March 16 marked the 20th year of the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) by the peace panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of...
Nowadays President Rodrigo Duterte is wont to take every opportunity to accuse the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) of the vilest atrocities he can think of (or invent) as his regime goes into high gear in its counterinsurgency war,...
When once Philippine jeepneys were iconic testaments to Filipino ingenuity, resourcefulness and folk art, the erstwhile “King of the Road” is now derided by government as a backward and inefficient mode of mass transport, polluting and unsafe, their drivers an...
When President Rodrigo Duterte says something really outrageous then it backfires or he is proven to be lying or at least dissembling, he uses several tricks to get away with it. He or his apologists say he was just joking and because we are so gullible, we are...
On the eve of the September 21 protests against the Duterte regime, it has become necessary to clear the air of certain misconceptions as well as false judgments against the Left that stand in the way of forging a broad unity across the political spectrum. To those...
The cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old senior high school student, Kian Loyd delos Santos, by Caloocan police, in what President Rodrigo Roa Duterte loudly proclaims as his administration’s unrelenting “war on drugs,” has unleashed a firestorm of protest. No,...
One need not be such a keen observer of Philippine politics to note the quite dramatic deterioration in the relationship between the Left and President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, self-styled “Leftist” and “socialist” president of the Philippines. At the beginning, a de...
These days, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is turning out to be his own worst enemy. He cannot keep himself from rambling on and on, revealing his bloodlust, megalomania, contempt for objectivity and truth, small-mindedness and bigotry, gullibility for the...
“Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” There are those who want us to forget the bitter lessons of martial law and the Marcos dictatorship. They say these hard-earned lessons should be discarded as irrelevant to our current situation because...
We have been getting “I-told-you-so” and “why-do-you-still-put-up-with-him” reactions from quite a number of well-meaning people here and abroad after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao and withdrew the government negotiating panel form...
It has been close to three weeks since a botched police operation against Abu Sayaff leader Isnilon Hapilon evolved into a shooting war with his supporters in Marawi City, the Maute Group, and the subsequent declaration of martial law in the entire Mindanao. The...
The GRP-NDFP peace talks appear to be hanging by a thread. The delegation from the Government of the Republic of the Philippines withdrew from participation in the fifth round of talks scheduled to open last May 27 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, upon instructions...
A year ago I described President Rodrigo Roa Duterte as a conundrum. Is he a “Leftist” or “Rightist”; a democrat or disguised autocrat; pro-people or wily demagogue; reformer or defender of the establishment? Is change really forthcoming or is this another empty...
On Wednesday, three progressive Cabinet members -- Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez, Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, and Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano -- will be up for confirmation by the powerful Commission on...
The fourth round of formal peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) got off to a halting start last April 3, a full day after the scheduled formal opening. For a while,...
Having done their assigned tasks to move forward on the most substantive agenda of the GRP-NDFP peace talks, the two parties met this week in Rome for their third round of formal negotiations under the Duterte administration. It wasn’t easy sailing: the NDFP side...
President Duterte had it coming. Yes, Virginia, in a country rife with continuing human rights violations, the annual International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 is invariably marked with protests and mass demonstrations. Public anger over the secret burial of the...
What a world of difference. Cuba, a small Latin American country struggling to overcome several decades of a crippling US embargo, has just solemnly buried a hero of their country, of their Revolution (yes, with a capital R, because it is a real social revolution)...
“...in the end you cannot cheat history. History will not err in its judgement because no matter how you fabricate achievements, glorify events or conceal truths, a true people’s history will eventually unmask the fake heroes and the judgement on them will be harsh...
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