Prometheus Bound By GIOVANNI TAPANG, PhD Bulatlat.com MANILA — It came as a surprise to receive a call from my sister in Bulacan last Thursday, since I was the one who was supposed to be sending her a birthday greeting then. She was worried about the floods in the nearby towns of Hagonoy, Paombong and…
Category: Opinion
Luis V. Teodoro | Cowards and SOBs
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld THE “American official” President Benigno Aquino III quoted in his speech at the University of Fordham in New York as complaining that “the problem with the Philippines is that it has 40 million cowards and one SOB (son of a bitch) ” was most probably the outspoken…
Satur C. Ocampo | Wrong post-martial law decisions still hound us
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last Wednesday in New York, President Aquino made two statements, both related to the martial law dictatorship that Ferdinand Marcos imposed on our nation 39 years ago that very day and ended with his ouster in February 1986. One was this remark during an…
Carol Pagaduan-Araullo | Protests are good
By Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Streetwise | BusinessWorld The protracted global economic depression is sending the economies of even advanced capitalist countries such as the United States and members of the European Union on a tailspin. Despite fits of financial convulsions due to the bursting of economic bubbles and now EU countries threatening to default on their…
Satur C. Ocampo | Post-US bases: Concerns remain
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In the past two days, I attended two similar but distinct commemorations, at UP Diliman on Tuesday and at Club Filipino yesterday. The events celebrated the 20th anniversary of the historic act by the post-Marcos-dictatorship Senate – on September 16, 1991 that ended the…
Luis V. Teodoro | The sixth estate
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld SPEAKING AT a forum on the press and the media, former University of the Philippines president Jose V. Abueva said there were actually five Estates, or powers, in the Philippines. If the press is the Fourth Estate, the Catholic Church would be the fifth. Abueva did not…
Satur C. Ocampo | Winners and losers
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In my last two columns I wrote about the call of US billionaire-investor Warren Buffet to tax the rich more, and about efforts to create more jobs in the United States by reviving manufacturing that uses advanced technology. Acceding to readers’ requests, I try…
Satur C. Ocampo | Invent, then make
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star It seems the land of opportunity isn’t America anymore (nor Europe). For Filipinos, anyway. Not right now. Despite the recovery of the big banks through massive government bailouts, the US economy — in deep recession since 2008 — grew by only 1.1 percent in…
Satur C. Ocampo | Super-rich man with a conscience
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star In the Philippines, tax evasion through “sophisticated accounting” by the very rich individuals and corporations explains, to a large extent, the perennially low BIR income tax collections. The wage-earners, both in the government and the private sector, shoulder the bulk of income tax payments.…
Luis V. Teodoro | Hold your breath
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld WHAT “grave injustice and irreparable injury” would anyone suffer if prevented from smoking in public, or from inhaling the smoke from a burning cigarette and the smoke smokers exhale? Judge Carlos Valenzuela of Branch 213 of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court didn’t, and probably can’t, say. But…
Luis V. Teodoro | Palliatives
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld AN appeal based on liberation theology is among the least likely to convince the mostly conservative bishops of the Catholic Church to end their campaign against the Reproductive Health bills now pending in Congress. (The Senate version is SB 2865, “An act providing for a national policy…