Opinion and Commentary
Ledesma: Don’t taunt a Duterte
April 19, 2020, 8:32 pm
TO obey or to defy, that is the option. Whether it is sane to suffer the slings and arrows of the ‘stay home’ order and by opposing we will all stay longer locked in our homes. This could have been the question posed by the bard of Avon if he were alive today. Across the archipelagic divide… Read More
Laurel: ‘Please don’t politicize this virus’
April 16, 2020, 1:21 pm
ON April 8, 2020, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus made the appeal, “Please Don’t Politicize This Virus” which this article uses as title. He was referring to the novel coronavirus of the SAR-CoV2 that causes the disease called COVID-19. Ghebreyesus made… Read More
Ledesma: A panacea more effective than a vaccine
April 14, 2020, 3:57 pm
OUR government is in dire need of cash, and no less than President Rodrigo Duterte is telling us that. Those who think otherwise and tell us that Congress had just approved a budget that runs to trillions of pesos might be thinking that that huge sum is available in government's bank vaults. It is… Read More
Ledesma: A letter to Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte
April 9, 2020, 9:39 pm
TODAY, I am giving way to a letter sent to me by a certain Mark Adie. Since we neither know each other from Adam nor are we Facebook friends, he sent his letter to one I know and who in turn sent this to me. I had posted this on my wall and since then it had been shared by many. I am deeply… Read More
Ledesma: The virulent black propagandists
April 3, 2020, 1:38 pm
WHILE the country is grappling against the scourge of COVID 19 the political opposition and their black propaganda machinery are busy concocting toxins to poison the mind of the people. Their targets are no other than Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and his close confidant now Senator Christopher Lawrence… Read More
Ledesma: Man harbors the enemy
March 19, 2020, 11:21 pm
THESE are trying times. Never was there a period in the history of humankind that we face an invisible enemy almost as invincible as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19). The plague has traveled across the globe and infects people, rich or poor, black or white, men and women, young or aged. No… Read More
Ledesma: Of Covid, lockdown and Periwinkles
March 18, 2020, 4:37 pm
MARCH for Davao City is a month of celebration. The climax is March 16 when this southern capital, the communication and commercial center of Mindanao and home to the Philippines President celebrates Araw ng Dabaw. This year the city anniversary’s celebration is not only subdued it is altogether… Read More
Ledesma: POGO and Cardinal Sin
March 11, 2020, 12:21 pm
JUST when the government eyes PAGCOR’s revenue to tap for emergency measures that would address the menace of COVID-19 some senators go viral on the senate floor and on TV calling for the closure of POGOs operations. Simon-pure Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chair, Dick Gordon, sermonizes that… Read More
Ledesma: Look who’s behind fake news
March 10, 2020, 4:10 pm
“FB page Confeermed’s fabricated quote card already got almost 5,600 FB interactions and could have reached around 755,000 netizens. The page, plus public FB groups -- SEN TRILLANES POWER and VP Leni Robredo Angel Warriors International -- are the post’s top traffic generators”. This is… Read More
Ledesma: What is Cayetano up to?
March 4, 2020, 1:49 pm
WHAT is Speaker Alan Cayetano up to? Until he shook his own house by removing a strong pillar closely identified with Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte, there is neither a storm or tsunami that could shake the foundation of the lower house. By the looks of it, he created his own scenario of a conspiracy to… Read More
Laurel: Covid-19 should unify the world
March 4, 2020, 10:04 am
AS the Covid-19 virus jumps vast distances and oceans to other continents, we see how other countries are adopting lessons from China’s responses, including mass “lockdowns” and other preemptive moves. The effectiveness of China’s response has resulted in a reduction of the Covid-19 crisis… Read More
Ledesma: Who are likely to use viral and chemical weapons?
February 28, 2020, 5:19 pm
A NUMBER of xenophobic videos have been going around the social media depicting brutalities by the Beijing government on its own people that had been infected by COVID-19. A trained eye can easily detect that the video clips were fabricated but to others, the news reports and documentaries can… Read More
Badoy: What EDSA means to me
February 26, 2020, 10:31 am
I WAS at EDSA 34 years ago when we successfully overthrew a dictator without a drop of bloodshed. Thirty-four years have since passed and some things I believe about EDSA remain. And some things I no longer buy and even if you held a gun to my head, I would say, “Please pull the trigger.” –… Read More
Ledesma: About freedom and power
February 24, 2020, 4:08 pm
THE problem of ABS CBN is neither about the issue of press freedom, which is being bannered by its defenders, nor about Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged personal gripes against the giant Network. The unfair treatment of ABS CBN on then Mayor of Davao City when he joined the Presidential race… Read More
Laurel: ‘Westlessness’ and US in Asia
February 21, 2020, 2:45 pm
THE Philippines, who has long seen itself as a tail wagged by the American dog, never took any real interest nor was taken seriously -- in international security forums. Hence, there is almost no awareness in this country of significant global defense meetings, such as, the Munich Security… Read More
From the Mail: Weaponizing the law
February 19, 2020, 10:24 am
THE National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), crafted through the issuance of Executive Order No. 70, is once again being vilified and disparaged by the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army - National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and its legal… Read More
Ledesma: Inday Sara keeps punching
February 18, 2020, 2:58 pm
UNDER the leadership of Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio Davao City has embarked on projects which were inconceivable in the past. Noticeable among these are the underground cabling of power and telecommunications cable and the High Priority Bus System. Except for the hassle to motorists and… Read More
Laurel: Hitting two birds with one ‘Bato’
February 18, 2020, 12:57 pm
TRUMP’S obsession seeks to fulfill his promise to “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) within the two presidential terms he is hoping to attain. To succeed, he has to: reduce drastically his country’s gargantuan trade deficit h not just with China but with the rest of the World; cut down US… Read More
Badoy: The nonsense tweets of IBON
February 14, 2020, 1:18 pm
IBON, in a series of tweets, took the trouble to correct how I said, ‘IBON Philippines’ and not ‘IBON International’ and ‘IBON Foundation’—which, they claim, are their SEC-registered names. This upset them enough to tweet about it. But the rest of what I said about them: that IBON is… Read More
Ledesma: The nation will survive without Kardo and Vice
February 14, 2020, 11:44 am
NEITHER the impact of the cancellation of the Visiting Forces agreement nor the morbid threats of the nCoV were of any importance to ABS CBN from the moment Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a Quo Warranto with the Supreme Court last Monday. Suddenly there was a torrent of self-approbations from… Read More
