We beg to differ.
Metro Manila is a dump. And it is getting worse, not better. The city is being crushed under the weight of its own success as a magnet for domestic migrants looking for jobs the Philippines’ barren hinterlands cannot provide. But why is Metro Manila, the Philippines’ premiere economic and cultural centre, not improving? Not only…
The mounting desperation of the average Metro Manila commuter is becoming so palpable you can taste it in the air every morning when you come out the door of your home and face the hard slog to work. It is utterly depressing to face a day where the first thing you will be experiencing is…
Read More “Traffic has sentenced every Metro Manila resident to prison time befitting murderers” »
“Never again.” It is a call to remind Filipinos that the “horrors” of the Martial Law years of the 1970s should never happen again; that we should be vigilant and always say “No” to dictators, another Martial Law, and, of course, another Marcos in power. The times, however, have all but made that slogan a…
Read More “Noynoy Aquino needs to be reminded: ‘Never again’” »
Pork Barrel, the primary feature and, to many Filipino politicians, the whole point of Philippine politics is not dead yet. It remains alive, despite the crushing of its two biggest motherlodes, the so-called Prioritiy Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). The embryo for the new pork is already baked into the…
Read More “Pork Barrel has evolved from PDAF and DAP into something that is yet-to-be-named” »
A Fitting Testament To Myopic, Parochial, and Political Economy Based National Planning According to the grape vine, all plans to add to or expand the reclaimed area in Manila Bay seems to be ‘dead in the water’ — literally. I didn’t believe the pronouncements of the demise of any and all Manila Bay reclamation projects…
Sometimes talking to some people is like talking to a brick wall. Wait…I take that statement back. Sometimes talking to a brick wall is better than talking to some people. At least you don’t expect anything from a brick wall. Take the case of some staunch Aquino supporters. They are calling for an extension on…
Read More “PNoy’s supporters are preventing the Philippines from moving forward” »
There is a world of difference between (1) making a quick visit to the Philippines, and beholding all the usual stock-standard confronting sights of impoverished Filipinos “bravely” scraping together a living and (2) growing up in the Philippines, and experiencing that poverty (either as a part of it or as an observer) everyday for many…
The whole thing started in a televised address to the public delivered by Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III on the 14th July to defend his Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) after it was ruled unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court (SC). Today, the effects of President BS Aquino’s attack on the SC as part…