The new majority in the Senate began the week like a house on fire and they’re still trying to put out the flames. After persuading Bato dela Rosa to come out from under the rock he was hiding and add to the vote ousting Tito Sotto as Senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano has his hands...
Category: Opinion
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Consider the new Senate majority
Consider the Senate majority now led by Alan Peter Cayetano after the power seizure on Monday. It’s nearly identical to the grouping led by Francis Escudero that famously did in the first impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte. The Cayetano sibs. President Marcos Jr.’s estranged manang. The mother of the young Batangas lawmaker slapped...
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Building an alternative regionalism from below for Southeast Asian peoples
As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) marks its 59th year in 2026, its relevance remains disputable. Its guiding principles—mutual respect, noninterference, peaceful dispute settlement, and renunciation of force—are noteworthy from a nation-state perspective but ultimately self-absorbed. They suffer from an absence of any reference to how Asean relates to the peoples of its...
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The work of the House justice committee merits public attention
Ramil Madriaga’s allegations were intense, yet Vice President Sara Duterte did not seize the clear and present opportunity to make mincemeat out of them. There was no bloodbath during the daylong hearing of the House justice committee last Tuesday although there was a recurring ritual performed for the record: Madame Chair, the redoubtable Batangas Rep....
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A new gallery of rogue states
If Western mainstream media are to be believed, the likes of North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Syria and, until recently, Venezuela are rogue states. They are considered “rogue” because they supposedly flout international law by “promoting terrorism,” seeking to develop or already having nuclear weapons, widely disregarding human rights, or engaging in the narcotics trade. As...
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When will teachers become involved in policymaking?
The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced the shift to a three-term school calendar starting on June 8, 2026, and ending on April 8, 2027. DepEd has defended the abrupt shift to a trimester school year as strategic, saying it is aimed at optimizing the contact time between students and teachers. But many have pointed...
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The richest 1% are more capable of sacrifice than the rest of the population
Because both the value-added tax and the excise tax are sales taxes or indirect taxes, regardless of which product they are imposed on and whatever percentage rate or amount is set, they are a regressive form of taxation contrary to the declared state policy in the Philippine Constitution on uniform, equitable and progressive taxation (Article...
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Blood and oil: Iran’s war against empire and what it means for the Philippines
When you fuel your vehicle here in the Philippines and wince at the price, which has surged above ₱100 a liter for diesel alone, you may be told that Iran’s “blockade” of the Strait of Hormuz is to blame. But the truth exposes this as deliberate distortion. While the United States and Israel were actively...
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‘Tayo ang People Power’: A mural for Edsa@40
The Edsa People Power revolution comprised the historic four days in February 1986 that resulted in the toppling of Ferdinand E. Marcos’ dictatorship and the return of democracy in the Philippines. The people’s long struggle was heightened when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972. The assassination in 1983 of the former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino...
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War and the basic human imperatives
We are still cavemen. Clubbing each other over the head, noncompliant females included. Except that now, the clubs are missiles and drones and the targets are entire countries and peoples. The behavior has not changed. Only the technology. And consequently, the breadth and depth of the destruction. Why have we behaved this way since time...