Archive - Commentary

The Chinese misinformation campaign about the SCS Arbitration Award received a boost recently, with a claim now circulating wildly that the SCS Arbitration "abolished" PD 1596 and thereby erased the Philippines' claim to the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG). Supposedly, the Award has eliminated the Philippines' sovereignty and possession of the KIG. This is FALSE.

Five years after the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Award, there is renewed debate about how best to understand its impact on the Philippine claims to the Spratly Islands chain. A contentious point is the Arbitral Award’s effect on Presidential Decree 1596, issued by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1978.Recent government pronouncements on the Julian Felipe Reef question have staked continuing Philippine claim over the feature based on the Marcos decree.

She had a humble beginning that is the stuff of star-success tales.

In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte said, "I assure you, this will be a clean government... You know, ako makagarantiya (I can guarantee), 101% it will be clean."

That was the marvel of social media. Tomas “Buddy” Gomez III and I never had the pleasure of meeting, but we communicated fairly often to exchange views on the state of our country. Albeit separated by the Atlantic, we agreed to embark on what he had thought was a small but momentous mission of unfinished history.

It is an irony when Dumaguete city lands on the national consciousness, but for the wrong reasons.

It was a devastation that happened forty-seven years ago that today hardly flickers in the memories of many Filipinos. But as always, there are carriers of memories who are sustained by time despite the pain and the agony of remembering.

The bitter power struggle within the top leadership of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) should serve as a warning to voters about potential candidates who do not deserve to get elected.

Apart from unmasking the existence of the Davao Death Squad, self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato had also introduced the name of Arturo Lascañas. In the private interview he gave after Rodrigo Duterte had won the presidency in 2016, when he was no longer in the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program, Matobato described the dominance that Lascañas had enjoyed in the DDS hierarchy.

The Supreme Court has affirmed the life term meted out on employers Anna Liza and Reynold Marzan who had physically abused Bonita Baran, a housemaid from Catanduanes.

One faction in the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) claims there is a “huge clamor” for President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president in next year’s elections in order “to continue (his) agenda of change” and his administration’s 10-point economic program.

Former foreign secretary Roberto R. Romulo is supposed to take things easy for health reasons.