An overwhelming majority of adult Filipinos have come across people criticizing journalists or the news media in the country, with nearly half of them tagging politicians and ordinary people as the leading sources. The high level of criticism is associated with low trust in the media in the Philippines and several other countries, according to...
The reputation of newly appointed Health Secretary Dr. Teodoro “Ted” Herbosa has preceded him, and certain sectors do not find it encouraging. In December 2017, while speaking at a leadership forum in New Delhi, former US president Barack Obama was asked about the perils of using Twitter where he had more than 97 million followers...
The earth’s last remaining forest cover cleans the air we breathe, purifies water systems, provides habitat for plants and animals, and even helps slow down climate change by removing heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It benefits everyone, but what happens if trees are indiscriminately cut for the high-value wood, if the most profitable minerals...
The Philippine power structure continues to highlight intriguing peaks and valleys, and attentive observers are recalling long-ago details after Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ’s “demotion” from her lofty post as senior deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. Time was when Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, now speaker of the chamber, was deemed a “favorite...
The government has awarded to SunAsia Energy Inc. and Blueleaf Energy the contract to build and operate the world’s largest floating solar project in the Philippines. The project has a cumulative capacity of over 750 megawatts (MW). The move is viewed as a milestone in the Philippine energy sector, with the Department of Energy (DoE)...
LIBERTAD, Antique—Not only have poachers trespassed on the lush forests of northwestern Panay to cut down rare agarwood trees and collect their precious resin, they are also hunting critically endangered animals, like the Visayan Warty Pig, according to wildlife field researchers. In months-long trips, the research team in the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park (NPPNP)...
When the 3 a.m. alarm went off it should have started a familiar routine that involved hitting the snooze button a number of times, closing my eyes again, and thinking of excuses for welshing on a commitment. To say that mornings are rough is to make an understatement. But this was no ordinary morning engagement,...
When Police Gen. Benjamin Acorda Jr. took over as Philippine National Police chief from Rodolfo Azurin Jr. on April 24, he promised a “relentless” anticrime drive and assured his predecessor that he would continue “cleansing” the ranks. Acorda made an “uncompromising commitment” to turn the police into “vanguards of peace to ensure a safe and...
Planet Earth has been learning about Covid-19 ever since this highly contagious respiratory disease that killed so many was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. The knowledge led to mobility restrictions in many countries including severe lockdowns in the Philippines, not to mention a global race on who could...
The existence of the soul, and whether it is immortal or not, has polarized great thinkers from both the philosophic-theological and scientific camps. The “physicalists” (those who hold that everything about us, from consciousness to higher rationality, can be explained by biochemical processes) are quick to say that the phenomenon of consciousness does not emanate...
