Europe

MANILA, Philippines – An alliance of Filipino migrant organizations based in the Middle East expressed disappointment with the recent Supreme Court decision denying with finality the petition of Migrante Sectoral Party (MSP) to join as party-list group in this year’s May elections. “Its disqualification to participate in the May...

It was 2001 and riding on the crest of People Power II that ousted President Joseph Estrada, then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo inherited the presidency. Reforms seemed in the offing but nine years later, the Pinoy migrants along with the rest of the country, could not wait for...

ROME – Residents of an Italian town beat with iron bars, shot at and ran over immigrants Friday, wounding nine – two seriously – in a second night of racially charged violence, authorities and reports said.

The regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo changed the face of labor migration in the Philippines. It pursued its labor-export policy aggressively, begging receiving countries to accept more overseas Filipino workers. In the meantime, it shirked its responsibilities toward OFWs in distress, in many instances even becoming complicit in the abuse...

IT WAS, as Charles Dickens famously wrote, the best of times, and the worst. There was the Pacman making Filipinos proud everywhere with his double wins against boxing stalwarts Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. There was CNN Hero of the Year Efren Peñaflorida with his moveable feast of books,...

HONOLULU — Hawaii is a popular destination not only for tourists but also for migrants, and not without reason. But for the forebears of the Filipinos there, who now comprise one of the biggest Asian ancestry group on the island, getting there and planting their feet there was far from...

PARIS, France—The story of an intrepid museum guard saving 200 pairs of shoes once owned by the country's big-spending former first lady, Imelda Marcos, when floods hit the Philippine capital Manila found its way on the list of AFP’s most offbeat stories of the year. The other weird, wild...

A Filipino seafarers’ advocacy group joined over the weekend the growing calls opposing what they call “anti-migrant amendments to a 14-year-old Philippine law on migrant workers. International Seafarers’ Action Center (ISAC) Philippines Foundation Inc. said that while some of the proposed amendments to the Migrant Workers Act of...

The global financial crisis may have dealt a severe blow to Filipino migrant workers, thousands of whom lost their jobs and fell into debt. But public-school teacher Melinda Mendoza does not see this impact at all—at least not within the four walls of her classroom. On the contrary, Mendoza,...

The climate negotiation in the Fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen has come to a sour end. The world’s high expectation for a meaningful and binding agreement is doused with icy cold water by a non-binding deal dubbed as “Copenhagen Accord” – a deal primarily brokered by the...

IMA Statement on International Migrants Day 18 December 2009 On the occasion of the International Migrants Day, grassroots migrant workers and advocates under the militant banner of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) mark the intensification of the migrants struggle for rights and welfare and against imperialist design on...

International Committee to DEFEND Filipino Progressives in Europe Press Release 11 December 2009 The judgment of the European Court of First Instance (now called the General Court under the Lisbon Treaty) removing Prof. Jose Maria Sison last 30 September 2009 from the terrorist blacklist of the European Union...

With over 3,000 Filipinos forced to leave the country daily for overseas employment, no wonder the cases of discrimination they experience could be as many. “Discrimination feeds mistrust, resentment, violence, crime and insecurity and makes no economic sense, since it reduces productivity, said United Nations High Commissioner for...

(Migrante-Europe statement on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day) 10...

(Published by various progressiive media outlets in the Philippines) At a time when even war itself strives to be humane, the carnage that killed 57 people in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, shocked people beyond words, not only because of the scale and brutality of the attacks but also because the targets had...

PRESS RELEASE 08 December 2009 BOLOGNA - Around 200 people joined today's Fiaccolata or candlelighting activity calling for justice for the victims of the Maguindanao massacre, an end to the killings of journalists and activists in the Philippines, and genuine and long lasting peace in Mindanao.

VIENNA, Austria - The Austrian Union of Catholic and Secular Journalists condemned the slaughter of unarmed civilians in Maguindanao last November 23. In a press statement released by the Union, it expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the victims. Likewise, it urged Philippine authorities to hold all...

Human societies have created the bases of our survival, sustenance and advancement through the use of our natural resources in production with rudimentary tools and rising levels of science and technology. Yet in no time in history has environmental destruction been systematically brought about in most parts of the world.

ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 14 Series of 2009 By the Policy Study, Publication, and Advocacy (PSPA) Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) November 28, 2009, Philippines The massacre of Maguindanao that happened on Nov. 23 is traditional politics at its madness. It bared an umbilical cord that binds...

The progressive and patriotic network of Filipinos in Europe under MIGRANTE Europe condoles with the family, relatives, friends and colleagues of the more than 57 victims of what has now been known as the 'Maguindanao Massacre'. We mourn the senseless and unacceptable loss of lives of the victims, in the...