IN a developing country blessed with fertile lands and other natural resources, agriculture should be a key driver of economic growth. Instead, the share of the agriculture sector in economic development is shrinking and agricultural growth has slowed down in the past years. That is the observation of the IBON Foundation, given
October 16, 2026
YOU will remember that in April this year, radio and TV stations orchestrated the “Oplan Kontra Fake News” in collaboration with the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), aimed at tackling fake news in both mainstream and online media. The irony of it all is that the campaign has failed to suppress questionable pre-election,
October 14, 2026
IT has been one month and four days since September 8, 2026, when the House of Representatives approved, on third and final reading, House Bill No. 10971, with 211 lawmakers voting in favor, 13 against, and one abstaining. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed it into law (RA 12326) on September 25,
October 12, 2026
IN Northern Ireland, Protestants cite papal history as the best evidence against the Roman Catholic doctrine on papacy. They call Catholics “papists” — a derogatory description of followers of the pope who are incapable of independent thinking. Christian history, they say, refutes the presumption that the apostle Peter was the first pope
October 9, 2026
DURING a breakfast meeting with fellow journalists Giovannie Va-ay and Eufemia Pedregosa, they asked me why I was still writing for a living at age 76. “I still write to eat,” I quipped, “and to stay sane.” Our chit-chat segued into a close friend who had developed Alzheimer’s disease and so had
October 7, 2026
IT started as House Bill No. 10971, which the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Sept. 8, 2026, with 211 lawmakers voting in favor, 13 against and one abstaining. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed it into law (RA 12326) two weeks later, on Sept. 25, 2026. The law,
October 5, 2026
AT age 76, I consider myself lucky to have survived critical attacks of hypertension over a score of years. I look back on this survival as a learning experience to share with the younger generation. As confirmed by the Philippine Heart Association (PHA) in its 56th Annual Convention and Scientific Meeting on
October 2, 2026
STARTING in October 2026, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), a very strong El Niño will bring below-normal rainfall and warmer temperatures across large parts of the Philippines. El Niño refers to a long rainless period or drought due to a climatic aberration. The state weather bureau
September 30, 2026
AS we all know, six senators walked out of the Senate Impeachment Court last Wednesday to dramatize their “disgust” when the court decided to lower the number of votes needed for a conviction. Indeed, the court voted to lower the number of votes to convict the impeached Vice President Sara Duterte from
September 28, 2026
MOST of our readers were probably not born yet, but I was already 47 years old in 1997 when the so-called “Asian financial crisis” weakened the currencies of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines. I am in no position to explain how or why it happened. But I remember that
September 25, 2026
IF most young Filipinos today do not miss the Tagalog illustrated comic magazines we knew as komiks, it’s probably because they have not seen one. But how could we senior citizens not miss them when they used to be the stuff that filled our leisure time? A typical komiks in bygone times
September 23, 2026
SOME drug companies would stop at nothing to maximize their profit to the point of discrediting natural and herbal alternatives. Remember those days when a TV ad explicitly showed a woman sweeping fallen leaves to promote an anti-cough syrup being endorsed by a TV personality? Obviously, the manufacturer of that mucolytic wanted
September 21, 2026