I know that Tacloban will rise, like the Phoenix, from its utter devastation. My beloved hometown and the province of Leyte have been through worse. It was in Palo, a…

THE PR temperature has cooled down a bit since Sonny Coloma took over as presidential spokesman. His explanations about happenings in Malacañang, that are not as laborious and convoluted as…

I have just gone over a qualitative research study that confirms what most of us believe – that corruption in government is the root cause of the hardships that the…

SOME mischievous social media folks have been using a rather funny-sarcastic term when talking about President Noynoy Aquino: Litography. No, they’re not referring to a printing process. They mean someone…

MARK Twain is said to have quipped,  “A cat who sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. But he won’t sit on a cold…

Jinggoy Estrada has apparently succeeded in diverting the attention of both mainstream and social media, from the P10-billion pork scandal to alleged anomalies involving Noynoy Aquino’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)…

Innuendos concerning his association with alleged Queen of Pork Barrel Scams, Janet Lim-Napoles,  his  insistence on retaining his humongous presidential pork barrel-in-disguise, and recent allegations of bribery to ensure the…

Innuendos concerning his association with alleged Queen of Pork Barrel Scams, Janet Lim-Napoles,  his  insistence on retaining his humongous presidential pork barrel-in-disguise, and recent allegations of bribery to ensure the…

Aside from our inability, as a people, to sustain our anger, and our poor collective memory, we have one more trait that keeps us from exacting full retribution from public…

It was during the presidency of Ronald Reagan that “deniability” became a buzz word in international media. The US Congress attempted to hold Reagan directly accountable for the Iran-Contra scandal,…

What is it about Janet Lim-Napoles that reminds me of the Mafia? Oh, yes, Napoles sounds like Napoli or Naples in Italy, the original turf of The Mob, which subsequently…

Some years ago, when Manny Pacquiao was just beginning to make waves in the boxing world, he starred in a full length Tagalog movie. A special screening of the film…

THE MMDA and assorted kibitzers have come up with all kinds of solutions to the infernal Metro Manila traffic problem. The dancing traffic cops. The color coding idea. The U-turn…

THE Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino is proposing the “rationalization” of the names used for our country, our citizens and our national language. Indeed, a lot of people – foreigners and…

AS if it were not enough that Dan Brown pointed to them as one of the reasons Manila is the “gates of hell,” squatters (well, okay, informal settlers) have been…

WHAT should the Philippines do about the “salami-slicing” and “cabbage-wrapping” strategy that China is applying in the Spratlys? It has left our armed forces looking like the skinny kid at…

SOME detractors are saying that, as incoming mayor of Manila, Erap Estrada will be the new boss of City Hell. At any rate, whatever that idiot, Dan Brown, says, I’ll…

WE should be relieved that the Boston marathon bombing didn’t happen in Manila. Otherwise, we would have the officials and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation throwing up their…

SOMEONE in the administration of Ferdinand Marcos was rumored to have declared that the Philippine is a rich country pretending to be poor. It certainly sounds like something Imelda Marcos…

THE other night, a retrospective on the Watergate scandal that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon was aired on US television. Among the interesting commentaries was the role…

THE princes of the CBCP should be happy with the results of the SWS survey on whether Catholics have thought about leaving the Church. In fact, I’m surprised that only…

AS USUAL, my buddies at my favorite watering hole in Adobo City (AKA Daly City) turn to me to explain some of the happenings in the Philippines. Of course, I probably know…

“IF WE want respect, we must demonstrate that we have political power!” This was the consensus at a recent meeting of members of US Pinoys for Good Governance, the group…

Of late, the national dailies and broadcast networks have been reporting news that they apparently believe are of more importance to the Filipino masses than poverty, unemployment, criminality, and the…

IN THE Central American Republic of Santa Banana, public opinion polls are routinely conducted to determine how candidates for political office rank, ostensibly based on the preferences of the voters….

POOR Jun Magsaysay and Dick Gordon must be agonizing over what they should do to improve their rankings in the current senatorial race. Should they learn to dance Gangnam style…

THE joke among so-called undocumented Mexicans in California is that they did not illegally cross the US border. The US border crossed them. The other joke is that Europeans were…

IS NOYNOY Aquino the Moses of the Philippines, leading our country to the Promised Land? Not by any measure of Charleton Heston’s walking stick. For sure, Aquino has repeatedly declared…

Before anyone starts hurling an anti-Tito Sotto dagger at me, let me point out that I didn’t coin the phrase, and neither did my daughter from whom I heard it…

IN the Republic of Santa Banana, there’s a new president, replacing the unlamented Gloria En Excesses Deo. President Penoy Balut is said to be the most honest president Santa Banana…