By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS I take him seriously because the president of the Republic of the Philippines is so powerful that with a stroke of a pen, he can save a life or send the nation to war. Last Tuesday, President Duterte threatened to declare martial law. “ Please, ‘wag mo akong… hindi ako
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS DO you feel sick watching daily images on TV and newspapers of people killed, lying lifeless on the sidewalks covered with newspapers or plastic with only their dirty feet and worn-out rubber slippers seen? And of course near the corpse, the cardboard sign “Drug pusher ako, huwag tularan”, which has now
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS A drug user who is rich is not necessarily a pusher because he has the money to buy the illegal substance. But if the drug user is poor, he is also a pusher. That’s according to President Duterte. In the President’s meeting with soldiers and policemen in Camp Nakar
BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS Now I see how astute President Duterte is. He can appear to be assuring you of his trust and confidence while actually cutting your neck. That was what his July 19 video statement released by Malacañang on the status of Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. showed. In the video, a very
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS ON June 30, President Benigno Aquino III steps down as the 15th president of the Philippines and Rodrigo R. Duterte becomes the 16th president of the Philippines. From now on, every pronouncement of Duterte will be official. If he curses, every putang ina will have the stamp of the presidency.
By CHARMAINE DEOGRACIAS WASHINGTON DC – Incoming Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is not expected to swing to China’s side opposite of the United States but will instead place the country in between the two big powers, foreign policy and defense experts said in an Asia Pacific Foreign Policy and Defense Seminar at the East
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS A video of the exchange between Gina Lopez, incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s choice as secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, and a pro-mining advocate is going the rounds of social media. Lopez was asking the man to choose between food and minerals because she argued that mining that extracts minerals from
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS CENTERLAW, a non-government organization dedicated to the promotion of the Rule of Law in the Philippines and Asia, reminded President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte that as president of the Philippines, which he will be in 23 days, he is legally bound to ensure that every one within Philippine sovereignty is accorded due
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS TO control the damage wrought by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal assault on media during his press conference Tuesday justifying the extra-judicial killing of journalists, Peter Laviña, spokesman for Duterte’s transition team said media, his principal’s remarks were “taken out of context, misinterpreted, and misunderstood.” That is adding insult to
By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS PUTANGINAS are staple in incoming president Rodrigo Duterte’s language. His supporters love it. Mas malutong ang mura, mas malakas ang palakpak. Those were in rallies during the campaign. If parents brought along their children to those events, that was their sole responsibility to expose their children to those kind of gutter
