by Elen Francisco
from Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20100313-258329/Villar-was-never-a-Tondo-poor-boy
THE MARCH 7 ARTICLE ON Manny Villar’s house along Moriones Street in Tondo confirmed the belief that he was never poor, never spent his Christmas on the street and never swam in a pool of garbage. In the early 1960s, if you had a three-story house in a 60-square-meter lot in the business district of Tondo, you were considered an aristocrat.

Not too far from that Moriones house were shanties leading to the pier where children went to the nearby public schools for education. Such was …

March 12, 2010
Makati City, Philippines
Prof. Alfredo Sureta, executive director of StratPOLLS today took to task the campaign staff of Lakas-Kampi presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro for causing the publication of a story that made it appear that the polling firm is leaning in favor of a candidate.
“The representative sent to my Makati office by Mike Toledo, chief of staff of candidate Teodoro, quoted my humble self largely out of context,” Sureta said.
“I deny having noted Tedoro’s growing conversion across all sectors when the truth is that he remains almost stationary and …

by Alex P. Vidal
 
DALLAS, Texas – With all odds stacked against Joshua Clottey, the Ghanaian welterweight contender must work hard to claim the WBO welterweight championship against the heavily favored Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao when they clash February 13 in a 12-round title fight at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
But what each protagonist must do to win in the first ever boxing championship card assembled by Top Rank in the cavernous $1.3 billion stadium?
Bert Randolf Sugar, boxing’s acknowledged dean of commentators, advised that Clottey (35-3, 21 KOs) “must use his …

Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord
by Norimitsu Onishi
from the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/asia/07karaoke.html?em
GENERAL SANTOS, the Philippines — After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder. Putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitué’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.”
Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck. But Mr. Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fistfights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke …

by Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J. 
http://fatherbernas.blogspot.com/2010/03/pakisama-as-lawmans-enemy.html

Because I have taken the position that the President has no power to appoint a Chief Justice after Chief Justice Puno retires next May 17, some have taken this to mean that I am campaigning for the appointment of Justice Antonio Carpio and against the appointment of Justice Renato Corona. As if we were as sure that the next President will appoint Carpio as that Arroyo will choose Corona!
Sometime ago on my way to dinner at the Power Plant Mall, someone approached me to ask, “Are …

PerryScope
by Perry Diaz
Last February 24, 2010, on the 24th anniversary of the People Power Revolution of 1986, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivered her final message to commemorate EDSA 1. She repeated the same cliché that she had been telling the people in the past several years: “The world embraced EDSA 1 in 1986. The world tolerated EDSA 2 in 2001. The world will not forgive an EDSA 3 but would instead condemn the Philippines as a country whose political system is hopelessly unstable.”
She said that the “glorious revolution” of EDSA …

by Artemio A. Dumlao
Fort Del Pilar, Baguio City (February 20, 2010) — Admit it…. no politics at the Philippine Military Academy alumni homecoming looked awry and dry.
Saturday’s homecoming of 1,764 Cavaliers (PMA graduates) at the premier military officers training institution in the country was freed of politics.
“(Perhaps) we were victorious in the campaign against politics at the PMA,” PMA spokesman Captain Agnes Lynnette Flores quipped as the Academy urged Cavaliers and their adopted members before today’s alumni homecoming ‘to shun away from politics for the meantime’.
Although PMA class 76 adopted …

Balitang Kutsero
by Perry Diaz
In a recent interview with the media, presidential wannabe Manny Villar said that “it’s about time the Philippines has its first business-titan president.” And then he went on to portray frontrunner Noynoy Aquino as “a ‘babe in the woods’ who knew nothing about running a company or a bureaucracy, or even a family.” Whoa! That’s below the belt, Manny! It looks like this is going to be like the biblical battle between David and Goliath. Yup, it is going to be “Babe in the Woods” vs. “Titanic …

Watch Charice Pempengco  at the Grand Finale of Singapore Idol Live last December 2009.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW >> Charice at Singapore Idol Live (Video)

Watch Manny Pacquiao at the press conference VS Clottey!
When the intro song in the video was played, Manny said he felt like “putbol” player!  Go Manny!  You’re our MAN!!!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW >> Pacquiao at press con vs Clottey