Euthanasia has never been an option to me. If I live to be a frail 90-year-old geezer, I hope the quality of life in the nursing home where my children deliver me would have improved. I worry about what I see with my own eyes today and what I read about the quality of care […]

Our votes on May 10 will determine the path our country will take far beyond the six years that the next President will stay in office. Our people have suffered for many decades because of poor leadership tainted by corruption and greed. Our development has been stunted because of the politics of vengeance that the […]

The event is usually held towards the end of each year. According to its founder and President Manny Castillo, Fiesta Kultura is “a fund raiser for the disabled athletes representing the Philippines who participated in the Pacific School Games which was held in Sydney.” It was established in 1988. Sometime last year, I was “offered” […]

A few weeks ago, a community organisation purporting to represent “Filipino organisations onshore and offshore,” issued a media release stating that it is a non-partisan group, and yet made a futile attempt to mobilise itself as “a political force for voting” in the upcoming May 2010 Philippine elections. With the recent PCC-NSW lesson, I am […]

It is next to impossible for presidential aspirant Gibo Teodoro to escape responsibility for the Maguindanao massacre. He admitted that he warned Mayor Toto Mangudadatu of the violent nature of the Ampatuans. That, in itself is clear proof that he is aware of the heavy firearms that GMA gave to them. Thus, Teodoro could have […]

One classmate confided to us what will happen during and after the May 2010 elections in the Philippines. I cannot reveal his name for security reasons. This is actually a sequel to my fearless forecast in the January 2010 issue of Sentinel. In his email, he wrote: “I do have some personal knowledge of the […]

It is interesting to note that this is happening again. A disgruntled group formed FAME (Filipino Australian Movement for Empowerment) after the infamous 2007 elections of the Philippine Community Council (PCC). There were only 88 associations present but 98 votes were counted. No valid explanation has ever been offered to media. When asked to shed […]

Not very long ago, a close friend forwarded to me an email sent to him by Tony Abbott, the new leader of the opposition. I will not bother to glorify Abbott’s email by publishing it as it can be found in the website of the Liberal Party. Suffice it to say that these were empty […]

Earlier last December, I bumped into a manager of Coles Food Store. He happens to be an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University and a former classmate of Noynoy Aquino whom we all know is running to be president of the Philippines. Regrettably, the conversation was led into political matters as I discovered that he […]

In the weeks following the November 23 Ampatuan Massacre, I scoured through hundreds of news articles and opinion columns about the barbaric slaughter of 61 innocent people, including 31 working journalists. I also saw posted on the Internet gruesome close-up photos of the mangled, brutalized bodies of the victims, images which still haunt me. One […]

(Editor’s note: The author is a member of the Philippine House of Representatives representing Akbayan. He belongs to Ateneo de Manila Class 1966.) Let me say first of all that we in Akbayan share the grief of the families who lost their loved ones in the Ampatuan Massacre. Those 57 people were killed while trying […]