In the British civil war, Charles I raised his banner to rally his loyal nobles to the royal cause. The President has raised her banner or standard. Her statement, in a fiery speech to the nation over the radio, can be summarized as follows (full text not yet available) 1. She did not cheat; she [...]

“The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” (Malcolm Gladwell) is a book I haven’t read, but which has let loose a term often used now: “tipping point.” As the Amazon review explains: “The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, [...]

We are poised, I believe, at the edge of a great opportunity, and a great danger. The great opportunity is to effect a constitutional, peaceful, orderly transition from the President to her constitutionally-ordained successor. The great danger is the window of opportunity won’t be open for very long, because, in desperation and frustration, other forces [...]

An extremely provocative blog entry by Jove, which basically suggests the President has been saved, as she has often been saved, by the bungling of her enemies, and thus concludes there’s a big probability the President is home free, for now, has got me thinking. Let’s continue playing armchair strategist, and see how we got [...]

After embracing Alan Paguia, his backers suddenly find themselves ducking in a rock-throwing contest in a greenhouse. Teddy Casino of Bayan Muna has now appealed in the House for “obviously private” conversations not to be aired, because they cannot be excused as being in the public interest to hear. He says he doesn’t want a [...]

In an exclusive, Virgilio Garcellano finall broke his silence. He says he spoke to the President, Loren Legarda, Mar Roxas, Chiz Escudero (on behalf of his dad), and Jamby Madrigal. And he has given tacit confirmation on the Palace strategy to come: Tell the people that the conversations that have publicly come out of the [...]

First tape follows transcripts of PCIJ, the second tape, however, jumps around and “may be indicative of a tape of a second-hand nature,” according to an administration representative. Rep. Gilbert Remulla says, however, that his observation was that both tapes matched both transcripts. The 3-hour tapes were finally played, and now it seems the battle [...]

It is always constitutional to protest against government policy, or the government itself, provided the protests are conducted peacefully. It is perfectly constitutional to petition for the President, or any official, to resign. It is perfectly constitutional to demand accountability, and express a desire for a change because the incumbent has demonstrated unfitness for continuing [...]

Office of the Press Secretary photo The real big news today is that Sassy Lawyer is now a full-fledged paper pundit, having made a historic migration from full-time blogger to part-time columnist, with her miaden column in Manila Standard Today. Congratulations. For the purposes of Standard Today’s editorial line, the launching of Sassy’s column is [...]

The Peso is at 56.075 to the US Dollar, which is far better than was speculated over the weekend. New Central Bank Governor Tetangco may have read the riot act to currency dealers by saying the Central Bank “will move to smoothen out currency fluctuations” as a journalist I was asking about it explained. As [...]