ILOILO CITY—Surely there’s more to this city than molo, batchoy, biscocho and tablea tsokolate. The city’s gastronomic haunts are well-known and all over. But in between hopping into these pit stops, you can take leisurely strolls along its esplanade, in the old downtown, in plazas outside churches and, yes, in its museums—the better to get...
Author: TJ Burgonio (TJ Burgonio)
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Jeepney driver says: Let us run our own show
By all means, phase out the traditional jeepneys, but let the operators and drivers modernize on their own—basically, run their own show—without the need of a cooperative that may only serve big business. This, in essence, is jeepney driver Rey Escanilla’s stance on the government’s fresh push to modernize the Philippines’ iconic “king of the...
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‘People power’ in protected lands in Sibuyan and Brooke’s Point
As though enjoying newfound freedom, some mining companies have aggressively expanded operations in the past several months, cutting down trees and carving roads deep into the Philippine forests, sometimes without permits from the authorities. Riled by the reckless disregard of the law, some local folk living in protected lands have resorted to “people power” to...
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Protesters vs Kaliwa Dam disheartened but unbowed
The members of the Dumagat-Remontado tribe protesting the construction of Kaliwa Dam are back home in the provinces of Quezon and Rizal, disheartened that their nine-day, 148-kilometer march to Malacañang ended without a dialogue with President Marcos Jr., but unbowed. “We won’t stop until he (Mr. Marcos) responds to our letter,” tribe leader Conchita Calzado...
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Once more into the breach: Indigenous folk march against Kaliwa Dam
Some 240 tribespeople and advocates are trekking to Malacañang to press President Marcos Jr. to stop the construction of Kaliwa Dam in their ancestral land in the Sierra Madre mountains in Quezon province, and the memory of a similar protest march in 2009 against Laiban Dam upstream in Rizal province is still fresh on their...
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Teachers’ lament: Gov’t’s ‘low appraisal’ is evident in their pay
The purchase by the Department of Education (DepEd) of pricey cameras has triggered a backlash from teachers grown hoarse from demanding a pay upgrade and increase. “If they have a budget for overpriced cameras and laptops, how come they don’t have a budget for our pay increase?” said Erlinda Alfonso, a teacher at the San...
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Overworked and underpaid, nurses are packing up, flying out
The demand for Filipino nurses in Europe is so high that Germany and the United Kingdom are reportedly talking directly with administrators of some nursing schools in the Philippines to recruit their students. But German Ambassador Anke Reiffenstuel recently took to Twitter to deny that Germany was “pirating” Filipino nursing students to fill the shortage...
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Marcos Jr. should learn from history, Biazon says in wake of military brass shakeup
The dictator Ferdinand Marcos kept Gen. Romeo Espino for nine years as chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to enforce martial law, causing deep division and disenchantment among the military officers and men. The rumblings eventually reached tipping point. Then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the AFP vice chief of staff,...
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Nuclear power: Energy agency wants objective study by independent party
(Last of two parts) President Marcos Jr. is all for the idea of reviving the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), but the Department of Energy (DoE) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the safety, if at all possible, of the controversial facility that has been lying dormant for nearly 40 years. Weeks after Mr....
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Nuclear power: Rehab of Bataan plant pushed in big way
(First of two parts) President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appears intent on getting the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) going before he steps down in June 2028, in what critics say could be yet another project to airbrush his father’s legacy. The nuclear power plant in the province of Bataan west of Manila was built...