CHICAGO (JGLi) – If former Senate President and former Speaker of the House Manny Villar is elected president in the Philippines in about two weeks, he will go down in history as the first ever to turn the concept of political party invented in the 14th century on its head. A President Villar will be the first politician… Read More »
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana CHICAGO (JGLi) – The midnight appointments and that of the Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court being contemplated by outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) must surely be causing her father, President Diosdado Macapagal, to… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – In interviews, Manny Pacquiao always tells reporters that all his fights are dedicated to his fans — to make them happy. But in his last fight with Ghanaian Joshua Clottey, it seems that the pound-for-pound world champion has lost his magic. By making short shrift of his opponents in the past, Manny has spoiled… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – Philippine Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s reason for escaping from the claws of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo maybe on target. He does not like to give her “the pleasure of seeing my life miserable and in danger.” That is, if he can outlast her everlasting grip on power even if she is desperately grasping on straws… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – With elections in the Philippines just around the corner, I have a moot question to ask that may not elicit a response: Should Philippine newspaper editorials endorse candidates? Any newspaper, which tries to answer this question, will be damn if it does or damn if it doesn’t. When Spain introduced newspapers in the Philippines,… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – I first run across the name Cerge Remonde when I read his bylines as correspondent of Manila Bulletin in the early eighties. Like, Mr. Remonde, I was also with the Bulletin, then, as a police reporter. I never imagined that I would meet him for the first time in 2005 or about 20 years… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – Perhaps, one of the more visible faces of the Filipino culture at this time of the year that could eclipse Manny Pacquiao, CNN Hero of the Year Efren Penaflorida, the disastrous images of Typhoon Ondoy or the carnage of journalists or the high-level corruptions in the Arroyo government is no other than the Simbang… Read More »
“To those much is given, much is expected.” — Luke 12:48 CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – The last story written by Alejandro “Bong” Reblando published in the Manila Bulletin was over the triumphant homecoming in General Santos of boxing’s living legend Manny Pacquiao. It will not, therefore, be a bad idea, for Mr. Pacquiao to return the… Read More »
JGL Eye By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) –&n=sp; Basketball is a big sport among the vertically challenged Philippine native=. But Manny Pacquiao single-handedly relegated the team sport to the sideline= with his individual sport, using the blinding speed of his hands and his =gile footworks. And Pacquiao, by winning the improbable seventh title=in as many… Read More »
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – Unfortunately, Filipinos look up to politics as their final destination — the Holy Grail – before they ride into the sunset. They don’t realize that the career, where they excelled at, is already their last frontier, the be-all and end-all. I don’t see Michael Jordan, Pele or Muhammad Ali running for office. But Manny… Read More »