QUESTION EVERYTHING Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Aside from being sexual and social animals, we are also ‘helping’ beings. Giving aid to a neighbor in need is considered an ethical duty. Volunteering in charity houses, community shelters, and churches once in a while is equated with doing good. We honor individuals and groups whose mission is to…
Category: Commentary
Insurance, pre-need scam: A public-private partnership
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last week’s column discussed three parallels between the much-condemned pork-barrel scam and the unjust/unfair treatment, via varied schemes, by certain insurance and pre-need companies of their policy/plan holders. Both scams deal with public money, both bare the selfishness and greed of the parties involved,…
Bureaucrat capitalism
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld Why is it few were truly surprised that Janet Lim Napoles, prime but wily fugitive in the pork barrel scandal, would have not only the cunning but also the ability to arrange her “surrender” to no less than the President of the Republic. Is this in exchange for much…
Casualties of ‘pork’
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld Together with Congress, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are among the emerging casualties of the pork barrel outrage, which involves the loss of billions in public funds through, among other subterfuges, non-existent and/or non-functioning NGOs. As in the case of the party list system, it’s one more demonstration of…
Damage control, twisted logic
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat Perspective | Bulatlat.com The August 26 Luneta protest activity attended by tens to hundreds of thousands from all walks of life has jolted the Aquino administration. It is now in a quandary on what to do with the pork barrel, which it is trying to repackage, and how to save its…
Parallels: Pork barrel, insurance, pre-need scams
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star This column’s August 17 piece (“Insurance Commission remiss in regulating pre-need firms”) has elicited more reader reactions. Let me cite just two: • Leah Valientes rails against the Philippine Prudential Life Insurance Co., owned by the family of the late “businessman-philanthropist” Daniel L. Mercado…
Out of context
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld One of the great mysteries of life in these 7,000 islands is how and why people who haven’t seen the inside of a library or even read a book in their entire lives, and who think that the last word on anything is Google search, can hold…
False Transparency
QUESTION EVERYTHING By Mong Palatino Bulatlat.com Beware of politicians who like to insert the keywords ‘transparency’ and ‘good governance’ in their speeches. They are the same people who also use deceptive slogans such as ‘sustainable economy’ and ‘inclusive growth’ to justify the imposition of anti-poor economic policies. These are agreeable political concepts – who would…
Pardon me, your lard is showing
By BENJIE OLIVEROS Bulatlat.com President Benigno Aquino III finally blinked: he ordered a suspension of releases of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) pending the results of the investigation on the pork barrel scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles, and government officials, from both Congress and line agencies. President Aquino could no longer keep defending the pork…
Estrada’s ‘Magna Carta’ bill
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld In response to, among other media issues, the continuing killing of journalists — 130 so far killed in the line of duty since 1986 and 16 since Benigno Aquino III became President in 2010 — Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada has re-filed the “Magna Carta for Journalists” bill…
Lutong makaw
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The negotiations between the Philippine and US governments is just on its first round but the results are already predictable since both sides are saying exactly the same thing about the whys and wherefores of this new “framework agreement” to supposedly lay down “general parameters and principles to guide…