I am really wondering why Secretary Francisco Duque III of the Department of Health (DOH) seems afraid to act against Dr. Lydia Depra Ramos, the very controversial regional director of Region 6, who is persona non grata to almost everybody in the DOH-R6 office.
Depra Ramos has been lording it over in Region 6 for the […]

IT’S heartening to read reports about two giant business organizations engaging in agricultural production amid the food crisis affecting all countries of the world today.
San Miguel Corp. and the Hong Kong-based Kuok Group of Companies, two of Southeast Asia’s biggest food companies, have just launched a P1-billion joint project to cultivate 1 million hectares of […]

I BELIEVE this is the best time for me to thank Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for the invaluable assistance they have given to the city and people of Iloilo after the devastating Typhoon Frank hit us.
The MMDA personnel did a yeoman’s job in clearing the debris, the silt and […]

THE PUBLIC be forewarned that there is an impostor who has been calling me and saying he is Atty. Mike Arroyo, the President’s husband, but every time I return his calls or his messages, he refuses to acknowledge or answer his cell phone.
Curious, I had his messages monitored, and it appears that this person is […]

WHEN the Philippines joined the race to become industrialized several decades ago, it was at the expense of agriculture. The thinking then was that progressive countries must be industrialized, and that being an agricultural economy was being backward.
We now know that was a mistake. We forgot that the United States, one of the most industrial […]

THE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has asked the President for a restudy of the value-added tax on oil, and the oil-deregulation law for possible amendment or outright scrapping in the hope to ease the escalating price of oil which, in turn, influences the prices of basic commodities in the market.
The position of […]

I BELIEVE it is now the best time for me to express my appreciation and gratitude to those kind-hearted individuals and groups that, without being asked, voluntarily gave valuable support to our efforts to provide assistance to all those who suffered loss of property and even lives as a result of killer Typhoon Frank.
There are […]

WHEN the President presents her State of the Nation Address (Sona) before the joint session of Congress and the people a few weeks from now, I sense a dilemma confronting the Chief Executive in the light of our current situation.
Politicians in the past like to downplay the setbacks and the gloomy part of the country’s […]

THE COLOMBIAN commando operations which rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt from her guerrilla captors should be studied carefully by our own Army rescue specialists, as well as the special forces of the Marines and the police. Such precision could help them in rescue operations, especially in the troubled areas of Mindanao and particularly in […]

THE ANNOUNCED claim of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. that he was approached by someone who offered to kill the President is not only a queer incident, but also indicates that former VP Guingona must have considered the threat against the President as frivolous. Either that or the former Veep is irresponsible.
If Guingona considered […]