This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
It’s getting harder and harder for President Noynoy Aquino to blame the previous government for the problems besetting the country today. One such problem is the ongoing energy crisis gripping Mindanao. Yes, the problem already existed even before he was elected but he has done nothing to address the situation. His obsession with the...
In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Typhoon Sendong upon northern Mindanao which may ultimately claim up to 2,000 lives, the administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has released an official statement admitting that it may have been distracted from warnings coming from climate and environment experts… Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda admitted...
A lot of people who have followed the investigation, apprehension, and building of a case against accused mass-murderer former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr had made that topic the epicentre of everything about the Philippines that has to do with impunity. Ampatuan is accused of masterminding the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao...
It makes perfect sense. Why spend money on stuff that will simply go up in smoke on New Year’s Eve when you can instead donate those funds to the relief effort in Mindanao which had recently been devastated by Typhoon Sendong. This is the appeal of Secretary of Health Enrique T. Ona in a...
While scanning the news the other day, a friend of mine made a rather glib remark. She said that Filipinos have lately been so fixated on their petty politics — the bickering among politicians and justices over the jurisdiction of their respective offices — that the only way to force people to step back...
Despite having been to Mindanao more times than the average Manila resident when I was younger, I can’t really say I know the place as well as some of those who are quick to offer “solutions” to the “situation” over there. To begin with, it was mainly its major cities that I’ve been to...
Someone from a public forum was disappointed that I did not have an opinion readily available for him about the situation in Mindanao. He wrote to me: Hi Ilda. It’s rather odd that you did not have the time for this issue that’s been in the news for over a week, and in fact,...
Filipinos do not know what they want. In 1986, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos took to the streets to rally against the late strongman, former President Ferdinand Marcos. The three-day protest eventually led to the ousting of the so-called “dictator” and alleged human rights violator. Twenty five years later, Filipinos from the Mindanao region...
Seems like the whole Media fiesta that is raging around the the Duterte’s of Davao City, specifically on-leave Mayor Sara’s fists and the Duterte father-and-son fingers is opening up old raw emotions about the subjugation of Mindanao to the 100-year-old elephant in the room — the legacy of colonial rule, Imperial Manila. Many Davao...
The past events have shown just how unstable a country the Philippines is. With most unstable systems, even a slight relaxing of vital control functions results in a rapid unraveling or degeneration of its structure. In the last several months, the relatively robust administrative regime of Malacañang under former President Gloria Arroyo had become...
