Two of boxing’s greatest talents will lock horns later tonight (Sat., April 13, 2013) inside Radio City Music Hall in New York, N.Y., when the “Filipino Flash,” Nonito Donaire, takes on two-time Olympic gold medalist and amateur legend Guillermo Rigondeaux in a 122-pound battle to determine the top Super Bantamweight boxer on the planet.

Since moving up to 122 pounds after an impressive run at Bantamweight, Donaire has been on the warpath, taking out the likes of Toshiaki Nishioka and Jorge Arce in his impressive undefeated (4-0) 2012 run. The owner of 2011′s “Knockout of the Year” against Fernando Montiel, he has not tasted defeat since his second pro fight, nor gone more than three fights without scoring a knockout.

“El Chacal,” meanwhile, has been similarly destructive, dropping or finishing every opponent he has faced in his 11-fight pro career. Prior to his debut, Rigondeaux amassed one of the most impressive amateur records in history, scoring more than 400 victories and just 12 losses and winning gold in both 2000 and 2004.

Both the WBA and WBO belts, respectively held by Rigondeaux and Donaire, will be on the line in what will most likely be a very entertaining title unification match.

“DONAIRE VS. RIGONDEAUX” QUICK RESULTS:

122 lbs.: Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

“DONAIRE VS. RIGONDEAUX” PLAY-BY-PLAY RESULTS:

Super Bantamweight Championship: Nonito Donaire vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux

Round one: Quick exchange early, Rigondeaux stings him with a solid left. Pawing with their lead hands, both men land their power hands to the body. Another one to the body. Couple of solid lefts by Guillermo. Rigondeaux right hook, Nonito sneaks in a left hook. Guillermo lands a right hook to end the round. 10-9 Rigondeaux.

Round two: Nonito with a straight to the body, then a short right as Guillermo ducks past. They go back to pawing. Nonito with another right downstairs. Body shot from El Chacal. Left straight upstairs. Donaire plugs the body once more. Two more rights to the body. Counter left just misses from Guillermo. Round ends, giving it to Nonito on activity. 19-19.

Round three: Guillermo connects with a tight right hook. Donaire with a combo, only the right downstairs lands. Left straight from Guillermo is blocked, Donaire’s counters don’t connect. Good short lefts by Rigo. Low-high left hands. Donaire lands a right downstairs and whiffs big on his left hand. Nonito lands a pair of rights, his best shots so far. Guillermo with a left. Good fight so far, 29-28 Rigondeaux.

Round four: Guillermo lands a right hook, then a left-right combination. Donaire connects with a glancing left hook, then a good jab. Good straight. Short counter left by Rigo. Sneaky right hand, Nonito with a left. Both men land power shots downstairs, Guillermo left strays low. Nonito lands a great left hook, Guillermo cracks him as he approaches. Crazy exchange to end the round as Guillermo lands his big left hand. Very close round. 39-37 Rigondeaux.

Round five: Nonito pawing out with his jab, avoids a right hook. Rigo potshots a left through Nonito’s guard. Clubbing left uppercut from the Cuban as he avoids Nonito. Computer runs out of power, and I miss the rest of the round.

Round six: I only manage to catch the last minute of the round; not much happens. Bad Left Hook gave this and the last round to Rigo, though, so 59-55 for the Cuban.

Round seven: Donaire with a right to the body. One upstairs, plus a left hook. He’s coming forward consistently now. Limited action here; nobody’s throwing. Nonito moves in, Guillermo lands a left downstairs. Rigondeaux slips some power shots, Donaire blocks a left upstairs. Crap round, 69-64 Guillermo for ring generalship.

Round eight: Donaire continues pursuing, Guillermo connects with a right upstairs. Rigondeaux paws with his right hand, continues avoiding Donaire’s punches. Quick jab as Nonito comes in. Left to the body. Another. Another as Nonito comes in, then one upstairs. Still not that fun to watch, but it’s rare to see such a boxing clinic at this level. 79-73 Rigondeaux.

