OPINION FEATURES

A NEWSLETTER ON HUMAN RIGHTS

NEWS

KARAPATAN Friday 04. October 2013Volume 1. No. 1Group 3Journalism 122

Pantawid Pamilya inadequate still despite increased coverage

BY DEXTER CABALZA

Housewife Evelyn Sambajon, 47, of Pasay City, tries her best to make

her family’s ends meet. Having an extended fam-ily, she budgets her 2,000 pesos monthly income as a street sweeper and clothes washer for the nine mem-bers of her extended family.

As a beneficiary of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipi-no Program (4Ps), Samba-jon said that the P1,600 she receives every two months is not enough.

“Kung tutuusin, ku-lang talaga [yung binibigay sa 4Ps]. ‘Yung 1,600, pam-bayad lang namin sa kury-ente, panggastos sa bahay

(The money they give in 4Ps is not enough. We use the P1,600 to pay our elec-tricity bills and household expenses),” she said.

According to Na-tional Statistical Coordi-nation Board, a family of five needs at least P 7,017 per month in 2009 to pro-

LONG LINES. People line up outside the post office in Manila to receive cash grants under the government’s Pantawid Pamilya program. AP

Manila Bay sunsets gone?Reclamation project may cause the destruction of the landmark, flooding.

UP swimmer can competeSupreme Court issues TRO against the UAAP two-year residency rule.

[T]he provision is a silencer.“

Right of replyComelec resolution draw the ire of media organizations.

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Rollcall.ph: Congressattendance at fingertips

BY ALEX AUSTRIA

How is your solon do-ing in terms of roll call records?

Rollcall.ph is a website that tracks the roll call re-cord of congress represent-atives based on the availa-ble journals at the Congress website.

By hovering one’s cur-sor over the graphs found in the site, one can deter-mine the roll call record of each House representative. The site is updated until November 14 of last year in terms of roll call records.

Created by a duo that call themselves “FroHawk” because of their distinctive hairstyles, Rollcall.ph aims to aggregate the data from the records for the public’s easy viewing.

The duo of Levi Ong and Pepe Bawagan works as software developers. Rollcall.ph is a personal project that stemmed from their advocacy. They be-lieve that every person should be involved in the political process.

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FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN OPINION VOL. 1, NO. 102

END IMPUNITY, DEFEND PRESS FREEDOM. A stu-dent lit up a candle in commemoration of the Interna-tional Day to End Impunity. Mabuhay Images

EDITORIAL

The Silencer

The barge is near: First the elections, then the whole country.The COME-

LEC has remained staunch in its stance on Resolutions 9631 and 9615, with the lat-ter retaining the “right of reply” provision under Sec-tion 14.

The resolutions, which were contested by broad-cast media organizations such as the KBP and GMA Network, are mostly un-changed.

The “right of reply” provision specifically states that candidates who have been charged by any print or broadcast organization will have the chance to air out their grievances within 48 hours of publication or airing of the charge.

This is problematic, as the provision is a silencer, effectively muffling the steady death of the media’s right to freedom of expres-sion.

The right of reply pro-vision in the COMELEC resolution proves prob-lematic for a media organi-

zation’s editors and their judgment. It undermines the journalistic values of accuracy, verification, and balance.

Journalists will handle with trepidation the release truthful accounts of anom-alous activities by politi-cians, as the said politician can otherwise do a “right of reply” and complain.

If proven “biased”, the journalist can be filed with a criminal case.

Wily politicians know this, thus enabling them to wield the “right of reply” to their own advantage. They know that the provision can serve as free advertise-ment for them, as it states that the reply should be posted in the same space or slot where the original charge appeared.

While the “right of reply” may mask itself as the right of every onion-skinned politician, it hits the final nail on the coffin on the discussion of media rights. We cannot be sure whether or not the lawyers of politicians can wheedle

their way for a feature on page A1. Though it may seem fair on a legal stand-point, it has long been a paradigm that the law and ethics are not always on the same page. What is legal is very different from what is ethical.

The wrangling of loopholes is not new to vet-eran politicos. Long before the election campaign pe-riod has started, political advertisements under the hood of “public service an-nouncements” have been featured and broadcast by the media because of loop-holes in the COMELEC’s rules. They, too, will find their way with the “right of

reply”.The provision also

serves as a dangerous prec-edent for a similar provi-sion controversially found in the suppressed Free-dom of Information (FOI) bill.

