We beg to differ.
The brouhaha at the Department of Budget Management (DBM) caused by Senator Bong Go’s protégé Christopher Lao, former Undersecretary at the Presidential Management Staff–Office of the Special Assistant to the President, has brought to fore the issue of how political patronage and the bureaucracy contribute to the culture of corruption in government. It’s not wise…
The bigger news yesterday was Sen. Ping Lacson resigning as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Per the resignation letter he sent to Senate President Tito Sotto, he resigned because he wanted to have more time to scrutinize the proposed 2022 National Budget. Lacson has become the scourge of pork-loving legislators ever since he was…
People should get a grip over this recent measles “outbreak”. Partisan camps and social media “influencers” have been polarised between just two camps — (1) the Department of Health (DOH) headed by Sec. Francisco Duque who have been asserting that “low vaccine coverage because of the Dengvaxia scare” is behind this outbreak and (2) the…
There is much irony surrounding the whole circus over the “indecent” video, allegedly of Filipino teen star Andrea Brillantes, that went “viral” last week. On one hand are the justice crusaders calling people to respect the privacy of Brillantes (who, as of this writing remains tight-lipped). Echoing the sentiment of civil society, veteran journalist Elizabeth…
Read More “Life lessons Andrea Brillantes could learn from fellow actress Maria Ozawa” »
The Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) is a fund created by the administration of Philippine President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III that serves as a vehicle for transferring unused appropriations from one project to another. It has since been deemed unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court because it was ruled that the President does not have…
Read More “4 memes that illustrate all the wrong arguments about the #DAP” »
As my colleague Ilda pointed out, Filipinos seem to be averse to speaking out. This may seem to be a counterintuitive assertion to make, given how Filipinos pride themselves with a tradition of flamboyant political activism, tacky spectacle in the way they practice freedom of speech in their mass media, and voluminous undifferentiated chatter in…
Read More “Filipino viral videos: mere modern symptoms of a very old cultural dysfunction” »
Following another viral video circus, this time involving Ms Paula Jamie ‘Amalayer’ Salvosa, we find an emerging pattern in the sorts of “scandals” that Filipinos tend to salivate over. A common denominator underlying these is a perverse fascination with the hilarious gaffes Filipinos routinely deliver in their on-going clumsy effort to use the language of…
The other day, I got pulled over for turning into a U-turn slot on Metro Manila’s Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) at a time when I shouldn’t have. Unlike Chris Lao, however, I was in no position to go around stomping my feet claiming that I was not informed. There were signs leading to…
Read More “Metro Manila’s EDSA: laboratory of Filipino dysfunction” »