Archive - Commentary

The final shape of the 2025 budget will be a test of the Marcos administration's adherence to the principles of transparency and accountability and his declared policy of prudent spending. Can he pass the test?

Contrary to Romualdez's claim, Sonny Africa says the Congress-ratified spending program "doesn't really respond to the nation's social and economic needs while, unfortunately, favoring the pork of politicians and profits of the rich."

The date was Dec. 31, 2004. A shabu laboratory in Ulas, Davao city along the highway to Toril had just been raided. The raiding team was composed of agents from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) of Region XI led by its head Wilkins Villanueva.

The annual budget program, which is the single most important piece of legislation Congress scrutinizes and approves every year, has become a tool in aid of reelection, cunningly touted as pro-poor.

Self-confessed hitman Arturo Lascañas was in the car with another DDS operative to drive Vitaliano Aguirre around town. Aguirre told Lascañas how to counter the breaking news about the human skeletal remains (in Laud quarry). His damage control was to lie: “Tell them the bones belong to World War II burials.”

Were the threats to her life real? What evidence does she have to prove that Romualdez wanted her killed? Until when will this drama drag on?

Mark Taguba was convicted of a crime he did not commit. He is now 33 years old. He has already spent six years of his young life in jail.

Don't you feel discombobulated when you listen to any of the Dutertes? It's been over eight years since they became national political figures, and I can't get used to their tangled tales.

Why did BBM ask lawmakers not to push through with impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte? My guess is, Marcos is not sure if he has the numbers in the Senate to convict Duterte in an impeachment trial. Malacañang cannot afford to lose because impeachment rules allow only one impeachment proceedings against the same official within one year.

The burning question of the day was -- who is Zuleika Lopez? There was an attempt by this writer to write about her in the recent past. Immediately after the article was published, friends from Davao city began messaging me. All pointed to one detail that I had not written – Zuleika was more than just a chief of staff.

Duterte repeated her Oct. 18 statement that Marcos "does not know how to be a president." Had she asked herself if she knew how to be a vice president?

In the course of Duterte’s endless lying, sometimes his mind trips and he blurts out the truth, such as when he said during the quadcom hearing that it is not impossible for his bank accounts to now hold even P5 billion