News stories by Prime Sarmiento, page 2

Diovie Arcilla is happy to be home for Christmas. This Singapore-based computer programmer values being with her family and friends in the holiday season. But news that some of her colleagues have been retrenched is making Arcilla anxious.

Cecilia Moran never thought that she would one day have to give up farming owing to poor health. She grew up helping her father tend a family-owned plot in Davao province. The sale of such produce as rice, corn, coconut and durian in the local market took care of family needs.

With the government insisting that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in conflict-ridden Mindanao disarm prior to resumption of peace talks -- and the rebels refusing to do so -- prospects for quick resettlement of some 300,000 internally displaced people (IDP) seem bleak.

Three years after Marlene Esperat was shot dead in her living room, she continues to symbolise the plight of journalists in the Philippines who are increasingly being victimised or murdered in a country which prides itself on having a free press.