By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Among the myriad problems that must be addressed in the national and international efforts to hasten recovery from the devastation left by typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda — and to do it right — an important aspect should be included: land rights for the poor. This suggestion…
Category: Commentary
Dirty power players
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld Before Christmas last year, the Manila Electric Company or Meralco, the Philippines’ largest distributor of electrical power with a franchise for 22 cities and 89 municipalities, including the whole of the National Capital Region, tried to pull a fast one over its more than five million consumers. It announced…
What police reform?
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld “The explosion in violence and drug-trafficking related crime… over the past decade has exposed some ugly truths about the nation’s public security institutions. Municipal and state police regularly lack sufficient resources and often rely on outdated equipment. Amongst the lowest paid public servants in the country, police…
Corruption: here to stay?
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat perspective It has been more than three years since Benigno Aquino III promised to stamp out corruption upon assuming the presidency. Actually, among the promises that Aquino made during the presidential campaign and his inaugural address – which include to stamp out corruption and work for good governance, to ensure transparency…
Inspiring stories of 2013
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Last part of four series First part | 13 natural and man-made disasters of 2013 Second part | ‘We Should Legalize Everything’ and Other Shocking Sound Bites of 2013 Third part | ‘Wrecking Ball’ and other objects that made news in 2013 Despite the calamities that brought unprecedented devastation in…
Inequality blurs global economic recovery
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star A tempered sense of euphoria, spurred by developments in the US economy (the world’s largest, with gross domestic product at $16.245 trillion), qualifies the assessment that the global economy’s growth would pick up in 2014 and “finally overcome its hangover” from the 2008 financial-economic…
Alarm bells for 2014
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld 2013 is past; 2014 is here. Ideally each New Year should be met with great enthusiasm, optimism and anticipation of good, if not better, things to come. Or so most of us can only hope. But the reality in this country is that injustice does not get righted nor…
Bunkhouse bunk
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld If the destruction wrought by typhoon Yolanda had a positive side, it was the opportunity it offered to rebuild the shattered communities of the Visayas into habitats that would not only provide poorer residents adequate shelter but also protect them from the calamities that regularly strike these…
Starting the New Year 2014…wrong
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat perspective Filipinos have this superstition that one has to start the new year right because that would reflect on his or her fortune for the rest of the year. This is why deaths, illnesses, quarrels, having no money at the beginning of the year spell doom for the unlucky one. If…
‘Wrecking Ball’ and other objects that made news in 2013
QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Third part of four series First part | 13 natural and man-made disasters of 2013 Second part | ‘We Should Legalize Everything’ and Other Shocking Sound Bites of 2013 1. Martilyo. Robbers belonging to the ‘Martilyo Gang’ used a hammer and crowbar to rob jewelry shops in SM North Edsa,…
2013: Unmasking BS Aquino
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | Business World Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (BS Aquino for short), the non-performing Congressman representing the Cojuangco-Aquino clan’s fiefdom in the second district of Tarlac, parlayed a senatorial seat then the presidency of the Philippines by riding the crest of the anti-Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sentiment and donning the Aquino mystique derived…