Round nine: Rigondeaux continues slipping everything Nonito throws at him. Pair of stiff jabs from the Cuban. Donaire connects with his left hook in close. Sneaky uppercut by El Chacal. Jab, left straight downstairs. Couple short punches by Rigondeaux. Round ends, 89-82 same.

Round ten: Rigondeayyx goes down, but it’s ruled a slip. Nonito finally lands a big left hand and puts Guillermo on his seat; this one’s a knockdown. Rigondeaux is back up and Nonito seems buoyed. Rigondeaux connects with a counter left as he comes in. Glancing hooks by Donaire. Things slow back down with a minute left. Guillermo lands a right. Lovely straight between Donaire’s guard from El Chacal. Jabs from both. There’s the bell; 10-8 Donaire, but still 97-92 Rigondeaux. Nonito needs something special.

Round eleven: Donaire not pressing his advantage, instead advancing slowly as Rigondeaux circles. Both wing bit shots but fail to connects. Short punches with the lead hands. Donaire combination met by a left to the head. Donaire left hook falls short once more. Lovely left-right from Rigondeaux. Straight to the body. Donaire pursues with punches to no effect. Rigondeaux jabs to the body to end the round, 107-101 Rigondeaux.

Round twelve: Counter left early from Guillermo. Donaire backpedaling now; he might have gotten hurt by that left. Nonito’s right eye is damaged now and he eats yet another left. Nonito’s right glove is glued to his face and there’s another left from Guillermo. Right hook. Hard left uppercut. 2-1 now. ANOTHER uppercut. Guillermo is just kicking his ass this round. Donaire chases with punches. Another left straight by Guillermo. Donaire swings huge and whiffs, Guillermo taunts him for it. End of the fight. Nonito’s eye is a swelling in a hurry; that left may have busted his orbital. 117-110 Rigondeaux.

Final result: Guillermo Rigondeaux def. Nonito Donaire by unanimous decision (114-113, 115-112, 116-111)

-end-

“Aquino is a shameless US lackey. He has allowed the US to use our country as a military base for its warmongering and aggression against the Korean workers and people,” Elmer Labog, KMU chairperson, said.

The labor center made the statement following the opening today of another round of the US-RP Balikatan exercises in which about 4,000 US troops, the largest deployment of US troops this year, are expected to participate.

“Aquino’s foreign policy of absolute and unconditional surrender of our sovereignty has brought not only US troops but also the US’s war to our shores. We are being dragged into the US’s war of aggression,” Labog said.

“The US and the Aquino government are using the Balikatan exercises as an excuse for the US’ strategic positioning in its war of aggression against the DPRK and as part of its economic and military pivot to East Asia and the Pacific,” he added.

KMU insisted that US soldiers must immediately leave the country’s shores and demanded that the Balikatan exercises be stopped, saying the regular and increasing presence of US troops in the country is tantamount to the re-establishment of US bases that were kicked out for violating the country’s Constitution and national sovereignty.

“The US troops must go now! Their regular and growing presence in our territory is unconstitutional and poses a threat to our national security. The US has not even been held accountable for the damage it caused in Tubbataha,” Labog said.

“We have every reason to ward off these US troops. Freedom-loving Filipinos will fight until US troops are thrown out of the country, despite the Aquino government’s puppetry to the US,” he added.

The labor center also said that the US is obsessed with encircling China not because the latter poses a threat to the security of the US and its allies, but because it wants to force China to further liberalize its economy and adopt a US-style “democracy.”

The country’s workers need a significant wage hike, after years of meager wage adjustments implemented by the country’s regional wage boards (RWB), so that they can cope with the rising prices of basic goods and services.

We condemn the Department of Labor and Employment and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines for immediately rejecting TUCP’s call for a significant wage hike.

