Manila Olympics 2020

What do you say my fellow Filipinos? Shall bid for the right to host the Olympics right here in Manila in 2020? If Beijing and the other world cities can do it, why not the capital of the 90-million strong hardworking and creative Pinoys? Let’s imagine the possibilities. Cayabyab can compose the theme song; Sarah [...]

‘For younger, smoother skin’

The State of the Nation Address aside, one burning issue is the advertisement of products by national politicians. You see them on big billboards endorsing bath soaps, laundry detergents, food supplements and skin care. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago complained to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that such constitutes premature campaigning and partisan political activity and is [...]

Ordinance No. 36 - The right to party

This city law is long overdue. It regulates the selling and serving of liquor and alcoholic beverages in licensed establishments. In many countries worldwide, the sale of alcohol is heavily monitored. Alcohol licenses are limited and difficult to get. In the Philippines, anyone can just start selling alcohol to anyone, anytime. In fact, our babies [...]

Prices rising

The other title to this article is “To convert or not to convert.” With the effective doubling of fuel prices, I am referring to the conversion of vehicles to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to save on gas. The cost of conversion ranges from P37,000 to P60,000 depending on the type of vehicle. Let’s do the math. [...]

Letter to the President

There is nothing so fantastic and so heartening than a letter to the President of the Republic of the Philippines. It is directly addressed to the highest and most powerful officer of the land, President Gloria Arroyo, with the one-line address of Malacañang Palace, Manila. How simple can it get—an ordinary citizen writing a complaint [...]

Blame the dolphins

Dead bodies are still floating but the blame game is already in full swing. Fingers are put to good use—pointing to everyone else for the ferry tragedy that caused the deaths of 800 innocent lives and a multiple of that for the shattered families. As with all investigations, talk shows and media reports, the issues [...]

Prayer of thanks for Ces

Let us first observe a few moments of silence for the safe return of our dear Ces Drilon and her cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion, freed from her captors after a week’s ordeal. To begin with, these bandits we call “Abu Sayyaf” for lack of a better term to label them since they employ similar methods of violence [...]

Are you a consumer?

Hell, yeah. In this day and age, everyone is a consumer. The only way to not be a consumer is to be a hermit. But even a hermit uses a cell phone these days to get inspirational messages. Just by reading this article, you are either a subscriber to the Manila Times or to [...]

Lost in Korea

There are so many Koreans in the Philippines one has to visit Korea to find out why.

Debt trap

A debt trap is like a mouse trap—once caught in it, one hardly gets out if at all. At least a mouse trap only catches mice. For people in a debt [...]

R.I.P., Alfred

On Monday, the 12th of May, militants called for a transport strike to protest the rising oil prices. Strikes are a thing of the past: they serve no purpose except to cripple the strikers themselves and the economy. If at all, it only serves notice that utilities in this country are higher than the rest [...]

Ironman

I grew up with Ironman. Did you? I hear a local film producer is coming up with a Filipino version. The title is: Riceman. Don’t laugh now because no matter how we twist and turn, the specter of rising prices surrounds us. Even as we sleep, the Meralco meter keeps running and the Manila Water one [...]

What’s in a flame?

WELL, the Olympic torch skipped Manila in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics because of geographical reasons. I say, did we even mount a campaign to host a leg here, given its significance for our country’s image on security, need for investments and tourism and our continuing support for the games despite never [...]

Rice crisis: Malthus was right

Of course everyone knows Malthus. We quote him all the time like this: food supply grows arithmetically while population increases exponentially. There will naturally come a time when we will not have enough to eat. He was wrong. Technology increased the food supply (and the diversity) by leaps and bounds, exponentially. Some country populations are [...]

Ambot

AMBOT” is Cebuano for “I don’t know.” It usually is coupled with “lang” to make “ambot lang” which means “I don’t know” and said with a shudder as a sign of helplessness and futility. I thought of this word and this phrase in the aftermath of typhoon “Ambo,” no relation. Ever since I became conscious of [...]

The English problem

LATEST assessment tests on public schoolchildren show an ever so small improvement in English proficiency. Is it finally the light at the end of the tunnel—a new generation of Filipinos who speak real English and not some bastardized form? Filipinos who know proper grammar like we do? Filipinos who can express ideas like Claro M. [...]

Dreams and reality

I CONTINUE to follow intently the Obama-Clinton wars. Aside from contentious issues of race and gender, the heart of the matter, is the clash between believing in the dream or vision that Obama is painting versus the brass tacks reality that Clinton is proving. The audacity of hope, of youth versus the certainty of experience [...]

L-O-V-E

It is not another acronym for a scandal in the wings. It is not a feel-good message two weeks after Valentine’s Day. It is simply love, or rather the lack of it, that is the root cause of the country’s instability and conflicts.

Social capital

Apolinario Mabini once said, “You always look upon your countryman as something more than a neighbor. See in him the friend, the brother, or at the very least, the companion to whom you are bound by a single fate, by the same joys and sorrows, and by common aspirations and interests. As long as the [...]

Ah, basic education

OUR basic education system run by the Department of Education (DepEd) caters to over 20 million learners, housed in over 45,000 schools and community centers and supported by over 513,000 teachers and staff. This opening line is mind-boggling, to say the least. The student number alone is more than the national populations of about 100 [...]