(First of two parts) I found my first fossil on a rocky shore in Catmon, a town an hour’s drive from Cebu City. My family and I were on a drive through the countryside north of the city: Liloan, Danao, Carmen, Catmon, Sogod … On the way back we stopped at the only decent public...
Category: News
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May 2022 vote rigged from the start, retired general, others say
After recovering from their stunned disbelief at the results of the national elections on May 9, 2022, certain prominent senior citizens formed an informal group that is now trying to rouse Filipinos into questioning the vote count which, they said, had been rigged even before the first ballot was cast. One of them, retired brigadier...
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Mayors unite for good governance and against corruption
It started with a phone call by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to like-minded local chief executives in July, shortly after he delivered a speech at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame railing against corruption in high places. For that scathing speech, Magalong reaped a heap of “messages of support,” including one from...
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What’s a guy in his 70s doing trying to ride a bike?
Sometime last April, I had nerve pain in my right leg. In previous bouts with such pain in my leg or bum, I simply waited a few days and the pain went away. This time a week went by but the pain stayed. I checked medical websites for a clue. I found that in the...
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Green currency in the ‘era of global boiling’
Green currency serves as a means of exchange at a new park in the central business district (CBD) of Alabang, Muntinlupa City, to propagate trees and plants and promote recycling at the onset of what the United Nations chief calls “the era of global boiling.” UN Secretary General António Guterres’ declaration that “the era of...
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Poverty alleviation is at the mercy of political patronage
On July 10, the disbarred lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon was sworn in as presidential adviser on poverty alleviation. After nearly a month of public adverse reactions to Gadon’s appointment, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has made his priorities clear: to honor political patronage over providing credible leadership in addressing poverty in the Philippines. Critics claim that...
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University student’s tragic death prompts calls for academic reforms
Some 100 members of the Far Eastern University (FEU) community gathered on the night of July 20 for a prayer vigil for Keilo Acuin, a 22-year-old medical technology student who fell to his death from a nearby footbridge on España Boulevard and P. Campa Street in Sampaloc, Manila. Before the assembly, hundreds of students were...
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Fighting back: Activist Carol Araullo takes Red-taggers to court
Two of the government’s main anticommunist propagandists were brought to court on Wednesday on a P2.15-million civil suit by one of their principal targets, Carol Araullo, a veteran activist and chair emeritus of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan). Araullo said in a statement that she filed the first such damage suit against Lorraine Badoy Partosa...
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‘Green lanes’ directive seen to speed up $1.2-B floating solar project
SunAsia Energy Inc. and its partner and investor Blueleaf Macquarie Capital have been recognized as the first beneficiary of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order No.18 “constituting green lanes for strategic investments.” At the ceremonial launch of the green lanes attended by the President and held at Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila last July 13, the...
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Gov’t urged: Defend, assert territorial integrity in West Philippine Sea
The Philippines should step up its joint patrols with other countries around Recto Bank and other reefs and shoals in the West Philippine Sea to forestall any attempt at occupation by the Chinese military, a political analyst said on Tuesday. On June 30, a Philippine military reconnaissance plane spotted dozens of Chinese vessels swarming a...