China’s Coast Guard is guarding Ayungin Shoal, on the map a tiny rectangle to the left of Palawan in the West Philippine Sea, likely to evade the eye if one weren’t particularly looking for it. Not many Filipinos are aware of the “low-tide elevation” well within their country’s exclusive economic zone, with a war-vintage ship,...
Category: News
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Masbate’s three-legged coconut tree spurs scientific interest
Several decades since I defended my doctoral dissertation, my visits to Masbate had been few and far between, until I started preparing for a three-week field work on the island for my incoming class of geology seniors in July. On June 10, I had the chance to visit an oddly shaped coconut tree in Matugnao...
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Pride Month: Ice calls for street marches for gay rights
Not only is June a season for weddings and romantic unions; it is Pride Month as well. As part of the celebration, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) has launched a film festival showcasing LGBTQIA+-themed audiovisuals in cinema houses nationwide until June 26. I was among those invited by the FDCP Channel to...
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Concerns over P50-B dam project emerge after Laguna activist’s arrest
SAN PEDRO CITY—The arrest of environmental activist Vertudes “Daisy” Macapanpan has directed public attention to a larger issue involving a P50-billion dam project in the small, quiet town of Pakil in Laguna. (Concerns over P50-B dam project…) Macapanpan, 69, has been opposing the Ahunan pumped storage hydropower facility on fears that its construction on a...
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More Filipinos trust news but many avoid it—Digital News Report 2022
Overall trust in news among Filipinos has risen, putting the Philippines among the few countries that have furthered gains made at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the higher trust level is accompanied by declining trust ratings of individual news brands, falling interest in news and even news avoidance, according to the Digital News...
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Banishing anxiety and fear: a fitness journey
I knew I needed to get back to my exercise routine when the doctor didn’t hesitate to prescribe Xanax. It was the remedy for what he diagnosed as anxiety attacks after listening earnestly to my tale of feeling hopeless every day. His assistant handed me the tablets on my way out, and a new wave...
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After 48 years, Philippine agrarian reform remains an illusory goal
On June 10 this year, the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) reached its 34th year of implementation. If we were to include the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ “Tenant Emancipation Act” of September 1972, agrarian reform as a major government program in the Philippines has been around for 48 long years. The Marcos version was an...
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Monkeypox spread? No cause for alarm—yet
As if Covid-19 were not enough to worry about, now comes monkeypox. For pandemic-fatigued Filipinos, it comes across as another point of concern, especially because it causes flu-like symptoms as well as horrendous-looking rashes that can spread across the body and form large blisters filled with white pus-like fluid. It does looks biblical, like something...
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Supermajorities are the trend
The apparent Senate president in the 19th Congress makes no bones about his wish fo form a “supermajority” in the chamber. The other contender to the post, Sen. Cynthia Villar, having expressed an absence of desire to complicate her life, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri appears well on the way to build a constant consensus...
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Little Sisters care for women in the twilight of their lives
With Covid-19 continuing to pose a threat to life and health, some kind of hush has fallen over the home run by the Little Sisters for the Abandoned Elderly in San Juan City. The community singing and merrymaking that the residents enjoyed have been put on hold as health protocols are strictly observed in the...