Their reactions to the TUCP’s petition show that they have no concern or compassion for the country’s workers and serve only the interests of capitalists, especially the big ones.

We have serious doubts as to whether the RWBs will grant a significant wage hike for the country’s workers. The RWBs have for years refused to hike wages by a significant amount and are instruments for pressing down wages.

The implementation of the Two-Tiered Wage System by the Aquino government, which in fact imposes a wage freeze in some regions and wage cuts in others, reinforces the RWBs’ dogged refusal to granting a significant wage hike.

We are calling on Pres. Noynoy Aquino to immediately certify as urgent the P125 Wage Hike Bill, or House Bill 375, which seeks to legislate a P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide.

We are calling on the country’s workers and poor to intensify the struggle for the P125 Wage Hike Bill’s immediate passage, especially after the House Committee on Labor and Employment released its report last March 25 recommending the bill’s approval.

The quake, of tectonic origin, struck at 10:27 a.m., with the epicenter at 15 km northeast of Baler town in Aurora, the agency said.

No damage to public or private infrastructure was recorded in Baler, an official of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) said.

The tremors were most strongly felt in Baler, which registered a strong Intensity 5, enough to shake buildings and cause appliances to topple over.

Palayan City and Cabiao, Bongabon and San Jose towns in Nueva Ecija, as well as Santiago City in Isabela, experienced Intensity 4 or moderately strong tremors.

The quake was also felt in Metro Manila, with Mandaluyong, Taguig and Quezon cities shaking to a weaker Intensity 3, along with Tarlac City, Cabanatuan City, Infanta in Quezon and Cauayan City in Isabela.

Intensity 2 was felt in Manila; Malolos, Bulacan; San Clemente, Tarlac, and Aglipay and Maddela towns in Quirino. Intensity 1 was recorded in Makati City and Clark, Pampanga.

This was national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s reaction to news reports that 11 Filipinos are included in Forbes magazine’s 2013 global billionaires’ list and that 40 of the richest families in the country accounted for 76 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2011.

The labor center said Aquino’s claim that the country is belied by the situation of 25 million Filipinos, a quarter of the country’s population, who lived on $1 or less a day in 2009.

“Aquino is ruthless in implementing previous governments’ Cheap Labor Policy and is most aggressive in privatizing government assets through his Public-Private Partnership program. Top bureaucrats in government still amass wealth through legal and illegal means,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“Aquino’s main economic policies enforce an upward distribution of wealth. The country’s workers and poor are being sucked dry and made even poorer by Aquino’s policies that further enrich the country’s elite,” he added.

KMU said the government’s Cheap Labor Policy include the pressing down of workers’ wages, promotion of contractual employment, and repression of workers’ rights.

The Aquino government refused to implement a significant wage hike despite the growing disparity between the minimum wage and the cost of living and has implemented the Two-Tiered Wage System, which cuts workers’ wages by introducing a floor wage that is lower than existing minimum wages.

It has also legalized contractual employment through Department Order No. 18-A Series of 2011.

Steps are underway for the privatization of the country’s public hospitals, the MRT and LRT train systems, and country’s water districts, and other government properties such as government television station RPN 9.

KMU said privatization in the oil and power sectors has resulted in higher costs for consumers and the creation of monopolies.

“The growth that the Aquino government brags about continues to be exposed as a hoax designed to try to fool the people. Not only is it not resulting in a better employment situation for Filipinos, it also means the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few elites,” Labog said.

“Growing inequality and poverty amidst the global economic crisis have fueled huge protests and militant rebellions in many countries. They continue to fuel bigger and bolder protests and the insurgency in the country,” he added.

Cristina Morales Jose, a kagawad of Barangay Binondo of Baganga town, Davao Oriental, was shot dead yesterday on her way home from a barangay council meeting. She is a survivor of supertyphoon Pablo and a member of partylist group Bayan Muna and Barug Katawhan!, the alliance of Pablo survivors.

