PerryScope
by Perry Diaz

A few weeks ago, a group of mostly Dumagat farmers made allegations that presidential candidate Manny Villar and his wife Cynthia grabbed 480 hectares of their land in Norzagaray, Bulacan. According to the farmers, Villar and his wife Cynthia — through their companies, Capitol Development Bank and Manila Brickworks, Inc. — obtained a loan from the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) and secured it with the farmers’ land. When the Villars failed to repay the loan, BSP foreclosed the property. In September 2008, the …

ON DISTANT SHORE
by Val G. Abelgas

The decades-long debate on assisted suicide was revived last week with the admission on television by a 70-year-old British reporter that he had helped an ailing lover die years ago in fulfillment of a pact that he would help end his lover’s life if the pain from AIDS became unbearable.
“I killed someone once. … He was a young chap. He’d been my lover and he got AIDS,” Ray Gosling said in a BBC documentary on death and dying. ”Maybe this is the time to share …

With Due Respect
by Artemio V. Panganiban
from Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100220-254419/Divorce-Pinoy-style

MANILA, Philippines—A Western-style absolute divorce between spouses who are both Filipinos—even if obtained abroad—is not valid here. Although divorce is taboo, our courts can nonetheless void a marriage due to a fatal defect at its inception. The most common defect used to void a marriage is “psychological incapacity” under Article 36 of the Family Code. This law took effect on Aug. 3, 1988, but its interpretation and application are still evolving.
First decision. Let me quote the law: “A marriage contracted by any …

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

For a Baby Boomer like yours truly, listening to the music of our era and reliving what is considered our life’s Golden Moments easily develop into a habit. A trip down memory lane becomes integral to our survival kit as we start developing a growing uneasiness over the new world that is evolving.
Sci-fi movies that are only screened now on the Turner Classics Cable Channel show that what were fantasies during our youth are now everyday items that every 21st …

Young Star 

iTEACH
by Jose Claro
from The Philippine Star
Famous personalities frequent school campuses lots of times. Students get a chance to encounter these people for who they really are through inspirational talks and graduation speeches. And it is here that students discover the diversity of talents, attitudes and skills that is utilized before one deserves to be called a “special guest.” Famous actors and actresses charm their audiences and excite with current updates about their love life or careers. Politicians attempt to inspire by using motherhood statements about serving the country and …

by Erick San Juan   
 
“I fought this campaign vowing to resist the base, I intend to keep that promise as we move forward.”  A strong statement made by newly elected Mayor of the Okinawan city of Nago in Japan – Mayor Susumu Inamine. He ran as an independent (and won) backed by the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s current Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
 
The issue at hand is the relocation of the US Marine air field station from Futenma to the coastal city of Nago by 2014.  The said relocation was agreed …

by Erick San Juan
I would like to share the outcome of my recent trip to Indonesia which is quite fruitful. Every time I go out of the country, I enjoy every minute of it because I learn a lot from the culture of each country I visit. Indonesians are like Filipinos in so many ways. They also treat their guests with warmth and hospitality. It is an archipelago with lots of nice tourist spots.
I met and had a short conversation with His Excellency, the President of Indonesia – Hon. Susilo …

Hi all. It’s been years since I wrote a letter like this to the girl I married. Plenty of catch up to do. Here’s a nice start. I hope it’s interesting enough to pass on. If it’s not, just hit delete and be done with it. Comments welcome as usual at the blog – http://redconstantino.blogspot.com 
– Red 

ONCE UPON A TIME
by Renato Redentor Constantino 
For Kalayaan Pulido Constantino, who I married 
There are places where our stories begin. 
A night on a quiet coast south of Manila. Overcast sky, windy and cold enough for a …

Young Star  
iTEACH
by Jose Claro
from The Philippine Star
 
 
Everybody waits at the town plaza or at the adjacent streets for the tanod’s go-signal to begin the festivities. The usually busy road is now packed with a menagerie of people who are there to fulfill a religious vow, to venerate a beloved statuette, or simply to await a familiar face who will be dancing for the town’s patron. Dressed in refulgent native costumes, they are anxious to regale the townspeople with dances they have been practicing weeks before. All groups are preceded by …

A Cup O’ Kapeng Barako
by Jesse Jose
In the world of religious wingnuts, fundamentalism trumps compassion.  
As scenes of the horrific destruction and gruesome death in Haiti from that monster earthquake a couple of weeks flashed on our TV screens and spilled into our living rooms, the Reverend Pat Robertson, the televangelist and founder of The 700 Club, came on his televised bully pulpit, and barked: 
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.  They were under the heel of the French.  And they …