My parents were shaped by World War II (my father became a young guerrilla and my mother had to flee with her family to their mountain farm), followed soon after by the Korean War (which has not officially ended), and then the Vietnam War, in all of which the Philippines was directly involved. We so-called...
Category: Opinion
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‘Economic Cha-cha’ is sweeping the political dance floor
The plot thickens with the Senate announcing full participation in the planned activity of the moment: the amendment of the Constitution. Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri’s surprise filing on Jan. 15 of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 6 proposing the amendment of certain economic provisions represents a stronger than usual push for Charter change....
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Challenge to Congress: Easing of bank secrecy is necessary for economic Charter change
With calls for Charter change (Cha-cha) once more gaining traction, the Foundation for Economic Freedom issued this statement last Jan. 4: “Economic Cha-cha is necessary but not enough. Other conditions, such as rule of law, good infrastructure and ease of doing business, among others, must be present to compete with other countries in attracting foreign...
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Music and lyrics from the 2024 budget
An interesting way to understand the 2024 budget is to look at it as a menagerie of songs. For the President, it is the song “I Did It My Way.” The 2024 budget stands at ₱5.768 trillion, which is equivalent to what he proposed to Congress in June. This amount is ₱1.5 trillion higher than the revenues...
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A layman’s look at some legal maxims with religious roots
The recent release on bail of former senator Leila de Lima after more than six years of imprisonment shows the uneven application of laws based on legal maxims that are not facts or proven theories. De Lima was jailed on the presumption of guilt, not innocence, by the powers that be, based mainly on the...
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The crisis in Philippine education began 120 years ago
In the results of the 2022 Pisa study on the state of learning and equity in education worldwide released last Dec. 5, the average scores of Filipino 15-year-old students were about the same as those in 2018. There was no significant change in the rankings of students scoring below a baseline level of proficiency (Level...
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When the wheels of justice grind
EDITOR’S NOTE: The detained former senator Leila de Lima was granted bail by Judge Gener Gito today, Nov. 13. Gito is the presiding judge of Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Branch 206, which will now hear the last of the three drug cases filed against her. The other two have been dismissed. CoverStory is republishing...
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ‘promised land’
Both the western and local media are generally pro-Israel in their reporting on the Israeli-Hamas war. That should be the Israeli-Palestinian war because both sides don’t care about civilian casualties, including children and infants. On the other hand, there is a Palestinian bias in Arab/Muslim countries although admittedly, my main source is Al Jazeera and...
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Innocents dying in ‘a tragedy of war’
A bit of recent CNN footage on Gaza partially shows three children laid out on their back, their tiny legs and feet looking vulnerable. It takes only seconds—blink, and you miss it—but the fleeting footage of the small corpses is a graphic display of Israel’s relentless moves to wipe Hamas off the face of the...
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End Israeli apartheid in the West Bank and Gaza, and free Palestine
I am 82, I deserve to retire. Words don’t flow freely anymore. Political passions have to make way for naps and junk novels. But political events have a way of stirring passions. More than 7,000 Palestinians dead from 6,000 bombs raining down their heads! I can’t stay quiet in the face of this. Many profound,...