The Interior Secretary’s proposal to spend ₱6 billion on a “comprehensive national ID system” supposedly to curb gun ownership is less a policy breakthrough than a familiar exercise in bureaucratic misdirection. It is difficult to treat such reasoning with seriousness. Firearm ownership in the Philippines is already among the most heavily documented civilian activities in…
photo: screengrab from PCO NO. Here’s the Truth. There is no law that totally prohibits public discussion of the President’s health—but there are legal and constitutional limits on how it’s discussed and what must be officially disclosed. Constitutional rule (very important) Under Article VII, Section 12 of the 1987 Constitution: “If the President suffers from…
Photo courtesy: Jay Tarriela, via Facebook. What exactly is PCG spokesperson Jay Tristan Tarriela trying to achieve by spewing distorted narratives, insults, and outright lies against China and President Xi Jinping—at a time when the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Tourism (DOT) are desperately working to approve e-visas and a two-week…
In a country where illness is already a sentence to poverty, the deliberate weakening of PhilHealth is nothing short of state-sponsored cruelty. While ordinary Filipinos line up in overcrowded public hospitals, beg for guarantees, borrow money for dialysis, chemotherapy, or emergency surgery, the government quietly starves the very institution meant to protect them. The numbers…
Let us stop pretending. Hindi ito tungkol sa “youth representation,” hindi ito tungkol sa “human rights,” at lalong hindi ito tungkol sa demokrasya. The hysterical outrage of the communist-led Makabayan bloc over the military action against Kabataan Partylist in the mountains of Mindoro only confirms what many Filipinos have long known: communism survives by deception,…
Former Senator Franklin Drilon pointed out a troubling and unprecedented development in the country’s budget process: a sitting President openly siding with one chamber of Congress during budget deliberations. The President’s statement favoring the restoration of the ₱45-billion cut from the DPWH budget goes beyond concern or preference. It constitutes direct intervention in a process…
What the nation is witnessing today is not governance—it is theater. A carefully staged political circus has been unleashed, not in pursuit of truth, but to divert public attention from what is shaping up to be one of the worst scandals in Philippine history under the current administration. Unable—or unwilling—to confront the growing evidence of…
Executive Secretary said “common sense” guided the decision to transfer ₱60 billion in PhilHealth funds to the National Treasury. Common sense daw. But let’s be brutally honest: calling it “common sense” does not make it wise—it only exposes how outrageous and irrational the move truly was. At a time when hospitals are collapsing, premiums are…
Just hours ago, 249 members of the House of Representatives voted to adopt the Ethics Committee’s recommendation to suspend Cavite 4th District Rep. Kiko Barzaga for 60 days—stripped of salary, stripped of allowances, and stripped, it seems, of the basic respect due to a member of Congress who dared to speak uncomfortable truths. Five lawmakers…
Photo courtesy: Zaldy Co facebook page The President recently announced the possible filing of plunder, anti-graft, and indirect bribery charges against Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Congressman Zaldy Co. At first glance, it appears that the government has had a sudden change of heart and is finally willing to pursue the “real culprits” of the…
