By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld NOT all of them bought Pajeros, a sport utility vehicle ( SUV) manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors; some bought even more expensive SUVs and pick-up trucks, and others cheaper Asian utility vehicles (AUVs) with funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). Erroneously tagged by the media…
Category: Opinion
Satur C. Ocampo | Time to act for human rights
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star “In 2006 and 2007, when the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and several other major donors publicly raised their concerns over the politically motivated killings under then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the number of killings dropped drastically. Under President Aquino, though, it is…
Satur C. Ocampo | ‘The land they till is their life’
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star What will happen next in the Hacienda Luisita land dispute? This is the question tossed to me by various friends, following the strong reactions to the confusing Supreme Court ruling last July 5. Voting 6-4, the tribunal upheld the revocation of the stock distribution…
Dangerous times for progressives
Karl G. Ombion The Essentials Sunstar In this column I divert from my usual subjects on renewal energy, science and technology, and national development, because I am quite disturbed by the continuing state political persecution of the leaders, organizers, mass activists and development workers of the progressive movement, groups and institutions. I was surprised to…
Luis V. Teodoro | Shallow bench
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld BENIGNO AQUINO III has an approval rating of between 68 and 70 percent, most probably because he hasn’t done anything scandalous or controversial. That says something about how low Filipinos’ expectations of their leaders are. But you can’t blame them for it, their high expectations having been…
Satur C. Ocampo | Hacienda Luisita dispute unsolved
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star We began this column in August last year with two pieces that dwelt on the historical background of the protracted land dispute in Hacienda Luisita Inc. and the oral arguments before the Supreme Court over the stock distribution option (SDO) as a way of…
Satur C. Ocampo | Greeks’ woes are Pinoys’, too
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star Last Wednesday militant Filipino trade unionists rallied in front of the Greek embassy in solidarity with a two-day general strike in financially-prostrate Greece. The strike aimed at blocking the Parliament from approving a package of austerity measures that the Papandreou government had pushed to…
Luis V. Teodoro | Haunted
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld HE’S been dead for 22 years, having died in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 28, 1989 at the age of 72, but Ferdinand Marcos haunts us still. The most recent manifestation of the ghost of atrocities past came in the form of his children’s pushing a resolution in…
Satur C. Ocampo | Kudos to Andre Agassi
By Satur C. Ocampo At Ground Level | The Philippine Star I am not a tennis buff. And I have not followed the career of any of the Grand Slam champions, whether in the French Open, the Wimbledon, or the US Open. My acquaintance with the game and its international stars — such as Andre…
Luis V. Teodoro | Asking for it
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld THE SUPREME COURT has granted a petition for live coverage of the Ampatuan Massacre trial filed by media advocacy groups, TV networks, individual journalists, and academics from the University of the Philippines. But it has imposed conditions some media organizations are already describing as difficult if not…
Luis V. Teodoro | Tales twice told
By LUIS V. TEODORO Vantage Point | BusinessWorld IT was one of those statements that make no sense, but which some Catholic bishops are especially adept at making. Butuan Bishop Juan De Dios Pueblos said House Bill 1799, or the divorce bill, will lead to more immorality in Philippine society. The faithful should be trembling…