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Philippine Star  "Restoring people’s faith" The ride will be rough, Rodrigo Roa Duterte promised in his first speech as the 16th President. He nevertheless reiterated that “real change” is coming, as he  invited the people to join him in the ride.  In his crosshairs, apart from the drug menace and criminality, is corruption at all levels of government “high and low.” He would have “no friends to serve,” he  vowed, and “no enemies to harm.” As promised after his landslide victory, his first marching order to all heads of executive departments and agencies is to simplify  processes and cut red tape in doing business with government, on pain of harsh sanctions.  Keeping his mandate in mind, Duterte also vowed not to be deterred by opposition to his “unorthodox methods, bordering on the illegal,” of fighting crime. But he  vowed an “uncompromising” adherence to due process and the rule of law in waging a sustained, relentless war on threats to public saf...

Duterte’s Inaugural Speech June 30, 2016 President Fidel Ramos, sir, salamat po sa tulong mo making me President; President Joseph Ejercito Estrada; Senate President Franklin Drilon and the members of the Senate; Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and the members of the House of Representatives; Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court; His Excellency Guiseppe Pinto and the members of the Diplomatic Corps; incoming members of the Cabinet; fellow workers in government; my fellow countrymen. No leader, however strong, can succeed at anything of national importance or significance unless he has the support and cooperation of the people he is tasked to lead and sworn to serve. It is the people from whom democratic governments draw strength and this administration is no exception. That is why we have to listen to the murmurings of the people, feel their pulse, supply their needs and fortify their faith and trust in us whom they elected to public office....

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "From the bottom up" PHILIPPINE democracy is hardly that because colonial masters handed it down on a people steeped in a comprehensively authoritarian culture. To this day, in fact, all  basic social institutions around a so-called democratic government are authoritarian in degrees ranging from mild to despotic. The Filipino family is authoritarian. Not-so-authoritarian parents simply do not bother to consult much less consider the opinion of children while despotic parents  impose their iron will on children, choosing professions and even spouses for them.  Schools are no less authoritarian. Most are run as business concerns by profit-oriented stockholders. More to the point, professors and teachers simply dole out  knowledge to their students and demand that such be regurgitated back to them at exam time. A good memory is all you need to get through an authoritarian school  system. Catholic Churches are even more authoritari...

Sun.Star Cebu's  Carvajal: "Pride of nation" IT is not difficult to understand why droves of Filipinos are jumping on the bandwagon of un-prim and un-proper Rody Duterte. Twenty six million marginalized  Filipinos only understand the language of food, health security and freedom from fear of losing life and property to the corrupt and criminal among us. Duterte  commits all this to them with the added assurance of a no-nonsense gutsy personality that gets things done.  What is harder to fathom is Bongbong Marcos magnetizing millenials. True, they did not experience Martial Law. But they are well-educated and have guardians who had  at least a glimpse of the evil of Martial Law. Still, they seem to be reading or listening to a different version of history. They seem to agree with Bongbong that  we should “unite and move on.”  No argument can be made against moving on united. Nevertheless, I who suffered ignominy.....   [full text] The Freeman's...

Philippine Star  "Give them back their money" “We don’t have too much money,” Ambassador John Gomes said, as he pointed out that $81 million “is a huge amount of money for a country like Bangladesh.”  The envoy made the comment as he expressed hope that the $81 million stolen by hackers from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New  York and laundered through Philippine casinos and the banking system would be returned to his country before the end of President Aquino’s term.  That looks like a tall order for the chronically inefficient Philippine judiciary, which must first conclude with finality the forfeiture proceedings initiated by  the Anti-Money Laundering Council or AMLC to recover the amount. Gomes has noted that the casinos have already profited from the stolen funds. Returning the money to  its rightful owner, unfortunately for Bangladesh, is not as simple as it appears in the Philippines.   [full text] Sun....

Philippine Star  "Preparedness" No amount of preparation could have saved northeastern Japan from the triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Japan, used to powerful earthquakes  and tsunamis and aware of the risks of nuclear power, is ahead of many countries in terms of disaster management. Yet no one expected the magnitude of the disaster  that struck on March 11, 2011. The quake and tsunami left nearly 16,000 people dead and over 2,500 still missing. Property damage and economic losses have been  placed at hundreds of billions of dollars.  Apart from an occasion to mourn the dead and missing, the annual commemoration of the event has become a reminder to the world of the urgency of disaster  preparedness. The Philippines, like Japan, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone to powerful earthquakes.   [full text] Sun.Star Cebu  "Salonga and the best" FORMER senator Jovito Salonga had long faded from the political ...