Author Archives: admin

Public opinion and political truth

By admin | April 2, 2014

Written for Bulatlat Public opinion has many uses but it should neither stand for truth nor should it be equated with political standpoint. Sometimes it is overrated despite its ephemerality. Consider the examples below: – Senator Miriam Santiago is the darling of the press and social media superstar who entertains the public with her intelligent […]

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Baliktanaw sa 2013 at Pamahalaan ni BS Aquino

By admin | March 24, 2014

Taong 2013 nang tuluyang nahubaran ang rehimen ni BS Aquino bilang numero unong tuta ng imperyalismo, sagad-sagaring korap, tagapagtanggol ng interes ng malaking negosyo, at inutil sa panahon ng krisis at kalamidad. Nalantad si BS Aquino bilang hasyenderong pangulo na pabaya, arogante, at kasabwat ng mga kurakot. Dahil dito, bumuhos sa lansangan ang daan-daang libong […]

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Myanmar’s Census Controversy

By admin | March 22, 2014

Written for The Diplomat Myanmar is scheduled to hold a census next month but local and international monitoring groups are worried that it could inflame ethnic and religious tensions in the country. The census, supported by several UN agencies, is deemed important because it has been more than 30 years since a nationwide census was […]

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The rise and rise of Manila’s informal settlers

By admin | March 20, 2014

Written for Bulatlat The government is always claiming that the number of poor is decreasing but it cannot deny the phenomenal growth of informal settlers across the country, especially in Metro Manila, in the past decade. According to a study cited by the government-funded Philippine Institute for Development Studies, about 5 percent of Metro Manila […]

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Why Rice Is Heating Up Politics in Thailand and the Philippines

By admin | March 5, 2014

Written for The Diplomat Rice is a staple food in Southeast Asia, which explains why many politicians panic when rice farmers are agitated or when consumers complain about high prices. Today, rice farmers in Thailand are protesting after the national government repeatedly failed to pay them under the rice pledging program. In the Philippines, the […]

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How the Left didn’t lose

By admin | March 3, 2014

Written for Rappler Not again. Not another formulaic diatribe ridiculing and prophesying the decline, obsolescence, and inevitable doom of the Philippine Left. The Left was supposed to have disintegrated many, many years ago after the fall of Berlin, the internal split in the 1990s, and the rise of neoliberal globalization as the supreme doctrine of […]

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Waray as battlecry

By admin | February 23, 2014

Written for Bulatlat Waray, which refers to both the lingua franca and the people of Samar and Leyte, literally means nothing. It is interesting and also quite strange that this term is also used to signify nothingness. But can there be something out of nothing? Can nothing produce something? Today, the word Waray is both […]

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Labanan ang Mataas na Singil sa Kuryente

By admin | February 19, 2014

Panday Pira, Tondo, Maynila Mawawalan na ng bisa ang 60-day TRO na ipinataw ng Korte Suprema sa dagdag singil ng Meralco. Bago dumating ang araw na ito, nangagailangan ng malakas at maingay na protesta upang itulak ang korte na maglabas ng desisyong tuluyang ibabasura ang sobra-sobrang paniningil ng Meralco at power companies. Tayong mamamayan ang […]

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Thailand Election by the Numbers

By admin | February 18, 2014

Written for The Diplomat Thailand conducted a “peaceful” election yesterday amid worsening political tension in the country. Let us first review some essential numbers: Thailand has 48 million eligible voters out of a population of 65 million. According to the Election Commission, voting took place in 89 percent of 93,952 polling stations nationwide. But the […]

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Has Manila Forgotten Japan’s War Atrocities?

By admin | February 8, 2014

Written for The Diplomat Several Asian nations reacted harshly when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine last month. But in Manila, which was the second most devastated Allied city during World War II, Abe’s visit almost went unnoticed. Yasukuni is Japan’s monument to honor citizens who died during the Second […]

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