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BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS AGER Ontog, director-general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), who showed his lack of intelligence when he ordered the ban of Hongkong journalists who asked questions that displeased President Aquino during the 2013 summit of Asia Pacific Economic Conference in Bali, Indonesia, said he did not regret his order that

By JHESSET THRINA ENANO AND LUIS HIDALGO Nov. 23, 2009 was a dark day for journalists in the Philippines, and across the world. In a town called Ampatuan in Maguindanao, south of the Philippines, 58 people were gunned down and massacred by political warlords. Thirty-two were media workers who were present for an election coverage.

    By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS FIVE years ago, a crime so heinous was perpetrated by persons in authority, in a remote village in Maguindanao in Southwestern Mindanao. Fifty-eight persons lay dead after Andal Ampatuan, Jr., mayor of Datu Unsay town and his men were through with their shooting spree. He then asked for a

  By NORMAN SISON THINK of Spain and you will most likely think of bullfights, paella, jamon — and, of course, flamenco. The Spanish embassy in Manila delighted guests during its cent national day celebration with the performance of one of Spain’s most prominent artists in contemporary flamenco, Isabel Bayón, at Meralco Theatre. To the

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS I’M staggered by the justifications of Health Acting Secretary Janet Garin and Armed Forces Chief Gregorio Pio Catapang of their visit to the quarantined peacekeepers in Caballo Island in Cavite which Malacañang approves. Garin and Catapang have drawn flak for what many see as violation of the idea of quarantine. The

    By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS Photos by ACE ESMERALDA and ELLEN TORDESILLAS MANICANI  today hardly bears signs of the havoc wrought by supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) a year ago. Color is back on this 11.7-square-kilometer island of 3,000 people in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, which was a harrowing picture of destruction only 12 months

By JAKE SORIANO LONDON, United Kingdom—The Philippine government’s efforts to address modern slavery despite a lack of resources has placed it among the top three countries in Asia Pacific addressing the issue. The 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI) named the Philippines the No. 3 country in fighting modern slavery, after Australia and New Zealand. The GSI

  By NORMAN SISON   HONG KONG — Anywhere you look, the street has shades of yellow. Yellow ribbons are pinned on the lapels of passersby. They are on fences and lamp posts. Stickers with yellow ribbons printed on them are plastered on the steps of an elevated pedestrian walkway. But this is not a

  BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS AFTER Vice President Jejomar Binay backed out of the scheduled debate, which he himself suggested, with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, many asked if he is also reconsidering his announced presidential bid in 2016. Binay immediately shut down the idea re-assuring his allies that there is no backing out of his

  By YOLANDA L. PUNSALAN  RICE is the staple food for more than half the world’s population and one-fifth of the world’s population, more than one billion people, depend on rice cultivation for their livelihood. Such is the importance of rice to mankind. In the Philippines, November has been declared National Awareness Month to “heighten

  By PABLO A. TARIMAN BALLET has a freak history in the country even as Manila saw the world-famous Russian dance icon Anna Pavlova as early as 1922. While no one was looking, Russian dance teachers managed to find their way in Manila and in the provinces in the 40s which also saw the 1948

BY JAKE SORIANO WHEN President Benigno S. Aquino III delivered his inaugural address on live television in June 2010, he said people know how it feels to have a government that is “bulag at bingi.” Television screens had no insets for sign language interpreters then, and deaf Filipinos had to wait for the transcript of the

BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IT took only ten minutes under the chilly air at the lakeside garden in the suburb of Beijing to thaw the two-year frosty relationship between the Philippines and China. President Aquino and Chinese President Xi Jinping pulled aside during the tree-planting ceremony last Nov. 11 at at the Summer Garden of

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS NO one is really surprised that Vice President Jejomar Binay backed out of the Nov. 27 debate with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV which he himself suggested to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas. When the debate was starting to take a life of its own after he mentioned it

Text and video by LUZ RIMBAN VICTIMS of human rights abuses during the martial law years are rushing to beat the Nov. 10 deadline set by law for them to file claims against the government of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Victims and their relatives or survivors crowded the premises of the Virata Hall at the University

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS PRESIDENT Aquino today is in the lakeside resort in Yanqihu, 50 kilometers from Beijing, for the 22nd summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC. This is the first time that Aquino and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a chance for greetings more than just “hello” and “goodbye.” Aquino has

Text and photos by AVIGAIL M. OLARTE TACLOBAN CITY – On the bed is where she could end it, she thought. She’s 16, he’s six months old. Alyssa (not her real name) was sold for sex one night last year. On board a docked ship in Leyte, in a locked room, a Japanese repeatedly raped

   By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY  GIOLAGON TACLOBAN, Leyte –President Aquino marked the first anniversary of the super typhoon Yolanda (international name, Haiyan) one day earlier in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, where the typhoon made its first landfall early morning of Nov. 8, 2013. It was in Tacloban in Leyte that Yolanda wrought the most damage. Leyte residents