Perryscope
By Perry Diaz
After surviving the biggest threat — the Angelo de la Cruz kidnapping — to the stability of her presidency, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) made a bold move by visiting China. Chinese President Hu Jintao rolled out the red carpet for GMA’s state visit.
A total of five bilateral “agreements of cooperation” were signed covering tourism, energy, fisheries, trade and investments. China and the Philippines agreed to conduct a “seismic study” of potential petroleum reserves in the South China Sea which included the Spratly Islands, a small group of …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
When I was a young boy, most boys wanted to be doctors and lawyers and most girls wanted to be  nurses and teachers.  It is no wonder that, today, the Philippines has an abundance of doctors, lawyers, nurses and teachers.  When the “Brain Drain” — the Filipino Diaspora — started in the 1960’s, thousands of doctors, nurses and teachers left the Philippines for greener pastures in the United States and other countries.  Left behind were the lawyers to govern, or misgovern, the country.
In the past 30 years, the …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
“Hope is on the way,” was the oft-repeated slogan during the Democratic National Convention which formalized the candidacies of John F. Kerry and John Edwards as the Democrats’ presidential and vice presidential nominees, respectively. “Hope is on the way,” the two Johns led their delegates in chanting “Hope…”
Four years earlier, Republican candidates George W. Bush and Dick Cheney promised the Republican delegates that “Help is on the way.” Eight years earlier, in 1992, Bill Clinton — the man from Hope, Arkansas — emerged as the Democratic candidate against …

Balitang Kutsero is my monthly column in the Philippine Fiesta, a bi-monthly newspaper in Sacramento, California.—Perry Diaz

Yo!  Finally, Max’s Restaurant has arrived in Sacramento, next to Seafood City.  With Manila Restaurant, Chow King and Red Robin, the South Pointe Shopping Center is turning out to be a Little Manila Town.  My sidekick-cum-journalist, James Macaquecquec, has observed that about a third of the Pinoys he saw at the new Little Manila Town were real estate agents and mortgage brokers!  Makes me wonder if Amway has finally gone into the real estate …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
Like clockwork, Berting gets up at 7:00 every morning, Monday through Friday, have his usual breakfast of tapsilog and a cup of coffee.  While eating, he reads all the major newspapers (about seven) in Manila. This morning, one newspaper headline said, “GMA says RP has Fiscal Crisis.”  “This is going to be bad for my business,” he told himself.
He dressed up and looked at himself at the oversized gilded mirror in his bedroom.  “Not bad,” he told  himself, smiling, “Not bad at all for poor boy who made …