Remember EDSA

It is infuriating that 24 years after the Filipino people brought down a dictatorship and restored democracy, some military personnel act like martial law was never rejected resoundingly by the militants at EDSA. It seemed generations ago when the brutal soldiers of the Marcos dictatorship terrorized the Filipino people, and yet from time to time in this supposed… Read More »

Something sinister about Arroyo ads

                  There’s more than meets the eye in the two-page advertisements that the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) has been running in three major newspapers in the Philippines heralding the alleged accomplishments of the Arroyo administration in the economy, social development, public works, law and order, job generation, agriculture, energy, environmental protection and digital infrastructure in its nine… Read More »

Power of the ‘Pork’

The term “pork barrel” refers to the use of government funds that are intended to benefit the constituents of a politician in return for their votes. In effect, it is an institutionalized — and legalized — form of vote-buying. So, whoever controls the allocation of pork barrel funds wields immense political power. In the nine years that President… Read More »

In praise of powerful people (with clout)

In the course of our journey as journalists, we have witnessed heels and heroes changed the course of history, as in the Marcos years and in the redeeming people Power EDSA revolution of 1986. We rubbed elbows with rogues and criminals; clinked champagne glasses with the high and the mighty or shared “tagays “ of cheap gin and… Read More »

The Dressmaking Partners

Cora and Rosa became steadfast friends when they met in the dressmaking school in downtown Manila.                 Coming from two different regions of the country, they both enrolled in the same school hoping someday to become couturier.  In no time at all, they became close to each other and they were always seen together at work in the… Read More »

One man standing

                  In the first week of January, the Commission on Population estimated that by year’s end, the Philippines’ population would reach the 94-million mark. It warned that the additional two million Filipinos would mean two million more mouths to feed, two million more heads to give shelter to, two million more to educate, and two million more… Read More »

ANG ISLA DE ORIENTE

 Iyo’y humigit kumulang ay apat na oras na paglalakbay sa bahaging iyon ng China Sea bago nila narating ang Isla de Oriente. Umangkla ang ferry. Bumunghalit sa microphone and boses ng kapitan at sinasabi na maari nang bumaba ang mga pasahero. Bumaba ang rampa sa harapan ng ferry at iyo’y sinapo nang konkretong pier. Dahan dahang umusad ang… Read More »