It has been a month since the twin scandals of "Juetengate II" and "Gloriagate" came out against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Several congressional investigations have already been launched to bring out...nothing. Opposition lawmakers have only used the investigations to grandstand and bash the President. Other politicians and wanna-be revolutionaries have called for yet another "People Power" revolt to oust the president and create a "revolutionary government". Mercifully, so far t...
15 June 2005-10:20 PM The past few weeks have not been really kind to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. First came the allegations that her husband and son received kickbacks from Jueting operators. And while our honorable senators were getting warmed up investigating these charges, an even bigger issue came out. Audio recordings of conversations supposedly between President Arroyo and a COMELEC (Commission on Elections) commissioner came out. In it, President Arroryo, or...
Every Filipino likes to blame the government for the country's numerous problems. But I wonder, how many people is part of the government bureaucracy? Let's say, for the sake of argument, out of a population of close to 80 million, there are 10 million government workers, including elected leaders like senators and the president. So What happened to the 70 million other Filipinos? Most likely, a lot of them have gone, or have been dreaming of going, to the proverbial "greener pastures" l...
4 April 2005 I believe the government is justified in asking for an increase in existing tax rates, as in Value Added Tax (VAT), as well as the imposition of new ones. The government should not resort to cheap propaganda tricks (obviously faked "Pro-VAT" rallies, advertisements, etc.) to convince the people of the need for additional taxes. These things only make the people more apprehensive and pissed at the government. the reason for the current dept and bu...
Valentine's Day is very special for a lot of people. It is a time for taking your significant other to some special place. It is a time for making relationships even stronger. And quite simply, it is a time for love. Unfortunaly for Filipinos, it also turned out to be a time to kill. Last Monday, while most lovers were on their way to their romantic getaways, terrorists made their presence felt once again. Between six and seven in the evening, several explosions rocked the cities o...
Last Monday, 7 February, some fifteen soldiers were killed in Sulu Province after being ambushed by renegade Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members loyal to Nur Misuari. By the end of the week, the body count from both sides had risen to a total of almost a hundred, and included an army batallion commander. Thousands of civilians were also forced to evacuate to avoid the crossfire. The MNLF, who had signed a peace agreement with the government & whose members had been integrated int...
This week had been sorrowful for a lot ofFilipinos, especially those from the movie industry and the masa crowd. On Monday, December 13, news spread that Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ),the King of Philippine cinema, died after suffering from a stroke. And asexpected in this telenovela 1 (or chinovela 2 )-crazed republic, thewhole affair had its share of action (fans destroying the flowers sent by thePresident) 3 , and drama (a news anchor weeping and apologizing on-airafter FPJ's...
Last week felt like the day after tomorrow for most parts of the Philippines. Not just one, but two typhoons gatecrashed into the country, one after the other. The result? Weeklong rains and stronger-than-average winds, along with the usual flooding in several parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The worst thing about it, however, is the landslide in several towns in Quezon province, which killed about a thousand people. Now that the storm’s over and with search and rescue ope...
During my younger years, I easily believed what my parents said about God. This was the case up to a year or so ago, when something just snapped in my head. I cannot pinpoint when exactly it happened or what caused it, but from then on, I questioned the concept of God, specifically the traditional Christian concept of God. But I would like to emphasize that I have not become an atheist and stopped believing in the existence of a supreme being, it’s just that I’m no longer inclined to belie...
September 11, 2001. A day that will be remembered for a long time. It has been three years since the worst terrorist attacks in the U.S and perhaps the world took place. Around 3,000 people lost their lives when terrorists hijacked four planes, slamming the three of them into the Pentagon and the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, and owing to the heroism of the passengers, missed its intended target, which could have been either th...
(NOTE: This was first written last July 15, 2004) Today I have lost a lot of my pride in being a Filipino. Nope, it's not because of the corruption in our government, nor is it due to our being a poor nation. There are other countries that are worse off than us in terms of these problems. I lost my pride because of our government's surrender to terrorists. When I first heard the news, I thought it was like the earlier announcement of the release of the Filipino hostage, just a...
(NOTE: This was first written last July 9, 2004) Napanood ko sa balita kagabi ang tungkol sa pagdukot ng mga teroristang Iraqi sa isang Pilipinong truck driver. Ayon sa mga terorista, pupugutan nila ng ulo ang bihag kung hindi iuurong ng Pilipinas ang mga sundalo nito sa loob ng 72 oras. Ayon sa ibang mga grupo, lalo na ang mga makakaliwa, ito na raw ang panahon para iuwi ang mga sundalo. Sabi pa nila, nung simula pa'y di na dapat sumuporta ang gobyerno ng Pilipina...