Is vote-buying worse in automated elections?
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Widespread vote-buying appears to have cast a dark cloud on the integrity of the May 13 midterm elections. This may be compounded by probable...
View ArticleConspiracies
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Jr. thinks there’s a conspiracy afoot to discredit the Philippine electoral system. He’s...
View ArticleRelinking with ICRC
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last Thursday I had an hour-long discussion with Pascal Mauchle, the head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the...
View ArticleHell itself
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s latest novel, Inferno, contains what’s only one of many comments, asides, and observations about the Philippines or...
View ArticleWinners and losers
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Benigno Aquino III has been in triumphalist mode since 2010 when he handily won the Presidential elections. Succeeding events since have not moved him...
View ArticleCutting food loss, wastage
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last June 5, under United Nations auspices, World Environment Day 2013 was observed with the theme, “Think, Eat, Save.” Sadly very little was...
View ArticleIndependence
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld JUNE 12, 1898, the date when, 115 years ago, Emilio Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence from Spain, was marked this year with the usual speeches,...
View ArticleWhat’s P-Noy game plan on Bangsamoro issue?
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star The P-Noy government has vowed to resolve the Bangsamoro issue in Mindanao within its six-year-term ending in June 2016, and the presidential...
View ArticleDisaster Philippines
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Nearly 2,500 people — 2,360 to be exact — died in 2012 in natural disasters in the Philippines, says the nongovernmental Citizens Disaster Response...
View ArticlePopular protests in Brazil
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Under the presidency of Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva of the Workers Party, Brazil’s economy grew phenomenally, with vast well-developed...
View ArticleBt talong field testing: A boon or health threat?
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Are genetically modified organisms (GMO), widely used in food crops in 34 countries, poisonous to the human body if ingested? The debate on this...
View ArticleDisplaced
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld The Aquino administration has declared as non-negotiable the relocation of some 20,000 non-formal settler families living along metro Manila’s waterways...
View ArticleMandela on armed struggle
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In homage to his physical resilience versus the logic of the inevitable, one wishes that Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president,...
View ArticleConduct unbecoming
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld The last time US forces occupied several military bases all over the Philippines, among them Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base, it took a decades-long...
View ArticleWorse than the problem
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Congressman Feliciano Belmonte has filed a resolution urging both Houses of Congress to propose amendments to Articles 2, 12 and 16 of the Constitution....
View Article‘Curing the symptom rather than the disease’
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last Thursday, AFP Chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista called a command conference at Camp Aguinaldo to assess the military operations in the first...
View ArticleThe leaves for the forest
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld “Change” has been the mantra of all administrations since at least the Marcos period (1965-1986). Ferdinand Marcos vowed to “make this nation great...
View ArticleLooking for a champion
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Manny Pacquiao has every right to aspire for the Presidency, for which post he could run by 2022 when he turns 43. Currently 34 years old, Pacquiao will...
View ArticleHow far can Pope Francis shake up the Catholic Church?
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star By his humble demeanor and simple lifestyle and his public pronouncements since his election as Pontiff in March, Pope Francis (the former...
View ArticleBeyond internet activism
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com The opposite of internet activism is not street activism but no-activism. Online petitions and political hashtags are indispensable in the campaign for...
View Article
