By Reyshimar Arguelles As the country deals with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, there is no stopping the government from imploding under the weight of its own ineptness. If idiocy were an actual virus that eats brain tissue, everyone would be wearing hazmat suits and stockpiling on Rhea alcohol. But from the looks of
March 12, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles So far, the country has listed 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19. This was weeks after the Department of Health insisted that the Philippines was free from the virus. Now that the agency has recorded the first instance of local transmission, the Duterte administration has agreed to put the country under Red Alert
March 10, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles They say we can learn much about a country by the way it treats its citizens. But it’s only when citizens begin to take matters into their own hands that a country shows its true face. Desperate times call for desperate measures and people will do what they can to survive in
March 5, 2020
By Reyshimar C. Arguelles For the state to continue existing, it has to maintain institutions that legitimize its rule over the people. The army, police, courts, schools, and all other institutions that impose the values the state holds dear play an important role in this regard. But this role is not limited to teaching what
March 3, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles In our times, social media defines how we engage in politics, shapes our future, and lets us avoid making the same mistakes. Political discourse has been made accessible to everyone, so there is certainly no excuse not to keep one’s self from being a part of the conversation. Then again, engineering the
February 27, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles The pro-Duterte camp had its field day yesterday when ABS-CBN’s top officials apologized to the President for failing to air his campaign ads back in 2016. This after Senator Bong Go pointed out the supposedly biased way the network treats select politicians (who also happen to reserve the right to mislead the
February 25, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles You can’t get enough of politicians who have the gall to say the most outrageous things and still get approval. They’re like caged gorillas who incite amazement when they defecate. This is symptomatic of the kind of political system that we have, which is strictly a system of convenience. Time and again,
February 20, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles I haven’t seen Parasite, the South Korean film that made Oscar history for being the first foreign language film — and for that matter, the first Asian film — to win Best Picture. Reviews raved about it and self-confessed film snobs celebrated the director Bong Joon-ho for sticking up to the monolith
February 18, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles Everyone was expecting it, but the Duterte administration’s desire to thumb down the franchise renewal of network giant ABS-CBN came sooner than anyone had hoped for. Solicitor-General Jose Calida, like the sneaky fox he is, issued a quo warranto case against the network and urged the Supreme Court to finalize ABS-CBN’s demise. Social media
February 13, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles There is no cocktail potent enough to bring widespread death and destruction quite like a contagion mixed with politically-charged confusion. To some, at least, it would make sense for the government to qualm any potential for social unrest by withholding critical information. In this age of infectious idiocy, there is always the
February 11, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles While the rest of the world grapples with a deadly pandemic, things are taking a turn for the absurd in the American Empire where a lead up to the 2020 Presidential Elections is uncovering the sickening state of partisan politics—as though it hasn’t been diagnosed before. Yesterday, the Democratic Party was in
February 6, 2020
By Reyshimar Arguelles In the wake of the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak that spread from Wuhan, China to over 25 countries, the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency. With over 10,000 cases and 362 deaths (as of Monday) recorded in China alone, the nCov scare has sown widespread panic the likes of
February 4, 2020