Aug 30, 2022Freedom of the press and Duterte’s long, unmistakable shadowFreedom of the press is never freer than when it comes at a steep price. And what a steep price it is. As I write this, Eastern Vista’s Frenchie Mae Cumpio, only in her early twenties, remains in jail under trumped-up charges since her arrest in Feb. …5 min read5 min read
Aug 16, 2022Salman Rushdie: Literature as our imaginary homelandsWriters long for safe, quiet spaces. Rare as it is to find one these days, we invent it. Build it from the wisp and crumb of clues and inklings, its overtures evermore made of the stuff of dreams and lore. …6 min read6 min read
Jul 4, 2022If you can’t tell rumor from history, you’re screwedOn June 30, 1981, roughly 41 years to the day Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. delivered his inaugural address as 17th President of the Republic, Ferdinand E. Marcos, his father, delivered his own speech on the thrusts of the Ministry of Agriculture. But unlike the former dictator who applauded the past…5 min read5 min read
Jun 30, 2022We are legionThursday, June 30. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would be inaugurated later in the day as the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines. This is where the word republic should give us pause in light of recent harassment cases stalking members of the Philippine press. The return of the…6 min read6 min read
Jun 21, 2022Agri to disagree: Stop harassing and killing farmersListening to president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is like getting caught in a worm hole. Most everything about him reeked and rang of his father — from the tone of voice, the delivery of his words, all the way up to the sway of the hands, with one noticeable exception…6 min read6 min read
May 12, 2022An open letter to my childrenBy now you know the monsters are back. How I wish I could turn back the clock, but I can’t. I guess you could say the fight was over even before it started. …5 min read5 min read
Mar 5, 2022The invasion of Ukraine gives Putin a hellhole of lousy choicesHopping into the Salvatore Ferragamo shoes of Russian president Vladimir Putin just to get a feel of what some describe as his pandemic-inspired geriatric mental health isn’t an experiment I’d recommend for children. So, kids, try not doing this at home. “C’mon, man,” I told myself, “Think dictator. Think world…5 min read5 min read
Feb 21, 2022Marcos as ‘Messiah’: Nothing can be farther from the truthFlattery, zealousness, infighting, myth-making, jealousy, unquestioning devotion, betrayal. If you look at the stories behind a tyrant’s rise to power, it almost sounds like a rip-off of Philippine telenovelas. No thanks to tyranny’s spin doctors who conceived the idea of absolute devotion to the leader, the messianic complex which resulted…10 min read10 min read
Jan 18, 2022We are the resistance: #CourageON*Even as I write this, Mexican journalist Margarito Martinez was shot dead outside his home in the northern border city of Tijuana. He was 49. In the fall of 2006, the inevitable happened. The body of American-born Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was found dead inside an elevator near her apartment…5 min read5 min read
Dec 24, 2021The Years of Magical Journalism: The Provocateur that is Joan DidionLife changes in an instant / The ordinary instant ~ Joan Didion, ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’ Joan Didion’s journalism spared nothing and no one. From the vanities of Havana and the agonistes of former US President William Jefferson Clinton to the 9–11 tragedy in 2001 and those charged of…5 min read5 min read
