By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS READING President Aquino’s speech before the 2015 graduates of the Philippine Military Academy last Sunday, I got the impression that he is isolated from the real world outside Malacañang. For how does one who has to suffer daily the monstrous Metro Manila traffic and the inefficiency of the MRT accept
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IT is not true that the Board of Inquiry did not try to ask the side of President Aquino on the Jan. 25 Mamasapano tragedy that claimed 67 lives including 44 of the country’s elite police commandos, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and five civilians, including an eight-year
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS It was President Aquino who informed Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang and the rest of the presidential party in Zamboanga on the Mamasapano debacle on Jan. 25, a source close to Malacañang said. That’s why in the hearings in the Senate
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THERE was something amusing in the narration of Mamasapano Mayor Tahirodin Benzar A. Ampatuan that reflects a trait common to many Filipinos. Mayor Ampatuan (yes, the Ampatuans of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre are still very much a force to reckon with
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS I hold President Aquino accountable for the death of 44 Special Action Force commandos but I don’t want him forced to shorten his term which is due to end on June 30 next year. I’m not joining calls for him to resign. I’m against a coup de’etat. I want him to
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS WEARING black arm bands emblazoned with “44”, apl.de.ap of the international hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas and one of the judges of The Voice PH, led the performance of one the group’s hits, “Where is the Love?” in last Sunday’s episode of the singing competition. The lyrics were sharply apt: “Overseas,
