By Alex P. Vidal “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”—Alexander the Great CANDIDATES vying for various local and national positions in the May 9, 2022 election in the Philippines must prove to the electorate that beyond
October 8, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Particularly with the blues, it’s not just about bad times. It’s about the healing spirit.”—Taj Mahal ATTY. Jose “Joe III” Espinosa is a good man. He could have been Iloilo City’s congressman six years ago. At that time, the former city mayor’s relationship with his brother-in-law, incumbent city mayor Geronimo “Jerry”
October 7, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” ― Bruce Coville NO dictator or political leader with a reputation of “strongman” in history will remain a strongman forever. Not even Magellan, Caesar, Napoleon, Atahualpa, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Amin, Suharto, Peron,
October 6, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear-and what they want to hear is what won’t happen.”—Paul Samuelson ANYONE engaged in the job of civil service is called a public servant. A public servant works for central government and state governments, and answers to the government, not a political
October 5, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.”—George Henry Lewes IF President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Mayor Sara Carpio, were sincere, they would not turn the filing of the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for the May 9, 2022 election into a slapstick show. They would have told the
October 4, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” — H. L. Mencken WE have mentioned this more than a dozen times in the past: no candidate or Filipino politician for that matter will admit he lost after the election. The moment he filed his certificate of candidacy
October 2, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “We shall never change our political leaders until we change the people who elect them.”— Mark Skousen EVERY political pundit will now be watching with awe and avidity if “Richard the Lionheart” will be able to sustain and rev up the dominant political empire his late father Oca had built in
October 1, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “A scam is a scam. A fraud is a fraud. Different rules don’t apply in the City than they do for you and me.”—Emily Thornberry A FEMALE Filipino-American friend from New Jersey and a visiting physician from Sorsogon became the latest victims of online scams or credit card fraud here in
September 30, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “The greatest power is not money power, but political power.”—Walter Annenberg NOBODY has filed an official certificate of candidacy (COC) with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yet, but the demolition machines of some warring political parties have started to blowtorch in the social media in particular those who have already announced
September 29, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”—Camille Pissarro I MET Gotthard in, of all places, Spuyten Duyvil third week of September this year. He was an elevator operator in a building in Manhattan sometime in 1969 when Jack Dempsey, then 74, became his
September 28, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “To me, the Internet is a big scam.” – Ry Cooder IN 2016, I decided to close my Bank of America (BofA) checking account I opened in Culvert City, California in 2007 after being hit three times by online scam since I relocated in New York City a year earlier. I
September 27, 2021
By Alex P. Vidal “You’ll be someone’s favorite, and someone else is going to hate you, aren’t they? I know that I can’t please everyone, but what I can do is be myself and be true to my values.”—Alex Scott WHAT we should look for a leader is not popularity but a strong set of
September 25, 2021