The Philippines Team would like to announce the availability of Focus on the Philippines for the month of June. The contents for this release are: PERSPECTIVE:Filipino Families and Government Spending Less on Education by Rene Raya PHOTO OF THE MONTH: Protest Against EU-ASEAN FTA by Sammy Gamboa DEVELOPMENT BRIEF: Notes on Oil Crisis by Walden Bello SOCIO ECONOMIC MONITOR: Education by Julie de los Reyes POLITICAL ROUND UP: Future of Agrarian Reform Hangs in Balance by Mary Ann Manahan UPCOMING EVENTS To view the full articles kindly click here (http://focusweb.org/philippines/fop/jun2008)

To the ASEAN Leaders and the ASEAN Secretariat: The undersigned civil society movements and organisations from ASEAN wish to express their strong concerns about the proposed EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) slated to be concluded within the next two years. We are aware that the trade negotiations are already ongoing, and these are done without prior meaningful public consultation, either with elected representatives or civil society in any of the countries concerned. Any agreement as far-reaching in its consequences and as broad in scope as the proposed EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement should involve at the very least a wide-ranging and on-going consultation process, in addition to full disclosure of all texts being considered. We view access to information and process as vital components for the meaningful participation of civil society in all stages of the discussion.

Download the issue in PDF format (http://www.pdf/Focus-on-Trade-140.pdf) SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS HOW TO MANUFACTURE A GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS: LESSONS FROM THE WORLD BANK, IMF, AND WTO (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1383 Itemid=159) Walden Bello HUNGER AND FOOD CRISES: A VIEW FROM THE GROUND (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1385 Itemid=28) Shalmali Guttal FOOD CRISIS EXPOSES FAILINGS OF INDIA'S ECONOMIC REFORMS (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1386 Itemid=161) Afsar Jafri PRICE HIKES HIT THE POOR, EVEN IN THAILAND (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1387 Itemid=161) Jacques-chai Chomthongdi PHILIPPINES: SUPPLY CRUNCH ROCKS WEAK AGRICULTURE SECTOR (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1388 Itemid=161) Mary Ann Manahan FOOD CRISIS SYMPTOM OF DUBIOUS LIBERALISATION (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1389 Itemid=161) Aileen Kwa THE TIME HAS COME FOR LA VIA CAMPESINA AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY (index.php?option=com_content task=view id=1390 Itemid=161) Peter Rosset

ASEAN ACTIONS MUST REFLECT URGENCY OF SITUATION IN BURMA CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION TO ENSURE CYCLONE NARGIS SURVIVORS GET AID SAPA STATEMENT: SOLIDARITY FOR ASIAN PEOPLE'S ADVOCACIES (SAPA) WORKING GROUP ON THE ASEAN The members of SAPA demand that ASEAN immediately take a pro-active stand to ensure that the Burmese authorities stop blocking delivery of urgently needed international aid - both supplies and expertise - to the 2.5 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis who are hanging onto life by a thread. Otherwise, ASEAN risks being seen as callous, irrelevant and hypocritical.

How free trade is destroying Third World agriculture-and who's fighting back (This article appears in the June 2, 2008, edition of The Nation (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/bello) [New York]. It is being reprinted with permission from The Nation.) by Walden Bello* When tens of thousands of people staged demonstrations in Mexico last year to protest a sharp increase of over 60 per cent in the price of tortilla, the flat unleavened bread that is Mexico's staple, many analysts pointed to biofuels as the culprit. Owing to US government subsidies, turning corn into ethanol had become more profitable than growing it for food consumption, prompting American farmers to devote more and more of their acreage to it, in the process sparking off a steep rise in corn prices. The diversion of corn from tortillas to biofuel was certainly one of the proximate causes of the skyrocketing prices, though speculation on likely trends in biofuel demand by transnational middlemen may have played a bigger role. (1) However, an intriguing question escaped many observers: How on earth did Mexicans, who live in the land where corn was first domesticated, become dependent on imports of US corn in the first place?