Category Archives: nation

Manila hostage blunder

By admin | September 15, 2010

written for The Diplomat… The announcement yesterday that some of the Hong Kong hostages killed in Manila last month may have been killed by ‘friendly fire’ is a painful reminder of the global embarrassment the incident caused. And the damage it could do to the Philippines’ international relations. Although the incident was initially a domestic […]

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‘Kayo ang boss ko’

By admin | August 12, 2010

…these were the most important, symbolic words in the June 30 inaugural speech of President Noynoy Aquino or PNoy. It was an appropriate sound byte for a leader who received a substantial PCOS-assisted mandate in the recent elections. It was during Erap’s inauguration in 1998 when the common tao last heard a leader deliver a […]

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Dancing prisoners

By admin | July 29, 2010

When the Michael Jackson single “They don’t care about us” was released fourteen years ago, it immediately generated controversy after Jewish groups pointed out that the lyrics of the song (“Jew me, sue me”) has a tinge of racism in it. The pop superstar was forced to apologize by removing the controversial lines in a […]

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Noynoy Aquino and ‘impossible reformism’

By admin | July 6, 2010

“When I was still in the Guest House, I asked for the logs which listed those who had visited President Marcos. I compared them with those visiting President Aquino. They were the same people – they came from the same companies, shared the same business views, the same mindset, and they went to the same […]

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Rotating brownouts and politics

By admin | April 4, 2010

A spectre is haunting the Philippine islands – the spectre of rotating brownouts. Luzon is continually plagued by 1-3 hours of brownouts everyday. Even Mega Manila, the seat of government and major economic hub of the country, suffers from daily power blackouts. The whole of Mindanao was recently put under state of calamity because of […]

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Can the Philippines achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals?

By admin | February 19, 2010

The Philippines is one of the 191 member states of the United Nations which signed the September 2000 Millennium Declaration. The declaration features eight specific goals that should be achieved by signatory countries in 2015. The eight goals, now known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), are as follows: 1) Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; […]

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Renewable Marriage and politics

By admin | February 5, 2010

Let us mention the obvious: the proposed ‘Renewable Marriage’ bill will not be given serious attention in the 15th Congress. We can’t even pass a divorce law. A miracle is needed to convince lawmakers that shock laws are needed to reform the marriage institution. It is easy to dismiss the ‘Renewable Marriage’ proposal as a […]

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2009 political words of the year

By admin | December 16, 2009

The 2009 Oxford words of the year are unfriend, hashtag, intexticated, netbook, sexting, funemployed, birther, choice mom, and deleb. Many of these words, though familiar to most Filipinos, are not applicable in the Philippines. Unfriending people in facebook, friendster, and other social network sites is not a common internet habit among Filipino netizens. We cannot […]

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Stop Balikatan war exercises in the Philippines

By admin | November 13, 2009

Written early this year. In reposting this article, I dedicate it to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton…. Today we condemn the continuation of the joint military exercises between Philippine and United States troops in the Bicol region. The resumption of the so-called Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) exercises clearly indicates that President Barack Obama has not fundamentally […]

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More lessons from the Philippines’ storms

By admin | November 2, 2009

The Philippines was battered by four successive typhoons in the last two months. Typhoon Ketsana triggered the worst flooding in Metro Manila in the past 40 years. Typhoon Parma caused deadly landslides and mudslides in the northern provinces. Typhoons Lupit and Mirinae hampered the reconstruction efforts in the typhoon-ravaged communities of Luzon Island. Typhoons Ketsana […]

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