Archive - Commentary

President Rodrigo Duterte's "surprise" announcement last Saturday of his retirement from politics should have been a welcome move. Strangely, many do not believe him, suspecting that this could be part of a scheme to convince his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, to run for president.

The execution was macabre and bloody. The man had readily confessed he was a Japanese collaborator.

Filipinos have been using the phrases "never forget" and "never again" more frequently nowadays, not only to express disapproval of martial law-like proposals and the attempts of the Marcoses to reclaim Malacañang.

The still rising number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections may be a perfect excuse to call for resetting the date of the May 9, 2022 elections but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has consistently warned against it.

It was the screaming headline of September 8, 2015: Duterte drops out of presidential race.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee appears to have struck the big issue to prove that the Duterte administration's fight against corruption is a farce. And President Rodrigo Duterte's efforts to discredit the Senate probers indicate that the Palace is in panic mode, attempting to abort a deeper investigation into the P8.7-billion procurement contract with a company with "questionable" qualifications.

On September 16, 2018, Rodrigo Duterte and his cabinet paid a visit to Laoag city, supposedly to check on the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Ompong. Ilocos Norte was one of the provinces in the north under a state of calamity.

In the early months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, President Rodrigo Duterte likened corruption and ineptitude to "snatching food from the mouths of babes."

The problem with sourcing information from Davao city is that it always leads to a request for anonymity.

Paying the benefits on time is the least the government can do to show its appreciation and recognition of their being "pandemic heroes."

We go by the norms of the Duterte playbook before each election that repeats two contrasting refrains: “I will run” and “I will not run.”

If the five-minute music video that Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo uploaded on his YouTube channel on Aug. 13 was meant to launch his campaign for a seat in the Senate in the May 2022 elections, then he should just forget about it if he is to cut his losses.