By attysy on Jan 5, 2008 | In Op-ed Columns | No Comments »
I don’t want to be a killjoy but it is time you know about Article 318. It happens the whole year through and becomes acute in the countdown to the New Year when all the manghuhulas fortune tellers come out with their predictions. It is the business of palm reading, tarot card reading, interpreting signs, weaving dreams and trances and séances. Who hasn’t been to one in times of doubt, confusion and despair? Read the rest »
By attysy on Dec 31, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | 4 Comments
I PEER into my crystal ball and what do I see? A stronger peso yet to hover 38 to a dollar. Whatever measures taken will not work simply because we are in uncharted territories. The peso has never appreciated historically and at these dramatic levels. The dollar will taper off if the United States pulls out of Iraq with the US$300-billion annual price tag and the Fed successfully navigates out of the subprime crisis. Hillary of course wins the presidential election in Nov. 2008. Read the rest »
By attysy on Dec 19, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | No Comments »
Quick, what happened this year? Off to top of my head and still causing me sleepless nights is Mr. Trillanes. Media rules! Who covers the excesses of media? The watchman. And then the string of scandals with ZTE at the pinnacle. De Venecia, Abalos, De Venecia sound like a slogan. Zoom back to the hostage for education drama. This year of course was national elections with GO and all the turncoats, the wins of Gov. Grace Padaca and Father Panlilio and the losses of Pacquiao, Goma and Montano. Pacquiao won elsewhere and faced a case for child support. The barangay elections bloodied and the SK elections corrupted. Truly, to say it was an eventful year is to understate the obvious. Read the rest »
By attysy on Dec 13, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | 4 Comments
I AM part of the media establishment and will try to make this as objective as possible. If not so, do tell me.
G.K. Chesterton, the 20th century writer and thinker, said, “Not facts first; truth first.” Alas, our media do not know this simple truth. In the quest for news and whatever is newsworthy and in the name of freedom of the press and doing a job, media set about showing its true colors. The Manila Pen incident is the prime example.
A point of law: freedom of the press is not the same as freedom of speech. The latter is paramount and covers every conceivable aspect of our human existence, to the point of dying for the right to speak. It engages each aspect of expression from the spoken and written word, to radio and television and now to blogs and cyber messages. We cannot be separated from our right of expression; otherwise, we wither away. Read the rest »
By attysy on Dec 6, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | No Comments »
Never have we Filipinos been so united in our singular viewpoint on that one event - the Trillanes caper. It has been variously described as a farce, a comedy, a stunt, an adventure or a misadventure, a crime and a rebellion and some other more unsavory words condemning his takeover of Manila Pen after walking out of a courtroom hearing under pain of contempt and utterly contemptuous of the judge and the judiciary. Why did he do it? Read the rest »
By attysy on Nov 30, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | 1 Comment »
Finally we realize the folly of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) project—the stated objective of preparing the youth ages 15-18 for political consciousness, social awareness and civic involvement by setting up a special electoral process for them to organize and make their voices heard. Sixteen years after the Local Government Code of 1991, traditional politics has infected, influenced and corrupted those who went through the SK process. The youth is no longer the hope of the motherland. Read the rest »
By attysy on Nov 30, 2007 | In Op-ed Columns | 1 Comment »
We live as if we live forever. It takes a death for us to face up to what is essential; in my case, three. I go personal on this essay.
Nat was our corps commander in high school – tall, respected, dedicated and armed with a booming voice. He went under the knife a few months ago for gall stones. Twenty fours hours post operation, he was dead. It was supposed to be a routine procedure barring questions of negligence or medical practice. (The medical practice bill is one of the many pieces of legislation languishing in the bombed out Congress.) His sudden death compelled the rest of us to gather for our long overdue reunion only to find that two others died before him, one of heart attack and the other, of lupus. Our yearbook can only be thinner in the years to come. Read the rest »
By attysy on Nov 20, 2007 | In I observe | No Comments »
Another bomb, another scam. Instability is as instability goes; we don’t need to complicate our lives by giving in to greed or stupidity. This assumes that we are aware of our greed or ignorant in the first place. But how can we be not in the aftermath of PIPC and Francswiss? Read the rest »
