LIKE most opinion writers, I agree with two pronouncements that really mattered in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. First, “Effective today, all POGOs are banned.” Better late than never. The President has finally discovered the true color of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) that
July 27, 2024
“NOT true,” said former Valderrama, Antique mayor Ray Roquero in a chance meeting with this writer here in Iloilo City on Monday (July 15). He was referring to the rumor that that Senator Loren Legarda would no longer support him but Vice-Governor Edgar Denosta instead for governor in election 2025. This column
July 22, 2024
THE good news from MORE Electric and Power Corp., the exclusive distribution utility in Iloilo City, is that it has poured in ₱115 million to build Panay Island’s first-ever centralized power control system. As revealed to us by MORE Power President/CEO Roel Z. Castro, “The new facility responds to the urgent need for power
July 12, 2024
IT had taken months of discussions before the proposed Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between the Philippines and Japan took the form of a military pact that only needs ratification by legislatures of both countries to roll out. But as we all know now, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Kihara
July 10, 2024
THIS paper’s editorial last Saturday zeroed in on the ongoing demolition of the Iloilo City Central Market for being “like a ghost that refuses to die despite Mayor Jerry Treñas’ efforts to assure the public of the demolition’s regularity through rose advertorials and canned statements of support.” Columnist Alex P. Vidal, on
July 8, 2024
WE can’t count on all fingers and toes the number of Christian sects that we know about. We can’t even name nor recognize all the main groups that constitute the Christian religion worldwide. Google tells us there are six main groups of Christianity in the world: The Church of the East, Oriental
July 5, 2024
THE sudden visit of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in San Jose, Antique on Thursday – ostensibly to extend financial and technical assistance to farmers and fisherfolk – must have influenced Governor Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao to “overhaul” her political line-up for the 2025 election. She has to, since she is somersaulting from the
July 3, 2024
FOR the first time on live TV, I saw Senator Lito Lapid speak in the Senate for a purely self-serving reason. It was to air his disgust over a vlogger who had allegedly besmirched his reputation by naming him owner of the 10-hectare site of the 46-building Lucky South 99 POGO hub
July 1, 2024
“NOT in my mind,” former senator Leila de Lima answered the press people who had been asking whether she would run for senator in 2025. Foremost in her mind is to file charges against President Rodrigo Duterte as the mastermind behind the three dismissed illegal drugs-related cases which put her under detention
June 28, 2024
NO matter how we look at it, the “modernized jeepney” is not a jeepney but a mini-bus. It insults Filipino intelligence that the government has to lie to implement its so-called “jeepney modernization program” that would wipe out what used to be the “king of the road.” As mandated by the previous
June 26, 2024
SOMETIME last week, I read a newspaper article about a doctor belittling the wild plant “tawa-tawa” for giving “false hope” to dengue patients, for which there is no effective drug, given the failure of Dengvaxia to deliver its healing promise. But since there are townsfolk who swear they have been cured by
June 24, 2024