Why am I not surprised that despite having just three members in the House of Representatives, the PDP-Laban is almost certain to have control of the chamber? With the election of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the official candidate of the PDP-Laban, to the presidency, the small party headed by Sen. Koko Pimentel has suddenly become… Read More »
It is almost certain President-elect Rodrigo Duterte will push hard to amend the Constitution to replace the country’s current unitary form of government to one that is federal. After all, he launched his drive to the presidency on the pretext of an information drive on the federal system of government in nationwide sorties long before the presidential… Read More »
CHICAGO (JGL) – Nobody, not even among his supporters, saw it coming. Everybody was caught by surprise when Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte steamrolled his opponents, who promptly threw in the towel after the votes for Duterte from the quick count of the PPCRV (Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting) started barreling in like the second coming of… Read More »
MANILA Once again we have a minority president here, meaning presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte didn’t get at least 50 percent plus one votes (as of presstime, his vote total was in the 40 percent range). It’s not Duterte’s fault to be a minority president, the fault is in the system. All our presidents since Ferdinand Marcos won… Read More »
The people have spoken. Based on initial results from the Commission on Elections, the tough-talking Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is on his way to landslide victory in the May 9 presidential elections and will thus become the country’s president starting noon of June 30. As of this writing, Duterte was leading administration candidate Mar… Read More »
What we’ve learned from the just concluded elections here is that we are still a politically immature people. Over the past couple of decades many observers here have been saying that we Filipinos have matured enough to be able to discern what’s good for the country as far as electing the right people is concerned. Commentators, publications,… Read More »
NARITA, Japan (JGL) – I was on my way to Chicago, Illinois when I got a PM (private message) on my Facebook account that my cousin’s husband was gunned down because he refused to give up his dream to become a councilor in the municipality of Matnog, Sorsogon. Seven bullets from a .45 pistol were pumped in… Read More »
The rise in the presidential surveys of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is short of phenomenal and comes just two weeks before the May 9 elections. While the ratings of all his rivals are either sliding down or unmoving, the Davao demagogue has continued to surge and leave his rivals eating dust. In the Pulse Asia survey,… Read More »
MANILA The May 9 general elections here in the Philippines have far-reaching implications to where the country will be going in the next decade, not only during the six-year term of the incoming President. So many key concerns will fall in the lap of the next President. Will the economy continue to grow? Will the growth seep into… Read More »
SORSOGON CITY (JGL) – When I was young primary school boy growing up in Piot, a near west barangay of Sorsogon City, I often heard my adult males praising boys my age to be “oragon” when we do a good turn. I now realize that oragon comes from the word “orag” (the ability to make love), which… Read More »