Archive - Commentary

I speak as a layperson who has studied Catholic theology and catechism.

There are ten candidates for president of the Philippines, including one who refuses to attend debates as a matter of calibrated packaging and four who should have been declared as nuisance candidates.

At the proclamation rally last month of boxing champ-turned-presidential aspirant Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao, his mother, Dionisia, said in jest that she was worried her son would run out of money after the campaign because he has been giving it away.

The May 9 election for President of the Philippines is going to be a historic one, one way or the other.

​ What vested interest does China have in the forthcoming presidential elections?

It’s been years since I’ve attended a political rally, and more than a decade since I attended one for a presidential candidate. But I found myself with a ringside seat at the UniTeam’s Barotac Nuevo (Iloilo) rally thanks to Dr Ferjenel Biron, an ex- and returning congressman and the political leader and kingpin of the 4th District of Iloilo.

The sect also goes by another name, Ina Poon Bato Simbahang Naglalakbay.

Muhammad Ali, arguably, was the best boxer of all time. For my generation at least. Not only could he “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”, he was, as he was always boasting, “pretty” - while opponents like Joe Frazier were “ugly”.

We continually ask that question in earnest, because even her detractors cannot answer it objectively.

One of the most pointed attacks being levied against the leading candidate for president is one word: Magnanakaw (Thief).

It has happened not just once but twice already that the Marcos camp knew about the decisions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ahead of the public, fueling speculations that it is getting insider information pertaining to the petitions against presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

I had tried very much to understand where Aimee Ferolino Ampoloquio was coming from.

When a candidate promises to build more infrastructure and provide funds for livelihood and small businesses if elected, he or she must tell voters where he or she would get the money for these.

It was a baptism of fire that not only tested her mettle, but ultimately changed the political equation in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.

If we are to believe the surveys, it appears that Vice President Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo's agenda for people living in the laylayan (fringe) of society has yet to have considerable impact on the targeted population segment.

Just a day after Jessica Soho made a big splash in her brand of presidential interviews on Jan. 22 over Channel 7, Boy Abunda followed with his own concept of presidential encounters on Jan. 24 onwards on his YouTube channel.

How many of you have given this a thought: what would you have asked the presidential candidates had you been in the shoes of Jessica Soho - or even Tito Boy Abunda, for that matter?

Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator, loved writing diary entries.

It seems too easy for the camp of presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to accuse multiaward-winning broadcast journalist Jessica Soho of being "biased against the Marcoses." Many surmise that this is because Soho is known to ask tough questions begging to be answered.

​ If you’ve been following the political developments in the United States since 2016 - or even longer before that - then the latest tugs of war between Donald Trump and the Biden Administration should be keeping you riveted.

Actor Robin Padilla assails political dynasties, yet he endorsed the candidacies of the Duterte children.

When one aspires to be president of the country, it is correct to assume that one must submit one’s self to public scrutiny. A presidential candidate is fair game and running for chief executive must be treated as a job interview before the sovereign people.

When the first Ferdinand Marcos was ousted from power almost a month short of forty years today, the Philippines could have been plunged into civil war.

So many things were not quite right in the Manila Bulletin news report about the alleged hacking of the Commission on Election (Comelec) website.

Our collective attention is being called by the blogger who goes by the Twitter handle of Miyako Izabel (“writer and independent publisher, political blogger and social media activist, existentialist and public anthropologist, Filipino and citizen of the world”).

The runaway winner in the surveys for preferred presidential candidates in the May elections has become the butt of jokes in the past few days because of his absence in last Friday's preliminary conference on a disqualification case against him at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

​ Latest election surveys showed that if elections were held today, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would be the 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines.

I am told, over and over, that one of the reasons why Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr is so high up in the polls is because millions of Filipinos have been made to believe in the “Marcos gold”.

As the second year of COVID-19 comes to a close, we Filipinos are learning to accept the reality that there is more than just death and taxes that are inevitable in life. In the Philippines, at least.

You’ll be astounded by the staggering numbers when you Google the number of TikTok accounts the Marcoses and their supporters have. Even more confounding is the exponential capacity of those accounts to share posts.