Over the years, lawmakers have mastered the art of bastardizing the budget, the most important piece of legislation that Congress passes every year. Based on how they mangled the 2023 to 2025 budgets, it would appear that the present crop of legislators has outdone all past congresses in terms of the enormity of the amount and degree of shamelessness in abusing their power of the purse.

Excerpt from a poem by Pablo Tariman: I like the peace that comes with the prospect of dying./ But when you die young you pause and think of the possibilities of a more fruitful life ahead./ Then and now, you learn to appreciate the long and short of a borrowed life.

A total of 250 sites scattered throughout the country exalting the “lineage and achievements” of the Marcoses have been catalogued by the project “Have we honored the Marcoses enough?” of the Third World Studies Center at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The project falls under the Marcos Research Regime program, which documents the permanent sites, structures, and objects commemorating the Marcos and Romualdez families.