Opinion and Commentary
Balanza: The shining light in Mindanao’s dark tunnel
March 15, 2018, 4:52 pm
Of late, our lawmakers have given assurance that the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) may be approved by Congress by the end of May. This assurance made during a recent meeting between President Rodrigo Duterte and key leaders of the Senate and Lower House of Representatives is the biggest news to come… Read More
Ledesma: Spare the banana industry
March 10, 2018, 1:43 pm
The personal feud between erstwhile confreres Bebot Alvarez and Tonyboy Floirendo has reached an ultimate point of irreconcilability. Both are incumbent congressman representing the two districts of Davao del Norte. Either of the two maybe would deny it, but I consider them my friends before and… Read More
Ledesma: Much ado about Rappler
March 5, 2018, 11:05 am
Don’t f--k with facts. Pardon me for using this gutter lingo but it is the only language that seemed familiar to Rappler and its patrons. Coming this late with a statement from Omidyar Network (ON) that the huge sum of $1.5-million dollars was a donation to 14 Rappler beneficiaries is nothing… Read More
Balanza: Fear Factor, Martial Law, and Dengvaxiaphobia
February 28, 2018, 11:19 am
There are two sides that are anchored on fear factor in the extension of martial law in Mindanao. The first is the fear that Mindanao would be engulfed by continuing violence by terrorist groups if martial law is not extended. The second is the fear by critics of the current dispensation that… Read More
Ledesma: EDSA fizzles, snuffed by the gale from the South
February 26, 2018, 12:23 pm
What happened? I have not seen the faces of the garrulous characters who just last week were so sure they will yank Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte out of Malacanang. Cardinal Antonio Tagle and a University of the Philippines Chancellor even joined the fray. Tagle had wanted to do a Cardinal Sin… Read More
Balanza: Trillanes as ‘persona etchapwera’
February 23, 2018, 4:20 pm
Senator Antonio Trillanes could be the happiest guy these days. He is back to grabbing headlines after about two months out of the limelight. Trillanes was again in the news this week after a speech before Pinoys in the US, where the opposition senator, an arch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte,… Read More
Ledesma: Don’t cajole Duterte
February 23, 2018, 3:15 pm
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines has recently come out with a series of eye-catching advertisement and press releases that portend to impress it is helping the government of Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte program improve the telecom industry. Nice. The other day, it again came out with… Read More
Ledesma: Fake, Fact and Hypocrisy
February 20, 2018, 3:05 pm
I find it imperative to come up with another piece as sequel to my recent column “Beware of the dark forces”. I had pointed out that the impending Senate investigation dragged Special Assistant to the President Bong Go to further tarnish the image of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte since he is the most… Read More
Ledesma: Beware of the dark forces
February 17, 2018, 1:41 pm
The Duterte government must keep watch over the sudden emergence of the dark side of the Force, so to speak. This in addition to the renewed concerted attack and destabilization moves that the opposition and human rights enterprises are waging with impunity. These forces along with media networks… Read More
Ledesma: Never make a fool of Duterte
February 10, 2018, 2:18 pm
Last Monday’s Cabinet meeting saw Pres. Rodrigo Duterte blew his top when he was appraised by DICT Sec. Eliseo Rio that some telecom firms aspiring to be the 3rd Telecom Player in the country requested to extend the March 15 deadline to May, for them to submit their documents to show proof they… Read More
Ledesma: Symptoms of hopelessness
February 8, 2018, 4:44 pm
I am intrigued by the recent turn of events. Why is there so much brouhaha over press freedom following the ordered closure of the operations of Rappler, a media outfit which was discovered to be generously funded by a foreign outfit known for its covert destabilization activities in foreign… Read More
Balanza: Black as tar
February 7, 2018, 1:55 pm
The opposition Liberal Party (LP) is spicing up its propaganda campaign against President Rodrigo Duterte with a new bent, hurling its criticisms against the administration with a poetic twist. Although Pinoys expect more than poetry from the opposition acting as a critical, balancing political… Read More
Ledesma: Who is Rio of DICT?
February 2, 2018, 1:42 pm
Let us leave the controversial Rappler’s case for now. It is already with the Courts of Appeal. The last time we heard from Rappler is their manifestation in the CA that it is not a mass media outfit but a news site. The Senate spent precious time distinguishing between Fake and Fact news and… Read More
Ledesma: Grand deception
January 30, 2018, 8:48 am
When Rappler, through its president, Maria Ressa, was caught trifling with an important tenet in the Philippine Constitution that mandates that Philippine media should be 100% owned by Filipinos, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered it closed. Rappler was parading like it is wholly owned… Read More
Ledesma: Much ado about a done deal
January 23, 2018, 6:58 am
I have covered the political career of Pres. Rodrigo R, Duterte since the first day he stepped into the political arena as an appointed Vice Mayor of Davao City. For us community journalists whose beat is City Hall, we get real close to whoever sits as Mayor, his department heads and personal… Read More
Valera: Press freedom entails responsibilities
January 22, 2018, 12:54 pm
The more I listen to Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa on the news involving her and her major foreign funder Omidya Network, the more I am convinced without any iota of doubt that they have violated in a conspiratorial way Article XVI Section 11(1) of the Philippine Constitution, which mandates that… Read More
Ledesma: Freedom and crime
January 18, 2018, 7:19 pm
I’m not surprised when some quarters are exploiting to the hilt the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission to shut down the operations of Rappler. The bannered story warns of the muzzling of the press. Rappler itself, quoting Spokesman Harry Roque, wrote that if Duterte wants to close… Read More
Ledesma: Duterte and the demise of Aquino myth
January 16, 2018, 12:55 pm
The trust rating of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is at record high in the level of excellence. This despite the efforts of the opposition and the leftist organizations to discredit and demonize him with issues that range from the banal extra-judicial killings to threats of martial law just to name a few.… Read More
Ledesma: Callamard
January 5, 2018, 11:51 am
It’s 2018 but UN Rapporteur Agnes Callamard has not gotten over her cantankerous attitude against Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and her notion that drugs, crime and terrorism are not that bad in the Philippines and therefore an all-out war against these evils is unnecessary and, in her judgment, a… Read More
Ledesma: It was a good year
December 31, 2017, 10:54 pm
We have seen the litany of achievements of Duterte administration. It dwarfed the entire six years of the Aquino regime. It could have done better except that it has to first fix a lot of damages wrought by an inept regime that has likewise institutionalized corruption and abetted crime the most… Read More
