Against so many odds in 2020, the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte was buoyed by the unprecedented popularity of the chief executive, who now enters his last year in office. He may leave his office as the most-positively evaluated president: despite the widely criticized government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic,…
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I doubt if many people were surprised when President Duterte said that he would employ “assassination teams” and “death squads” against communist rebels and their sympathizers. Some may have been indignant or jubilant, but probably not surprised. Unfortunately, presidential pronouncements like these have now become par for the course. In…
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The first time I heard about Boracay was in the early ’80s, from a former officemate who visited the pristine place that it was back then. The first time I set foot on the island was two decades later, in 2003. I enjoyed the child-friendly white sand beach, fresh air,…
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Former finance secretary Roberto de Ocampo devoted almost a third of his column, “Federalism’s unpleasant surprise” (6/23/18), to heap praises on President Duterte. Wondering why the President still commands ardent support as indicated by his high approval ratings, he said, “It would be snooty and condescending to dismiss this popularity…
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In one of the lectures featured in the Talakayang Alay sa Bayan (TALAB), a one-day event featuring lectures, workshops, and guided tours for the students and alumni of the Ateneo de Manila University held last October 14, Atty Christian S. Monsod spoke about the threats posed by charter change to…
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As the bloody campaign against illegal drugs and crime continues under the present administration, the Church in the Philippines is addressing the mounting mortality by establishing community-based drug rehabilitation programs as a form of compassionate care and systematic intervention in order to reduce those who are being killed. Read the…
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Anna Marie A. Karaos, Associate Director and Head of the Urban Poverty and Governance Program of the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues, gave this presentation at the 115th Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Plenary Assembly held on July 9, 2017 at the Pope Pius…
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About a year ago, on May 9, 2016, the Filipino people–or at least, 16 million of them, about 39 percent of the electorate–entrusted our nation to a strange shepherd. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte came to power promising to protect the innocent by spilling the blood of the guilty: criminals, especially…
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In the last 10 months, over 9,000 Filipinos, mostly poor, have perished in circumstances believed to be associated with the government’s campaign against illegal drugs. More than a quarter of the killings have been carried out by police against an unusual number of drug suspects reported to have resisted apprehension.…
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A need for unlearning
I recently obliged myself to respond to a request to support an online petition directed at the Office of the President and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It was a call to cancel the permit of a large mining company that has been extracting gold and copper from…