President Rodrigo Duterte has numbered the days of Senator Leila De Lima’s political career, hinting that his upcoming exposes against the senator would surely spell the doom of her career. “Tapos ka na. Sunod [na] eleksyon?” (You’re finished. Next election?),” Duterte pronounced, sounding like he estimated how De Lima would lose next election because of […] More
Recent statements of President Rodrigo Duterte on the firing of government employees en masse—particularly appointees from the previous administrations—sent shivers down the spine of the bureaucracy. He said this was an anti-corruption measure to clean up the government. Others fear gross violation of a constitutional provision protecting the tenure of civil service employees from unreasonable […] More
In the government’s war against drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte defended his program by saying that it is either the safety of the public or the lives of the criminals. Despite the mounting criticisms and expressions of concern over the alarming increase in the body count in this campaign against the drug menace in the Philippines, […] More
Why do many Filipinos keep falling for satire news and articles, treating them as real news and even sharing them online? According to a Rappler article written by Marguerite de Leon in 2013, “Why can’t many Filipinos tell truth from satire?” she noted how many times Filipinos have been fooled by satirical articles. Filipinos have […] More
While the Senate, led by Senator Leila De Lima, is investigating alleged extrajudicial killings in police anti-drugs operations, the House of Representatives is preparing another probe on the alleged proliferation of drugs at the National Bilibid Prison (NBP). Particularly, the Lower House aims to ascertain if De Lima abetted the said proliferation while she was […] More
News portal The Maharlikan reported that Peter Lim has already left the Philippines with his family in tow. Lim, the Cebuano-Chinese businessman suspected to be one of the top drug lords in the country, has left the country, according to an Immigration official. “Well, the alleged drug lord Peter Lim is already out of the […] More
President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday, August 23, that he was urging Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to double the salary of soldiers by December. Duterte said this in front of newly promoted generals and flag officers in Malacañang. “Before I start, I’ve been egging Secretary Ben Diokno to really see to it that by December, […] More
The Supreme Court en banc has ordered to stop the preparations for a hero’s burial for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos within the next 20 days, covering August 23 to September 11. The en banc issued a 20-day status quo ante order (SQAO) during its session on Tuesday after martial law victims filed six petitions […] More
President Rodrigo Duterte defended his threat to take the Philippines out of its membership in the United Nations, saying that he was just joking then. However, he said he was serious about telling the international agency that it should not meddle with the affairs in the country, especially in the government’s war against illegal drugs. […] More
“The momentum the police has gained over a short period through life-risking work of fighting illegal drugs must not be deterred by legislative inquiries like what we are conducting right now.” This was among the points raised by Senator Panfilo Lacson in his opening remarks on the first day of the Senate hearings on the […] More
Earlier, the Duterte administration was considering the removal of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) exemption granted to senior citizens and persons with disabilities to make up for revenue losses from bringing down personal and corporate tax rates to 25 percent over a three-year period. But after several reports speculating on whether the government will pursue this […] More
After being infuriated by mounting criticism against the anti-drug campaign of his administration, especially by the United Nations (UN), President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday suddenly came up with a wild thought. He toyed with the idea of withdrawing the Philippines from its UN membership. “Maybe we’ll just have to decide to separate from the United […] More
