Vision And Leadership
GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano
It has been said time and again that Philippine politics have been largely devoid of vision and leadership. Because of these shortcomings, poverty and corruption are claimed to be the natural consequences.
What could possibly be the missing vision, the desired leadership? What is it that Filipinos long for, the state of affairs approximating their ideal, the virtues comprising inspiring leadership?
I am sure that there will be many descriptions of both vision and leadership, but I am just as sure that most of them will carry the …

Polarization vs. critical collaboration.
(Herman Tiu Laurel/ Infowars/ Tribune column for 1-31-2008 FRI.)
Last January 27 the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines met and issued a statement, lashing out at corruption in Philippine society but blaming the people for it. The bishops also declared that it would not work for the early removal of the corrupt regime, opting to engage it in “critical collaboration”. Does that mean the CBCP accepts the rampant corruption prevailing and …

More Contrarian Voices
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written Jan. 28, 2008
For the Standard Today,
January 28 issue
The wonders of the Internet. My article of Jan. 25, Contrarian Voices, was sent by email to my e-distribution list on the evening of Jan. 25. Within hours, I received from Marc Morano of the US Senate (marc_morano@epw.senate.gov) an electronic copy of the US Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007, which had been originally released on Dec. 20, 2007.
Says the Report in its Introduction: “Over 400 prominent scientists from …

How to legally kill Filipinos and profit from it
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The schemers in the House forced a midnight provision in their Cheaper Medicines Bill which sought to compel physicians to prescribe only generics. If passed, this ‘GENERICS ONLY’ provision of the House Cheaper Medicines Bill will kill more Filipinos than dangerous drugs.
The House’s ‘GENERICS ONLY’ provision empowers pharmacists and even the drugstore clerk to select our medications, rendering our physicians inutile in extending their expertise and knowledge to critical …

The book of slaughter–and forgetting
APATHY, HYPOCRISY, GREED ABETTED SUHARTO’S CRIMES AS DICTATOR
By Renato Redentor Constantino
Special to BusinessMirror, January 29, 2008
CERTAINLY, there will be a reckoning. But it will not be soon, no thanks to intrepid members of so-called Western journalism who, in the days his life hung in the balance, bravely sifted through the minutiae of the despot Suharto’s medical condition even as they avoided the anatomy of how and why he remained in power for so long.
Since the Indonesian tyrant was rushed to a hospital in …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
The Art of Crying
After her loss to Barack Obama in Iowa, Hillary Clinton, who was stumping in New Hampshire for the first-in-the nation primary, was in a coffee shop taking questions from a group of women when someone asked her, “My question is very personal, how do you do it? How do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?”
Surprised at the nature of the question, Clinton was taken aback but she regained her poise and responded, jokingly, “You know, I think, well luckily, on special days I …

Contrarian Voices
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written on Jan. 23, 2008
For the Standard Today,
January 24 issue
This column is called ‘On the Other Hand’ because it is hospitable to serious opinions, aside from my own, that question or deviate from the conventional wisdom. And that includes opinions on current environmental issues.
Global warming and climate change have acquired such an infallible cachet of a Revealed Truth that we may have forgotten that there are serious reservations from serious thinkers who have contrarian views about the matter.
Reader Jun Valenzuela of Naga City referred me to …

by Jose Ma. Montelibano
Like most Filipinos, I had first heard of Fr. Ed Panlilio when his candidacy for governor of Pampanga was announced. From then on, it was hard to avoid noticing him, his campaign, and his almost miraculous victory over rival candidates who were fully loaded with the necessary ingredients to win over a traditional campaign and electoral exercise. But early on, Fr. Ed’s candidacy showed the classical look of a populist movement as he seemed to excite all sectors of Pampanga society.
Mutual friends connected with the Ateneo School …

by Herman Tiu Laurel/ Infowars/ Tribune column 1-24-2008

FVR Neda chief Cielito Habito in a recent column entitled “Suppressing the peso surge” said of countries that fixed their currencies “The very few countries who have pegged their exchange rate (China and Hong Kong, or Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis years, for example) got away with it because they have strong governments who can enforce the law even against the pressure of strong market forces.”; but the point is their fixed exchange policy worked! It saved Malaysia and Hong Kong from …

by William M. Esposo / Thursday, January 24, 2008
I cannot understand why this government does not seem to trust doctors. They shut doctors out from being part of the process in drawing up revised rules on the Milk Code. They have also shut doctors out from rendering their views and insights in formulating the provisions for the cheap medicines bill.
Yesterday, I heard Congressman Teddy Boy Locsin on Radio telling an official of the Philippine Medical Association that he will hold the organization responsible for the consequences if they …