Jose exposed the food blockade and militarization of relief operations by the military’s 67^th Infantry Battalion and was planning to go to Davao to complain about the blacklisting of participants of the Jan. 15 Compostela Valley barricade and the Feb. 25 Davao food protest.

Upon returning home from the Davao food protest, Jose was subjected to harassment by the barangay captain and the military.

“We cry for justice for our comrade Cristina Morales Jose. Aside from the fact that she was a victim of Pablo, she was also a victim of the Aquino government’s insufficient relief drive, of its violence and black propaganda, and now of its policy of extra-judicial killing,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“Her death clearly illustrates how the Aquino government, through Oplan Bayanihan, is using violence against leaders of successful protests. Instead of addressing the people’s suffering, this government is trying to repress those who stand up to find relief for the people’s suffering,” he said.

“At the same time, we pay tribute to Cristina Morales Jose. She is a martyr, a hero of the Filipino workers and people. Her death indicts the Aquino government and the country’s socio-economic system,” he added.

KMU noted that Jose was killed a few days before the country marks International Women’s Day on March 8.

“It’s like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is still the country’s president. Activists are being killed and in ways that highlight the government and the military’s impunity,” Labog said.

“The killing of Jose will fail to scare the people of Mindanao into submission and weaken their protests. As long as poverty, hunger and suffering continue to intensify, protests will also intensify and leaders like Jose will continue to emerge from the people’s ranks,” he added.

This was labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s reaction to news reports that the National Bureau of Investigation’s findings on the Jan. 6 Atimonan ambush is being reviewed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa before being released to the public.

Ochoa chairs the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, which has admitted approving an intelligence operation on alleged jueteng operator Victor Siman, who was killed in the ambush together with 12 others, and releasing some P100,000 for the said operation.

“Why will Ochoa, who was implicated in this ambush, review the NBI report? The public cannot help but think that the Aquino government is setting up a whitewash,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“This is another nail in the coffin of the Aquino government’s ‘daang matuwid (straight path)’ rhetoric. Perhaps Aquino has become so arrogant about his popularity that he thinks he can get away with helping Ochoa clear his name,” he added.

The labor center said many people think that the Atimonan ambush will benefit a jueteng syndicate that may have been a rival of Siman’s in a turf war.

“Ochoa should not be reviewing the investigation. He should be subjected to the investigation,” Labog said.

“He has a lot of explaining to do. The public cannot help but think that he is connected with jueteng syndicates,” he added.

KMU said Ochoa should explain why the intelligence operation, which his office authorized, ended up with the Atimonan ambush and the death of 13 people.

“As anti-jueteng crusader Archbishop Oscar Cruz said, jueteng killings are usually done in silence. The Atimonan ambush is a rare exception, a hint that the money and power involved are huge,” Labog said.

“It certainly feels like the country is still under Pres. Joseph Estrada. Public officials at the top level are being involved in the illegal numbers game and think they can get away with it,” he added.

The labor center condemned the 36-centavo increase per kilowatt-hour implemented by Meralco last Jan. 10, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation’s proposal to impose a 39-centavo per kWh universal charge, as well as Meralco’s proposal to implement a pre-paid payment scheme.

Carrying placards that look like cellular phone screens, the workers said the measures are aimed at securing capitalists’ huge profits and payments for Napocor’s debts, which are allowed by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, which workers said should be junked.

“The big capitalists of the power industry keep on coming up with burdens for workers who have been denied a significant wage hike for years and for the poor who are suffering from the lack of employment opportunities. These schemes should be junked,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.

KMU said an average Filipino family, which consumes 200 kWh on the average per month, will be paying an additional P72.00 starting this month because of the 36-centavo increase, and would be paying an additional P78.00 if PSALM’s proposal is approved.

“Because of big capitalists’ monopoly over the power industry, power rate hikes are not about electricity produced or plants created. They are about steady growth in profits and debt payments and do not redound to the benefit of consumers,” Soluta said.