Although the bill was passed on the House com-mittee level without the inclusion of the “right of reply”, the controversial provision nevertheless dredges up the long-stand-ing argument on the rights of media coverage.

The provision se-verely curtails the edito-rial judgment of news organizations. Where an

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Media Reporting on Human RightsBY ANGELY CALLE

“Anyone here been raped and speaks English?”

Edward Behr, a war journalist, heard a TV re-porter asking that ques-tion in a refugee camp in the Congo in the 1960s. It sounds horribly insensitive, but sadly, it happened.

Ed Lingao, a veteran journalist also told the lo-cal version of insensitive reporters. One tale goes:

“Nasaan ang kut-silyo?” a reporter who ar-rived late at a crime scene asked the onlookers.

“’Eto,” someone re-plied.

“Gago ka pala e. Ibalik mo!” said the reporter.

The hapless bystand-er stabbed the dead body again to give way for the re-porter’s “appealing” story.

In a forum on conflict reporting in UP Diliman, Ed Lingao cautioned the audience, all future media practitioners, not to be in-sensitive to victims of con-flict just to make interesting stories.

He said that journal-ists should write for the victims, not for the combat-ants. Yes, reporters should know how to make the rele-vant interesting and the in-teresting relevant; but there is a certain line between in-teresting and insensitivity.

Nicholas D. Kristof of New York Times writes, “…although most of us don’t put it so crassly, that’s in a sense what we’re after: A victim with a wrenching tale and an ability to re-count it in a way that will move readers or viewers.”

WRITERS

Alex AustriaChlyde BuenaventuraJosh Buenaventura

Dexter CabalzaAngely CalleKaye Castro

Karapatan is the Filipino of “rights.” The writers of Karapatan believe that reporting human rights is essential not only in informing the public what their rights are but also how they can uphold their rights.

All articles in this publication are earlier submitted to the writers’ respective journalism classes.

In partial fulfillment of the Journalism 122 (Publication Design and Layout) class of Prof. Terry Congjuico.

KARAPATANA Newsletter on Human Rights

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN NEWS VOL. 1, NO. 1 03

WANTS TO COMPETE. Challenging the UAAP two-year residency rule: UP rookie swimmer Mikee Bartolome (center) holding her petition, together with her father Vic Bartolome (left), and Sen. Pia Cayetano (right), who is supporting the swim-mer’s decision to take the issue to court. Sen. Pia Cayetano

Swimmer competes for school of choice as court grants TRO vs UAAP rule

BY JOSH BUENAVENTURA

University of the Phil-ippines freshman Anna Dominique

“Mikee” Bartolome was able to fulfill her dream of suiting up for the Universi-ty of the Philippines in the recently-concluded UAAP swimming competitions after securing a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the mandated two-year residency rule of the country’s well-renowned varsity league.

Last September 3, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 226 granted the TRO to Bartolome, which halted the imple-mentation of the residency rule and allowed her to compete for the UP Tankers. The court also said that her “talents and gifts should be given the best opportunity to develop and grow” and should not be “restrained” by the UAAP rule.

Bartolome, through her father and representa-tive Vic Bartolome, sought help from the court after officials from UST refused to sign her release papers, citing that their refusal vio-

lated her rights. The two-time junior

MVP, who was formerly with the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) Swimming team, has recently been making waves in the media due to her battle against the UAAP’s residency rule.

Despite a boycott in-stigated by other UAAP member schools such as UST and De La Salle Uni-versity (DLSU), Bartolome led the UP Swimming Team, the UP Tankers, to a gold medal in the 200-me-ter medley relay.

Swimmers from UST and DLSU were specifically instructed not to take part in the competitions if Bar-tolome swims.

According to her fa-ther, they have exhausted all means to try and per-suade her former school to grant the release, but they were just ignored and ne-glected, which led them to file the TRO, as it was their only option left.

“Wala akong ibang gustong mangyari kundi ma-fulfill ang gusto ng anak kong education at

yung passion niya sa swim-ming. Sana yung passion ng bata, yung dream ng bata, yung freedom of choice ay huwag naman nating pigi-lan,” said Vic, who was part of the UP men’s basketball team in his college years.

He and his daughter are reportedly supported by the UP Board of Re-gents, the school’s highest decision-making body.

