“THE House of Representatives’ version of a legislated wage hike bill, which increases minimum wage earners’ salaries by ₱200 per day, has been approved on third and final reading,” yesterday’s newspapers reported. Good news? Assuming it ripens into a law, it could help. However, since that’s not all there is to monetary
June 6, 2025
THE word is out that Senate President Chiz Escudero and 10 other senators have hatched a plan to abort the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on technical grounds – a move seen as his way to keep the Senate presidency. It is public knowledge that a newly-elected senator, former Senate President Tito
June 4, 2025
IF you know of spouses who purposefully married in June, have you asked them why? They must have answered, “June brings prosperity, abundance, and love.” Indeed, throughout history and across different cultures, June has been associated with prosperity, abundance, and love. In the Philippines, where traditions and beliefs play a significant
June 2, 2025
IN a previous issue (27 May 2025) this corner echoed the argument of critics of electric cooperatives urging the conversion of electric cooperatives into regulated private corporations, since they have been losing billions of pesos in government loans and subsidies. Among a score of losing electric cooperatives, I cited the case of the Central
May 30, 2025
HOW could the legitimate media be so careless as to legitimize an alleged nationwide survey showing former president Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte more popular than incumbent President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.? I would rather not reproduce the entire news, lest I be accused of disseminating fake news. To simplify matters, Pulse Asia has just
May 28, 2025
NO less than the newly-elected senators are spreading the perception that the forthcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is a “numbers game” where they, in their dual role as senator judges, may decide to convict or acquit her as they wish. Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, for example, predicted that
May 26, 2025
THE Minimal Government Thinkers, a non-government organization batting for a limited role of government in society, has criticized the National Electrification Administration (NEA) as a “wasteful agency” which has propped up inefficient electric cooperatives (ECs) through billions of pesos in taxpayer-funded subsidies and loans. According to the Institute of Contemporary Economics, between
May 23, 2025
THIS time, let’s talk about health for a change. There was a time when I attempted to be a vegetarian due to a heart disease known as “left ventricular dysfunction.” But since I found it hard to discard meat, I thought of shifting to a near-vegetarian diet, eating pork and beef only
May 21, 2025
THE re-election of Iloilo City Congresswoman Julienne “Jam-jam” Baronda appears to be very Pyrrhic, obviously because it would do no good to her political advancement in 2028. By now, the “graduating” congresswoman must have realized that, having severed her political alliance with Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, she could run against his daughter Raisa
May 19, 2025
MY friend Red phoned to correct my previous column, where I described senators-elect Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan as “the biggest blow against pre-election surveys” which had never included the two in their monthly “magic 12” surveys. “You missed Rodante Marcoleta,” Red hollered. “You are correct,” I responded while going over the
May 16, 2025
MANY times, in this corner, I questioned the reliability of “face to face” senatorial surveys for being statistically improbable. If we go by their claim of having 1,200 to 2,400 respondents, how could that number represent the more than 68 million registered voters in the Philippines? Blessed are the candidates in the
May 12, 2025
ACCORDING to senatorial candidate Erwin Tulfo, there are eight political survey firms in the county, and all of them rank him “No. 1” among the 12 frontrunners. But the latest word is that he has already been overtaken by Bong Go in most surveys, except that of WR Numero Research, where he
May 9, 2025