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Controlling the media narrative

Controlling the media narrative

From what he said during those interviews, it seems that what he is trying to pass off as his platform of government mostly consists of plans to revive his father’s discredited and long-dead programs. Among them is the revival of the training program for OFWs that during the Marcos Sr. dictatorship encouraged the export of Filipino labor as a cure-all for the unemployment problem that the Marcos Sr. regime could have solved by making more jobs within the country available.

| Feb 13, 2022

World jurists weigh in on the ATA, red-tagging

World jurists weigh in on the ATA, red-tagging

Thus, the jurist body recommended that national and local government officials – including members of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) – must refrain from labeling HRDs as terrorists. Any credible accusation of terrorist conduct must be pursued “through the rule of law, cognizable charges, compliance with due process and the right to a fair trial by a competent independent and impartial court,” it emphasized.

| Feb 6, 2022

The elephant in the room

The elephant in the room

Marcos Junior’s claim about self-sufficiency in rice was similarly false. There was a rice crisis during much of his father’s reign, with people lining up for the cereal for hours, and mixing rice with corn. Alternative means of generating power were indeed explored during the last years of Marcos’ rule, but these attempts, such as the corruption-ridden, badly designed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, never made any difference in assuring reliable power sources beyond the 1980s.

| Feb 6, 2022

Marcos slogans are just tactics, but…

Marcos slogans are just tactics, but…

If elected President, expect his policies in such areas as dealing with social unrest and the armed social movements to be influenced and shaped by the military’s perspectives and interests. Among other consequences, it will mean the persistence and worsening of the human rights crisis that has constricted what little remains of what passes for democracy in the Philippines.

| Jan 30, 2022

No Exit

No Exit

Well thought-out, pro-active policies based on informed and rigorous analysis could have helped the country navigate the treacherous waters of the pandemic from its very onset in 2020. The need for them was especially evident during the last quarter of 2021, as well as at the present time. But they are precisely what were and are still missing in the far from strategic and purely reactive government response to the pandemic.

| Jan 22, 2022

Mga salitang bawal, mga rehimeng nabuwal

Mga salitang bawal, mga rehimeng nabuwal

Sa buktot na pagtingin, inaakala ng mga nasa kapangyarihan na ang pagsikil sa pagkalat ng teksto ay sapat na para tuldukan ang mga ideyang nais nilang pigilan. Subalit kasaysayan na rin ang magtuturo, gaya sa mga halimbawang nailahad sa itaas, na ang mga “subersibong ideya” ay hindi lang kalipunan ng mga salita kundi produkto ng kolektibong pagkilos ng mga taong naninindigan.

| Jan 17, 2022

Philippines growth leads in Asean but downside risks remain

Philippines growth leads in Asean but downside risks remain

Back to the World Bank, the multilateral lending institution surmised that with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the pandemic would likely continue to disrupt economic activity in the near term. Besides this prospect, it warned that the notable slowing down in major economies – including the United States and China, the two largest – would adversely affect external demand (exports) in emerging and developing economies.

| Jan 15, 2022

Challenge and opportunity

Challenge and opportunity

Much of the lies and rewriting of history that feed that preference are deliberately cultivated by the trolls and hacks in print and broadcast media in the pay of those handful of families that have monopolized political power in these isles for decades and who want to keep it whatever the cost to this country and its people. Those dynasties are not only threatening to completely overwhelm the relatively few adherents of reason, democratic choice, reform, and just plain civility among the citizenry. They are also flourishing by using the ideology of dominance, repression, and exploitation that lives on in what passes for the minds not only of the ruling oligarchy but also of its benighted followers.

| Jan 15, 2022

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