Something’s sneaky about recent developments in the Philippines – the visits of two senior US officials, the radical proposal of Malacanang’s top security adviser for a revolutionary government, the sudden departure to the US of Interior Secretary Ronnie Puno and the subsequent naming of retired PNP chief Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. as OIC of Puno’s department, the bomb… Read More »
The eerie similarity between the events that led to the ouster of Honduras President Manuel Zelaya and the events leading to the May 2010 elections in the Philippines should serve as a warning to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to back off from any plan to remain in power beyond her constitutionally mandated term. Zelaya was seized by soldiers and… Read More »
The plot is beginning to unravel. After all the denials that the moves to amend the 1987 Philippine Constitution is being done to suit the hidden agenda of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, it is now becoming clear that the charter change (cha-cha) initiatives, begun as early as 2006, had just one goal in mind — to keep Arroyo in… Read More »
On January 31, 1987, I put to bed the last issue of the Philippines Daily Express as its last managing editor. Almost a year earlier, the revolutionary government of President Corazon Aquino had sequestered the daily newspaper, which was owned by Marcos crony Roberto S. Benedicto and widely perceived as the mouthpiece of the Marcos regime. Immediately upon… Read More »
Can he? Will he? Should he? The Philippine Daily Inquirer asked this question last week in a news story that said legal experts are split on whether former President Joseph Estrada can still run for president in 2010 or not. My answer to these questions are: Yes. Yes. Let the people decide. Estrada first stated on Dec. 31,… Read More »
A few weeks after calling a joint press conference to announce that they were resigning as heads of Lakas and Kampi to hasten the merger of the two pro-Arroyo parties, Lakas president Speaker Prospero Nogales Jr. and Kampi president Rep. Luis Villafuerte Jr. are at it again. After making it appear that they stand as one in both… Read More »
He was in tears when he first surfaced in the Philippines’ national consciousness. It was 2 a.m. of Feb. 7, 2008 when Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. appeared in a hastily called press conference at the De La Salle Greenhills to reveal that he had been kidnapped at the airport upon his arrival from Hongkong by police officials, and… Read More »
I am an avid viewer of NCIS, the popular series on CBS about naval crime investigators. Although Gibbs and company are sticklers for the integrity of crime scenes, I have yet to see them haul away husbands or relatives from dying victims’ deathbed for jeopardizing or contaminating the crime scene. They do suspect ill motive for wiping bloods… Read More »
Despite denials by officials and allies of the Arroyo administration, it is becoming obvious that they will move heaven and earth to push through with amending the 1987 Philippine Constitution. It is no secret in the House of Representatives that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s son, Rep. Mikey Arroyo, has been making the rounds of congressmen’s offices or meeting with… Read More »
Either way you look at the announcements of Philippine House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Rep. Luis Villafuerte that they are resigning their leadership of Lakas and Kampi, respectively, to hasten the merger of the two administration parties, it definitely does not bode well for the opposition in the 2010 presidential elections and in the battle for charter change… Read More »