EXTRAORDINARY events such as the global fuel and food crises have prompted governments to take high-profile, costly measures in a near-panic or panic mode.
In the process, it is not unusual for those who are quick to declare the release of billions of pesos for this or that emergency measure to forget about less costly, longer-lasting [...]

IT seems that Department of Health (DOH) regional director for Region 6, Dr. Lydia Depra Ramos, rides again. She has been trumpeting that she is “untouchable” and was reported to have brazenly purchased millions of pesos worth of sterilizing and disinfecting solutions which were described as “state-of-the-art” in an attempt to justify the overprice of [...]

IN TIMES of crisis, true friends, good Samaritans and people whose humanity shine like a beacon light for all to emulate come forth and manifest their genuine concern for their fellowmen, without fanfare, without publicity.
Such big-hearted men have come forth to extend much-needed assistance to the victims of Typhoon Frank and the devastating flood that [...]

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 [...]