By CARLOS H. CONDE
The New York Times
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 28, 2007
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MANILA, March 28 — The owner of a daycare center gave himself up after taking a busload of his students hostage here today. He had driven them to Manila City Hall, where he railed against corruption in Philippine politics through a loudspeaker and criticized the government for failing to provide education for the poor.
Police said Armando Ducat Jr. and at least two other men were armed with hand grenades and other weapons when they took over the bus with 32 children and two teachers who were on their way to a field trip.
Later, after nearly 10 hours since the stand-off began, the hostage-takers released the schoolchildren and the teachers unharmed.
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Posted on March 28, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories, The New York Times |
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Posted on March 14, 2007, and filed under Other Stuff |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 13, 2007
MANILA: Expatriate businessmen in Asia perceive the Philippines as the most corrupt country in the region, according to a survey released Tuesday.
Singapore was ranked as the least corrupt of the 13 economies surveyed, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, according to the annual corruption survey conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, based in Hong Kong.
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Posted on March 13, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 11, 2007
MANILA: Christine Colsuegra is not used to seeing uniformed men brandishing rifles in her neighborhood, a slum area in Quezon City, adjoining Manila. But one day in December, they came looking for her mother.
“I was terrified,” Colsuegra, 11, explained. “I kept telling myself that there was nothing to be afraid of.”
In several poor neighborhoods in the capital region, the military has moved in, sometimes supplementing the activities of the police, but also, human rights advocates say, targeting leftist agitators and government opponents for harassment.
Colsuegra’s mother, Auret, 46, is well known in the area. She heads a neighborhood association that deals with the problems of residents, like the demolition of their houses. She also helps organize anti-government demonstrations, often on issues like wages, high food prices and homelessness.
Auret Colsuegra said the military considers her a troublemaker.
“That is why the soldiers have been watching me and my family,” she said. “Every time I step out of my house, I always have this feeling that it might be the last.”
Not since the martial law imposed by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and ’80s have residents of the Manila region seen soldiers in full battle gear stationed in their communities, said Gloria Rodriguez, secretary general of the Manila chapter of Karapatan, a human rights organization.
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Posted on March 11, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 6, 2007
MANILA: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed an anti-terrorism bill into law on Tuesday, saying that the legislation would bring the Philippines’ campaign against terrorists to a “higher level.”
The law, the Human Security Act of 2007, is expected to bolster U.S.-supported efforts against Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror network
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Posted on March 7, 2007, and filed under International Herald Tribune, Stories |
