Archive - Commentary

If the Trump government gets away unsanctioned for the Jan. 3 attack of an independent country and the abduction of a sitting president, despicable he maybe, it would encourage country-bullies to do the same.

Ultimately, the true test will lie not in promises or procedures, but in implementation. How transparently the realigned funds are spent, and whether anti-corruption measures are enforced without fear or favor, will determine whether 2026 marks a break from the past, or merely another year haunted by ghost projects.

The Philippines should strengthen multilateral defense activities with like-minded countries because one never knows when the greatest deal maker in the world might just agree to something with China that sells the Philippines down the river.

The numbers and assurances alone do not sustain credibility. What the public now demands is consistency, urgency and unmistakable political will. Without them, the promise of accountability risks dissolving into yet another anticlimax, another corruption scandal that begins with fire and ends in smoke.

Vincenzo is fiction. The alleged plunder of public funds attributed to Co is not.Yet both point to the same enduring truth: there is no such thing as a permanent secret. No matter how deep the vault, how advanced the technology, or how powerful the people involved, the truth has a way of surfacing.

Unverified social media reports claim that Cabral had “11-digits” in cold cash, meaning at least 10 billion pesos. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla’s estimate is P20 billion.

If the 2026 budget is truly pork-free, then lawmakers should finally be liberated to do what the Constitution mandates: legislate.

Perhaps the most basic valid question we can ask from these Davao Occidental and La Union projects is this: What role do these Duterte supporters play in the corruption mess? Apologists can argue that this may be incidental, unintentional, unwitting.But here’s the crux: were these politicians investigated for corruption under the Duterte administration? There the answer is clear as day – No.

Restoring its funding is the right step, but it must also serve as a warning. Disaster preparedness cannot be switched on only after lives are lost and communities destroyed. It is a moral obligation of governance.

In his letter to the then Speaker Romualdez, Paolo said that the “expenditures incurred from this trip are from my personal funds alone.” That was the only disclosure he mentioned. Nowhere in his letter did he state the purpose of the trip. That's point No. 1: the trip is cloaked in secrecy even if it meant the traveller was using official leave from his government job. That alone is an ethical dilemma.

When viewed together, the legal stalling at The Hague and the coordinated political pressure at home reveal a strategy designed not only to shield the former president from accountability. The Duterte camp appears to be buying time as part of a broader gambit aimed at weakening the Marcos administration and clearing space for a Sara Duterte takeover before the ICC can weigh the evidence against her father.

Where is Sen. Bato Dela Rosa? Some say he is in the vicinity of Davao City and is protected by Jose Nelson “Tata” Sala. Who is Tata Sala?

Filipinos are tired of leaders who demand trust yet refuse transparency, who promise accountability yet shield their own, who speak of readiness yet offer no vision beyond survival and spite. If Sara Duterte insists she is "ready," the public has every right to ask: ready for what — another round of secrecy, showmanship and selective outrage?

Vice President Sara Duterte’s declaration of her readiness to assume the presidency is actually a desperate ploy to save herself. Seventy days from now (Nov. 27), she will again be a subject for impeachment.

He may be dead, but that doesn't mean we are done with Juan Ponce Enrile. In our hands lie the power to bequeath the real narrative of who he was: a butcher of the Marcos dictatorship, a beneficiary of the Marcos ill-gotten wealth, a predator of the country's tropical rainforest, a senator mired in the corruption of money that he never owned because it belonged to the state's coffers. Shame on Juan Ponce Enrile even at six feet below the ground.

"The flood control projects worth billions and billions of pesos could have saved so many lives if it had gone to our public hospitals, to PhilHealth benefits. It could have saved so many young children from dying of malnutrition."

Lucas Bersamin’s appointment as the 40th executive secretary of the Philippines in Sept. 2022 was rather met with raised eyebrows. That was because it was common perception that his record as associate justice, later as chief justice, of the Supreme Court was not only lackluster. It was rather associated with cases of partisan political origins.

Despite a Duterte destab strategy that is now clearly built to oust Marcos and install Duterte, the reality was that the INC was not going to have any of it. And so there they were, the Duterte loyalists, standing in the midst of the crowd in Luneta, silenced by the INC leadership. It was a sight to behold.