Opinion and Commentary
Ledesma: The Night of Fright that revealed the Virtue of Digong
June 7, 2018, 3:57 pm
(Written on June 19, 2013 in SUN STAR DAVAO about an incident that happened six years ago today. For those who think of PRRD a misogynist and find the public KISS so vulgar it offends their sensibilities, give this piece a minute of your time.) THE heavy downpour last June 5 gave a… Read More
Ledesma: Process
June 3, 2018, 11:36 am
(FRIDAY in Davao City) — Am in the midst of a melee at the Philippine Statistics Authority (formerly NSO). There are over 1,000 of us for now queuing in different windows. Am here to secure copies of birth ceritifcates for my family. The PSA staff are doing their dam best to process… Read More
Ledesma: Sari-sari store mentality
May 26, 2018, 11:11 am
The sudden increase of oil price has become the fodder of the opposition to launch an attack on the Duterte administration. One leading newspaper came out with a screaming headline “TRAIN IS LEADING TO JOBLESSNESS”. Populist politicians in the mold of Neri Colmenares joined street… Read More
Ledesma: Revisiting Boracay
May 17, 2018, 5:05 pm
Except for a number of leftist Party-list organizations, which are legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples Army, only the grandstanding clerics and non-government organizations are still stirring up a storm from a whiff of wind. Ex-Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno… Read More
Ledesma: The rise of regional parties
May 10, 2018, 11:49 am
POLITICS is one single activity that ranks high in the consciousness and subconscious of Filipinos from birth to graveyard. Children of politicians are fed the daily dose of conflicts, intrigues, disputes, art of deception, back-stabbing and murder – the kind of brew that our brand of politics… Read More
Ledesma: Bong Go’s corporate social responsibility
May 8, 2018, 12:40 pm
THE government, in many aspects, is just like one big corporation. And like private or government-owned corporations, it imposes upon itself a corporate social responsibility, a non-core program that sets aside part of their profits to reach out to communities that need assistance.… Read More
Ledesma: Much Ado about Tulfo
May 7, 2018, 2:44 pm
The Tulfos are famous names in mass media. They are listened to, viewed and read. So what’s wrong and controversial about that? They used to be with TV 5 but management of this station had closed a number of their stations and must have kept only one to prop the owner’s pride. I do not know… Read More
Ledesma: Saving our OFWs
April 30, 2018, 4:33 pm
THE diplomatic ties between Kuwait and the Philippines is in a litmus test, so to speak. This, after a helpless and hopeless domestic helper was rescued by elements of the Embassy without coordinating with the local authorities, video recorded the operation and then broadcasted the episode for… Read More
Balanza: Joma Sison, the grand daddy of peace spoilers
April 25, 2018, 3:53 pm
FOR the nth time, President Rodrigo Duterte has opened the door for the resumption of peace negotiations with communist rebels in a last-ditch bid to end the country’s 50-year old insurgency. The President has given a “last chance” for the communists to talk peace with the Philippine… Read More
Ledesma: The ASEAN block
April 25, 2018, 11:59 am
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte is flying to Singapore to attend the 32nd Regional Summit of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations. This will be a good time and opportunity to tackle vital issues that impacts on the number of member nations. I am referring to the most recent action of the… Read More
Balanza: Duterte and killing the mining industry
April 19, 2018, 6:07 pm
NEVER mind that the mining industry is raising the specter of lost investments and revenues and massive unemployment if the government continues to look at the sector as something that the country can do without. President Rodrigo Duterte has to make a choice between mining as a revenue generator… Read More
Ledesma: Cleansing Boracay
April 19, 2018, 2:17 pm
WHEN Pres. Rodrigo Duterte ordered the closure of Boracay for a general clean up I am certain he is not only referring to the beach water which he accurately described as a veritable “cesspool” but also cleansing the government functionaries to include the local government units which allowed… Read More
Ledesma: Close ranks
April 16, 2018, 2:38 pm
President Rodrigo Duterte has been shedding off the unwanted barnacles in his flagship. They have added to the heavy burden of the President who has been navigating our country away from the rough seas of corruption, ineptness and crime. We have finally anchored on solid grounds. It has been a… Read More
Ledesma: Duterte must have done something good
April 13, 2018, 3:25 pm
I do not know how the anti-Duterte wrecking crew is going to take these recent developments. The Social Weather Station came out with a 3-month survey indicating Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte has sustained his “very good” satisfaction rating even with a decline of 2 percent. This came on the heels… Read More
Balanza: Duterte and the race to peace in Mindanao
April 4, 2018, 11:42 am
President Rodrigo Duterte is racing against time to meet a deadline for the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). Congress itself is working overtime in putting the finishing touches and the eventual approval of the landmark legislation seen as the final and lasting solution to the Mindanao… Read More
Ledesma: A Lenten season that marred the Philippines
April 4, 2018, 11:31 am
A certain Victoria T. Corpuz, referred to as special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and described as expert on human rights of indigenous peoples, got herself busy denouncing in European forums the Duterte administration for tagging her, so she claimed, a terrorist.… Read More
Ledesma: Sounds, sights and news
March 24, 2018, 1:38 pm
VIENNA, Austria -- We arrived here in the historic city of Vienna. The moment we crossed the border between this country and Hungary, vast expanse of what looks like freshly cultivated fields immediately caught my attention. Winter seemed to have finally come to an end but neither hills nor fields… Read More
Balanza: Women power and the Calvary of men
March 21, 2018, 2:25 pm
We celebrate in the month of March two events: Womens’ Month and Holy Week. Women’s Month is, for the women, about the celebration of women rights, but for men, should be a condemnation of the excesses of women power and how it is being abused. During the Holy Week, we recall the suffering in… Read More
Ledesma: The Bong Go fever
March 20, 2018, 12:57 pm
He was and still is dubbed as the (supreme) photo-bomber. But in the life of President Rodrigo Duterte he is more than what anybody could imagine he is. Heads of states as well as the ordinary hoi polloi who want to to talk to or seek the former mayor of Davao City and now President of the… Read More
Ledesma: What now Sec. Aguirre?
March 17, 2018, 1:33 pm
MUNICH, Germany -- It’s five degrees C in Munich but I still can feel the heat that stemmed from the Department of Justice prosecutors dismissal of charges against detained drug lords. When I left Manila yesterday, the front pages of newspapers and the social media still carry the scandalous and… Read More
