Archive - Commentary

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE May 2016 elections is now more fun with the entry of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the race. Last Monday, Duterte, after months of flip flopping – even writing an open letter last Oct. 12 saying, “The country does not need me” – he declared last weekend in

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario’s dogged determination to pursue the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea dispute through the rule of law has proven his approach correct. The court ruled that the case was “properly constituted” under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, that China’s “non-appearance” (i.e., refusal to participate) did not

LOOKING at the almost 300- year-old Philippine map by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde which businessman Mel Velarde acquired for P12 million in an auction in London last year, one can see that the Jesuit priest is a great storyteller.

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS LONG before China built lighthouses in reefs they are occupying in the disputed Spratlys, the Philippine government under President Fidel Ramos had planned to build lighthouses in Reed Bank and two other reefs but inter-government wrangling over money stalled the project until it was overtaken by events. Last Tuesday, China announced