Editor’s note: These are remarks delivered by the author at the recent online launch of the book “Necessary Contexts: Essays for Our Times,” published by Gantala Press and Alfredo F. Tadiar Library. As I begin, I thought of mentioning an important detail that caught my eye in RosarioGarcellano’s first book, “Mean Streets: Essays on the Knife...
Category: Featured Stories
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Bogus vote tallies, candidate disqualifications top Election Day disinformation
Spurious last-ditch reports of candidates being disqualified and a buildup of fabricated vote tallies of presidential contenders took hold of social media as voters trooped to precincts on Monday. The misleading and deceptive narratives on election day largely targeted now presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his rival, Vice President Leni Robredo; their running mates,...
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Why rural poverty persists in the Philippines
Philippine rural development has basically been the handiwork of colonialism and world capitalism. But the dominant role of external forces in development is not simply a colonial extension. Internal structures having already been laid in place by colonialism, they were able to continuously reproduce themselves in harmony with the external demands of the global capitalist...
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‘Harvest Moon’: Stories, poems and photos of climate crisis
In a world where changes are increasingly disruptive, creative works matter more than ever, not just to better understand our complex reality through stories, but also because stories shape our imagination and inspire the future. “Harvest Moon is a book that heeds the call to reimagine how we are going to survive and thrive in...
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Building a history of good credit
A World Bank publication in 2017 showed that close to three-fourths of Filipinos borrowed cash from informal sources. Informal sources aren’t easy to police and often get away with charging exorbitant interest and intimidating borrowers when they can’t pay up. This may be why Filipinos get really uncomfortable when talking about borrowing money. I had...
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Virgin Labfest: ‘untried, untested, unstaged’ plays back on stage this June
Exactly two years and three months since Covid-19 shut down all of Manila theater, the Virgin Labfest will return on June 16–26 to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), marking the reopening of in-person theatrical performances in the capital region. Or so the plan goes, according to the organizers of the 17th edition of...
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Missing the boat on population management and economic development
The Philippines has missed a number of opportunities toward long-term economic development. While it was in pretty good shape in the 1960s through the late 1970s—and certainly highly competitive with other developing countries in Asia—it began to falter at the turn of the decade. By the early 1980s it started to miss the boat in...
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‘Consistent 47%’ ratios in votes of Marcos Jr., Robredo raise suspicion among netizens
From surprise and shock to outrage, netizens have reacted to the way the Commission on Elections’ partial and unofficial results of the May 9 voting for national officials were being presented and reported by broadcast networks. They cited an intriguing pattern in the percentage ratios of incoming votes of frontrunner Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice...
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Passion and irony on the campaign trail
Monumental was the “miting de avance” of Vice President Leni Robredo in Makati City on May 7, dwarfing those of the other presidential candidates in terms of size and passion. The 780,000 estimate served to cap the throngs that came out to greet Robredo in cities and towns nationwide in the weeks and days leading...
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Firehose of disinformation floods run-up to election
Disinformation operations continue relentlessly, as though in a last-ditch effort before Election Day. Filipino voters head to the polls on Monday after months of being engulfed in a relentless stream of falsehoods spewed out in multiple formats and platforms that is unprecedented in Philippine history. Tsek.ph’s second and latest analysis has tracked a high volume...
