VICE Presidential bet Inday Sara Duterte is simply a hard act to follow. She is way ahead of her adversaries in all poll surveys but she too is singularly the only candidate who can withstand the rigors of a national campaign, hopping from one island to another not in an air-conditioned van but on a... Read More
HOW fast time flies! Today is the last day of January 2022. One month has already gone in the new year. By this time, plans have been drawn and laid down for 2022. In fact, some are already being implemented. And from my talks with some family members, friends, and colleagues, I... Read More
PRESIDENTIAL wannabe Leni Robredo just proved to the world that she is not the kind of leader the Philippines deserves. In an interview with the country’s “King” of talk show, Boy Abunda, the Vice President emphatically insisted that in times of emergencies she has to be... Read More
WALDEN Bello has carved his name in various issues that range from economy, environment, human rights and politics all anchored on communist ideology. With that credentials he thought he is good enough to be Vice President of the Philippines. Walden has always been a critic of any... Read More
DID I hear it right? Presidential aspirant Leni Robredo was quoted as saying she vows “to restore the people’s trust in government”. This is both an insult to President Rodrigo R. Duterte and a proposition that we install the Aquino brand of leadership in the government with... Read More
“WHAT the new year will bring to you depends a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” - Yern Mclellan It’s customary that either before or at the start of each new year we make our personal New Year’s resolutions. It’s a list of all the things we... Read More
THE surge of COVID -19 all over the country is something of grave concern. At a rapid rate, people are infected health authorities are presently on red alert. Our economic managers are again jittery, the gains that had slightly increased following the dramatic decline of Covid cases prompted by the... Read More
MY parents were probably some of the most quintessential migrants from Manila. They had literally blazed their own trails in the jungles of Compostela in the 1950s, an ocean away from the upper- and middle-class comforts of Manila.Yet over the years, more and more people have cast a second look at... Read More
A BUDGET for snacks amounting to ₱32-million pesos in the midst of a pandemic is not only cruel but outrageous! That translates to about ₱88,000 per day to include Saturdays and Sundays or ₱122,000 daily if you exclude the weekends. Now if that is not cruelty and brazenly immoral I do not know... Read More
AS a Promdi (that’s someone “from the province” for you), I’m no stranger to spending Christmases away from my home in Davao City.When I was growing up, for example, my family and I would spend Christmas Day in Daliao, Toril, where my cousins lived. That was how it’s... Read More
WHILE we, for one brief moment, wish to forget politics we cannot escape the heat and the beat from the simmering December. The May 22 regular elections is just a nap away and not even the coldness of December wind or the wrath of Odette can temper the mood of the time. All surveys... Read More
IN just a few more days, we draw the curtain for 2021. Coming from a year that gave us the covid-19 pandemic outbreak and brought almost everyone in a downward spiral, we started 2021 still with an ounce of pessimism. As much as we wanted to face it more positively, we were... Read More
AS I write this piece the Covid -19 new cases in the Philippines is down to less than 500. This week too an unprecedented 24-million doses of various vaccines arrived in the country thus ensuring a substantial supply of vaccines from now all the way to the first quarter of 2022. About 55%... Read More
DAVAO City may be many things to other people. Frontier land. Gateway. Food basket. Melting pot and migrants’ haven. Fruit capital. But for me, it will always be one thing: home.Although born in Manila, I grew up and spent all my adult life here. My youth, from the 1960s to the 1970s, was... Read More
IN my new favorite medical drama series "New Amsterdam”, the main character Dr. Max Goodwin, assumed the job of running the New Amsterdam Hospital and started bringing back humanity, decency, and purpose in the workplace by asking everyone a basic question: "How can I help... Read More
THE unethical takeover of commercially viable franchise areas of Northern Davao Electric Cooperative (NORDECO) by the Davao Light and Power Company via an equally immoral legislative route is despicable, to say the least. DLPC, an Aboitiz Power firm, wormed its way via the congressional... Read More
WHEN we were kids, my late grandfather will always remind us that for every action we do, every word we say, and every choice we make, there is always a corresponding consequence. That it will surely result in something good or something bad, not only immediately, but... Read More
THE withdrawal of Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go from the Presidential derby came as a surprise as when he was pushed by party leadership into the race. I can feel the excruciating predicament he suddenly found himself in. He was 40 days into his Vice Presidential quest when Davao... Read More
ANTONIO Parlade, Jr. filed a Certificate of Candidacy for president and came out berserk accusing Sen. Bong Go as “kasama siya sa problema ng bayan” but ended saying “I will not explain”. Maybe pressed by the media to elucidate on his accusation he claimed that Bong Go, a... Read More
FOR those not familiar with how politicians indulge in the vagaries of the electoral contest, the unfolding of events, starting with the withdrawal of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte for her re-election bid, is an enigma. This, after she made an announcement each time she is asked or prodded to... Read More
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