Archive - Top Stories

  By PATRICK KING PASCUAL REPORTING on the brutal murder of a 26-year-old transpinay (pinay transgender) Jennifer Laude by a United States Marine, Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, Saturday, one question in the minds of members of media aside from the details about the crime was what pronoun to use for Jennifer. Naomi Fontanos,

  By ITCHIE CRUZ-YAP THE people’s health is a nation’s wealth. The statistics on the state of health of Filipinos are something to be concerned about: For every 1,000 of Filipinos, about five will die every year. At a population of about 102,000,000 that means roughly 510,000 deaths annually. That is close to about 1,400

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WHILE we are riveted to the splendor of Hacienda Binay’s Kew Gardens and air-conditioned piggery, let us not forget Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima and his questionable acts as a public official. The public should be more vigilant of the Purisima case because no less than President Aquino is

  By DIANA G. MENDOZA EASIER international travel increases the threat of Ebola reaching the Philippines, public health experts warned in an Ebola Virus summit held Friday. “We cannot afford to be complacent about Ebola, “ warned Health Secretary Enrique Ona even as he assured that “The government has put enough resources to deal with

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS VICE President Jejomar Binay’s 350-hectare luxury estate is so stunning, stupefying and appalling he can kiss his 2016 presidential plans goodbye. The images shown of Binay’s sprawling property in Batangas during the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee assault many aspects of the ordinary citizens’ senses: sense of values,

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IS anyone surprised that Ninoy Aquino International Airport is once again the topnotcher in the list of worst airports in the world? The Sept. 30, 2014 post in the website Life Cheat Sheet said “Airports are often an essential and unavoidable part of traveling. Sometimes, you luck out and find

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE incident involving car model Alyzza Agustin and Police Chief Superintendent Alexander Ignacio is one example of something good coming out of a stupid act. God works in mysterious ways indeed. Last Sept. 28, Agustin, who apparently enjoys social media but does not comprehend it’s power and perils proudly posted

By Ellen T. Tordesillas President Aquino’s dogged defense of Police Chief Alan Purisima despite revelations of acts of irregularity and the public’s frustration over breakdown of law and order, have led many to ask what’s behind the closeness of the two. While in New York last week, Aquino described the PNP Chief as ““not capricious.”

By Ellen T. Tordesillas At last, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas numbers moved up. In a survey conducted by Pulse Asia, Roxas numbers almost doubled in a matter of two months. From seven percent last week of June, it jumped to 13 percent second week of September. What could be the factors that contributed to respondents

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS ALL these investigations on the alleged corruption of Vice President Jejomar Binay are primarily to level the playing field for the 2016 presidential elections. That’s because surveys showed that Binay is way, way ahead of other politicians who have ambitions to run for president in 2016. When Pulse Asia asked

    By MA. THERESA M. REYES PAUL Mascarinas had modest expectations when he was drafted last May to be steersman for the dragon boat team at De la Salle University (DLSU). He booked a flight to Malaysia convinced that his alma mater’s 22 paddlers, mostly competing in an international race for the first time

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS MARLENE Esperat, Gerry Ortega , Nilo Baculio, Romy Olea must be turning over in their graves now with President Aquino’s latest insult against murdered journalists just to defend his administration’s dismal record in putting a stop to the killing of journalists in the Philippines. In Brussels last Tuesday, Aquino was

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS I have lost track counting the number of somersaults that President Aquino and his spokesmen have performed on the issue of whether he wants to stay in Malacañang after his term ends on June 30, 2016. To save myself further aggravation, I decided to “like” President Aquino’s Facebook Page which was

By JAKE SORIANO ISTANBUL, Turkey—Children have become the new targets of cybercriminal activities over the last five years, with the online underground economy making a killing from selling inappropriate images of children on the Internet, a security expert said here. These pictures of children were found to sell for up to three-figure dollar amounts, said

