By Mark Pere Madrona, VERA Files

The unsolved and unpunished killings of media people in past years have kept the Philippines in third place among countries listed as the most dangerous in the world for journalists.

The dubious distinction appears in the 2013 impunity index of the New York-based press freedom watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists which noted that 55 journalist murders have gone unsolved in the past decade despite President Benigno Aquino III’s vow to end impunity.

CPJ Impunity Index 2013

Released a day before the World Press Freedom Day, this year’s CPJ impunity index includes twelve countries. The Impunity Index features countries “where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes.”

The 2013 index covers unsolved media killings that happened from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2012.

“Only nations with five or more unsolved cases are listed. Cases are considered unsolved when no convictions have been won,” the CPJ explained.

The 2009 Maguindanao massacre,

Commentary

PDI's Magic 12 spin

By Ellen Tordesillas

Spin, in media lingo, is using information to support a particular bias or slant.

It’s not exactly false but some aspects of the truth may have been glossed over.

As the campaign for the 2013 elections heats up, spin doctors are becoming more creative that sometimes, I get startled by what I hear and read.

The latest was the “Jun Magsaysay, Risa Hontiveros” in “Magic 12” bannered by not just one newspaper.

The source of the spin was the April 30 release of Pulse Asia of its April 20-22 survey on senatorial preferences where Team PNoy candidates Jun Magsaysay, who has been hovering outside the Magic Circle since the start of the campaign and Risa Hontiveros, who has been struggling in number 17 or 18 in past surveys, finally made it to number 12. Their ranking is actually 12th - 17th.

That’s great news for Team PNoy.

But, they are not the only ones in that level in a survey that has a plus or minus 2 margin of error.

Re-electionist Gregorio Honasan and

By Jonathan De Santos, VERA Files

To reform the Philippine public school system, they have to start at an early age. And that doesn’t mean students. That means teachers.

This was the message of Wendy Kopp, founder of a U.S. group called Teach for All, who is in the Manila to promote the idea of getting the country’s top college graduates and professionals to commit to teaching in high-need urban and rural public schools in the Philippines.

Wendy Kopp. Photo by Jonathan de Santos/VERA Files

Kopp founded the Teach for America program in 1989 to get college graduates to teach at “highest-need” schools in the United States. The idea was to create a highly qualified volunteer teachers' corps as an alternative to the aggressive recruitment by Wall Street firms.

That program, Teach For America, has so far produced 28,000 alumni, more than half of who chose to either stay in education or are working in fields related to education reform.

The program has not only changed participants, many of whom were, like Kopp, part of the “Me Generation”

By Darlene Cay and Melissa Luz Lopez, VERA Files

Photos by Mario Ignacio IV

Unlike most kids his age, Fers Roma has long since outgrown his fear of needles and doctors.

“Alam na niya. Sanay na siya. Hindi na siya naiiyak (He understands it. He is already used to it. He doesn’t even cry anymore),” said Aling Ederlina, his mother.

Part of the reason Fers has stopped crying is Tahan-Tahanan, a halfway home for children and their guardians who live outside Metro Manila. Beyond catchy wordplay--the word tahan means "stop crying" and tahanan means "home"--Tahan-Tahanan is a place of solace. Here, children can really stop crying.

Fers, 11, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) in December 2009. He has to go through 12 cycles of chemotherapy lasting up to three months each, with medicines alone costing some P37,000 per cycle, excluding laboratory fees, food and transportation.

If Fers could only get a bone marrow transplant, then he could skip the treatment. But a transplant

By Darlene Cay and Melissa Luz Lopez, VERA Files

Photos and video by Vincent Go

Senatorial candidates stole the limelight from the working class at yesterday’s Labor Day protest rallies, where workers called for a wage increase, bigger tax relief, an end to contractualization, non-wage benefits and lower prices of basic commodities.

Cameras and microphones turned away from the labor leaders on stage to senatorial candidates Teodoro Casiño, Alan Peter Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros, Jamby Madrigal, Ricardo Penson and Eddie Villanueva who attended the rallies, with less than two weeks to go before the May 13 mid-term elections.

Casiño joined the march of the militant labor groups, while the other six attended the rally of Nagkaisa, a coalition of various labor organizations in the Philippines.

Villanueva, also a religious leader, started with a plea to the administration: “I appeal to the government: Let us open our minds and our hearts. If we really want to be a great country,

Commentary

April 30, 2013 senatorial preferences

By Ellen Tordesillas

With two more weeks to go before Election Day, candidates are moving heaven and earth to get that much coveted post.

Expect more black propaganda, vote buying, junkings and soul-selling. Senatorial candidates would be dealing individually with local politicians. The declaration of Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, head of the Liberal Party in Bicol, that he won’t be voting straight Team PNoy and include two candidates from the United Nationalist Alliance, will be replicated all over the country.

Salceda said that he will include UNA candidates JV Ejercito and Nancy Binay in his senatorial ticket.

Ejercito and Binay are only two of the UNA candidates in the Magic 12 in both Pulse Asia and SWS poll surveys, spoiling the exhortation of President Aquino for a straight Team PNoy victory.

The results of Pulse Asia’s latest survey conducted April 20 through 22 reflect the volatility of the ranking for those in the bottom six. Re-electionists Loren Legarda,Chiz Escudero

By Vince Nonato, VERA Files

Photos by Daniel Abunales

She’s been housekeeper for 23 years, but for the first time this year Gigi Sacare might just be receiving benefits on top of her pay.

Sacare, 35, migrated from Davao to Metro Manila and has been working as a domestic helper since she was 12. Today, May 1, she and thousands of other house helpers will be celebrating their first Labor Day as official members of the country’s workforce.

The recent passage of Republic Act No. 10361, also called Batas Kasambahay or the Domestic Workers Act, has given Sacare and many others the chance to assert their right to better welfare and treatment. The law was signed in January, while its implementing rules and regulations were approved on April 25, expected to be released on May 10.

But even with a law, it may take some time before helpers can enjoy the full benefits as most of them do not have papers, even as basic as a birth certificate. In most cases, employers usually do not ask for proper

By Ellen Tordesillas

Yesterday, April 28, marked the 6^th year that farmer-activist Jonas Burgos disappeared.

The Burgos family observed the day with renewed hope after new information surfaced early this month which strengthen the accusation that the military was behind the abduction of Jonas.

The information, which apparently came from the files of the military, included a picture of Jonas looking dazed with a large bandana around his neck, which was probably used to blindfold him.

Other materials that surfaced were confidential military reports consisting of the“After Apprehension Report,” the “Psycho Social Processing Report,” and the “Autobiography of Jonas Burgos.”

How these documents got to the Burgos family is proof that truth cannot never be kept hidden forever. Based on those new information, the Supreme Court ordered the re-investigation of Jonas’ disappearance case.

This is what sustains the hopes of the Burgos family.

Jonas, son of press freedom fighter Jose