“Instead of paying Napocor’s debts according to EPIRA’s mandate, PSALM has incurred more debts. The public should not be made to pay for debts incurred because of bad decisions or deals favoring big capitalists and lending institutions,” he added, criticizing PSALM’s proposal to impose a universal charge.

“Electricity is a basic need that should be provided by the government. It is very different from loads for cellular phones that people can do without for days. The pre-paid kuryente scheme, by refusing electricity supply to those who cannot pay immediately, violates the poor’s right to decent living,” he said.

The labor center called on the Aquino government to junk EPIRA, which it claims is responsible for high power rates in the country, reputedly the second highest in all of Asia.

“The Aquino government makes it appear that wage levels make doing business in the country difficult. The truth is that power costs account for a bigger section of production costs than labor costs, especially for small businessmen,” Soluta said.

“Aquino refuses to junk the EPIRA to protect the interests of the big capitalists in the industry, all of whom are close to him, and those of foreign lending institutions,” he added.

This is another victory for the Filipino people who relentlessly fought against the unjust law. Yet, the fight is far from over.

BIEN adds its voice to the widespread opposition to the Cybercrime Law and calls for the law’s immediate repeal.

The law exposes BPO workers and ordinary citizens to severe penalties and fines and could easily be used to harass employees. The Cybercrime Law could further strengthen the BPO companies’ existing confidentiality and privacy clause and be subjected to one-sided interpretation by managements of such companies.

We are one with the Filipino people in the fight to uphold the basic right to free speech and expression. We believe that the law’s libel provision, take-down clause, higher penalty provision, data collection provision among others, are threats to the freedom of speech and expression, right to privacy, and other liberties.

We hereby call on the Supreme Court to repeal RA 10175 because it runs contrary to what’s good for the people, including BPO employees. We are the ones who are bound to suffer if this law would be implemented despite its obvious flaws. We appeal to the government to enact laws with proper consultation with stakeholders, especially ordinary citizens.

Stephen Antig, executive director of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association Inc. (PBGEA), said several natural and man-made disasters including typhoon “Pablo” caused a decrease in production last year, which in turn resulted in lower export earnings.

“For decades, banana firms have reaped huge profits from the labor of the workers and people of Mindanao. It is reprehensible that they will now retrench workers when they can maintain employment by absorbing a minor cut in their profits,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.

“Banana firms are rejecting an opportunity to help the workers who are responsible for their big profits. They are thinking of their profits only, showing no concern whatsoever for workers and poor people who are trying to rebuild their lives after typhoon Pablo,” he added.

“They are showing greed for profits amidst a disaster situation. It’s the workers and poor people in Mindanao who were devastated by the disasters there more than the plantation firms,” he said.

“This clearly shows that what Mindanao needs right now is not the return of for-export plantations but genuine land reform aimed at providing the food needs of the people there,” Soluta said.

The labor center added that for-export plantations in Mindanao employ only a small section of the population, damage the soil for the planting of food crops, and do not produce the food crops that are badly needed by people in Pablo-devastated areas.

KMU also noted that PBGEA’s statement runs counter to data released by the Department of Agriculture showing banana exports more than doubled from 1.8 million metric tons in 2011 to 3.8 million metric tons in 2012.

Clarito Barron, director of the DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry, said demand from traditional buyers remain strong, new markets are opening up, there is a projected increase in exports this year, and “the banana industry can easily recover.”

“Government data imply that capitalists in the banana industry are lying and overstating losses to justify workforce adjustments in order to further boost profits. They are exploiting a disaster situation for their selfish ends,” Soluta said.

“The Aquino government should do better than depend on these greedy liars to create jobs in Mindanao. It should implement a genuine land reform program in Mindanao directed at meeting the people’s food needs,” he added.

Reference: Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general, 0928-7215313