The results of the April 13-15 Social Weather Stations survey are in, and for the first time two nonreelectionist candidates for the Senate have broken into the Top 4. The number of survey respondents who said they would vote for Nancy Binay and Cynthia Villar rose from 47 percent in March to 49 percent in April, enough for them to tie for joint 3rd-4th place.
It seems Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV wants to oust Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile so badly he cannot think straight. Or perhaps he thinks candor and bold speech are a suitable substitute for strategy. But at a forum on Tuesday, Trillanes revealed the secret sauce behind the plan to unseat Enrile: Malacañang support. “We [...]
This refers to the article “Aquino should back DFA chief vs Trillanes, says Biazon” (Inquirer, 9/20/12). After the hullabaloo that the nation witnessed during the verbal tussle between Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, I share the view of Rep. Rodolfo Biazon that “President (Aquino) could not afford to digress from the official government position on the dispute as already expressed by the Department of Foreign Affairs.”
Many Filipinos watching the riveting exchange of words on the Senate floor last Wednesday between Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile must have thought that the chamber’s oldest member had gotten the better of the youngest. He certainly did, in both parliamentary and public-opinion terms, but in fact it was not only Trillanes who suffered a hubristic meltdown; Enrile, too, displayed an arrogance that was all the more stunning for its lack of subtlety.
The ironies in the war between Juan Ponce Enrile and Antonio Trillanes are so rich and plentiful I don’t know where to begin to appreciate them.
In the context of the complex territorial disputes in the Asia Pacific, Albert F. del Rosario has done an excellent job as foreign secretary. He is fulfilling his duty to maintain peaceful relations with all nations, including China, without surrendering Philippine sovereignty. It is not his fault that China is now on a campaign of aggressive territorial expansion, which has brought it in conflict with its neighboring countries. The secretary is peacefully and firmly asserting Philippine sovereignty over territory that is within our 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
The first time I saw it in quite a dramatic way was when Angelo Reyes shot himself in the heart before his mother’s grave. His preference for the heart rather than the head apparently held a symbolism of sorts. He had promised his mother he would never tarnish the name he carried. With his gesture, [...]
