling large landholdings, staving off hunger
November 16, 2017
Despite decades of land reform programs, millions of peasants remain landless. Land monopoly persists and continues to expand under various agribusiness venture agreements (AVAs) and other market-oriented land reform schemes such as the stock distribution option (SDO). Farmers and farmworkers who stand their ground demanding land distribution are meanwhile met with violence or intimidation by […]
