Archive - Commentary

The members and partners of the Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation strongly denounce the continuing harassment of Rappler editor Maria Ressa and the news organization she leads. Her arrest on February 13, 2019 is a betrayal of the guarantees of press freedom and freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution. More, its callous execution is an indictment of a weakened justice system; its devious grounds a dangerous fabrication that affects not just journalists, but everyone.

Next month, March 17, the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute, the founding treaty for the International Criminal Court, will take effect- one year after the Duterte government deposited its official notification with the United Nations Secretary-General in New York.

At the “Democracy and Disinformation” conference at the University of the Philippines Baguio, this curiosity-seeker came away with her “old-fashioned” views reinforced on the vital role of fact-checking in combating the spread of fake news in print and broadcast media, and more so in social media.

Just when we thought he was looking better with the dark blotches on his face gone (courtesy of Honeylet’s facial cream?), the President’s health condition once again returned to the front page when he didn’t show up in the Barangay Summit on Peace and Order in Palo, Leyte on Friday, the first day of February.

Last week, The House of Representatives adopted a Resolution that would make it extremely difficult to get a copy of the members’ Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s vituperation against the Roman Catholic Church is unprecedented in recent Philippine political history. Not even the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s record matches it.Yet, in a predominantly Catholic country, his outrageous display of irreligiosity appears to perturb only a few.

Many of us have resigned to our fate of having Duterte as president until June 30, 2022. We will survive, we tell ourselves. But not many of our children.

Take note at how Gloria Arroyo, speaker of the House of Representatives, maneuvered on the controversial bill lowering the minimum age of criminal liability from age 15 which is in the existing law to originally, nine years old and finally 12.

Across Ben Thanh market in Ho Chi Minh city, at a street corner, a little boy about seven or eight years old was lying on a spread out carton box material reading a comic book. With him was an old woman slicing mushrooms. At the feet of the boy was a dog dressed in red.