Archive - Commentary

It’s been a long time coming: a Manila Mayor who is considered presidential timber.

Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who failed in his bid to return to the Senate in the just- concluded elections, called me up yesterday complaining of my description of him as “corruption-tainted.”

The recent midterm elections brought a lot of surprises. For me, the biggest surprise was the fall of the “House of Erap.”

A report by ABS-CBN’s Christian Esguerra said former President and former Manila mayor Joseph Estrada cannot understand why he lost the mayoralty race to Isko Moreno, whom he once promised to hand over the reins of the city after one term but later reneged.

Trust is supposed to be an essential element in an election.

Bluntly put, Filipino politicians tend to have very bad reputations. Greedy, thieving, dishonest, opportunistic, corrupt, callous, and self-interested are the adjectives that immediately come to mind.

Panelo should ask whoever gave him information which he used in his briefing last Wednesday to look for my column in Malaya on April 15 titled “Duterte regains upper hand in the battle of Narco lists.”

Nag-iba ng diskarte ang mga galamay ng Malacañang nang hindi kumagat ang kanilang palpak na “Oust Duterte plot”na may kasama pang katawa-tawa na matrix. Ang pinagdidiskitahan nila ngayon ay ang tulong na bigay ng mga mayayamang bansa o pribadong institusyon sa mga organisasyun sa mga bansa na hindi masyadong mayaman katulad ng Pilipinas.

As long as we have journalists like Felipe Salvosa II, the likes of Bobi Tiglao don’t matter.

A Filipino Consortium on Democracy and Information is holding its second national conference on April 22-23 at the University of the Philippines, BGC with the theme Disinformation and Democratic Decay:Why Deceptive Information Erodes Democratic Institutions.

After Bong Go, President Duterte’s former special assistant who is now one of the frontrunners in the senatorial race, did the humiliating act of undressing in front of the media and under the glare of TV cameras, to show his tattoo-less back, the question of those who were initially impressed with the first three episodes of “Ang totoong Narco list” is, what’s Bikoy going to say about this?

This is a classic case of Duterte getting a dose of his own medicine.

The Philippines has effectively occupied Pag-asa Island (international name:Thitu) since 1978 and has incorporated it as a municipality that is part of the Province of Palawan. There have been elections for the municipal officials of Pag-asa, and there will be elections there in May 2019 like in the rest of the archipelago. There are 400 voters in Pag-asa. Pag-asa has a land area of 37.2 hectares.

Graphika's Melanie Smith also said the large majority of the content shared by pages taken down was political in nature. “. In our categorization of content and narratives shared by the network, we found that 46.2 % of the pages shared content explicitly supporting President Duterte as a politician, and the second largest category (27.7%) shared news articles that paint the Duterte administration and the government writ large in a positive light.”

It is important to Duterte that Bong Go will be the senatorial contest topnotcher in the May 2016 election because he interprets it as the power of his endorsement which he thinks he can extend up to 2022.

“My office ‘s independent and impartial preliminary examination into the situation in the Philippines continues.”

Last 17 May 2018, the Philippines deposited with the United Nations its written notification of withdrawal from the Rome Statue on the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute). This is pursuant to Article 127 of the Rome Statute which also states that the withdrawal takes effect a year after.

Pres. Duterte was into his “I will kill you” element again during the PDP-Laban campaign rally at Negros Occidental last Friday. He was talking, as usual, about his campaign against illegal drugs.

In front of an impressionable audience, Pres. Duterte usually gets carried away with his story-telling and says things that are false and vulgar.

One of the reasons that will make the International Criminal Court decide to exercise jurisdiction over alleged extra-judicial killings committed under the Duterte administration is when they see that the government is “unable or unwilling” to prosecute the crimes. It is called the principle of complementarity.

The list of alleged CPP-NPA members prepared by unidentified sources delivered during an event last Friday in Cagayan de Oro reminds us that the old form of disinformation is still being done and it’s viciousness has not diminished a bit.

Early last week, fellow Malaya columnist JB Baylon posted this shout out in his Facebook wall: After DU30, Sarah Accept it. Sorry na lang for those who sucked up hoping for an endorsement. She’s the “term extension”

Jofti Villena, Project Manager of the Bloomberg Initiative for¬ Global Road Safety – Legal Development Programme (BIGRS-LDP)

Pres. Duterte is not lending his political clout to convicted plunderers Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla.