We beg to differ.
Whether the victim was gay or straight, looks like a girl and is a girl, or looks like a girl but is really a man is really a non-issue, isn’t it? The case of Jeffrey Laude, a Filipino transgender found murdered in a hotel room in Olongapo city is really just that — a murder…
Read More “Was the murder of Jeffrey Laude in Olongapo a case of the ‘Crying Game’ syndrome?” »
Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos passed away in 1989 but seeing the way people are talking about him lately, it’s as if he is still alive today. This is evident in the way some members of mainstream media keep reliving the “horrors” of the Marcos years. There are quite a number of articles highlighting the…
Read More “Filipinos give Philippine history’s ‘bad’ guy a second look due to lack of progress” »
It helps to recall one of the tongue-in-cheek comments I heard when I was much younger: In Italy, they have the Mafia. In Japan, they have the Yakuza. In the Philippines, they have the national police! It shouldn’t be that hard to deduce that the above passage is referring to each country’s organized crime syndicate….
Read More “Unarrested: the decline of the Philippine National Police’s image and reputation” »
Traffic flow on Metro Manila’s main arteries is routinely being jammed by public utility buses loading and unloading indiscriminately in the middle of the road. This is one of the obvious problems plaguing the country that Filipinos are seemingly too stupid to do anything about. We tolerate public utility buses loading and unloading indiscriminately in…
Read More “Borderline criminal: Contribution of Manila’s public buses to traffic congestion” »
If it weren’t for all the “positive thinkers” that inhabit social media, one would see the reality for what it is: the Philippines is on the verge of anarchy. Perhaps it already is in a state of anarchy. But it is a strange kind of anarchy — one where the peace (by Third World standards…
Read More “Police chief Alan Purisima in utter denial of the Philippines’ crooked police force” »
Lol! Lesson for the day, don’t trust a ditz with your personally-autographed “privilege” cards. In the Philippines, it is common for motorists with connections with top military and police officials to have an autographed business card of one of these contacts tucked beside their drivers’ licenses in their wallet so that in the event that…
Read More “FHM Model Alyzza Agustin caught in ‘Please assist’ scandal!” »
I can understand the rage felt by those UP students who mobbed Department of Budget Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad in mid-September. The behaviour of these activists represent an explosion of pent-up anger over what many believe to be an astounding case of wholesale national thievery that will likely go unpunished. Abad is widely-regarded…
Read More “Question to activists: After resorting to violence against Sec Butch Abad, what next?” »
It doesn’t take much to remind Filipinos of their poverty. The problem, however, is that these reminders almost always have to come from external entities. And within this month alone we enjoyed the privilege of two stark reminders, Typhoon Mario and that Aegis Global viral video that the Philippine government is now desperately trying to…
Read More “Wretched Philippine-style poverty is actually quite normal” »