MANILA -- The global alliance of overseas Filipinos and families Migrante International expressed strong condemnation against what it said was the South Korean government’s illegal deportation, political harassment and manhandling of overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and union leader Michel Catuira last April 30.

Catuira is the current president of the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU). He has been active in the movement for migrants’ and human and labor rights in South Korea since 2007, and has served as president of the MTU since 2008. MTU is a union founded for and by migrant workers in South Korea in 2005.

CHICAGO (jGLi) – For getting insufficient information before coming up with a decision, Philippine President Noynoy Aquino’s government efforts to be in the good graces of the United States government could be in jeopardy.

Mr. Aquino is slated to have a state visit at the White House next month and the labor rights issue could be a sore thumb that could stick out or a pain in the neck.

MANILA -- The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) members led a lightning protest against the multilateral finance institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) as it opened its 45th annual meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila.

The group burned a reproduction of the ADB logo, but instead of the original definition, the acronym was spelled out as “Anti-Development Bank,”, and the slogan written under it was “Promoting poverty in Asia and the Pacific.

Bayan criticized the Benigno Aquino III administration for the supposed red carpet treatment it is giving to the ADB assembly. The group’s secretary-general, Renato Reyes, said the ADB is “behind many anti-poor and anti-development policies that impoverish the people and bankrupt the domestic economy.”

MANILA – In an unprecedented move, eight health workers filed criminal charges against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for human rights violations under the principle of command responsibility.

The eight were among the 43 health workers, collectively known as the Morong 43, who were arrested on February 6, 2010 by combined elements of military and police. They were branded as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Most the Morong 43 were released after ten months, when President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III was compelled to order the withdrawal of the charges due to overwhelming international and local pressure.

MANILA — Topping this list is not an achievement for any country.

The Citizens’ Disaster Response Center (CDRC) has recently released its 2011 Disaster Report saying that the Philippines topped the list of countries most frequently hit by natural disasters last year. Citing the records of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), Carlos Padolina, CDRC deputy executive director, said that of the 302 natural disasters that happened worldwide, 33 occurred in the Philippines.

MANILA – Farm workers of the Hacienda Luisita lauded the Supreme Court final decision affirming the distribution of 4,916 hectares of Hacienda Luisita land to the original 4,296 original farm-worker beneficiaries.

In a unanimous vote, the high court upheld its ruling of November 22 last year on the half-century-old land dispute. Since the 50s, the 6,443-hectare sugar plantation has been controlled by the family of President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III. The Supreme Court ruling, if and when it got implemented, would start transferring that control to the farm-workers.

SILVERIO COMPOUND, Parañaque City — One is confirmed dead as police dispersed the residents of Silverio compound in Parañaque City, April 23. Thirty-three others were arrested, including eight minors and two women, and several others suffered gunshot wounds.

“We formed a human barricade. We did not gear for a gunfight,” Sheila Bernal, a resident and president of Samahan ng Pagkakaisa at Rekonsilasyon sa Silverio, tearfully told Bulatlat.com shortly after the brutal incident.

MANILA -- Various environmental groups are all set to commemorate Earth Day on April 22 with various activities.

In Davao City, the environmental rights network Panalipdan Southern Mindanao and No to Coal – Davao would hold a series of cultural activities under their Defend Patrimony campaign. The groups staged performances they called “Manalipod Street Art” where visual and performance artists performed song and dance numbers carrying themes connected to the disastrous impact of large-scale and foreign mining, and and so-called “dirty energy industries” such as coal – fired and nuclear plants. Artists from Sambayan, Sining Obrero, San Pedro College and Ford Academy held on– site mural painting, exhibits, “tambulan” (drums performance) and interpretative dances.

MANILA – The local court handling the case against retired Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr. et.al recently issued an omnibus order denying the latter’s pleadings to halt trial proceedings.

Palparan, along three others, is charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection with the enforced disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan. Palparan and M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario remain at large while two other co-accused have been detained at the headquarters of the Philippine Army in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

MANILA – “Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be jailed not just for plunder but also for treason.” This was the statement of Terry Ridon, spokesperson and general counsel of Kabataan Partylist, as he blamed the past administration— and dared the current Aquino government— to revise the downgrading of the Scarborough Shoal into just a ‘regime of islands’ under the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) instead of declaring it as part of Philippine territorial waters.

CHICAGO (jGLi) – Don’t break the champagne bottle yet!

Overseas Filipino worker (OFW) death convict  Rodelio “Dondon” Lanuza is still very much in Saudi Arabia jail.

