THEY still remember the day the military came. Twelve-year-old Ronald was beaten by soldiers on the pretext that his family had helped coordinate an ambush in 2003. "A group of them held me and kicked me. They kicked me three times on the chest and...

GOOD news are hard to find even in this supposed season of joy, but here’s one that comes from an unexpected sector: the government, specifically the hospitals it supervises. It seems that since the passage of two laws tackling waste some seven...

EXCEPT for outranking Ferdinand Marcos, it should hardly come as a surprise that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was named the country's "most corrupt" president in the Pulse Asia's October 2007 Ulat ng Bayan survey. After all, notwithstanding valid questions...

MARTIAL law was a dark period. But when it comes to human rights, "today, these times are just as dangerous," remarked lawyer Ricardo Sunga II. Sunga is a consultant on human rights for the office of Quezon Representative Lorenzo Tañada III, who is...

WEEKS after the standoff at the Manila Peninsula, the country is still in uproar over the government’s clampdown on human rights and civil liberties that day. Observers said the government overstepped its authority in dealing with Senator Antonio...

THE number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances may have decreased this year, but human rights alliance Karapatan says that the government "has done little to stop the political killings and disappearances except take token steps to...

THEY do not figure in the government's poverty statistics, yet their numbers run up to millions. They barely make a blip in government radar screens as they are not part of government census. According to the Global Call to Action Against Poverty...