Senator Leila de Lima would like us to believe that she is victimized because of her gender. I vehemently disagree. This is not a gender issue. And it is offensive that she plays the gender card. It is pure theatrics, like the many she inflicted on us, in her press conferences, in her walkouts. Now…

WE TRUST that President Rodrigo Duterte, the consummate lover, will know how to play this geopoliticalménage à trois among China, the United States and the Philippines. With the fair Philippines as the object of the escalating rivalry between China (a neighbor since the earth came to be) and the US (a latter-day colonizer that came…

HOWEVER the United States tries to goad China into accepting the ruling of the United Nation’s Permanent Court of Arbitration, in The Hague, what is certain is that the Philippines cannot rely on the Americans—or on our military alliance pact (the latest iteration of which is the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA)—to test the…

(Publisher/Editor’s/OpEd Editor’s note: The following is part of the statement released by the author about her acceptance of the offer from President-elect Rody Duterte to make her Secretary of Education. She is the lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines.) 1. All my life I have been exposed to the challenges of education in the Philippines….

C’MON, just a day after the elections: Who remembers the platforms of the five presidential candidates, the topics they discussed in three presidential debates, or even their campaign slogans? The more than 15 million Filipinos who voted for Duterte were not really voting for this 71-year old man, who for 22 years has been Davao…

The surveys FOR the most prudent of reasons, I have never accepted as gospel truth the claims of the paid propaganda surveys on the alleged standing of our national candidates. You don’t have to, either. I have a profound respect for scientific polling, but not for polls by fraudsters who make a killing every election…

Deeply concerned about the developments in the Grace Poe Llamanzares case, highly reputable Malacañang sources have revealed that a private meeting between President B. S. Aquino 3rd and Mrs. Llamanzares a week before the Supreme Court met in Baguio City on April 5 had paved the way for the pro “Poe-quino” Justices to declare the…

Doomsday scenario at Ateneo While terrorist attacks in Brussels and Lahore occupied the world headlines, and suspected ISIS-trained jihadists were reported to have set up camp in Muslim Mindanao, a doomsday scenario momentarily descended upon Ateneo University in Quezon City on Monday after it got a text message at 8:30 a.m. saying a “large explosion”…

AMLC COUNCIL, EXECUTIVES SHOULD RESIGN Set up in 2001 during President Gloria Arroyo’s term, it is only under President Benigno Aquino that the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) along with  its secretariat has been debased into a political weapon. The council has also failed to justify its raison d’être as proven by the fact that…

Carpio’s revelation Contrary to what the public has been led to believe, there is no 9 – 6 majority vote in favor of declaring Mrs. Grace Poe Llamanzares a natural-born citizen, and qualified to run for President. This is what we learn from the dissenting opinion of Senior Associate Justice Carpio, who revealed the real…

If not for his ruling-class name, and if not for Mommy’s inherited wealth, which he used to win electoral posts and pay for his expensive PR imaging, Roxas really couldn’t have moved further than Capiz: his performance in government in the past two decades has been so utterly dismal, he’s a loser. What he had…

A statement issued by the Ateneo de Manila staff pontificated: “The Marcos regime’s economics of debt-driven growth was disastrous for the Philippines. The regime was not interested in inclusive development, long-term state-building, nor genuine social transformation of the country.” And they demanded that Ferdinand Marcos 2nd apologize for this. It is such a sad commentary…

Yes, “golden age” was the phrase used by a New York Times article on the EDSA I celebration, with the second paragraph reading, in the man-on-the street-quote style of American journalism: “I think Marcos was our best President,” said a Manila resident who was born two years after the dictator was overthrown. “That was when…

Aquino’s afflictions Undying hatred of the “Marcos past,” unreasoning fear of a “Marcos-friendly future,” and total rejection of any suggestion from any source that Filipinos had begun to rethink the real value of Martial Law and Ferdinand Marcos’ real standing among Philippine Presidents are among the saddest afflictions of President B. S. Aquino 3rd. These…

There have been 20 countries in the post-war era that had peaceful “revolutions” similar to our ESDA uprising in 1986 – more accurately, nonviolent, extra-constitutional regime changes, especially transitions from dictatorship to democracy. Thirteen of these were the so-called “color revolutions,” said to have been inspired in some way by the EDSA “Yellow Revolution.” But…

MEMBERS of the yellow tribe will mark today the 30th anniversary of what they call people power revolt. Hopefully, their numbers will be small enough to confine themselves to a road which is perpendicular to the 23.8-kilometer Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA, formerly called Highway 54. The restriction may be justified by the fact that…

Are you wondering why the vice presidential campaign of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is making significant headway despite his being the son of a former authoritarian President? This phenomenon, according to University of the Philippines (UP) professor Popoy de Vera, has an explanation. He said 70 percent of the voters are 34 years old and…

President Benigno S. Aquino 3rd spent about P50 billion of taxpayers’ money on his campaign to get the insane Bangsamoro Basic Law enacted into law, documents as well as sources in government disclosed. The money was spent on efforts to convince the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to agree to the BBL, generate support from…

If presidential candidate Manuel Roxas 3rd looked so morose at the Senate hearing the other day on the Mamasapano massacre – especially when Senator Juan Ponce Enrile grilled him on why he did not do anything to save the massacred police commandos – it was most probably because he has already been mourning the fatal…

THE United States’ role in Oplan Exodus that killed an international terrorist but led to the worst massacre of Philippine troops in recent history must be established if we are to understand and put closure to this national tragedy brought upon us by this incompetent president. A report by the respected Los Angeles Times on…

HAVING Manny Pacquiao in Congress has always been a lot like having Michael Jordan in a baseball uniform: It’s uncomfortable to watch, and one desperately hopes he figures out on his own that he’s a fish out of water, before someone has to tell him he’s making a fool of himself. Although Pacman is a…

THE massacre of 44 elite police troops in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25 last year is President Aquino and his presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II’s political graveyard. Aquino, in his hubris that he could catch international terrorists, and then in his paralysis when the operation turned awry dug the grave, enough to fit Roxas since…

Osmeña: New Mamasapano probe may hurt President Evidence to be presented by Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile when the Senate reopens its investigation of the Mamasapano massacre may ruin the legacy of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, Sen. Sergio “Serge” Osmeña 3rd said on Tuesday. Enrile had said he has evidence to prove that Aquino…

ALONG WITH MAMASAPANO, SENATE SHOULD ALSO INVESTIGATE THIS IT is President Benigno S. Aquino’s criminal negligence that resulted in 44 police commandos massacred; that should convince us never, never again to have such kind of yellow leadership, especially that of a haciendero scion. It is the criminal mismanagement by his candidate, Manuel Roxas 2nd, of…