We beg to differ.
Sure. As Marrian Pio Roda Ching asserts in an Inquirer article, Jeffrey Laude’s “right” to be addressed by the alias “Jennifer” is all about his “right to identity and to self-determination” as stipulated in a certain body of work called the “Yogyakarta Principles” where Article 3 supposedly stipulates, that these assertions of “identity” constitute every…
The Philippines does not negotiate with terrorists. Or so we are told following the miraculous “rescue” of two German hostages Stefan Viktor Okonek and Henrike Dielen held by the Islamic terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. According to Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Rami, the ransom they demanded was paid. According to the Philippine Government no such ransom…
Turns out United States Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton is just 19 years old and graduated High School only last year. In a report published by the American news site South Coast Today, Pemberton is described by his uncle as “a really good kid” while a neighbour called him “a friendly person” and…
Within the mounting virtually national initiative to demonise not just United States Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton but the entire US military over the murder of Filipino transgender Jeffrey Laude, it is difficult to find any semlance of credibility among the noisiest of Filipino ‘activists’. The Philippines is home to one of the…
Read More “The hypocrisy in Filipinos’ anger towards US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton” »
One thing that the brouhaha over the murder of Jeffrey Laude (allegedly by Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton of the United States Marine Corps) revealed is that Filipino transgenders live in legal limbo in the Philippines. No less than the Philippine Supreme Court is reportedly “confused” over how to regard them. The publisher of…
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?” »
It’s that time of the year again when we celebrate that supposedly seminal event in Philippine history when, according to the local lore, the forces of evil (porportedly the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos) were vanquished by the forces of good (supposedly the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan). Marcos removed. Game over. The 1986 “People…
For all the feel-good news snippets we are receiving about the arrival of the Philippines’ newest warship, the 3,200-tonne BRP Ramon Alcaraz which joins the 3,400-tonne frigate BRP Gregorio del Pilar also acquired from the United States last year in patrolling disputed waters off Palawan, one cannot help ask a simple question: Can anyone really…
Read More “Do the Philippines and the ASEAN community have what it takes to deal with China?” »