@mongster is a manila-based activist, former philippine legislator, and blogger/analyst of asia-pacific affairs.
Written for The Diplomat magazine There is an alleged plot to create political destabilization in the Philippines and remove President Rodrigo Duterte from power. No less than Duterte himself exposed the conspiracy and accused the Left of conniving with the ‘yellows’ in trying to oust him as president. The ‘yellows’ refer to the political forces, […]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has a reputation of being a staunch critic of the United States government. However, it is probably more accurate to describe him as being critical of former U.S. President Barack Obama but not of current President Donald Trump. A few months after becoming president in 2016, Duterte launched a series of […]
Written for The Diplomat The Philippines and the United States have signed a new defense agreement that would boost the presence of U.S. troops in the Philippines. But President Barack Obama, who arrived in Manila yesterday on a state visit, claims that the new accord is not meant to contain China. After eight rounds of […]
The document is a proclamation of governmental powers disguised as a declaration of human rights. This was the scathing reaction of more than 50 human rights groups in Southeast Asia to the recent unveiling of a Human Rights Declaration drafted by the 10-member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The signing of […]
Published by the CNN The Obama phenomenon that swept the world in 2008 didn’t end that year. Well, at least in the Philippines anyway, where it continued to inspire my compatriots to look for national leaders in the Obama mold. Indeed, the 2010 Philippine presidential election was quite surreal, what with all the candidates presenting […]
