Together with the nation, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros mourned the passing of former Senator Rodolfo “Pong” Biazon whom she described as a “great soldier, statesman and a solon.” "He passed on this Independence Day, June 12, a reminder of his formidable, lifelong fight for...
PEACE-MAKER As the whole world celebrates Father’s Day next Sunday, June 18, we wish to pay tribute to our beloved father, the late Jose Ravago de Venecia Sr. After World War II, our father served as Judge at Large for the entire Bicol region, appointed by the late President Manuel Roxas, first...
OF TREES AND FOREST I applaud the Senate for passing the Maharlika Investment Fund bill on third and final reading during the last day of May which was also its last session day before it took a break. The House of Representatives have decided to adopt the Senate version of the bill so as of press...
FINDING ANSWERS This just can’t be overemphasized: Getting good nutrition in the womb and through early life is very important for a child. While a time of vast potential, the 1,000 days from conception to birth and to the child’s second birthday can also be a time of immense vulnerability when...
PEACE-MAKER The recent happenings in the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats) brought back memories of the beginnings of the party as well as the many challenges and struggles we and our partymates faced together. When we, together with then former Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos and former...
OF TREES AND FOREST The most successful entrepreneurs don’t accept defeat; they face challenges and fight until they turn their dreams and vision into reality. That is the difference between success and failures. The latter happens only when you give up. This is the reason why I keep telling...
FINDING ANSWERS The appalling data cannot be ignored: 95 Filipino children die daily from malnutrition, 27 out of every 1,000 children do not get past their fifth birthday, one-third of all children here are stunted or short for their age, and stunting after age two can be permanent, irreversible...
PEACE-MAKER In April 2016, the organizations of political parties of Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa convened for the first time in Jakarta to explore ways and means of economic and political cooperation among our three continents. The historic (in a sense) meeting was held among...
PEACE-MAKER Since early 2020, we have been spending most of our time in our Dagupan City home, which is a short walking distance from the Lingayen Gulf, where General Douglas MacArthur and, earlier, General Masaharu Homma landed on Jan. 9, 1945 and Dec. 22, 1941, respectively. To this day, we...
OF TREES AND FOREST It was such an emphatic word to describe the relationship between the Philippines and the United States especially given the tensions in the region and the complicated past of the two nations’ bilateral relations. But this was how President Joseph Biden described his...
FINDING ANSWERS On Mother’s Day last Sunday, troubling news broke out anew: Around six to seven Filipino women die while giving birth or during pregnancy. “Women die because sexual and reproductive health services are unavailable, inaccessible, unaffordable or of poor quality,” according to...
PEACE-MAKER The city of our birth, Dagupan, by the edge of Lingayen Gulf, lies close to the pilgrim town of Manaoag, where devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is a faith cast in stone. Our earliest memory of our town was an area of lowlands in the midst of swamps nestled by the South China Sea. In...