However, the UAAP still decided to uphold the status quo through their one-year residency rule, even after receiving the TRO.

According to incum-bent Senator Pia Cayetano, who is a supporter of Bar-tolome’s cause, the issue is being twisted by the UAAP.

“If Mikee has the tal-ent to make it to the lineup within the freshman year, who are we, who is any one member of the Board, to tell her: ‘Don’t worry you can play next year plus another four or five years.’ That is not our right to dictate on the child,” said Cayetano in an interview on the show Solar Sports Desk.

Rollcall.phFrom Page 1

“Rollcall.ph is really just a project we want to do,” says Bawagan. The sight of the nearly emp-ty Congress session hall during the Reproductive Health bill proceedings motivated him further.

“Why are there so many empty chairs? What is happening? Shouldn’t we check to make sure these things don’t happen?” These were the questions that prompted Bawagan to start the website with the help of Ong.

Ong handles the fron-tend developing, such as creating the site’s visuals and presenting interactive data, while Bawagan deals with the backend part, such as processing the data through tables. “We want to make sure people in power are held accountable,” says Bawagan. “We hope Roll-call isn’t sued for nefarious purposes,” adds Ong. “At-tendance record does not correlate to the person’s character or views.”

While the site sought to inform, a congressman denounced the data the site presented. House Rep. Jef-frey Ferrer of the Fourth District of Negros Occiden-tal, argued that he was pre-sent during the sessions the roll call record claimed he was absent. Ferrer later pre-sented certification show-ing he was present in 26 out of 33 sessions in Congress.

Ong, however, stresses that there is a difference be-tween the Congress’ attend-ance record and roll call record. Attendance could be checked-in for any part of the session, which could span multiple days, but the roll call record is tabulated the moment solon’s name is called for roll call.

Ong and Bawagan source the data from the official Congress website, where roll call records from the Congress journals are available for download in .pdf format.

For those interested in doing something similar to Rollcall.ph, Ong and Bawa-gan say that they would love to share their ideas or help them get started.

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN FEATURES VOL. 1, NO. 104

On Environmental ProtectionThe Manila Bay Reclamation ProjectBY KAYE CASTRO

Preserving sunsets may be the least of the worries of Save Manila Bay activ-

ists. The Manila-Cavite Coastal road reclamation project (MCCRRP) north sector reclamation project (NSRP), or simply the Ma-nila Bay reclamation pro-ject issue has expanded not only with the destruction of its landmark sunset, but also may worsen flooding in Metro Manila.

In his December 2012 BluPrint article, Architect/planner and former presi-dent of the Philippine In-stitute of Environmental Design, Nathaniel Von Ein-siedel stressed the invasive-ness of the reclamation pro-ject in Manila Bay.

“If more reclamation is carried out in Manila Bay, it is more likely that in the fu-ture, flooding in Metro Ma-nila will get worse before it gets better,” said Einsiedel.

University of Illinois Earth and Sciences Depart-ment Head Kevin Rodolfo supported Einsiedel’s find-ings in his September 2013 academic paper explaining

the adverse effects of re-claiming Manila Bay.

He first explained that global warming raises seal levels three millim-eters per year or only one and one fourth inch every decade. By reclaiming a coastal area, he said that the weight of the buildings and over-pumping groundwa-ter would sink the land 30 times faster.

He cited University of the Philippines (U.P.) Diliman’s Marine Science Institute Fernando Sirin-gan’s research that Metro Manila’s coastal areas rap-

idly sink three and a half inches every year. While the proposed reclamation area erodes two inches eve-ry year, based on another research by U.P. Diliman’s National Institute of Geo-logical Sciences Dr. Mahar Lagmay specializing in Volcano-Tectonics research.

However, the Envi-ronment and Management Bureau case handler of the Manila Reclamation Project in the Environmental Im-pact Assessment division Carl Santiago says the ef-fects are otherwise despite the numerous researches

presented that states the reclamation project will worsen flooding.

“…Reclamation will not cause flooding as the critics say. The solar city will not create bowl effect because it does not cover the entire Manila Bay. It will not be built on a flood path according to the DOST Project Noah,” Santiago said.

Project Noah or Na-tionwide Operational As-sessment of Hazards is a Department of Science and Technology program aimed to use technology and man-agement services to reduce disaster risk in the country.

