Archive - Commentary

National Literature Month has been celebrated in April in the Philippines for the last eight years, but its avid circle of devotees remains small.

Perhaps Duterte's defenders are well aware that it would be difficult to win the battle with the ICC legally, so they are trying to win over the public by engaging in disinformation and discrediting the ICC.

Sino dapat sisihin, 'yung ICC dahil pakailamero o 'yung ilang mga opisyal at pulitiko na puro pagsipsip at pagtatakip ang inaatupag? 

The legislators need to convince the public that their intention to amend the Constitution is truly for the country, not for their selfish motive to remove term limits and perpetuate their hold on power.

Maler, Trinidad, Rayby, Palmy, Vibur, Aguamina, Avertina, Azio, Verzo, Wintrop-Charis, Scolari – the Swiss bank accounts holder Jane Ryan had a knack for inventing swanky names to hide her identity.

Even if he doesn't want to be classified as a politician, Padilla should stop wasting precious money and time to push for Cha-cha… The Constitution is not the problem.

“Marcos Lies” is the most sprawling volume to ever come out that sets the facts straight under an era of severe disinformation the Marcoses have willfully curated to embellish their return to power.

More than four years after it has been uttered, the statement from the ever-fluctuating Harry Roque only confirms the frail government position on the ICC case of Rodrigo Duterte. Shooting from the hips as always, Roque said then that the Duterte complaint before the ICC has been disproven by the Caloocan city regional trial court’s verdict convicting three police killers for the murder of 17-year old Kian delos Santos.

Step 1: Simulan sa sariling bakuran. Pakinggan ang komentaryo ni Christian Esguerra ngayong linggo.

It was the period that anteceded martial law. At that time, the Marcos lust for eternal power was beginning to unravel. And it unraveled even if the dictator had to pull the puppet strings of the 1971 Constitutional Convention for all to see, without shame or remorse.

It is time to expand the Manila-centric narrative of the People Power Revolution beyond the confines of Metro Manila. The narrative we most often hear – that it took place only at the stretch of Edsa – is clearly deficient. It is time to vet that if we are to have a narrative that has the scope of national history.

While they were quick to defend Duterte et al. from being prosecuted, they were too slow in taking up the cudgels for the victims who are mostly from poor families. That does not give a picture of a well-functioning and independent judicial system.

By blocking the ICC probe through their legislative influence, aren't they putting the judicial system and Duterte's innocence in serious doubt? Therefore, the ICC probe becomes necessary.

Mas maganda kung may kasamang hustisya sa reconciliation. Pakinggan ang komentaryo ni Christian Esguerra ngayong linggo.

Defending the rights of those who have less in life does not justify breaching the rights of others, such as in the case of the UP professor and her former house helper.

On October 13, 1995, state parties meeting in Vienna, Austria agreed on what is known as the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. Since it was a treaty and which by United Nations procedure meant that each country would deposit its individual country consent at the UN headquarters in New York, the new protocol entered into force on July 30, 1998. As of 2018, 109 countries have deposited their consent.

Kailangan ba ni Rodrigo Duterte ang ganitong depensa? Akala ko ba handa niyang harapin ang ICC?

The assurance of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Feb. 2 that the Mutual Defense Treaty is applicable on the West Philippine Sea will be tested in Ayungin Shoal as Chinese ships become more determined to block any more attempts by the Philippine Navy to repair the dilapidated BRP Sierra Madre, which is holding out as a block to China’s expansionism in the South China Sea.

When I read news stories about PLDT's earnings running into billions of pesos year after year, I can't avoid the feeling of being robbed with consent.Can't the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) crack the whip on telcos to raise the level of competition for better service?

Thirty-seven years have passed and that question obstinately nags at our national psyche since the start of the recovery of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth in 1986.

We sometimes joke that a person who has difficulty comprehending or lacks common sense is iodine-deficient.

Suddenly the battle cry of the pro-Duterte apologists in government is sovereignty. No one cried sovereignty when the Senate of the Philippines ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on August 23, 2011. In fact, Senate Resolution 546 recommended the approval “without amendment.”

Oras na para panagutin ang mga promotor at nagpatupad ng drug war. Subaybayan ang komentaryo ni Christian Esguerra sa VERA Files ngayong linggo.

If you listen closely to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s strident reaction to the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resume the investigation into the killings related to Duterte’s war on drugs, he didn’t completely rule out allowing the ICC to come into the country.

Marcos appears to be much aware of the troubles in the agriculture sector, but his performance in the first seven months of his administration as DA secretary leaves much to be desired.

Sergio Osmeña Jr., then the mayor of Cebu, persuaded journalist Nestor Mata to spend the night in the city. “Stay behind, little one,” Serging said. “No, I am returning to cover the president,” replied the newspaperman who was covering the trip of President Ramon Magsaysay for the Philippine Herald.

The attendance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF) from Jan. 16 to 20 in Davos, Switzerland was the ultimate redemption for him and his family and a stinging rebuke to the Filipino people.

Since his "complete exit" from the Marcos government in September 2022, it now appears that the former executive secretary had left behind such a mess in the administration. It would have been more disastrous had he been allowed to stay on in the Marcos Cabinet.

Tama bang isakripisyo si De Lima para lang hindi magalit si Duterte? Ngayong linggo, pakinggan ang komentaryo ni Christian Esguerra sa VERA Files.

Whether they are spoofed or spammed in the lighter side of life, the hard reality is that the Marcoses’ association to plunder and theft has not allowed them to travel to just anywhere in the world. Or so we had thought.