FINDING ANSWERS The recent news that Filipino students still ranked among the lowest in reading, mathematics, and science among the 81 countries and economies that took part in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ought to spark more action towards improving our...
PEACE-MAKER On Dec. 8, 2021, we in the 350-member International Conference of Political Parties (ICAPP) conducted a special conference on climate change, as our modest collective contribution in the battle against climate change. Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations,...
OF TREES AND FORESTS (Part 1) The simple answer is yes. There is no law that says one person or a class of people can’t be entrepreneurs. Essentially, if you want to go into business you should be able to. But is entrepreneurship for everyone? Sure there are no legal barriers if you decide to...
FINDING ANSWERS A front-page news article in the Manila Bulletin last week ought to boost the National Drive Against Professional Squatters and Squatting Syndicates (NDAPSSS). The article said “there is no legal impediment to the public identification of professional squatters and squatting...
OF TREES AND FOREST This piece should come out a day before the 160th birth anniversary of Gat Andres Bonifacio — national hero, revolutionary, Tondo boy — and two days after the official celebration of Bonifacio Day (government decided to move it earlier in accordance with its policy of...
FINDING ANSWERS The 10th anniversary of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) could be more significant if it becomes a rallying cry for more concrete action at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), the two-week international climate summit that starts on Nov. 30 in Dubai. As the world is reminded...
PEACE-MAKER Before the demise of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, another Middle East strongman with whom we also had interesting encounters fell from power in December 2003: Saddam Hussein. As with Gaddafi, we first met him in the 1970s when we were a pioneering businessman in the...
Sen. Imee Marcos stood by the stance of his brother, President Marcos that the country's courts will not be rendered subordinate to the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid a renewed push to cooperate with it. Marcos said that this has been the answer of the President many times on the question...
OF TREES AND FOREST Our hearts go out to the people of Mindanao specifically those from Sarangani, Davao Occidental and General Santos City which appeared to have taken the brunt of the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that hit the region last Nov. 19. According to the National Disaster Risk...
FINDING ANSWERS It’s easy to grasp why motorists in a hurry but stuck in traffic were infuriated at the reason for an unauthorized use of the EDSA busway: “Out of courtesy that the convoy was in a hurry, we allowed it.” And it’s also easy to understand why Sen. Bong Revilla, earlier...
FINDING ANSWERS The suggestion of Sen. Francis Tolentino to recall the Philippine Ambassador to China as a way of expressing our country’s protest against China’s harassment in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) deserves serious consideration. “This is us telling them that you’ve really gone...
PEACE-MAKER Timor Leste President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta arrived in Manila two days ago for a state visit. He met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang, where they discussed educational, technical, economic, and political cooperation between our two...
