HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz For Elmer Labog, chairperson of the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno and one of the two Makabayan senatorial candidates, human rights should be a top issue in the 2022 presidential race. Labog knows human rights. He was one of the many young Filipinos of the late 1960s and 1970s...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The title of this commentary could perhaps be one of the opposition’s most stinging and truth-seeking conversation-starters as we march towards the election. It is a question that waits to be answered by workers who despite repeated claims of economic growth or recovery have...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz As protests mark the anniversary of the hero’s burial for Ferdinand Marcos, allow me to offer my space to honor the real heroes who fought for freedom and democracy, even to point of offering their lives. These names, all vetted by the Bantayog ng mga...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz A couple of years back, Cebu City experimented with opening its city library throughout the night. The results were a pleasant surprise to the mayor and the city librarian. Every night, hundreds would go to the city library along Fuente Osmena each night to read and study. All...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz As the election season goes forward, most political discussions and debates everywhere are quickly falling into the trap set by traditional politicians. I’m referring of course to personality politics. One symptom of personality politics is the recourse to a contest of who has...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz There’s no doubt that social media would play a key role both as political arena and mass media for the 2022 elections. But candidates, parties, government, media and voters have to be warned about pernicious dangers that they have not been able to recognize or address. Whether...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Way ahead of the actual campaign period which starts in February 2022, our Facebook timelines and media reports are already full of them: Friends and families in full combat mode over the different politicians they support, tangling with each other with gusto. Not a few have been...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Vice President Leni Robredo reached a stunning 136 million people online on Thursday, the day she filed her certificate of candidacy for president, according to initial digital monitoring reports. Vast swaths of the Philippine internet turned pink as 277,000 unique users carried...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz If we’re short of funds for much needed vaccination and health care and to propel the pandemic-struck economy, then we should look no further than the suggestion of the think-tank Ibon and the Makabayan bloc in Congress: Tax the billionaires! Surely, the working people and...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz After years of putting up and maintaining a juggernaut of a coalition, President Duterte’s political alliance is weakening and disintegrating: The Marcoses are moving independently of Duterte, surprised as they reportedly were about the daughter and the father eyeing both the...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The International Criminal Court this week did something mind-boggling, even miraculous, for millions of Filipinos: It ordered a full investigation into the illegal drugs campaign-related killings during the Duterte administration. The court found that there exists a...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz An official of the United Nations Children’s Fund recently surprised us about one indisputable but apparently overlooked fact: The Philippines is the only remaining Asian country not to conduct face-to-face classes for its students. Yes, the world is apparently moving on....
