OPINION: What’s withLagunaLake?

The largest freshwater lake in the Philippinesis on the spotlight as the Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon (BDC), a Belgian firm offering maintenance dredging, port construction and development, and land reclamation had filed a case against the Philippine Government before the Washington, D.C.-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. What’s the reason? President Benigno C. […]

Musings

It has been two years since this blog was born. Actually, it is not born out of necessity but out of envy. This reporter is envious with his friends who maintain beautiful, useful and insightful blogs. Since 2009, the public has been reading re-posts of the news and feature articles of this author, which appeared […]

MIRRORS: Looking at the Face of Injustice in the Philippines

On the last note, let everyone—every spectator—reflect on each “mirror” hanging on the walls of the exhibition area and to examine the facts being reflected in there and assess if they do really replicate the events happening in the Philippine society today or this is just a bunch of propaganda. And everybody must say, Amen.

Questions Begging for Answers

There is still nothing clear about the people’s future come May 2010 and beyond. The only thing that appears to have a high probability of occurring is the bungling of the elections by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which would result from its programmed inefficiency. Beyond that, it appears that it would be business as usual for the ruling elite, whichever faction is able to hold the reins of government. As for the people, there is no other recourse but to pursue the struggle for justice, freedom, and democracy. – BENJIE OLIVEROS, Managing Editor of Bulatlat.com

NDF’s Jalandoni Speaks on ‘Kampanyang Ahos’

“Kampanyang Ahos” was a gigantic anti-communist and anti-people crime, not just a tactical error and not even merely an ideological-political-organizational matter internal to the Party. “Kampanyang Ahos” was not a “bloody purge”. It was a bloody crime committed by the likes of Benjamin de Vera, Ricardo Reyes and Nathan Quimpo, who erroneously ascribed the setbacks being suffered then by the revolutionary movement in Mindanao to enemy infiltration rather than to the militarist line they were pursuing. – NDFP’s Jalandoni in an interview with a journalist in 2002.

Financial Innovation: What Is It Good For (I)?

In sum, the story of one financial innovation, credit cards, is much more mixed than Litan claims in his assessment. They certainly have increased convenience but at a considerable cost. It is noteworthy that the credit card transaction fees are much lower in Old Europe than in the United States. Also, East Asia is far more advanced in allowing the use of electric money transfers from cell phones. So, we may want to hold off on the celebration for the U.S. financial industry’s development and promotion of credit cards.

The farce about disbanding the private armies

The superstructure of political mafias and modern caciques and the material conditions that breed them are so powerful that piecemeal approaches to addressing this issue are self-defeating. One begins to think that in order to dismantle the private armies the first step is to put the political superstructure that promotes them out of circulation