With the mid-term elections barely behind us, the attention of Philippine politicians would soon be focused on the presidential elections in 2016. Many political pundits believe that with the overwhelming victory of President Aquino’s Team P-Noy in the senatorial elections, whoever he anoints for the 2016 elections would almost certainly be the next president of the Philippines. It’s… Read More »
It was heartening to know that Philippine tourism continues to grow rapidly, with Secretary Ramon Jimenez reporting that a record 854,187 tourists visited the country in January and February this year, a 10-percent increase over the same period last year. In addition, Jimenez said that for the first time in many years, tourist arrivals breached the 400,000 monthly… Read More »
Two weeks ago, I was privileged to attend the graduation from St. Joseph’s College in Cavite City of seven scholars of a Southern California-based Filipino-American retiree. It was an experience I can never forget. That the event came just a few days after University of the Philippines student Kristel Tejada ended her young life after being forced to… Read More »
In the next few weeks, about half a million students will graduate from more than 2,000 colleges and universities in the Philippines. That would have been a source of joy for many people, except that based on statistics, only about 30 to 40 percent of them would find any kind of employment, and only about 5 to 10… Read More »
In demanding that the followers of the Sultan of Sulu surrender immediately to Malaysian authorities because the Sabah standoff was reaching a point of no return, President Aquino showed a complete misjudgment of the character and resolve of Moros in fighting for what they believe is right. Aquino is obviously not a good student of history as he… Read More »
During the term of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, she and her minions tried to downplay People Power and bury it into oblivion. Despite their yearly efforts to ignore it, however, people power is far from dead and the spirit of EDSA will continue to live for as long as there are people who are willing to stand up against… Read More »
IT TOOK a bunch of Filipinos from the Sultanate of Sulu who crossed into Sabah last week, some of them with arms, for some Philippine officials to finally realize that there is another land claim other than the East China Sea dispute that the country can successfully pursue. Some 400 Filipino Muslims, followers of Sultan Jamalal Kiram, are… Read More »
While we want to praise President Aquino and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala for the increased production in rice the past year that, they said, would eventually lead to the Philippines becoming a rice exporter by 2014, we could not help but be alarmed by claims made by Abono chairman Rosendo So that the country faces a rice crisis… Read More »
There is no doubt that the Philippines has achieved phenomenal economic growth in the past year that even Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had to acknowledge that her successor and former economics student, President Benigno S. Aquino III, had done well in guiding the country to a 6.6 percent growth in 2012. Arroyo, who has become Aquino’s arch enemy, reminded… Read More »
The immigration reform plan announced on Monday by a bipartisan group of senators may not appear to be the cure-all for the massive immigration problem of the United States, but the mere fact that the Republicans and Democrats are finally talking to find a solution to the decades-long question is something to be hopeful about. Under the compromise… Read More »