As public schools across the Philippines prepare to open in September, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that millions of Filipino children will spend another year missing out on many opportunities for optimum education. “The Philippines is one of the five...
Shortly after the delayed reopening of classes last year, Education Secretary Leonor Briones reported to the Senate that only 2.1 million or less than half of an estimated 4.3 million learners enrolled in private schools. Moreover, 865 out of 14,435 private schools nationwide suspended...
Fake news, riding on the power of social media, brought thousands of people to vaccination centers early morning of August 5. They were “convinced” to line up for vaccination by the news that only the vaccinated can claim the ‘ayuda’ (cash aid) from the government, as the unvaccinated will...
With the recent memorandum of the Land Transportation Office, the Motor Vehicle Inspection System (MVIS) is once again being rolled out in areas where they are operable. Initially conceived to asses the road worthiness of vehicles being registered, there’s no doubt that this added requirement to...
The Olympic Flame has been extinguished but the fire it brought to Filipinos continues to touch our senses. But this isn’t about the conclusion of a multi-billion spectacle, the last page of a happy-ending story. As the Japanese people say sayonara to the thousands who braved the pandemic-delayed...
What President Duterte should have selected as his swan song in his last State of the Nation Address was to call for national discipline, particularly the strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations which are being flouted and ignored by both motorists and commuters, and which has become a...
A few months before the official filing of candidacy for the national polls in 2022, different political factions have made their presence felt. This early, some would-be candidates have already started to unfurl their tarpaulins or have their “public service messages” aired on television or...
On the morning of August 1, 2009, then Senator Benigno S. Aquino III, announced to reporters that his mother, former President Corazon C. Aquino, had died after a bout with cancer. She was buried at the Manila Memorial Park on August 5, 2009, beside the grave of her husband, former Senator Benigno...
A university-based research group first broached the idea of a “circuit-breaker lockdown” against the Delta variant that is known to be “more transmissible, potentially deadlier, and can spread quickly faster.” The Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship, speaking on behalf of the private...
In view of the continuing adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Finance has deferred Revenue Regulation No. 9-2021 (RR 9 – 2021) that imposed the value-added tax (VAT) on exporters’ purchases from local suppliers and other indirect exports. This is a timely shot-in-the-arm,...
It takes a village to raise a child, the cliche goes. But there really is nothing so cliche about it, as the task of raising and educating children indeed falls on the shoulders of not just parents and educators, but also of the entire nation. This has never been more evident than in this ongoing...
General Community Quarantine (GCQ) “with heightened restrictions” has been imposed anew amid rising concerns over the dreaded COVID-19 Delta variant. The more restrictive regimen was imposed over Metro Manila, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Davao de Oro, and Davao del Norte from July 23 to 31....
