Friday on ANC, the skipper of the Aya Express, Donald Anain, recounts what happened in the waters of Laguna de Bay off Binangonan, Rizal, on July 27. Snippets of the tragedy were reported by some survivors a day earlier, more or less jibing with Anain’s account of how, buffeted by strong winds, the motorized banca...
Category: Opinion
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A new path for Southeast Asian civil society engagement with Asean
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) marks its 56th year in 2023 and holds its 43rd summit of leaders in September in Jakarta, the second such meeting of the year. Asean is guided by these principles drawn up in 1976: mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all...
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The state of our nation
My students found it very difficult to identify two of the current administration’s notable accomplishments in public finance. I can appreciate their difficulties. The budgetary deficit in 2022 was a staggering P1.61 trillion, or 7.33% of GDP. Government spent P5.16 trillion last year but raised only P3.54 trillion in revenues. I cannot help but wonder why...
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Poverty alleviation is at the mercy of political patronage
On July 10, the disbarred lawyer Lorenzo “Larry” Gadon was sworn in as presidential adviser on poverty alleviation. After nearly a month of public adverse reactions to Gadon’s appointment, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has made his priorities clear: to honor political patronage over providing credible leadership in addressing poverty in the Philippines. Critics claim that...
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What’s the full story behind the ‘Love’ tourism rebrand?
Exactly who are behind the scandal that threw the monkey wrench into the “Love the Philippines” rebranding campaign of the Department of Tourism? The people need to know. The nagging question requires an answer so the guilty can be made accountable and the red-faced DOT led by Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco can begin to pick...
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Southeast Asia’s dismal social conditions
While Southeast Asian economies have been fast expanding in the last decade, better than most regions, wealth and income inequality—i.e., the gap between the rich and poor—has been equally growing. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN Escap) reports that “Southeast Asia has seen inequalities widen, a setback to...
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Opposition to the Maharlika Investment Fund continues
Last May 31, with lightning speed, the Senate passed the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill in a plenary session that ran until 2 a.m. Until the end, critical lawmakers’ questions were unanswered and their concerns unaddressed. Because the House of Representatives subsequently accepted the Senate version in its entirety, the bill was no longer...
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When Arroyo’s ‘favorite companion’ picked up the dinner tab in New York
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...
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Edca and our center of gravity
Uncle Sam is literally back. Through our Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), the United States has access to a number of our military bases. Unlike before, when the former US bases on Philippine soil were exclusively America’s, now America has the run of some of our military facilities in Cagayan, Isabela and Palawan. Also, while...
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In the trenches of the law
“See you in the trenches,” the human rights lawyer and law professor Ted Te said at the tail end of a brief online post addressed to the passers of the 2022 bar examination, whose names were released by the Supreme Court last April 14. Te’s message evoked in the attentive observer, not the glamorous, de...