Cheryl’s story begins in quiet worry, weighed down by the demand of raising her differently abled son in a world that prides itself in progress and praises innovation and inclusivity, but is quick to judge what it hardly understands. The single mother of Rusell, who has Level 3 autism spectrum disorder (ASD), tells her story...
Category: News
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Trouble down south: What happened to the government-MILF peace accord?
In March 2014, just two days before the government’s chief peace negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer signed the landmark agreement to end decades of Moro separatist rebellion, she described the effort as a journey that had reached a crucial destination. “There is no turning back. Only moving decisively forward. The peace train is on track. Its...
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Vegetable farmers in Benguet feel the crunch from fuel price increases
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — PJ Haight has taken to siphoning diesel from his vehicle into a water pump that will irrigate the family’s farmland these days, as prices of fuel and other inputs soar, straining available fuel supply and agricultural yields in Benguet. Haight and other upland vegetable growers in Atok, a third-class municipality in...
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House justice committee votes to summon Vice President’s documents
The House of Representatives’ committee on justice voted on Wednesday to summon witnesses and documents it deemed necessary to determine “probable cause” to bring Vice President Sara Duterte to trial at the Senate impeachment court. Among the documents are the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in its probe into Duterte’s threat in...
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Broad coalition of leaders calls for urgent action to safeguard Bangsamoro peace process
A broad coalition of leaders from civil society, academe, labor groups, political parties and business groups, together with sectoral organizations from the Bangsamoro and across Mindanao, has issued an urgent appeal to the Philippine government to address growing concerns affecting the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. The coalition called for, among other...
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Fukushima presents lessons for the whole world
FUKUSHIMA, Japan—Here, in the course of three weeks at the height of winter, I visited the area where the earthquake struck, the coast where the tsunami hit, the nuclear plant where the “accident” occurred, all in a prefecture that still grapples with the memory of a disaster that happened 15 years ago. For those of...
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In numbers: Dynasties and contractors capture party-list seats in the 20th Congress
Nearly 40 years ago, the framers of the post-Marcos Constitution provided for a party-list system to ensure that Congress would not be dominated by political families. Today, the hope that party-list representatives would provide a counterweight to the power of dynasties has been completely dashed. In the 20th Congress, half of the 64 party-list representatives...
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Lacson confident of 9 senators’ signatures on blue ribbon committee’s partial report
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson believes he can get nine members of the blue ribbon committee that he chairs to sign its controversial partial report on the corruption in flood control and other infrastructure projects. So far, only he and three others — Senators Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, and Francis Pangilinan — have signed...
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A university in Bicol proves that a nonprofit private school can work here
In social media, nonprofit private schools are defined as “independent institutes, not owned by the government or a church, funding themselves through tuition, fundraising, and endowments, rather than distributing profits to shareholders.” More: “They are governed by a self-perpetuation board of trustees and are distinguished from for-profit private schools to serve students without aiming for...
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Reflections on Edsa@40: Young people are reclaiming the spirit of People Power
Forty years after the Edsa People Power revolution that restored democracy in the Philippines, the historic highway was once again filled with similar voices, chants, sentiments and hopes, but largely from a new generation echoing the story that triggered an uprising known to it only through books, testimonies and challenged historical distortions. The simple slogan...