THE current focus of Malacañ ang and Congress is the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which has been denounced by detractors as a means of carving out a portion of the Philippines as a sub-state for the Bangsamoro or Moro nation. The BBL has, on the other hand, been presented by its sponsors…
IS President Benigno Aquino III liable for the Jan. 25 botched Mamasapano operation that claimed the lives of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) policemen and 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) troopers? The submission of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Board of Inquiry (BOI) report would probably prompt the President to explain himself further. Moreover,…
ONLY a month left before the deadline for filing taxes! While many kababayans may have already filed their tax returns, others tend to procastinate, or worse, have not been fulfilling this obligation dutifully and honestly. Unfortunately, you MAY be among those who can be easy targets for this tax scam. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)…
WITHOUT gender equality, without the skills of women, global society is functioning ‘with one eye covered.’” This is the message shared by Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, during this year’s celebration of International Women’s Day “Imagine trying to watch a beautiful movie with one eye covered. Imagine trying to get something done with one…
THE debate as to whether Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s human rights are violated, or if her arrest for alleged plunder has once again been re-ignited by the news that Attorney Amal Clooney (also known as Mrs. George Clooney) is now defending Arroyo, and has reportedly requested the United Nations to release the former president…
IT is unfortunate that 44 young lives were the price that had to be paid to prod our country’s leaders and the rest of the citizenry to reconsider the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law as endorsed by Malacañang. The massacre at Mamasapano has prompted some supporters of the BBL to back off, and both Houses of…
FEAR cripples many undocumented immigrants in America, especially after a federal judge in Texas blocked the implementation of President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration, which aims to protect about five million qualified undocumented immigrants from deportation. This fear also makes those who stay and work in America illegally become susceptible to scammers who capitalize…
THERE are more than seven billion people in the world, but only 1,826 are included in this year’s Forbes magazine list. Of the top billionaires, 11 of them are Filipinos. “Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded yet again,” Forbes staff Kerry…
THE deal has been done, the vote is over, and the bill is now delivered to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature. The Department of Homeland Security will not run out of money anymore. With a vote of 257-167, the House cleared legislation last Tuesday, March 3 that will keep the agency operating through…
MANY people I have spoken to about the missteps that have bedeviled Noynoy Aquino and his government have offered various ways by which he could have avoided or prevented them or gotten the situation under control. But the scenarios all proceed on the premise that certain conditions are controllable or the damage they cause can…
FORMER NBA player Daniel Orton should have known this a long time ago: Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao should not be openly and publicly criticized if you do not want to suffer the consequences of “insulting” the Philippine icon from the hands of his legions of fans in the name of Pinoy pride. Forget about free…
DUBBED as the “Fight of the Decade,” the highly anticipated dream match—between Filipino champion Manny Pacquiao and undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.—has been making headlines even before the fight was finalized. Luckily for their adoring fans, the deal has been set and the two fighters will indeed slug it out on May 2 in…
AFTER six years of waiting and speculations, swinging from hope to despair among fans, fiesty jabs on social media between both camps — the dream boxing bout will finally come true on May 2, 2015. Our Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will fight in the ring to answer the nagging question among…
REMEMBER the three monkeys who could see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil? Well, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and AFP Chief of Staff Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. were pretty much like those monkeys, unable or unwilling to remember what they knew about the impending massacre of the SAF…
THE Philippines dubs its roughly 10 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as modern heroes for their sacrifices and their huge contributions to the national economy. In 2014 alone, roughly million OFWs remitted $26.294 billion, breaking the previous record by a 6.2 percent increase in 2013. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), about 1.6…
About 5 million undocumented immigrants, including many kababayans, will now have to wait again after a federal judge from Texas ruled to stall the implementation of President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration, pending the decision of the court on its constitutionality. “I disagree with the Texas judge’s ruling and the Justice Department will appeal,”…
EVERY day, people walk the earth daunted by security challenges. With alarming terror threats on the rise, attacks on journalists also remain a worldwide scourge. With a score of 41.19, the Philippines is ranked 141st out of 180 in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF- Reporters Without Borders). While…
FOR many undocumented immigrants in America, to finally be granted the privilege to drive with a state-issued license is a step closer to their dream of living in America without fear. This dream possessed by undocumented immigrants in California, including many kababayans, has become possible through AB 60. This development in the state with the…
WHILE passions are still smoldering, it will not be easy to sort out the various issues that led to and resulted from the slaughter of forty four PNP Special Action Force commandos in Maguindanao. Former President Fidel V. Ramos offered the most sober analysis of the tragedy from the perspective of a retired general and…
MAJORITY of Filipinos are sympathetic to the families of the 44 Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) troopers who were allegedly killed and slaughtered by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its breakaway group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF). Since the massacre, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) is undeniably in peril….
I CONFESS. I am a hopeless romantic. I love romantic comedies. I cry watching love stories — whether the ending is a happy or a sad one. Today is Valentines’ Day. Let me be cheesy and mushy. Here are some of the “kilig” love quotes I found in different sources that want to share with…
IF we thought we would not see any president heaped with more spite than Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Ferdinand Marcos, think again. At the rate insults are being hurled at Benigno S. Aquino III, he could yet set a record of sorts. The massacre of 44 Special Action Force troopers is just the latest incident that…
THE search for truth and justice continues for the bloody clash between PNP-SAF and MILF forces in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that left 44 elite policemen and 19 Moro rebels dead on Jan. 25. As various investigations over the deadly encounter dig deeper, one of the main reasons cited for the botched police operation—for the arrest of…
“THE use of the air waves is not a right, but a privilege.” This was one of the things I learned as a student and later on as an Instructor at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication which has stayed with me all through the more than two decades practicing my profession…
FOUR vital agencies of the Philippine government are currently headless after three of the commissioners retired and the other one recently resigned. This February, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. stepped out from his post. Francisco Duque III also retired as chief of the Civil Service Commission (CSC). Following their footsteps is Grace…
THE resurgence of measles in the past year has revived the debate over the need and the urgency for the government to use its police power and require parents to have their kids be vaccinated. Even as far back as 2008, the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine has been warning: “The United States is…
“WHAT was the direct line of command between the President and the operators? It was not clear whether he just approved the operation at the very start and then let it have its own life or he approved the particular operation. If so, whose advice is he taking and what precautions were taken to protect…
IN light of the current measles outbreak in the United States, Americans are debating: Should children in the nation be required to be vaccinated? What should prevail – parental choice or public health and welfare? While in the Philippines, measles (or “tigdas” as we call it back home) continues to be a problem among the…
MOST Americans are unaware that modern day slavery exists in the form of human trafficking. To many, the phrase “human trafficking” elicits connotations of a tragedy present only in far flung, third world countries. And while trafficking of men, women and children truly is an international evil of epidemic proportions, it hits much closer to…
IS peace between the government and the Muslim extremist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attainable? In a pessimist’s point of view, there might not be any remedy to the insurgency in Mindanao, which has spanned four decades long, especially now that the notorious group is behind the bloody slaughter of 44 Philippine National Police-Special Action…
