by Perry Diaz

“The President will support those who will continue her vision and those who have a proven track record in being the leader regardless of who he or she maybe as this point in time,” announced Press Secretary Cerge Remonde. He also said that “Malacañang may look at the possibility of adopting Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio as its standard bearer in the 2010 presidential elections.” The question that comes to mind is: If “vision” and “leadership” is what President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were looking for in a presidential candidate, …

by Ben Serrano
     
BUTUAN CITY (March 30, 2009) – Here are some reactions in connection with the New People’s Army celebration yesterday March 29.
 
I will share it for you to judge and in toto I copy it and I will try to make some comments in My Take portion. The New People’s Army in their earlier statement e-mailed to me through Ka Cesar Renerio claimed they are open to any contrasting opinions that comes their way and will respect it since it is part of free speech and free expressions.
Here’s the …

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
by William M. Esposo
from Philstar
An event of the past week demonstrated anew the pathetic state of the national mind and how it fails to see the big picture. Unable to see the big picture, the nation finds itself grasping at straws and clinging to false Messiahs and palliative solutions that do not address our real core problems.
Such is the case of Peace Process Presidential Adviser Avelino Razon’s proposal to engage former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as an adviser for the Mindanao Peace Process. Whether Razon …

by Antonio C. Abaya
from Standard Today
  
The framers of our 1987 Constitution were not thinking when they prescribed a multi-party political system but failed to provide the mechanism for making that system function more democratically.
 
I am referring to the absence of a run-off or second round ballot. We have been so used to the American-style two-party system, in which one party usually gets 50 percent plus-1, or the numerical majority of votes cast, that when we switched to the more democratic multi-party system, our constitutionalists failed to make provisions to make sure …

by Atty. Ernesto B. Francisco, Jr.
This latest move of the Office of the Ombudsman (“Ombudsman”) to spare First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo and other individuals prominently mentioned in the World Bank reports from preliminary investigation and from the risk – no matter how remote – of being charged before the Sandiganbayan, coupled with the ploy of passing on its job of investigating them to the National Bureau of Investigation (“NBI”), is totally disgusting and sickening. This is too much. This also proves that the Ombudsman really takes 80 million …

Read the comments from readers at the end of the article.  Interesting comments. — Perry Diaz
 
Source: http://hk-magazine.com/feature/war-home
by Chip Tsao
The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty …

by Ellen Tordesillas

Mikey Arroyo, son of Gloria and Mike Arroyo, who represents the second district of Pampanga in the House of Representatives, must really take all Filipinos to be stupid.
He thinks we could not see through the deception in the still- to- be filed resolution of Camarines Sur Representative Luis Villafuerte “calling upon all members of Congress to convene for the purpose of considering proposals to amend or revise the Constitution, upon a vote of three-fourths of all the members of Congress.”
In all his interviews about his having approached former …

by Herman Tiu Laurel
from The Daily Tribune 
 
“It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.”—Aristotle
 
If we are a topsy-turvy society today, it is because justice has been overtaken by power politics and the use of force and deception.  This is what can be observed in many of our most celebrated crime mysteries, from the Ninoy Aquino, Lean Alejandro, and Popoy Lagman assassinations to the present and highly charged Dacer-Corbito case.  Even though all have been marred by still many unanswered questions, accusers in the present instance do not have …

by Reginald Tamayo
Looking for new breed of leaders is one of the most widely talked about topic nowadays. This is understandable considering that 2010 election is fast approaching. It is our wish as Filipinos to have leaders that can inspire and enrich our lives, leaders who can serve our best interests and liberate us from poverty. We don’t need leaders who manipulate us, peddle lies and leaders who are greedy, and immoral.
Do we have these new breed of leaders today who have a sense of mission and direction to …

by Bert M. Drona
A few decades ago, our great nationalist Prof. Renato Constantino (1919-1999) wrote: “The true Filipino is a decolonized Filipino.” 
During the late 1960s, Filipino nationalism was approaching its zenith when President Marcos, constrained by the Constitution with its presidential term limits but wanting to stay in power, declared Martial Law. Marcos glibly equated Filipino nationalism with communism to rekindle the “fear of communism” and thus gain support from the middle class, the Catholic Church and most of the elite. With his US-supported dictatorship, Marcos issued proclamations that allowed …