Santiago agrees that there are negative effects but he finds it minimal. He cites noise pollution that can affect nearby establish-ments as one of the “mini-mal negative effects” that his committee has estab-lished.

The committee that Santiago heads will review the four sectors that are af-fected by the Manila Bay reclamation project, name-ly: Marine Biology, Geol-

GOLDEN SUNSET. The landmark sunset of the Manila Bay will soon be blocked by the skyscrapers of the Ma-nila Solar City, a development project planning to be built over the bay. Jan Albert Cadag, Trek Earth

If more reclamation iscarried out in Manila Bay,it is more likely that in the future, flooding in Metro

Manila will get worsebefore it gets better.

- Nathaniel Von Einsiedel, former president of the Philippine Institute of Environmental Design

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN FEATURES VOL. 1, NO. 1 05

ogy/Hydrogeology, Sociol-ogy, and Civil Structure.

Despite the research that Santiago claims that his committee has already conducted, he refuses to re-lease the findings since they are still subjected to review. He said that the study will be made public once the final draft is created with the revisions made by the Environmental Impact As-sessment Review Commit-tee (EIARC).

The fate of Manila Bay still hangs on a fine thread as the battle of the reclama-tion continues between nu-merous groups and factions and the Manila Gold Coast Development Corporation.

The Manila Gold Coast Development Cor-poration lobbied for the rights to reclaim parts of Manila Bay since 1992. But Metro Manila issued in the Ordinance No. 1777 or “An Ordinance Prohibiting Any Form of Reclamation along Manila Bay, from the US Embassy to the Cultural Center of the Philippines”.

Metro Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Vice May-

Second time’s the charm

However, this is not

the only legal issue being

questioned by critics of the Manila Bay reclamation project.

In 1954, former Presi-dent Ramon Magsaysay passed Proclamation No. 41 or “reserving for national park purposes to be known as ‘Manila Bay Beach Re-sort’ a certain parcel of the public domain situated in the cities of Manila and Pasay and the municipality of Paranaque, province of Rizal, Island of Luzon.”

The proclamation protects the estimated five million square meters or al-most five hundred hectares of the Manila Bay from be-ing developed or reclaimed.

Republic Act No. 7586 of 1992 or the “Act Provid-ing for the Establishment and Management of Na-tional Integrated Protected Areas System, Defining its Scope and Coverage,” de-fines proclaimed national parks as a forest reserva-tion that prohibits any form of exploitation or develop-ment except if the plan is to conserve the area or pre-serve the scenery.

Reclamation will not cause flooding as the critics say. The solar city will not cre-ate bowl effect because it does not cover the entire

Manila Bay. - Carl Santiago, Environment & Management

Bureau case handler of the Manila Reclamation

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CITY BY THE BAY. Location of the Solar City. Uploaded in Skyscrapercity.com forums.

12 hectares fronting Manila Yacht Club and the Philip-pine Navy Area. Rappler estimates the size of the supposed reclaimed area as two Rizal parks.

The reclamation plan negates the ordinance passed two decades ago and the 2011 ordinance al-lowing Manila Gold Coast to develop and reclaim a portion of Manila Bay.

or Jose Atienza Jr. signed the Ordinance No. 1777 in 1993.

However, Lim signed Ordinance No. 8233 or “an ordinance authorizing the city of Manila, through Mayor Alfredo Lim, to file an application with the Philippine Reclamation Au-thority to reclaim certain portions of Manila Bay,” in 2011.

In the contract be-tween the Manila Gold Coast and the City of Ma-nila under Lim, the corpo-ration plans to reclaim 148 hectares of land, including

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN NEWS VOL. 1, NO. 106PH female smokers still highest in SEA –WHO

BY DEXTER CABALZA

Despite the drop in numbers, Filipina smokers are still

highest in the Southeast Asia, according to a report of the World Health Organ-ization (WHO).

Around one in every 10 females above 15 years old in the country is smok-ing, according to the 2013 WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic.

In the 2009 report, 2.8 million of the Filipino women were smoking, the highest in Southeast Asia. The country surpassed Laos and Myanmar which had the highest number of female smokers in 2006. While most of the South-east Asian countries have reduced more than half of their smoking female pop-ulation from 2006 to 2009, the Philippines lagged at bringing down only one out of four Filipina smok-ers, followed by Indonesia at two out of four its female smokers.

