MANILA Is the law catching up with the legislators who had allegedly skimmed off their PDAF allocations? Are these legislators quaking in their boots now? The so-called pork barrel scam here is the most scandalous case of theft of the people’s money in recent times. Supposedly a brainchild of “pork queen” Janet Lim Napoles, the scheme… Read More »
Imelda Marcos calls Gloria Arroyo’s continued hospital arrest “cruel, unjust and inhuman.” Look who’s talking. Mrs. Marcos adds that when President Aquino’s father, Ninoy, was the one incarcerated during martial law, her husband Ferdinand approved a trip to the United States so Ninoy could seek medical attention for his ailing heart. So why doesn’t the current president allow… Read More »
MANILA What’s frustrating to the average Filipino citizen like me is the unreliability of the meting of justice in our country. Cases take forever to resolve. And when they are resolved, they’re often dismissed in favor of the sued culprit. Prosecutors and the police make a big hoohah about apprehending suspects and throwing the book at them. The… Read More »
In a brazen show of muscle, the Binays of Makati recently forced themselves upon the helpless security guards of posh residential subdivision Dasmarinas Village. They wanted to use a particular gate, and no lowly guards could stop them. The kingdom, er, city of Makati, is part of metropolitan Manila. It’s one of the richest cities, if not the… Read More »
The world-famous Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao pitched a shutout in his last fight Nov. 24 (evening of Nov. 23 in the US). Under the circumstances, he had to. Many fans for sure wished the Philippines’ greatest boxer had knocked out his foe, the American Brandon Rios, but the unanimous decision will do. The Filipinos will be more than… Read More »
MANILA American media’s recent commentary about what they thought was the Philippine government’s inadequate response to the supertyphoon devastation in central Visayas was uncalled for, insensitive and disrespectful. What right have these outsiders to interrogate and harass the president of the Philippines about his alleged slow response to the crisis? Who are these know-it-alls to impose their own… Read More »
MANILA The real highlight of the Senate hearing on the pork barrel scam last Nov. 7 was not the appearance of alleged pork queen Janet Lim Napoles. That much-touted Senate debut was a non-event. As the Brits like to say, it was a damp squib, a dud of a firecracker. The real substance came when whistleblower Benhur Luy… Read More »
MANILA The first point to make is: don’t call them “Million People” marches against the sensational pork barrel scam here because the turnouts so far have been nowhere close to that number. Nobody is complaining about this discrepancy between the advertised turnout and the actual numbers because people are loath to be called spoilsports or killjoys and attract… Read More »
MANILA The mind-boggling revelations about wholesale theft of the Filipino people’s money through scams have given us all a clearer picture of how extensive the plunder has been. And the thought that the alleged Napoles scams are just the tip of the iceberg, that there are still other operations at work in stealing public money, makes it simply… Read More »
MANILA The first point to make is: don’t call them “Million People” marches against the sensational pork barrel scam here because the turnouts so far have been nowhere close to that number. Nobody is complaining about this discrepancy between the advertised turnout and the actual numbers because people are loath to be called spoilsports or killjoys and attract… Read More »