Opinion 11/17/15

Inquirer on Canada’s Trudeau

Eyes will be on Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders’ Meeting… […] Given his popular support among fellow Canadians and his stout demonstration of willingness to initiate change in stolid institutions, Philippine civil society groups and environment activists have challenged Trudeau this early to handle the festering problem of more than 50 container vans of waste from the Vancouver area (mislabeled as recyclable plastic scraps), that were illegally shipped here in 2013. […] The timorous Aquino administration, meanwhile, citing the possible strain on relations between the Philippines and Canada, dropped the matter quietly ahead of the President’s state visit to Canada in May 2015. [full page]

Sun.Star Cebu about Paris terror attack’s ramification in the Philippines

The attack on Stade de France, while it sputtered, showed how potent fanaticism, religious or ideological, is and how vulnerable everybody else can be. You have on one side people willing to die--or to put it graphically willing to blow up themselves--in pursuit of a twisted goal. On the other side you have unsuspecting civilians looking the other way. […] It would be good to go deeper into this because the Philippines also has regions riven with conflicts fired up by various causes, legitimate or otherwise. How can we prevent these conflicts from churning out fanatics willing to become suicide bombers? [full page]

Manila Bulletin on Syria and terrorism

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian war. Some 11 million have left their homes, many of them seeking a new life in Europe. Some have found it in France. We hope their lives are not torn apart anew by the terrorist attacks. […] And we hope that the Vienna conference among the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran will be able to reach some kind of a compromise agreement that will bring back peace to Syria. Agreement – and peace – will also help in stopping terrorist attacks such as that which Paris suffered a few days ago. [full page]

Philippine Star about the Asia Pacific region and Philippines

The Asia-Pacific is seen as the world’s most dynamic region. It is home to several of the economies that consistently top international surveys on competitiveness, ease of doing business, transparency and good governance, livable cities, happiness and human development indicators. […] Against such neighbors the Philippines still has a lot of catching up to do... […] Serving as APEC host should firm up the resolve of Philippine officials to implement the necessary reforms in pursuit of that theme. [full page]