We beg to differ.
Talk of a “meeting” between Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte and former Senator and 2016 vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos is raging across social media. This follows a tweet issued by a media organisation known as SMNI News Channel. According to SMNI News as indicated in the above tweet, the meeting occurred Sunday, the…
For a political and social scientist, Professor Antonio Contreras surely is naive. But he can also be pragmatic when it comes to his own self-promotion. Borderline personality disorder? Maybe. In his Manila Times piece he rails against the “dirty politics” of these times… Popular culture has reinforced the image of politics as devoid of virtue….
Read More “Lack of a strong national identity makes for dog-eat-dog Philippine politics” »
Sinophobia and tobacco. Mareng Winnie throws everything at China. In her Inquirer column today “A victory for tobacco, a defeat for our children”, Monsod writes… Wasn’t China the source of the virus in the first place? Not only that, didn’t China try to cover up its virus situation in the second place? The virus, indeed,…
Read More “China is the “bad guy” whether it is about tobacco or the virus” »
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is the political equivalent of Dolphy whose comedic timing was impeccable — so unlike comedians of today who rely on their gender and insults to get laughs. The idea of Duterte as Vice President was first floated by Bong Go. It didn’t resonate with voters. Even the so-called “Duterte Die-hard Supporter”…
Read More “Inday Sara – Digong “Daughterte-Duterte” tandem puts 2022 in the bag for admin camp” »
So now journalists have to get their stories from Facebook posts. In her Inquirer report “Control of West PH Sea oil seen in takeover of Malampaya project”, Frances Mangosing uses a statement from a certain “security expert” named Jay Batongbacal as reference to highlight how a takeover of the Malampaya gas project by Dennis Uy’s…
The tangled web of the Philippine police and military which links the latter to criminal gangs and other lawless elements has long been whispered about specially in the provinces where it’s mostly an open secret. Friends who have close friends whose relatives are officers in the police and military establishments have informally confirmed these links….
If there is one big hurdle the Opposition face in their effort to put up a respectable challenge to the camp of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte over the months leading to the 2022 election, it would be coming up with a non-Yellowtard campaign. Thanks to several decades of the Yellow narrative (an entire political mythology…
Read More “How to build a non-Yellowtard Philippine Opposition” »
I don’t think there was a group of anti-vaxxers in the country pre-Covid like what they have in the Western countries. Anti-vaxxers came about because of the fiasco around dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, as I recall. I’ve written about why the government of former President Noynoy Aquino approved Dengvaxia even if it hadn’t undergone the last…