Archive - Commentary

In 1992, Imelda Marcos ran for the country’s top government position in the first presidential elections following the term of Cory Aquino.

Former senator Leila De Lima is a victim of disinformation, probably of the worst kind. It is sanctioned by the government, both the past and the present.

Ginipit ng mga kongresista na kakampi ni dating Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte ang ABS-CBN hanggang nagsara ito halos dalawang taon na ang nakaraan. Ngayon na bumabangon na muli ang dating higanteng TV network sa pamamagitan nitong investment agreement sa TV5, pumasok na naman ang mga kongresista para imbestigahan ang kasunduan. Resulta: hindi na itutuloy ang investment agreement. Bakit?

Darryl Yap, infamous director of the Imee Marcos-produced movie, Maid in Malacanang, has already announced it. Following the film’s fictionalization of the Marcos family’s 1986 escape to Hawaii that made it look like they were packing for a picnic, the next project will focus on Ninoy Aquino. Yap already has a title for the movie: Martyr or Murderer (MoM).

Leaders of both houses of Congress were too quick to assure speedy deliberations on the P5.268-trillion proposed national budget for 2023. But wait, a deputy speaker is questioning the lack of transparency in the first full-year spending program of the Marcos presidency.

Sa dinami-dami ng problemang hinaharap ng bansa, lalo na’t mas tumataas pa ang presyo ng mga bilihin, marami ang nainis sa mga nakitang litrato at video ni Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. na nagpa-party.

The procurement system will work only if public officials and employees, as well as private contractors and suppliers, are held to account for these serious deviations from the law.

During the long years of the Marcos regime, towns, schools and barangays were named after members of the dictator’s family. Marcos had no scruples about naming even a barangay after himself before he first set foot in Malacañang as president of the Republic.

Lumabag daw sa “Safe Spaces Act” ang isang reporter na nagko-cover sa Malacañang kaya hindi siya binigyan ng accreditation. Sapat ba itong dahilan para pagbawalan ang isang mamamahayag na gampanan ang kanyang trabaho?

It is significant to note that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. chose Indonesia as his first entry to the world stage first week of September.

Won't pursuit of independence collide with the supermajority's mantra of unity?

Pakinggan ang pangalawang komentaryo ng batikang mamamahayag na si Christian Esguerra para sa VERA Files.

“I came here because of my sincere conviction that the time had come to reverse the situation,” Fidel V. Ramos announced after breaking with the Marcos regime in February 1986.

Ilocanos are stereotyped as being kuripot (stingy with money). President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., an Ilocano, showed this side of him when he vetoed four bills approved by the previous Congress.

“We will not revise anything. All we will do is to also make known our side of the story,” Imee Marcos said in an ANC interview last June 1.

VERA Files welcomes Christian Esguerra, one of the credible journalists in the country today.

In a speech in Abra six years ago, then-vice presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. vowed that he would not follow in the footsteps of his father, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.

It keeps resurrecting – that phony graduation of Imee Marcos from the University of the Philippines.

Will the Marcoses ever repent their sins of accumulating ill-gotten wealth and corruption? Even with world opprobrium, they have not.

In my column last Monday on the last 24 hours of the Marcoses in Malacañang on Feb. 25, 1986, I shared the narration of the late colonel Arturo C. Aruiza, aide-de-camp of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in his book “From Malacañang to Makiki” about their problem when the heavily medicated chief executive could not remember the combination of the steel safe in his bedroom where important documents and valuables were stored. They had to leave the safe unopened.

Of the many new names gamely proposed by some readers for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in a bid to satirize the proposed bill of Congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr., MAFIA -- for Meldy and Ferdie International Airport -- was the most impressive.

Maria Ressa was convicted of the crime of libel for an article published on Feb. 19, 2014, which became the subject of a complaint filed on March 1, 2018. The complaint came four years and 10 days after the publication. The Court of Appeals ruled that the crime had not yet prescribed, citing Article 90, in relation to Article 25 of the Revised Penal Code (CA Decision p. 16-18). The Court of Appeals was guided by the Supreme Court First Division’s decision in the Wilbert Tolentino case.

If Marcos enacts the vape bill or allows it to become law by July 24, the "absurd situation" cited in the Supreme Court decision will happen.

I’m re-reading the book “Ferdinand E. Marcos, Malacañang to Makiki” by Col. Arturo C. Aruiza, who served as aide-de-camp and confidant of the late president for 21 years until the latter’s death in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1989.