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THIS will either make you laugh or cry. Last Monday over dinner, lawyer Ven Canta shared with us something that intrigued him while he was surfing at the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System or PhilGeps website. It was an Invitation to Bid Reference No. 2785628. The Procuring entity is the

By JAKE SORIANO ISTANBUL, Turkey—The Philippine government is a no-show here at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), the biggest global venue for discussions of all policy issues related to the complex business of governing the Web. Two officials from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) registered as participants, but both were unable to secure

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS SO far, these are the facts about Monday’s incident at the NAIA3: At around 1:45 a.m. last Monday, operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested three men assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDs) inside a parked white Toyota sport utility vehicle at the parking lot of Ninoy Aquino International Airport

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS TODAY’S fad is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. ALS stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis described in a website on ALS as “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WHAT’S wrong with working for a world where no one becomes a desaparecido? Apparently some people in India have a problem with that because Mary Aileen Diez Bacalso, secretary general of Asian Federation Against involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), was refused admission into India last Sunday and was sent back on the same

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS FACED with overwhelming opposition to a Charter Change to allow President Aquino to extend his term beyond 2016, Malacañang has backtracked and assured the public that he is not supporting changes in the Constitution in the last two years of his presidency. Press Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr and Deputy Presidential Spokesperson

   BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS HAD former President Cory Aquino not died on Aug. 1, 2009, her son, Benigno Aquino III would not be in Malacañang today. At the time of Cory’s death, nine months before the May 2010 presidential elections, Noynoy Aquino, who had an unremarkable record as legislator (9 years as representative of

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS       TAKE note that the Social Weather Stations survey showing a 16- point plunge in net satisfaction for the Aquino administration was conducted on June 27 – 30, 2014. From 45 percent last March, satisfaction for general performance of the Aquino administration dropped to 29 percent in the June survey. This

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE murderous Ampatuans must be enjoying the spectacle of the prosecutors in the Maguindanao massacre destroying each other. Atty. Nena Santos, representing 25 of the of the 58 who were killed in a massacre in a secluded hill in Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009, has alleged that government and fellow private

  By MYLAH REYES ROQUE TODAY, I write about the man I am married to but who I barely talk about or refer to in the social media – not that I actively engage in it in the first place. My friends know of course that my husband is the lawyer and law professor Harry

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE president of a national physicians organization is reminding the public to practice good hygiene as one of the measures to combat the Ebola virus currently sweeping West Africa. Tony Leachon, president of the Philippine College of Physicians and information director of the University of the Philippines-Manila, also urged the

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE P2.6 trillion 2015 budget submitted by Malacanang to Congress will institutionalize the practices in the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) which the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional. In the 2015 budget proposal, “savings” is now defined as portions of allocations that “have not been released or obligated” due to “discontinuance or

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS PRESIDENT Aquino asked Congress approval of a supplemental budget Malacanang is submitting in what many see as compliance to the Supreme Court ruling of the Disbursement Acceleration Program as unconstitutional, a departure from his earlier combative stance. In his 5th State of the Nation Address Monday, President Aquino said they had

  By ELLEN  T. TORDESILLAS THE speech of President Aquino during  75th anniversary of the Department of Budget and Management on April 25, 2011 has become relevant amid the controversy generated by the Disbursement Accelerated Program or DAP, the brainchild of Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad that got unqualified support from President Aquino. This is

  By NORMAN SISON Last July 1, the cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe revised its interpretation of the country’s pacifist constitution. Article 9 of the charter, imposed by the United States during its occupation of Japan after World War II, limits the Japanese military to a purely defensive role. Under its new policy

  By DIANA G. MENDOZA MELBOURNE – “I feel and sense that the Philippines may be the next Africa.” Dr. Jose Narciso Melchor Sescon, president of the AIDS Society of the Philippines (ASP), made this conclusion at the International AIDS Conference being held in this city after the Philippines figured prominently in the global forum