By 2018, seven out of one hundred women in the country are still smokers while its other Southeast Asian neighbors will have almost no adult female smokers.

The Department of Health (DOH) cited the worldwide of shifting the target market of tobacco products from men to women.

“The worldwide trend now is on the promotion towards women. They put messages that tobacco

smoking is a sign of wom-en empowerment, sophis-tication and high class,” said Anthony Roda, DOH Health Programs Promo-tion Division officer-in-charge. Compared to smok-ing men, smoking women are 17 percent more likely to develop hemorrhagic stroke, according to a study by the American Heart As-sociation. Hemorrhagic stroke is the most deadly kind of stroke caused by brain bleeding.

In addition, a medical study said smoking women are twice as likely as to con-tract lung cancer compared to smoking men.

Roda also said the high number of smoking wom-en, especially mothers, will lead to the increased expo-sure of children to second-hand smoke which causes the development of asthma and tuberculosis.

Rommel Ariola, the Luzon project director of the Framework Control of Tobacco Alliance Philip-pines (FCAP), said there is need to focus the attention of education and promo-tion to women. FCAP is a non-profit organization created after the country signed at the WHO Frame-work Control of Tobacco in 2003.

“The women should be given special informa-tion. They should be aware of the high number of women smokers as well as the harmful effects of tobac-co products,” Ariola said.

PantawidFrom Page 1vide for its needs including food, education, health and shelter.

The 4Ps, which is the Aquino administration’s centerpiece to reduce pov-erty incidence, is a cash incentive program to poor households in exchange of complying a set of condi-tions. The President in his recent State of the Nation Address said the program has already 3.9 million household beneficiaries as of June 2013, a 400 percent increase compared to his predecessor’s beneficiaries in 2010.

Household beneficiar-ies were selected through the National Household Targeting System for Pov-erty Reduction (NHTRs-PR) of the Department of Social Welfare and Devel-opment. It is a database and an information man-agement system to identify the poorest of the poor in the different municipalities.

Based on the NHTS-PR in 2012, Pasay has 8,996 poor households despite the fact that the city is one of the highly urbanized cities. The city reported a 981 mil-lion pesos income last year. Sambajon’s family was one of the 2,538 beneficiaries in Pasay City. In exchange for the financial assistance, she needs to do a monthly checkup and should make sure that her children were attending their classes.

A household benefi-ciary receives P500 for at-tending maternal checkups and P300 pesos per child if he completes at least 85 per-cent of his monthly school

attendance. Sambajon re-ceived P600 for the two-month education incentive of one of his two studying children registered in the program.

Monitoring and Eval-uation Unit (MEU) officer Ace Aquino said Sambajon had just mistaken the cash received by the beneficiar-ies to the health incentive but it was actually from the education incentive. The DSWD MEU routinely checks the health facili-ties and schools covered by the 4Ps. The unit’s 2011 Report, however, revealed low compliance of Metro Manila beneficiaries to the health center visits.

The MEU officer said the low compliance was because of the wrong in-formation submitted by the beneficiaries in their compliance forms. He also cited the large number of first-time 4Ps beneficiaries in 2011. They were new in the program so they still need to be oriented that non-compliance of the conditions will reduce the amount of financial assis-tance a beneficiary receives, he added.

Sambajon could not attend checkups because she still had to work. She said she could not depend solely on the program.

However, Ace Aquino said that 4Ps’ goal was not for families to be depend-ent on the program.

“If we were to give the beneficiaries more than enough, we are teaching them to be dependent to the program. They will not find jobs because they are already dependent on the program,” he said.

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN INFOGRAPHIC VOL. 1, NO. 1 07

WOMEN SHOULD QUIT SMOKING

out of 100 Filipino women, aged 15 above are smoking, the highest in Southeast Asia.

out of 100 Filipino girls, aged 13 to 15, are smoking, the highest in Southeast Asia. Same with Thailand.

Data from the 2013 World Health Organization Report on Global Tobacco Epidemic showed an increasing trend in female smoking in Southeast Asia. Among the countries, the Philippines has the highest smoking prevalence.

HIGHER RISKS Compared to smoking men, smoking women are

as likely as to contact lung cancer.

as likely as to contact any kind of stroke.

as likely as to contact ischemic stroke—the most common kind of stroke caused by blood clot.

as likely as to contact hemorrhagic stroke—the most deadly kind of stroke caused by brain bleeding.

