Editorial cartoon, September 01, 2011
The Commission on Audit has another horror story to tell about that unlucky place called Maguindanao. COA Chair Grace Pulido Tan told the appropriations committee of the House of Representatives last week that some P1.6 billion in government funds appeared to have vanished, between January 2008 and September 2009, with hardly a trace. During that [...]
Again, congratulations to the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) for being one of the six awardees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) for 2011. This is a great honor for this non-government organization (NGO) based in Negros Occidental. AIDFI was the only organization that received the award during formal ceremonies on Wednesday. The [...]
What’s a hero and what does it take to become one? There were several attempts to answer that before and after National Heroes Day, ranging from emulating Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio to saving the Philippine flag from a flood. The latter, in case you still haven’t heard about it, was done by 12-year-old Janela [...]
The issue first dawned on me many years ago when, in response to my criticism of billboards that have engulfed the city, people from the outdoor advertising industry told me that without them, Manila would be a very dark and unsafe place. Billboards, they said, are what light up the streets and enliven the cityscape. [...]
It didn’t take too long for President Aquino’s meeting with Moro Islamic Liberation Front chieftain Murad Ebrahim in Tokyo—originally intended as a dramatic achievement for the State of the Nation speech—to unravel as one of his biggest blunders so far. In an insult to the President, as it ignored totally his “historic” meet last August [...]
Like monsoon flurries, recent events in the Indian subcontinent have sent conflicting signals. Has Indian diplomacy finally awakened after its long summer siesta, or is this just an illusion?
I can still remember writing an article about my dad when I was in college. I submitted it to the Philippine Daily Inquirer hoping it would get to be published. My dad didn’t know that my underlying reason for writing that article was to persuade him to allow me to rent my own place—outside the [...]
Kindly allow us to reply to Arturo P. Bordas’ letter, “Why NFAEA played blind to irregularities in NFA.” (Inquirer, 8/19/11) The report on P100-billion NFA losses Bordas mentioned came from the Commission on Audit. The report said that huge imports, high interest payments from bank borrowings, insufficient fund support from government, the “buying high-selling low” [...]
Accommodation and compromise are the expected endings to the ongoing investigations into the secondhand choppers that former First Gentleman Mike Arroyo allegedly sold as brand-new to the Philippine National Police. But apart from the circus of Senate investigations, there is really no serious effort to prosecute Arroyo. The firsthand accounts of Lionair president Archibald Po [...]
When Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist, drew in December 2005 a cartoon depicting Muhammad in a “blasphemous” way, the Islamic world called for his death. (Every pious Muslim, who has the duty to protect Islam, is bound to get rid of this heathen for the glory of Allah.) There were riots all over the Muslim [...]
While many find the services of government hospitals wanting, my family and I wish to commend the Quirino Memorial Medical Center (QMMC), in general, and Dr. Evelyn Victoria E. Reside, in particular. We find her to be a most considerate, caring, understanding and compassionate person. Last July 4, 2011, we rushed my septuagenarian brother, Orlando [...]
