“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” This quote, made famous in many films, but none better than in the award-winning “Network,” must have been in the minds of thousands of protesters who joined the Occupy Wall Street rallies in New York and other cities around the United States to protest corporate greed,… Read More »
Economists and lawmakers have warned the Aquino administration again against too much government under-spending in the wake of another below-target economic growth rate in the second quarter of the year. The Philippine economy grew by only 3.4 percent in the second quarter, way below the government target and a big drop from the first quarter’s 4.9-percent growth, which… Read More »
>Mike Arroyo was quoted in newspaper reports last week that he was deprived of due process when the Philippine National Police (PNP) “rushed” the filing of plunder charges against him and several others in connection with the allegedly anomalous purchase of used helicopters by the PNP in 2009. He refused to testify during the Senate investigation of the… Read More »
With Philippine and American soldiers conducting joint military exercises right in the middle of the known lair of renegade Muslim commander Ameril Umbra Kato in Central Mindanao, both the Philippines and the United States are sending signals to the Muslim rebels that they are prepared to do anything to forge peace in that troubled region. Umbra Kato is… Read More »
The most sensible thing I heard from the Philippines in the past week were the words coming from Senators Franklin Drilon and Allan Peter Cayetano, who said there would be no let-up in the investigation by the Senate blue ribbon committee of the corruption allegations against the ailing Arroyos. Drilon and Cayetano were, of course, referring to Gloria… Read More »
I don’t get it. The Aquino administration is willing to face the wrath of an emerging superpower with at least a million-strong army to uphold its sovereignty over a group of small islets and shoals in the middle of the South China Sea, but is ready to surrender sovereignty over most of Mindanao, an area once called the… Read More »
And I thought the Philippines’ corrupt politicians are the worst. It turns out America’s own “dysfunctional politicians,” as global rating agency Standard & Poor’s describe them, can destroy this great nation just as badly as highly contentious politics tears the Philippines apart on a regular basis. In downgrading the United States’ credit rating for the first time ever… Read More »
“The people have spoken; the nation must move on.” These words summarized the messages sent by the two co-chairmen of the Congressional Canvassing Committee at the start of the joint plenary session of Congress last Wednesday (June 23, 2004) as it began its final round of debates on the controversial canvass of election returns in the just-concluded presidential… Read More »
As President Benigno S. Aquino III enters the second year of his six-year term, there is good reason to hope that his administration has regained its bearings and is now ready to pursue its “Daang Matuwid” with more vigor and determination. Aquino’s first year in office was found wanting by various sectors, including those who helped him win… Read More »
“Hello, Garci.” Never have two words awakened a nation as profoundly as those uttered by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at the height of the tabulation of votes to then Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. Days after the Garci tapes revealing the conspiracy between a supposed president and a ranking election official were played before a shocked nation, street… Read More »