Category: Culture

Filipinos can overcome ‘fake news’ by developing more CURIOSITY #FactsMatterPH

November 28, 2017 benign0 11 Comments

Indeed, Filipinos need to be reminded that “facts matter”. That’s because Filipinos were not raised at home nor trained in school to build factual bases for what they believe in. In most cases, Filipino kids are told what to think rather than taught how to think. It is challenging too considering that Philippine society is…

Culture, Media

Filipinos, get 100% behind your Army and prepare to CRUSH the terrorist New People’s Army!

November 24, 2017May 13, 2021 benign0 25 Comments

Now that the Philippine government will be in an “all-out” war against the New People’s Army (NPA), the terrorist arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines, it is worth exploring some lessones learnt from the recent war that liberated Marawi City from similar terrorist elements. To be sure, a war against the NPA will…

Culture, Government, Media

The REAL Cocoy Dayao: A cautionary tale about a person who hung out with the wrong crowd

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 benign0 6 Comments

I knew Cocoy Dayao back when he wrote for his own blog Big Mango in the early- to mid-2000s. Back then, a healthy respect for Yellowtardism still pervaded the political discourse, but there was, even then, a growing skepticism surrounding what was perceived to be a disturbing trend towards extra-constitutionally changing duly-elected leaders (a.k.a. “people…

Culture, Politics

Duterte’s ‘revolutionary government’: Just another POLITICAL solution that will fail

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 benign0 16 Comments

‘Revolutionary’ governments have been a Filipino obsession since 1898 when the first such government was supposedly established by Emilio Aguinaldo to mark the Philippines’ so-called “independence” from Spain. Several “revolutions” later, including the recent 1986 EDSA “revolution”, Filipinos continue to pin their hopes on the anticipated revolutionary outcomes of these revolutions. What makes revolutions so…

Culture, Politics

Alleged human rights abuses of Duterte gov’t a non-issue at the #ASEAN2017 Summit in Manila

November 16, 2017November 16, 2017 Ilda 7 Comments

Are there human rights abuses in the Philippines? That’s like asking the question ‘Is the Pope Catholic?’ Of course there are human rights abuses in the Philippines. They are not only perpetrated by members of the police or government forces; they are also perpetrated by regular Filipinos against their own compatriots. This is evident in…

Culture, Development

Duterte has won Filipinos so much respect that the Yellows can no longer hope for reelection

November 16, 2017 zaxx 12 Comments

The recent media attention on the APEC and ASEAN summits has been a welcome reprieve from all the relentless energy- and time-wasting Senate investigations and hearings that front-page-hungry grandstanding lawmakers and politicians have been battering us with all year round. At least we get a break to see our president with the biggest who’s who…

Culture, Politics

Justin Trudeau’s Jollibee visit ‘staged’ but a winner just the same

November 13, 2017November 13, 2017 benign0 10 Comments

What is really amazing about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s brief visit to a Jollibee restaurant shortly after landing on Clark Field for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Manila is that some Filipinos would actually consider the possibility that this visit was a genuinely candid spur-of-the-moment decision on Trudeau’s part. It…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Society

Ph Opposition commentary on #ASEAN2017 fails to pass standards of INTELLIGENT discourse

November 13, 2017 benign0 5 Comments

True to form, self-described critics of the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have taken positions, presumably over the duration of this year’s summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) hosted in Manila, to aim their sniper scopes at the events. As snipers would do, they are putting every quip, gesture, and nuance…

Culture, Politics, Society