What we’ve learned from the just concluded elections here is that we are still a politically immature people. Over the past couple of decades many observers here have been saying that we Filipinos have matured enough to be able to discern what’s good for the country as far as electing the right people is concerned. Commentators, publications,… Read More »
NARITA, Japan (JGL) – I was on my way to Chicago, Illinois when I got a PM (private message) on my Facebook account that my cousin’s husband was gunned down because he refused to give up his dream to become a councilor in the municipality of Matnog, Sorsogon. Seven bullets from a .45 pistol were pumped in… Read More »
The rise in the presidential surveys of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is short of phenomenal and comes just two weeks before the May 9 elections. While the ratings of all his rivals are either sliding down or unmoving, the Davao demagogue has continued to surge and leave his rivals eating dust. In the Pulse Asia survey,… Read More »
MANILA The May 9 general elections here in the Philippines have far-reaching implications to where the country will be going in the next decade, not only during the six-year term of the incoming President. So many key concerns will fall in the lap of the next President. Will the economy continue to grow? Will the growth seep into… Read More »
SORSOGON CITY (JGL) – When I was young primary school boy growing up in Piot, a near west barangay of Sorsogon City, I often heard my adult males praising boys my age to be “oragon” when we do a good turn. I now realize that oragon comes from the word “orag” (the ability to make love), which… Read More »
Three news articles that appeared in the past week highlighted the sorry state of our political system – the prevalence of political dynasties all over the country. One news item reported that 542 candidates in the local elections are assured of victory because they are running unopposed. Most, if not all, of these unchallenged candidates are members of… Read More »
MANILA (JGL) – I am not a mind reader nor a clairvoyant. But when former Censors Chief Grace Poe filled up her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for senator in 2013, qualifying for senator was all that mattered to her. Winning for senator was the farthest thing from her mind. That is why while she was accomplishing her… Read More »
Something is very wrong with the Philippines’ Commission on Elections. After failing to submit its comment to a petition by former Senator Richard J. Gordon to compel the Comelec to issue receipts to voters after casting their votes in the May 9 polls, it now blames the tribunal for not giving them a chance to give its side.… Read More »
By Butch Galicia In the next 50 or so dawns-to-dusks and another three great 80-page thick issues of Balita, an expected 75 percent of some 55 million registered Filipino voters will go out and cast ballots in nearly 93,000 clustered polling precincts spread across the Philippine archipelago (7,641 islands on last count, depending on whether the tide is… Read More »
It is a source of wonder why 30 years after Filipinos staged a peaceful revolt to oust a dictator, many of them now seem eager or willing to embrace a presidential candidate who threatens to impose a strongman rule and a vice presidential aspirant who is the namesake son of the supposedly hated leader they deposed in what… Read More »