When President Duterte visited Tacloban City several weeks ago during the third-anniversary rites for Supertyphoon Yolanda, he gave a directive to government officials overseeing the rehabilitation efforts in the typhoon-devastated areas to hasten the transfer of the victims to their permanent resettlement sites before Christmas.
Points of View & Perspectives
December, 2016
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4 December
No one looks, no one stares
Hair brushed back from an ideal profile, summer sheer whites draped on well-proportioned shoulders, slim pants fitted to skim her straight back, she positions herself a bit off McDonald’s entrance on a plant box on Granville Street, and as if from a view deck aims her sight in the distance—apparently the cross street, where pedestrians cued by traffic lights either …
November, 2016
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27 November
High productivity from lower taxes
For most economists we respect, it’s what works. It is embodied in the Laffer Curve – a graphic model central to most Libertarian economics often advocated by politicians vying for a popular mandate based on change.
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27 November
Piggybacking on ERC woes
In the midst of chaos, some see danger. Many others see opportunity.
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27 November
It’s easy to spot us
Like an exclusive club, some of us compose take-charge crews that include preparing the altar for Mass, arranging the flowers, watering plants in the grotto, cleaning altar crevices and polishing the brass candelabras. Filipinos also comprise the cathedral’s multiple Legion of Mary presidia. As well, in my parish, a Filipina had been president of the Catholic Women’s League while another …
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20 November
Apples and durian
One of the most commonly superficial, if not crassly stupid analyses going around, is the hip-shooting blanket comparison between two very different presidents (one is a president-elect) from two very different constituencies confronting two profoundly different agenda – all these made mostly by the mainstream media and cavalierly imagined by the intellectually challenged.
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20 November
De Lima spiel an outright insult to the Filipina
We can only commiserate with the beleaguered Sen. Leila De Lima. In an apparent and unrelenting public-relations effort to win over public sympathy, she may have buried herself deeper in the scandal she faces.
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20 November
We had pledged that we’d stay 25 forever
Years later, at a healthy food corner at Harrison Plaza, she materialized unexpected—strands of orangey blond on the same crisp haircut, the same rail-thin frame. Rather astonished, and lit up by her toothy smile, I had cringed, nonetheless, at her night make-up in the noonday glare with whitish goo on her lids, as well, tight garish pants and shirt, which …
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13 November
The better trading partner
When Rodrigo R. Duterte first flew off the handle with his unmitigating tempestuous and temperamental tirades against the United States, these had all began in the public’s eye during the presidential campaign where he accused the Americans of undue interference in a sovereign political exercise, commenting as they did on a statement spawned in at least two rallies. Claiming entitlement …
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13 November
An SC justice’s dangerous tendency
For the record, we would like to say that we have much respect for Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen. After all, he is one the youngest ever to be named to the High Court.