Our taxes are working for them.
Category: Commentary
Hobbling along
The fall of socialist regimes and the restoration of capitalism in many countries in the 1990s provoked the view that the current stage of history is also its last. The adherents of the theory that liberal democracy is the pinnacle of political evolution are correct: individual freedom and self-rule are the prerogatives of all of humanity. But democracy has never been as imperiled as it is today by the tyrants who rule in its name. Despite the economic and social crises that afflict not only the poorest countries of the world but also the wealthiest, no alternative seems to be available, the only prospect being more of the same.
Will the government hear the people sing?
“We call on all the concerned sectors to stand together against the continuing wave of red-tagging and terrorist-labelling and to vigorously defend freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of association and the right to peaceably assemble.”
Peddling misinformation?
By ROBERT ELARDO
Why are the powers that be so afraid of our truth-telling?
This is prior restraint against protected speech. It is downright unacceptable as it is based on Esperon’s mere hearsay.
The independence they fought for
Independence of mind as well as of the Filipino nation that was yet to be was what Rizal, Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, and company wrote, fought and died for. And they are inextricably linked, the first being the essential condition for the achievement of the second.
A deeply ingrained militaristic mindset
Yesterday president-in-waiting Ferdinand Marcos Jr. named Juan Ponce Enrile as his presidential legal counsel. A key implementor during Marcos Sr.’s martial law dictatorship, Enrile figured prominently in the latter’s ouster by popular uprising in 1986. He still faces charges of plunder as former Senate president.
Media access and the right to know
The accreditation of bloggers that Marcos Junior’s choice for Press Secretary (she will also head the Presidential Communication Operations Office or PCOO) is planning is not new. It was also considered by her predecessor, but abandoned because of problems over which bloggers would join the Malacañang Press Corps in covering the President.
Martial law archives may be in danger
But this week, international attention has turned to the Philippines as Ferdinand Marcos Jr. prepares to become the country’s next president. Instead of stamping out reminders of tyranny, will there be a restoration? With an ousted dictator’s son taking power, will historical documents be destroyed? Will the memories of victims be forcibly erased?
A post-elections love note to friends
Dear friends, what will you do in the next six years?
To my daughter June and her friends who said I am sorry
But the combination of a campaign of historical distortion, vote buying, a Duterte-appointed COMELEC, red-tagging and relentless attacks on critics and opposition has created an election result that would bring a Marcos back to
Malacanang 50 years after the declaration of martial law.