Diesel Fuel and Polluted Air Are Killing Filipinos

According to the website of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), lung cancer is “the top cause of cancer-related deaths among men, and the third cause of cancer deaths among women, outranked by breast and cervical cancer” in the country and the world ... Published 10/26/2018

Working Abroad as Domestic Helpers Should Become a Thing of the Past

For decades the Philippine economy has been kept afloat by millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) sending money back home. According to philstar.com in an article published early this year, the World Bank ranked the Philippines as the “3rd top remittance receiving country in the world” after India (first), and China (second) ... Published 10/17/2018

Why Didn’t Duterte Join Other World Leaders at the UN?

September is the month New York commuters dread. Their already packed city becomes even more densely packed with visitors from across the globe. Stretched limousines trailed by black SUVs appear all over Manhattan. September is the month when world leaders and their entourages from countries large and small come a-calling. The United Nations General Assembly is back in session ... Published 10/03/2018

Has Duterte Finally Met His Match in Sister Patricia Fox?

According to a recent article in the Philippine Star “Australian nun Patricia Fox testified against the Duterte government before an international tribunal on Tuesday [September 19, 2018], narrating the political persecution she experienced.” Fox, had run afoul of the Rodrigo Duterte Administration when in April of this year, she traveled to Mindanao together with about 30 human rights representatives to look into alleged abuses by the Philippine government ... Published 9/20/2018

Is Philippine Democracy Dying?

In their latest New York Times Bestselling book How Democracies Die, Harvard University political science professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write about how liberal democracies like ours can turn into autocratic, totalitarian regimes. The authors, point out that democracies don’t all die the same way. Some go out with a bang; a military coup d'etat, with tanks in the streets, bombs exploding, and scores killed in raging battles conflict ... Published 9/12/2018

Philippines Should Steer Clear of China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ Trap

Is Philippine President Rodrigo Dutete finally coming around to the realization that Communist China is not really our friend? A recent article by Richard Javad Heydarian in the Asia Times that Duterte reiterated his “earlier threats that Beijing's activities in contested South China Sea areas could soon tilt towards armed conflict ... Published 8/26/2018

Sorry, We Are Just Not Buying It Mister President

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte should stop all this talk about quitting or stepping down before his term is up. It just makes him appear disingenuous. Does he really expect the Filipino people to believe that he is willing to give up everything: the pomp, the pageantry, the authority, and the power he now has, and go back to Davao to live the rest of his life in solitude? Unlikely... Published 8/16/2018

The Danger of Trump’s Fake News, on the Philippines

It U.S. President Donald Trump has been a relentless critic of the press even before he became president. During his campaign, Trump railed against the media and popularized the term “fake news”... Published 8/6/2018

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Is Back … Brace Yourselves!

It was not that long ago that disgraced former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was busy cooling her heels at the Philippine Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC). She had been ordered confined at the VMMC on plunder charges in connection with the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds during her presidency ... Published 7/27/2018

How Deeply Has China Infiltrated the Philippines?

In late May of 2005, Chen Yonglin, a young, up-and-coming, junior diplomat assigned to the Chinese consulate in Sidney, Australia defected. Chen asked Australian authorities for political asylum for himself, his wife, and their young daughter. After defecting, Chen made a stunning revelation. He told the Australians that China had more than a thousand undercover agents and informants operating in their country ... Published 7/21/2018

Duterte Should Work Towards China Accepting the Tribunal’s Decision

There are those who say that the Philippines never misses an opportunity, to miss an opportunity. Sadly, there may be some truth to that statement. After WWII, the country appeared poised to take the lead in Southeast Asia. Back then, it seemed to have everything going for it ... Published 6/28/2018

Demonic Forces Engulfing the Philippines — Duterte Should Resign

The world’s good and decent people should force President Rodrigo Duterte to resign. It’s also for his own good. I don’t hate Duterte. But I hate his terrible sins. For his own sake, I hope that he amends his evil ways and saves his soul as his days are numbered. No one is beyond redemption if he turns to our Lord Jesus Christ ... Published 6/14/2018