Features

In his twenties, Ronilo, who requested that his name be withheld for fear of reprisal, is one of the approximately 17,600 long-time contractual employees of Dole Philippines in Cotabato, southern Philippines. Dolefil is a subsidiary of the profitable global giant Dole Food company, but Ronilo only gets the minimum wage amounting to P245 ($5.526 at the current exchange rate of $1=P44.33) a day if he makes the company quota.

He should be able to plant more than 33,200 pineapples per working day. He gets lower than the minimum wage if he failed to meet his quota. To meet it, Ronilo and others like him had to work for more than eight hours a day without overtime pay. At the Dolefil's integrated cannery and packaging plant in Polomolok, Cotabato, other long-time contractual employees like Ronilo work to cut, clean and package so much fresh fruits during their eight-hour working day, for the same minimum wage.

In December 2005, British newspaper The Guardian ran an article on Mabey & Johnson Ltd., a British firm "accused of making excessive profits in an aid project, by building what their critics call bridges to nowhere". The Guardian cited Haresco, of the President's Bridges Program, as the Philippine contact of the British firm.

Many party-list groups that have successfully made it to Comelec's accredited list have questionable nominees and strong links to Ms. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said election watchdog Kontra Daya (Against Cheating) and Kabataan (Youth) Party-list. For nominees, these party-list groups teem with millionaires, former government officials, former police and military officials, even incumbent government officials. Many are proven allies of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

MANILA -Will your vote count? Can a new president and a new set of officials be credibly elected on May 10? With less than two months before the election, doubts persist as to whether the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is adequately prepared to make the first ever automated elections system (AES) in the Philippines reliable, accurate and trustworthy.

MANILA - Makabayan senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza have filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to disqualify Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel 'Mikey' Arroyo as a nominee of party list group Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP).

OFWs and domestic helpers are still going through the same nightmare that Flor Contemplacion suffered. Many rot in jail. Several have been sentenced to death. Thousands suffer abuse from their employers and neglected by their government.

MANILA - It has been a century since over 100 women from 17 countries representing unions, socialist and communist parties, working women's clubs, and the first women elected to the Finnish parliament gathered in Copenhagen for the second International Conference of Working Women and declared International Women's Day. Next year would mark the 100th year of the first International Women's Day commemoration when more than a million women and men held simultaneous rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland to campaign for women's right to work, vote, be trained, and to hold public office, and for an end to discrimination.

Nangyari ang panayam noong Disyembre ng nakaraang taon (2009) sa isang restaurant sa kahabaan ng Katipunan. Plano ko sana itong ilabas sa pagbukas ng bagong taon, ngunit may ibang mga kahingian sa pag-aaral ko rin ang kinailangan kong harapin.

MANILA - Catholic priest Fr. Joe Dizon, convener of the anti-fraud and election monitoring group Kontra Daya, raised hell earlier this week over the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) accreditation of a partylist group that is, by its own declaration, a project initiated by an official of the Arroyo administration and a prominent ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

MANILA - A 2010 election watchdog group launched yesterday is geared not only to monitor the upcoming elections, but also to rally the public to respond accordingly should the electorate's will be frustrated.

Kontra Daya 2010, which was launched yesterday morning in Intramuros, Manila, has this early raised several fears about the May elections. These include the possibility of massive fraud and failure of elections.