Filipinos are marking the 112th anniversary of Philippine independence with a truncated celebration—one an official ritual on Saturday, the other a public holiday on Monday.
Symbolically, a country’s national day is a patriotic demonstration of unity, but more than a century after the declaration of Philippine independence by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, during the [...]

Within a cycle of nearly 40 years, the scions of two leading Philippine political dynasties find themselves lodged in strategic positions that could spark a resumption of their epic blood feud.
Through a quirk produced by the May 2010 elections, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, son of the martyred opposition leader former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino [...]

ONE OF THE MIND-BOGGLING RESULTS OF the May election was the runner-up finish of former President Joseph Estrada, who polled 9,487,837 votes, behind Sen. Benigno Aquino III’s 15,208,678, which gave the latter an unassailable margin of roughly 5.7 million votes.
The final official results tallied by Congress, acting as the national board of canvassers, show that [...]

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who is due to be officially proclaimed the 15th president of the republic this week, faces an avalanche of unsolicited advice from several quarters, including the outgoing administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, concerned do-gooders in civil society, and Left-wing groups who have entered the mainstream of parliamentary liberal democracy disguised [...]

Even under the pre-martial law two-party system, the Senate was a hard nut to crack and control. No matter the size of the majority garnered by a new president, for example, Ramon Magsaysay (Nacionalista Party), the most popular president we ever had, who defeated President Elpidio Quirino (Liberal Party) in 1953 by a landslide of [...]

THE SCRAMBLE FOR CABINET POSTS IN THE incoming government of presumptive President-elect Benigno Aquino III centers on the Departments of Justice, Finance and Social Welfare and Development. The intensity of the lobbying for heads of these department is fueled by Aquino’s policy priority pronouncements following his apparent landslide election in May.
In the wake of his [...]

Times Street, Quezon City, is under siege by a horde of job seekers for positions in the incoming administration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. It is also swamped by gratuitous advice on how to run his government, including the trivia that he should quit smoking.
As Aquino awaits his proclamation by Congress, hints of the profile [...]

Congress starts on Wednesday the canvass of votes for president and vice president, under pressure to proclaim the new national leadership team before June 30, the terminal departure of one of the most controversial regimes since 1986.
While the proclamation of Sen. Benigno Aquino III, who is leading the unofficial results by a landslide of at [...]

The new US ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas Jr., emphatically stamped Washington’s recognition of the legitimacy of results of the May elections with his Friday visit to the home of presumptive president-elect Benigno Aquino III on Times Street, Quezon City.
The visit came even before any phone call from US President Barack Obama congratulating Aquino [...]

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE APPARENT landslide of Sen. Benigno Aquino III in the 2010 election, the political terrain looks unrecognizable, as though devastated by a cataclysmic earthquake. Only one man emerged from the upheaval as a clear winner—Aquino himself, who stands astride the upheaval as imposing as the Colossus of Rhodes. All political parties, [...]