President Benigno S. Aquino III has to do more than vow to go after the perpetrators of the latest spate of political killings in the Philippines. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also vowed to go after the killers, but beyond forming Task Force Usig in the military, not one political murder was solved during her nine years of tenure. … Read More »
I just don’t get it. Why do Philippine education officials insist that the solution to the country’s fast-sliding standard of education is to add one or two more years of schooling? After earlier proposals by the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to add an extra year between the sixth grade and first… Read More »
It won’t be until noon of June 30 that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will exit Malacanang, but I can’t wait to bid her farewell. Goodbye Gloria, but no thanks for the bad memories. You said you will just fade away after that day, but I assure you that you will not be forgotten. Infamy awaits you at the… Read More »
With the recent ruling by the Ombudsman to clear Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo of involvement in the controversial $329-million NBN-ZTE deal, it has become even more important that incoming President Noynoy Aquino make good on his promise to create a special commission to investigate allegations of corruption during the Arroyo administration. Nobody… Read More »
When the Supreme Court voted 9-1 to allow Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to appoint the successor of retiring Chief Justice Reynato Puno despite the constitutional ban on midnight appointments, several opinion makers, including this writer, criticized the ruling, saying that the controversial decision opened the “Arroyo court” to questions of credibility and integrity. In an article entitled… Read More »
I must confess having been guilty of paranoia. But I don’t feel I was alone because millions of Filipinos have been used to too much lying and scheming by the outgoing Arroyo administration, it just seemed improbable that the just concluded election would proceed without massive cheating, confusion, violence and other factors that could lead to a declaration… Read More »
On May 10, the Filipino people will troop to the polls to elect the man who would succeed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and who would be tasked with straightening up the mess that his predecessor had put the country into. Tough challenges await the winner, perhaps as tough, if not tougher than what the late President Cory Aquino had… Read More »
Although we had expected a whitewash of the cases against the Ampatuans of Maguindanao because of the family’s close “friendship” to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the decision of Acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to drop murder charges against ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan and his cousin Akmad Ampatuan — even before the court could hear all testimonies and receive all… Read More »
Sen. Manny Villar and his party mates at the Nacionalista Party must be very desperate. Indeed, with less than a month to go before the elections, desperation would understandably set in when you still trail by double digit percentage points in surveys after spending millions of pesos peddling lies in full page advertisements and radio-TV commercials. … Read More »
On the week that Christians all over the world remembered how Judas Escariot betrayed Jesus Christ with a kiss, a news report came out that administration candidate Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. had been abandoned by Mike Arroyo in favor of Nacionalista Party standard bearer Manny Villar. Obviously, Arroyo did not kiss Teodoro to signal the betrayal… Read More »