Look before you leap

The action star turned president. The nocturnal president. The poster boy of corruption. The academically challenged president. Joseph Estrada, “Erap” to his millions of tangahanga, suffered miserably in the past. He has been scraped off his office, cutting short his six-year Presidential into two and a half. He has been jailed and convicted. But he … Continue reading →

Thus ate La Gloria

It is a truth universally acknowledged, but furtively practiced, that a congressman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wine.

Kakampi ni GMA ang Langit

“Great men talk about ideas; Mediocre men talk about things; Small men talk about people,” said Admiral Hyman Rickover. Was Rey Langit in the same league of small men who would rather inquire into what people think of other people when he asked both Presidents—Obama and Arroyo—about their impressions of each other?

Obama grateful to GMA. For what?

US President Barack Obama, the ABS-CBN News Online reports, is grateful to GMA because “of the strong voice that the Philippines has provided in dealing with issues in Asia, ranging from the human rights violations that have too long existed in Burma, to the problems that we’re seeing with respect to nuclear proliferation in North … Continue reading →

Random SONA observations

Contrary to some of the Senators’ and militants’ reactions, I didn’t boycott the SONA. Yesterday, in the silence of afternoon, I momentarily stopped from my occupation to watch ABS-CBN’s live coverage of GMA’s SONA. I regret I did, and wished it was aired late at night, so that it wouldn’t interrupt the TV programs that … Continue reading →

‘Strictly speaking’

Recently added to my mini-library is Strictly Speaking by Edwin Newman, which I bought last night at the Bookshop for P60. Based on its introduction—the only part I managed to read so far—that a presidential spokesman opted to say he must be given enough time to make an “evaluation and judgment in terms of a … Continue reading →

Arroyo vs. Arroyo

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is poised to veto the Right of Reply Bill–a bill whose principal sponsor is Senator Aquilino Pimentel. The bill seeks to give those criticized by the media an equal opportunity to hear their side by way of reply. And in the words of Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, who is also pushing … Continue reading →

Lust for public office

Published in Mindanao Times 7/29/08 President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) has barely two years left before she will step down from her office. By that time, we will once again have an election, which has become “the arbiter of political succession.” To the people, it is still early for aspirants to make frantic noise. Yet the … Continue reading →

The President-eject

For political correctness’s sake, President Obama, before he took his oath of office, was referred to as President-elect. Although it is obvious that there’s no stopping Obama from taking the helm of US leadership, as Bush the Younger can not veto the inauguration day, and thus the former deserved to be called President, Obama is … Continue reading →

The indefatigable anti-corruption crusader

It is no small irony that while Obama advised his good friend GMA to stop clinging to power through corruption and deceit, the latter has already been laboring to end corruption in the Philippines and bring down the shenanigans. “Our investments also include essential ways to strengthen our institutions of governance in order to fight … Continue reading →