As of May 2010 census, there are 2.8 million female smokers in the Philippines. From 2006 to 2012, the number of female smokers decreased by 25 percent—the lowest in the region.

SOURCES: UN WHO. (2013). Report on Global Tobacco Epidemic. Xu, Lin et al. (August 2013). Smoking and Hemorrhagic Stroke Mortality in a Prospective Cohort Study of Older Chinese. Stroke, 44(8). Siegfried, Jill. (August 2001). Women and lung cancer: does oestrogen play a role?. The Lancelot Oncology, 2(8). Prepared by Dexter Cabalza. For Journalism 116 (Computer-Assisted Reporting) class.

EnvironmentFrom Page 5

Manila Solar City, a de-velopment project that the Manila Gold Coast plans on building over Manila Bay, is a man-made beach built with a world-class commercial, residential and tourism center. This meant skyscrapers will block the famous sunset view seen in Manila Bay.

Also, an international cruise ship line will be built to accommodate more than 5,000 tourists per week. The “entertainment city” (as dubbed in the media) is far from preserving Manila Bay as a national park.

As a result, former congresswoman and resi-dent of Las Pinas, Senator Cynthia Villar. filed a peti-tion in the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the Manila Bay reclamation project.

The CA denied the pe-tition because the senator failed to raise new issues and arguments that can re-verse the previous Associ-ate Justice Apolinario Bru-selas’ decision for the case. She failed to prove that there will be massive envi-ronmental damage if ever the project continues.

“No credible, compe-tent, and reliable evidence had been presented to sup-port the allegations that the proposed coastal by project will cause environmental damage of such magnitude as to prejudice the lives, health or properties of the residents of Paranaque and Las Pinas. These apprehen-sions has been disproved by objective expert and sci-entific studies of reputable entities with vast interna-tional experience,” the de-cision stated.

Though series of pro-tests and legal issues sur-round the P14-billion pro-ject, former president and now Metro Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and Vice-Mayor Francisco Domago-so favors the Manila Solar City development project.

Last July 2013, the country’s unemployment rate boomed to 7.5 percent from 7.1 percent rate of January in the same year. With the increasing unem-ployment rate in the coun-try, Estrada expects that the project will ease unemploy-ment rate in the country. The multi-billion develop-ment project in Manila Bay is expected to open more than 600,000 jobs.

article should go and how it should be presented is the call of the editor. Politi-cians should have no say in where their articles should get published, much less their replies.

The role of the media as the citizen’s “watchdog” is also targeted by the pro-vision. The “right of reply” serves as a foreboding in-sight into how politicians can use it against their de-tractors, discrediting them with their reply.

The 48-hour time pe-riod presents another prob-lem. While it is a given that the media should fact check and verify their published articles, not all media or-ganizations will be able to promptly comply with the time period.

If taken on legal grounds, small media or-ganizations may be hapless to rebut as to why that spe-

SilencerFrom Page 2

cific article or package was published or produced.The Philippine media, with all its flaws and waterloos, know better to serve the people in their own way. Exercising the journalistic values of fairness and bal-ance is in our code of ethics. We do not need policing on its own territory by politi-cians.

We ask the COMELEC to review their resolutions with more judiciousness and clarity. The resuscita-tion of the media’s rights must be considered, as well as the ramifications of the said provision.

We call on our col-leagues to remain vigilant in their reporting of the up-coming elections. Though the provision proves deadly for us in the upcoming elec-tions, we must nevertheless seek ways to provide the public the true information they need.

We will not be si-lenced.

KARAPATANQUOTATIONS

[Right of reply] hits the fi-nal nail on the coffin on the discussion of media rights.

- The Karapatan Editorial

“Why are there so many empty chairs? What is

happening? Shouldn’t we check to make sure these

things don’t happen? - Rollcall.ph’s Pepe Bawagan on the attendance

of members of the House of Representatives

Sana yung passion ng bata, yung dream ng bata,

yung freedom of choice ay huwag naman nating

pigilan. - Vic Bartolome on her daughter Mikee Belmon-te’s issue on the UAAP two-year residency rule

The worldwide trend now is on the promotion [of to-bacco products] towards

women. - DOH officer Anthony Roda’s reason on the in-

creasing number of smoking Filipinas

”

FRIDAY, 04. OCT. 2013 KARAPATAN VOL. 1, NO. 108