Hopes of Lanuza’s imminent release were buoyed by a press release on April 10 by Migrante-Middle East posted on a blog, http://migranteme.blogspot.com/, alleging that reconciliation team headed by former Ambassador Antonio Villamor, who was in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago, had succeeded in convincing the aggrieved family to formally accept the blood money (diyya) offered by Lanuza’s party through the Saudi Reconciliation Committee.

MANILA – The green group Kalikasan Partylist welcomed the Baguio Regional Trial Court’s Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) issued today on SM Baguio Mall’s planned cutting of close to 200 trees on Luneta Hill. At the same time, the environmentalist group urged the same court to make this ban permanent.

The Temporary Environmental Protection Order would reportedly halt all tree cutting operations for just three days. It was delivered by the sheriff’s office early morning of April 10 to SM, cutting short the mall operator’s ongoing earth-balling operations of trees which began evening of April 9. By then the mall chain operator in Baguio City had reportedly finished off 14 trees.

MANILA - Department of National Defense Undersecretary Benito Ramos was criticized Saturday for "unwarranted fear and panic" as North Korea prepares to launch a satellite into orbit this month.

Antonio Tinio, ACT Teachers Party-List Representative, said that although North Korea is launching a satellite, not a nuclear warhead, "the NDRRMC report is riddled with politically-charged rhetoric, irresponsible generalizations, and absurd recommendations that grossly exaggerate any danger posed by the North Korean rocket."

MANILA – A committee tasked to review oil prices and oil companies’ profits held this Monday a public consultation with leaders of peoples’ organizations and non-government institutions at the Department of Energy in Bonifacio Global City. Dubbed as an Independent Review Committee on oil prices and profits, led by Dr. Benjamin F. Diokno, the committee delineated their scope as “a study committee and not as an investigative body.”

The committee declined to differentiate itself from the Task Force composed of the justice and energy departments set up last year by President Benigno “Noynoy” C. Aquino, to go after the oil companies’ alleged overpricing. Until today, that task force has not yet released the results of its investigation, if this had pushed through.

ANGELES CITY, Pampanga -- Survivors of the Battles of Bataan and Corregidor, and the Bataan Death March, will gather at Hotel Stotsenburg, April 7 – 10, on the 70th anniversary of the fall of Bataan and the beginning of the Bataan Death March, for the annual meeting and reunion of the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society.

These soldiers fought the first battles of World War II, and the United States Army awarded its first three Congressional Medals of Honor of the war to Philippine Scouts: Sgt. Jose Calugas, Lt. Alexander Nininger and Lt. Willibald Bianchi, for their heroic actions on Bataan.  Ultimately, all 80,000 Filipino and American soldiers in the Philippines became Prisoners of War, and more than half of them died in Japanese custody.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY - Former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes, along with Mayor Mario Reyes of Coron town in northern Palawan, and former governor's provincial administrator, lawyer Romeo Seratubias, are the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Angeleo Arizala of the Palawan Regional Trial Court (RTC).

They are charged with the murder of Dr. Gerry Ortega, an environmentalist-broadcaster, who was gunned down on January 24, 2011 inside an "ukay-ukay" (used clothes) store.

MANILA -- At a press conference in Makati on March 26, World boxing champ and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed the case filed against him in "bad faith" to tarnish his name.  He also said the BIR's move was not in line with the Aquino administration's platform of government.

Earlier this month, the BIR filed a case against Pacquiao for alleged violation of Section 266 of the National Internal Revenue Code, or the provision on “failure to obey summons.”

Apparently, the case was filed after Pacquiao failed to submit substantive documents such as tax records and contract endorsements the BIR asked him to produce.

MANILA – Enforced disappearance is considered as the one of the most heinous crimes against humanity and yet, in the Philippines, the practice is not yet considered as a criminal offense.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPED), an international human rights instrument of the United Nations, defines “enforced disappearance” as the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.

MANILA – Twenty-six years after the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, will the victims of martial law finally receive their long overdue indemnification?

House Bill 5990 or An Act Providing Compensation to Victims of Human Rights Violations during the Marcos Regime was approved this week on third reading by the House of Representatives. If enacted into law, victims of human rights violations during martial law will receive compensation amounting to P 10 billion ($243.9 million).

MANILA — Leaders and members of the World Council of Churches’ Commission for World Mission and Evangelism gather in Manila to discuss the role of the church in times of widespread poverty, violence, fear and isolation. The ecumenical gathering hopes to achieve “renewed understanding and practice of mission and evangelism in changing landscapes.”

“The global landscape has changed so we have to launch a new mission statement,” said Bishop Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, moderator of the WCC-CWME. The WCC is a worldwide fellowship of 349 churches representing over 560 million Christians. The gathering in Manila is held as a pre-assembly to the 2013 WCC assembly in Busan, South Korea, which is likely to be attended by 1,000 Church leaders.