By Herbert Vego DURING a coffee talk with broadcaster Jun Capulot, I asked him why many food-supplement manufacturers advertise their products in his radio and video programs. “It pays,” he said. “Their advertised products sell like hotcakes.” I could only agree. Otherwise, why would his advertisers persevere? That makes sense especially in the time of Covid-19,
August 16, 2021
By Herbert Vego I recently paid a visit to an ophthalmologist for check-up. My eyes, I complained, had gone dysfunctional. I could not read and write for an hour without straining them. Without my eyeglasses, I could no longer recognize familiar people. She seemed surprised to know that I had not stopped writing for a
August 13, 2021
By Herbert Vego “PATIBONG!” In that one Tagalog word did Manila-based broadcaster Percy Lapid (DWBL) describe the “sure unification formula” as a trap foisted by Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to Vice President Leni Robredo, who has still not decided on running for President in 2022. Lacson, a presidential contender himself, unwittingly alluded to the “trap”
August 11, 2021
By Herbert Vego CONGRESSWOMAN Stella Luz Quimbo (2nd District, Marikina City) seems more alarmed by the OCTA Research than by the Delta variation of the Covid-19. She is alarmed by OCTA’s published “warnings” predicting thousands Delta victims surging this month of August. The team identifies itself as an organization at the University of the Philippines
August 9, 2021
By Herbert Vego BETTER late than never is how I see the House of Representatives’ Resolution No. 2075, which seeks to probe the “mandate” of a supposedly independent OCTA Research. The five legislators behind the resolution – Sharon Garin, Kristine Meehan, Stella Luz Quimbo, Bernadette Herrera and Jesus Suntay – wonder why the group seems
August 6, 2021
By Herbert Vego THERE’S more than meets the eye to the courtesy call of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang on Thursday (July 29). It was not just a getting-to-know-you visit. He had a mission – to prevail upon Duterte to revoke his unilateral termination of the Visiting Forces
August 4, 2021
By Herbert Vego WHY do the words “graft” and “corruption” go together as if it were a singular word in exposing the evils in government? Graft, according to the dictionary, means the acquisition of money or any other material gain in dishonest or questionable ways. It is the exploitation of others for personal gain or
August 2, 2021
By Herbert Vego THE Department of Health (DOH) has asked the smokers anew to stop the vice that could weaken the lungs and make them more susceptible to respiratory disease, including Covid-19. To quote DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III, “More people will be spared from smoking-related diseases and government’s spending for these diseases will be
July 30, 2021
By Herbert Vego IT could have been a boring Monday afternoon. Following a nearly three-hour State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Duterte that was almost a rehash of broken promises made in previous SONAs, something else popped up on the TV screen. “Flash report,” a TV personality interrupted his fellow hosts in a
July 28, 2021
By Herbert Vego THERE’S always a way to cope with bad weather. As a senior citizen, I opted to curl up in bed early yesterday morning while hearing the news updates on typhoon Fabian (international name: In-fa) still battering the country even while on the way out. A storm surge had inundated scores of seaside
July 26, 2021
By Herbert Vego DESPITE the pandemic, MORE Electric and Power Corporation is giving its customers in Iloilo City a prize – lower price of electricity starting the present month of July. Residential consumers would henceforth be billed an average of only P6.45 per kilowatt-hour – plummeting from the ten-peso June rate for a big savings
July 23, 2021
By Herbert Vego ‘VERY funny,” said Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao on the air last Friday. She was responding to a broadcaster’s insinuation that the National Inter-Agency Task Force NIATF) had tightened Iloilo’s (both city and province) lockdown status from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) because of two cases of Covid-19’s Delta variant
July 21, 2021