Franklin D. Roosevelt pays tribute to Filipinos, November 15, 1942:

The Wall Street Journal (which, editorially, has previously been supportive of the President) greets the President’s arrival in New York with a raspberry: see the op-ed piece, Powering Down the Philippine Economy: Tomorrow in New York, Ms. Arroyo will woo well-heeled potential investors at a $5,000-a-table luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria, where she is expected to [...]

At Midfield says new information on Ces Drilon’s kidnapping is coming to light, which points to her having been used as bait by the armed forces; and that furthermore, the kidnapping could have provided public-relations benefits for the government as the President prepared to panhandle her American counterpart for anti-terrorism aid. Aid that has not [...]

Much levity courtesy of the Summit of the (Lame) Ducks in Washington. Got this by way of Age of Brillig who pointed to Bush To Filipino President: “I Am Reminded Of The Great Talent Of The — Of Our Philippine-Americans When I Eat Dinner At The White House” in the Huffington Post, and which pointed [...]

The saving grace of this country is that in times of trouble, people don’t have to be asked to help. They spontaneously do so. The three most important issues here are: 1. the speed at which the aid can reach the victims; 2. the assurance that the aid really gets to them; 3. that the [...]

Even as the President departed, the Inquirer editorial had already called her trip a Most useless junket. Her trip, will be followed up, incidentally, by another trip to the States, scheduled in September, practically on the eve of the American presidential elections. My column for today is Bitter fruits of disaster. The growing number of [...]

In theory, a strict no ransom policy makes sense. However, it becomes untenable if the authorities lose the moral ascendancy to insist upon such a policy. That moral ascendancy is dependent upon the authorities: 1. Having a no-exceptions track record with regards to hostage-tacking; 2. Having a credible (though not necessarily perfect) record of rescuing [...]

Today is the birth anniversary of Jose Rizal. See Filipiniana Blogosphere‘s tribute. On to the present. The President’s challenge: form a latter-day KBL. See Arroyo rallies allies behind her successor. As pols are always a suspicious lot, surely some will be mulling over whether this is a strategy to identify and then neutralize those with [...]

Over a decade ago, as I toured Vietville in Palawan (I was involved in the campaign to prevent the eviction of the Vietnamese refugees there), one of the nuns involved in running the place pointed out how the neat sawali houses of the residents had been built by the refugee-residents themselves. Various groups had only [...]

Dan Mariano writes on Bullying the business community. Even Philippine Commentary had to take exception to Rightist Poster Boy Enrile on this one. Previously, Tony Abaya said Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s posturing in the Senate was due to his having an axe to grind with foreign businessmen over their complaints concerning smuggling in Port Irene. [...]