NEWS
TRENDS
August 22, 2007
UN executive: Mining firms are blocking rights of IPs
The
chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues
(UNPFII) last week denounced transnational companies’ (TNCs)
lobby against a UN document that will protect the rights of indigenous
peoples.
In a regional consultation, UNPFII chair Victoria Tauli Corpuz,
a Filipino who hails from Baguio, said that TNCs engaged in mining
and logging have been pressuring countries to vote against the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
UN member countries are to vote on the declaration on Sept. 17 this
year in New York.
Arroyo
rushes privatization of energy sector
President
Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the sale of the country’s energy
assets to be fast-tracked saying the move will earn $7 billion for
the government.
Energy assets targeted to be sold to the private sector this year
include plants of the National Power Corporation, the concession
of power grid operator National Transmission Corporation, and 40
percent of PNOC Energy Development Corporation.
Privatizing government assets has been the Arroyo administration’s
solution to maintain its budget deficit ceilings amid poor tax collection.
It has earlier sold its shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone
Company to trim the budget deficit for the first quarter of 2007.
The sale of the energy assets could level down the expected deficit
to the government’s maximum level of Php63 billion, finance
officials said.
More
troops to be deployed in Metro Manila
Eighty
soldiers have been deployed in three villages in Marikina, and 60
more are scheduled to be deployed in Moriones, Tondo and the Smokey
Mountain dump in Manila and Bagong Silang village in Quezon City
this week.
To date, close to 350 soldiers are stationed in Metro Manila to
curb the recruitment activities of the New People’s Army,
military officials said.
Militarization of villages is set to expand, with plans of assigning
three squads (or thirty soldiers) in Navotas and three more in Malabon.
Car
smugglers are close to President, senators say
The
recent smashing of smuggled cars in Subic, Olongapo City may have
paved way to a monopolized car smuggling in the area, and solons
claim these smugglers are close to the President.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that the President might have unwittingly
contributed to the monopolization plans of the top smuggler in Subic.
The alleged smuggler was named by Sen. Richard Gordon as a congressman
who is “very, very close to the president.”
Gordon
said car smuggling in Subic has worsened due to the smugglers’
connections to the presidential office. The senators, who is from
Olongapo, was founding chair of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
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