Former senator FRANCISCO TATAD served in the Philippine Cabinet for ten years, in the Legislature for fifteen years, and in journalism and humanitarian work for more than half of his close to sixty years in public life. As presidential spokesman and information secretary, he accompanied President Marcos on his state visit to China in 1975; as Senate majority leader, he co-sponsored the Senate resolution of concurrence in the ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the US in 1999.
A dangerous tide to sink all boats?
This tends to suggest that the May 9, 2022 elections will be waged as a personality or beauty contest, without any serious discussion of how the nation is to be governed, and systemic corruption stamped out. The Filipino voter cannot predict anything after June 30, 2022. And the president-elect who had promised to institute radical change will realize that his powers, under the Constitution, are far too limited to allow such change.
The Prince does not care for respect
Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, says Rodrigo Roa Duterte “is not a president people can respect.” He said this after Duterte vilified the Senate for inquiring into the Executive’s suspicious handling of billions of pesos in...
Duterte’s folly
To the nation’s nearly two-year-old Covid-19 pandemic and all the woes associated with it, President Duterte has added something new and scary as far as the voters are concerned.
He has announced his plan to run for Vice President with his former aide, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, as presidential candidate in the May 9, 2022 elections.
Will this tragedy reappear as farce?
In less than twelve months, Rodrigo Duterte will be stepping down as the sixteenth president of the Philippines. He will have spent six years trying, among other things, to change the course of history between the Philippines and the United States, China and the rest of the world. Has he succeeded or failed? The jury is still out.
Standing with US bishops — and saving Joe Biden
Manila—The Catholic Church in the United States has fallen into a deep crisis. At the heart of the crisis are the issues of abortion and the Eucharist. Can the US bishops continue to teach what the Church teaches on these issues, or should they now ask President Joe Biden to show them the way? A huge fallout cannot be avoided, and it could affect even our own church in the Philippines.