WHAT EXPERTS SAY
When a tie is not really a tie 
from Philippine Daily  Inquirer
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100310-257739/When-a-tie-is-not-really-a-tie

MANILA, Philippines—“When our report comes out, you will see that we just say it’s a 2-point lead and we’re not calling it a tie. Now the reason I say that is because if it could be a zero lead, it could also be a 4-point lead. It could really range to as high as four. But we’re not saying that. It seems to me that the neutral thing to do is to call it as two, because that’s …

by Rey O. Arcilla
from MALAYA
‘In the midst of the water and energy crises and the ballooning budget deficit, Ms. Arroyo decides to go circling the globe again.’
WE are facing a water crisis of potentially cataclysmic proportions unless Mother Nature chooses to be kind and decides to give us much needed rain before the onset of the wet season.
Partly as a consequence of the water shortage, we are also facing an energy crisis that has already resulted in blackouts in various regions in the country.
What is worse is that the energy …

A Cup O’ Kapeng Barako
by Jesse Jose
Now and then I’d read an opinion column that would stop me dead in my tracks and say: “Wow!  That was good.  It’s a beaut. I like it.”  And this one has a beautiful ending, too, that jolted me out of my seat.  First with a chuckle, then with a roaring, hearty laughter. 
After my laughter subsided and I became more rational, I thought this story BEGS for a different ending, a much better ending that would give OTHERS a hearty laugh and a good …

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
by William M. Esposo
from The Philippine Star

Capped by last Friday’s release of the February 21-25 Pulse Asia survey that showed him drop by six percentage points (vis-à-vis the January Pulse Asia poll) and now trailing presidential race leader Noynoy Aquino by seven percentage points — last week could well be Nacionalista Party presidential candidate Manny Villar’s worst ever bad hair week.
After the January Pulse Asia poll showed Aquino and Villar with 37% and 35%, respectively, which is considered a statistical tie — the Villar rah rah …

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
by William M. Esposo
from The Philippine Star
Mariano “Mike” Velarde, also known as Bro. Mike, tends to be perceived by your Chair Wrecker as being more of a businessman and a politician — who has in fact mulled running for president — rather than as a religious minister.
For perspective, your Chair Wrecker deeply admires the Christianity of Gawad Kalinga’s Tony Meloto and the late Focolare Movement founder, Chiara Lubich. They both epitomize the great commandment of Jesus Christ that “Whatsoever you do to the least of your …

by Erick San Juan
Before the turn of the last quarter of 2009, a warning from the Department of Energy through Sec. Angelo Reyes was given to the public of a looming power crisis come 2010. The said warning was brought out by the Secretary during the budget hearing at the House of Representatives, but he didn’t mention about the El Niño phenomenon. He just warned about the shortage of power supply from the existing power plants. He even suggested, at that early stage, that the President can be given emergency …

Big Deal
by Dan Mariano
from The Manila Times
Although he now needs a cane to get around, former University of the Philippines (UP) president Francisco Nemenzo Jr. is a tireless campaigner for detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim. That, however, is the least remarkable aspect of this unusual collaboration.
Nemenzo was one of my professors while I was a UP undergraduate in the early 1970s. He was one of the most prominent Marxists on campus although at the time he often found himself the target of brickbats from the more dominant Maoists who took …

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer 
ARROYO IS.
The police would not be assiduous in preventing Danny Lim from being seen and heard without express orders from their generals. Their generals would not be assiduous in ordering them to prevent him from being seen and heard without express orders from their commander in chief. And their commander in chief would not be assiduous in expressly ordering them to not make him be seen or heard if she were not afraid.
That’s what they did to Danny Lim last Thursday. They …

By Francisco Nemenzo 
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines
(Delivered at a symposium sponsored by the Third World Studies Center, 4 March 2010)
In a short essay published by Inquirer the other Sunday, Gen. Danilo Lim traced his “journey” from a West Point educated officer to a rebel soldier and a political prisoner. Today I shall match his story with the story of my own journey from rabid anti-militarism to an avid supporter of Gen. Lim.
My narrative starts from the Manila Hotel where, soon after EDSA 1, the Marcos loyalists gathered to clamor for …

With Due Respect
by Artemio V. Panganiban
from Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—All this time, I have written mostly about unnerving delays in the Comelec timetable and the absolute need for accuracy in the printing and delivery of the automated ballots and in the calibration and delivery of the PCOS machines. So readers asked why I have not taken up possible computer glitches like source code review, transmission failures and hacking of the system.
Overlooked safeguards. I have left these hi-tech issues to others who are more technically qualified than I am (like the …