By Herbert Vego PROBABLY for fear of being “outdone” by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), Pulse Asia has upped President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval rating to 91 percent in a nationwide survey conducted kuno from September 14 to 20, 2020. As if that were not good enough, only five percent allegedly disapproved and another five declined to
October 7, 2020
By Herbert Vego A FEW days ago, I woke up feeling unusually dizzy. My neck was in pain. It took a few minutes before I managed to sit up with my head propped up against the wall. I reached for my blood-pressure monitor. The reading was a high 156/106. I, therefore, gulped my medicine,
October 5, 2020
By Herbert L. Vego DOES Antique Congresswoman Loren Legarda intend to go back to the Senate? When we asked our friend and political analyst Joe Escartin about it, he expressed no doubt about her winning in the 2022 senatorial race. There was a tinge of lament that showed through Joe’s face, though, believing that
October 2, 2020
By Herbert Vego “PECO is no longer a problem. We are now concentrating on our three-year modernization plan budgeted at P1.9 billion.” That was what Jonathan Cabrera – PR man of MORE Electric and Power Corp. –told us over coffee at Hotel del Rio, obviously referring to the past power distributor in Iloilo City,
September 30, 2020
By Herbert L. Vego THIS nonagenarian Danish friend of mine has decided to spend the rest of his life with his Filipina wife in their farm home, where he recently celebrated his 93rd birthday the COVID-19 way – that is, with very few guests, . Henning Blegvad and his Filipina better-half, the former Melanie Estrada, are
September 28, 2020
By Herbert Vego “CLOSE open, close open, close open…” The words come out from a mother who is closing and opening her infant’s hand. It’s an action-and-word way she teaches her child an ability. That is also how the government has influenced us. But it’s no fun seeing business establishments bleed while heeding “close-open” in
September 25, 2020
By Herbert Vego THEORIES about the COVID-19 pandemic as a man-made biological weapon persist. One of them directly alludes to “collaboration” between the World Health Organization (WHO) and China. Indeed, there have been times when United States President Donald Trump held his Chinese counterpart Xi Jin Ping liable. But some of his own people
September 23, 2020
By Herbert Vego TODAY marks the 48th year since the late President Ferdinand Marcos supposedly signed Proclamation 1081, placing the Philippines under martial law. I was 22 years old and newly-married at that time, and working as a newspaper reporter and ghostwriter for an entertainment columnist in Manila. If I remember right, it was not
September 21, 2020
By Herbert Vego “Sa paghahangad ng kagitna, isang salop ang nawala.” The quoted Filipino adage may be literally translated, “In craving for a half, one ganta has disappeared.” It reminds us of the fate of the once-mighty Panay Electric Co. (PECO) which, for 96 years, had lit up Iloilo City as sole energy purveyor
September 18, 2020
By Herbert Vego THERE is no doubt that Panay Electric Company (PECO) is desperately trying hard to grab back from More Power and Electric Corp. (MORE Power) the power-distribution franchise in Iloilo City, citing the opinion of Dean Antonio La Viña of the Ateneo School of Governance interpreting the takeover as “confiscation of private property.” PECO’s
September 16, 2020
By Herbert Vego YOU must have read various “conspiracy stories” calling the COVID-19 pandemic a “biological weapon”. One says that the coronavirus was “man-made in China, aimed at subjugating the world.” Another pinpoints American billionaire Bill Gates as a “conspirator” who stands to profit from the virus. He has put up a $300 million
September 14, 2020
By Herbert Vego DURING our radio program “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo last Sunday, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, reiterated his wish that through proper observance of health protocols, we would flatten the COVID-19 curve and return to the real normal. Well, who wants the impersonal “new normal” where everybody shies away from everybody –
September 11, 2020