Year: 2018

Filipinos have lost the right to be “shocked” about what happened to Boracay

March 22, 2018 benign0 13 Comments

Why all the chatter and private school “outrage” over Boracay all of a sudden? What is happening to the land of the annual chi-chi “#LABoracay” and all other hipster happenings that greet Imperial Manila denizens fleeing their parents’ Holy Week obligations have always been happening in the Philippines. It’s all part of Filipinos’ world-renowned Reverse…

Development, Environment

Facebook hears the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep

March 21, 2018 benign0 13 Comments

Facebook is currently in a world of trouble after news about how a chunk of data harvested off it was used by an analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate insights allegedly used to help current United States President Donald Trump win the elections in 2016. While many observers wonder whether this attention is due to…

Politics, Society, Tech Talk

Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is a source of REAL national pride

March 20, 2018 benign0 32 Comments

“Proud to be Pinoy” is an oft-heard phrase when it comes to world champion boxers and beauty pageant contestants. That’s because it makes perfect sense that the “winner” coming out of a couple of boys pounding one another silly on a ring or an array of girls strutting around in bikinis on a stage could…

Government, Media, Society

Janet Lim Napoles is worth more to Filipinos as a witness than as a jailed crook

March 19, 2018March 19, 2018 benign0 8 Comments

Screeching “activists” from the Philippine Opposition seem to be losing the plot. For them, the bigger outrage surrounding the persistent scourge of pork barrel politics in the Philippines is the recent placing of “Pork Queen” Janet Lim Napoles on a witness protection program by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The important aspect of the plot…

Crime, Politics

Are Yellows Even Capable of Arguing Intelligently?

March 17, 2018 Hector Gamboa 7 Comments

Let’s do a little bit of math. Take the total number of official state sanctioned extrajudicial killings under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Finished googling CHR, Human Rights Watch and Rappler figures yet? Great! Now take the number of Botox shots Kris Aquino takes “to get rid of her migranes”. Put the two figures…

Politics

Duterte is not a coward for quitting the ICC, he’s simply fighting the Philippines’ enemies

March 16, 2018March 16, 2018 Ilda 7 Comments

If there is one thing I learned from the impeachment trial of the late former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, it is the fact that there is no justice in this world unless you take matters into your own hands. I don’t mean you should buy a gun or hire an assassin; I mean…

Government, Politics

Do people really know who Stephen Hawking was?

March 16, 2018 benign0 8 Comments

Do we really know who Stephen Hawking was? We know what he looks like and that he contributed much to science. But asking exactly what he contributed will likely leave people scratching their heads. The tributes may pour in and the text string that represents his name may “trend” on social media. There’s even this…

Science, Tech Talk

The Philippines is now truly INDEPENDENT after pulling out from the International Criminal Court

March 15, 2018 benign0 11 Comments

It takes real guts not just to stand up to a former colonial master but also walk away from its comfy embrace. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte did just that. By withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC), he led Filipinos in demonstrating that they are willing to leave their comfy parents’ nest and fly off…

Culture, Government, Society