Opinion and Commentary

Ledesma: The death of an infant

The treachery and ambuscade of the New People's Army on a police patrol and a civilian car seemed to have been stonewalled and consigned to oblivion. The Commission on Human Rights, the garrulous cabal of leftist political fronts and their allies in the streets are eerily quiet. A four-month old... Read More

Ledesma: Oxford researchers cheated?



With the astounding success of the ASEAN Summit and the Philippine economic growth now surging at 6.9 percent, the administration critics are fishing for issues to degrade Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and his management team.  An opposition stalwart found one. 

... Read More

Mediante: Making a difference among ASEAN leaders

Just this week, Pulse Asia came out with the result of its survey declaring President Rodrigo Duterte as the most approved and trusted president among the last four chief executives of the Philippines.

Getting an 80 percent rating, Filipinos’ trust and approval on President Rodrigo... Read More

Ledesma: My country today

Welcome delegates and guests to the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and the ASEAN 50th Anniversary. The Philippines is populated by over 105 million people of diverse ethnic tribes and cultures, religious affiliations living in unique harmony.... Read More

Ledesma: The dying ember of the Yellowtards

The Human Rights Watch in an apparent effort to redeem itself from the embarrasment and the discombobulated political front has managed to wangle an award for jailed Sen. Leila De Lima.... Read More

Ledesma: Success trumps dissent

Newly-appointed Palace spokesperson Harry Roque warned dyed-in-the wall Duterte bashers not to try their luck too far saying "for every stone that the critics throw at the President he will throw back hollow blocks". Well, with the bull-headedness and desperation of the Yellowtards and their... Read More

Mediante: Social media is citizen journalism











“Traditional academic assumptions say that traditional media is "all that is good and holy" and the new media/bloggers/etc. are, at minimum, highly suspect and probably poor quality…,” was a remark I read from a media analyst.



... Read More

Ledesma: Duterte, Trump, Jinping together in drug war



US Pres. Donald Trump has declared an all-out war against drugs. Shocked by the recent death statistics attributed to drug addiction, Trump announced before an assembly of medical practitioners, lawmakers, state governors Federal law enforcers an unprecedented campaign against drug syndicates... Read More

Ledesma: What great leaders are made of



There is something diabolically dubious and desperate in the political opposition strategy to discredit and demonize Pres. Rodrigo Duterte.... Read More

Ledesma: Battlefronts

The Commander in Chief and his brave soldiers and police forces have won a decisive war against one of the most vicious terrorist band in the world — the Maute ISIS. The cost is not cheap. We lost scores of our own brave soldiers, policemen and innocent civilians, women held captives raped and... Read More

Ledesma: Beauty in New Zealand

New Zealand is not all about sheep and cattle. The major industry in this land in the deeper south of the globe is tourism. I saw this in a dinner-cum-cultural show of Maori tribe in Rotorua, New Zealand. Tourists from 21 countries gathered in rustic settings. Except for the fork and spoon and... Read More

Mediante: Net satisfaction guaranteed!

While the President’s net satisfaction rating from June 2017 to September 2017 dropped in the Visayas, Luzon, and in Metro Manila, it remained steady here in Mindanao.... Read More

Ledesma: Who and what abets child slay?

The moribund opposition may have lost their mass base and the middle class support but they have not actually ran short of money. From day one, in the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, they have not given the new administration the so-called honeymoon period. Their propaganda machinery has not stopped... Read More

Ledesma: Rallies fizzle for who can quarrel with success?









They marched and rallied to beat a long dead horse called Marcos martial law and dictatorial regime. They came from various political persuasions and agenda. The most vociferous of them are the assemblage of the usual bunch of professional street parliamentarians and some characters who... Read More

Ledesma: The Senate Fluke







I find it rather odd that tattoos and bank deposits will have any relevance to the Senate investigation on a PHP6.4-billion drug shipment, part of which had been recovered in Bulacan. Odder still is the attempt of Senator Antonio Trillanes to impute that (Davao City) Vice Mayor... Read More

Ledesma: Who silenced Kian?



For nearly two hours now since we left Aleco, Nevada en route to Utah, there's these endless panorama of arid desert lands. Bare earth and rocks as far as my eyes can see. All I can see now and then is the face of a grieving father of Kian, the 17-year-old boy who just hardly became a man.... Read More

Ledesma: Department of Water

Water is life. This is an indubitable universal fact. For Filipinos water is almost everywhere as we are an archipelagic country. The Philippines is made up of 7,641 islands (no longer 7,107) scattered of the vast seas.... Read More

Ledesma: Duterte warns and implores

The euphoria over President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2nd State of the Nation Address has reverberated outside the plenary hall of Congress and has not quieted down. The message, delivered in plain and simple terms, came from the emotion of the heart and mind of a man full of passion, dedication and... Read More

Ledesma: Testing the patience of Digong

The political opposition had made it a childish habit to conjure issues and scenarios and put the blame on President Rodrigo Duterte to demonize him. On the heels of his State of the Nation Address (SONA), there is a perceptible crescendo of critical items and decibels this time coming not only from... Read More

Ledesma: Lessons learned in 365 days

The first 365 days of Rodrigo R. Duterte as President is not as bad as the six years of Benigno S. Aquino III presidency. This is my answer to friends and readers who had been prodding me to give my assessment of how the Duterte administration performed in the first year of incumbency.... Read More