More than 5,000 employees are at risk of losing their jobs following Sulu’s shocking exit from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) ahead of its first parliamentary elections in May 2025. As leaders debate the far-reaching political ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling excluding the province from the region, the BARMM government is...
Author: TJ Burgonio (TJ Burgonio)
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Remember Ninoy Aquino’s murder on Aug. 21
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to move the national commemoration of the murder of the late former senator Benigno “Ninoy’’ Aquino Jr. from Aug. 21 to Aug. 23 continues to be met with protest. Aquino, a key opposition leader who fought the dictatorial rule of the President’s late father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was assassinated while...
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Leila de Lima and her personal quest for justice
The lawyer Leila de Lima is counting her blessings and savoring her recent legal victory that cleared her of her third drug case. But she’s not losing sight of her personal quest for justice against her persecutors. She will sue those who publicly maligned her and haled her to court on fabricated drug trafficking charges...
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EJN wins SOPA Award for greenwashing collaborative reporting
Earth Journalism Network (EJN) was “thrilled” to have been awarded the prestigious Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment for its collaborative reporting project, “It’s a Wash.” “This award honors work that demonstrates high standards of reporting on an environmental topic of significance,” Sam Schramski, EJN’s special project...
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Filipino fishers are called upon to sacrifice during PH-US Balikatan
Fishers in San Antonio, Zambales, may have to sacrifice days’ worth of catch as the Coast Guard enforces a three-day “no-sail zone policy” in the municipal waters during next week’s war games between Philippine and US troops, according to security analyst Chester Cabalza. The policy, which bans fishing within the municipal waters on May 6-9,...
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Drought now ‘an emergency situation,’ peasant group leader says
To survive the monthslong dry spell, indigenous peoples in Barangay Pilar, South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, have resorted to eating wild yam. As a result, 15 families were poisoned. In the forests of Barangay Nalkan, Datu Blah T. Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte, water sources are drying up, forcing children to trek hilly, landslide-prone areas to...
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Digital martial law library launched, ‘to ensure that all Filipinos will remember’
With the click of a button, you’ll find a copy of Proclamation 1081; read excerpts of hard-to-find memoirs, including Benigno Aquino Jr.’s “Testament from A Prison Cell”; or view videos of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in the heyday of martial law. The possibilities are endless when you visit the Ateneo Martial Law Library and Museum...
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2028 election too far off for anyone to claim to be the future prez – Pulse Asia
Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. Raffy Tulfo were statistically tied in a recent survey showing Filipinos’ preference for a presidential candidate, but neither can claim to be the candidate to beat in the 2028 presidential election. “I don’t think anyone here can safely say he or she is going to be the president because...
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Only Supreme Court can resolve ‘Achilles’ heel’ of Charter change resolutions, legal luminaries say
Only the Supreme Court can resolve the issue of whether Congress should meet jointly and vote separately in the current contentious effort to amend the Constitution, legal luminaries said at a forum held at the University of the Philippines on March 14. “We can save much time and effort if this is resolved once and...
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Project Gunita et al.: ‘The truth will outshine the lies’
The academic organization Project Gunita and dozens of groups and individuals, including victims of rights violations during martial law, are taking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to task for distorting facts about the dictatorial rule of his father and namesake in a March 4 interview with ABC News Australia. “President Marcos has yet again tried to...