MORE than one year ago – specifically on June 12, 2008 – this columnist opined that then Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was anticipating a break-up with his Lakas allies in Iloilo City, Mayor Jerry Treñas and Vice-Mayor Jed Mabilog. That early, Raul knew that even if his son’s bill redistricting the city into two would [...]

JUSTICE is served to Marlou Pasco, a dismissed employee of City Square Iloilo.
In a decision penned by Labor Arbiter Rene G. Eñano, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC-6) on May 28, 2009 reinstated Marlou Pasco.
The NLRC 6 said City Square failed to justify that retrenchment is necessary to prevent more significant financial losses brought about [...]

WHAT are we in power for?” was a famous statement always made by some abusive government officials that made them down and unpopular.
But even as this statement was not exactly uttered by Gov. Niel Tupas, since he knows the political cost to him, this statement is being lived, day in and day out, by those [...]

IN his farm program Owa Mangunguma over Aksyon Radyo last Saturday, Philippine Coconut Authority Administrator Oscar Garin consented to answer an oft-asked political question that a listener had “texted” through co-host Junjun Sornito: Would the former congressman go back to politics in 2010?
“You will know in the last week of July,” Oca intoned. “I might [...]

THE latest hyperbole from Executive Secretary Ed Ermita – that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo might postpone her July 27 State of the Nation Address due to escalating cases of influenza A(H1N1) – is too absurd to believe. The poor virus has become the most virulent cover-up for hidden agenda.
Who benefits from the Department of Health’s [...]

MY nephew Murphy yesterday asked me, “Tito, how should I know who among my friends are true friends?” I fumbled for an answer and began thinking of famous quotations like “A friend in need is a friend indeed” and “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.”
“Well,” I hesitated, [...]

Misleading and derogatory statements of the media related to the workings of people in the government within a constitutional order, have become the best ground for inquiry into the limits of press freedom.
Journalist’s Code of Ethics commands the writer to interpret and report the news but not to suppress the essential facts that distort the [...]

“STOP titillating the nation,” former president Fidel V. Ramos (FVR) told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA). The statement of the former president accurately captures the current act PGMA is engaging the nation – political striptease.
Striptease dancers usually titillate their audience by baring little by little, heightening the desire and interest of the audience for every removal [...]

So the public may know: the palace of the kingdom by the river is no longer devoted for public service. think twice before going there to avail of its services or to see the ageing king who, as everybody knows, is a very accommodating person who loves to rub elbows with the commen crowd.
The guards [...]

NO less than ex-Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez – newly demoted to token position of presidential legal adviser – has confirmed that House Resolution 1109, which seeks to amend the Constitution via Constituent Assembly and thus transform the presidential into parliamentary form of government, could eventually keep President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in power as Prime Minister. [...]