Category Archives: nation

Power of historians

By admin | December 21, 2010

Do not underestimate the power of historians (repeat, but this time mimic the voice of Darth Vader). And speaking of influential historians, the first name that comes to my mind is Teodoro Agoncillo. It was his fault why the ‘Cry’ of the Katipunan is called the ‘Cry of Pugadlawin’ and why it is celebrated on […]

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KKK for Revolution

By admin | December 20, 2010

The yellow ribbon/confetti was a powerful protest symbol during the last years of the Marcos dictatorship in the 1980s. Then, Filipinos used it to mourn the death of former President Cory Aquino. Unfortunately, the yellow mafia inside the Liberal Party usurped its power by transforming it into an election gimmick of Noynoy Aquino. It is […]

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Arroyo-Aquino infrastructure projects

By admin | November 21, 2010

1. The Public-Private-Partnership program of the Noynoy Aquino government is not an innovation since its framework is no different from the Build-Operate-Transfer model of previous governments. In fact, PNoy recently renamed the country’s BOT Center into PPP Center when he issued EO No.8 series of 2010. The name PPP is also misleading since many of […]

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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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