HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz This week marked the apparent start of political consolidation behind the major candidates for president. Partido Reporma rocked the political firmament by switching its support from Senator Ping Lacson to Vice President Leni Robredo. Lacson’s red-baiting gamble against...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz To be honest, we kids who grew up in the 1980s were too young to remember the Marcos dictatorship. So when opportunity presented itself in 2001 to do something good for the country, many of us went to EDSA and many other places across the country. It wasn’t easy. The...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Just a few weeks back, Vice President Leni Robredo’s supporters were adamant in urging the Makabayan coalition to endorse her. Other presidential candidates were also vying to be backed by the progressive movement. Happy reactions thus met Makabayan’s eventual decision to...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz A lot has been going on, especially as we went into full election campaign mode. I forgot to remember and to mark the eighth anniversary of this column here on the Manila Bulletin. I started this on Jan. 5, 2014, initially coming out twice weekly. Yes, folks, it has been eight...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The title of this piece is the text of a t-shirt we wore in the months leading to the second People Power uprising of 2001. Released by the September 21 Movement led by Fr. Joe Dizon, the t-shirt reminded the public then about the power of people’s collective action in doing...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Supporters of the dictator’s son cannot hide their glee over the recent polls showing their candidate with a commanding lead as the 2022 election campaign starts. But that’s where the problem begins — not for other candidates but for the frontrunner. He has 80 days to...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Philippine elections are not as simple as some would like us to think, and there’s no better (or worse) example than this 2022 edition. The conventional wisdom in certain circles is that this is merely a battle between the smart and the stupid, or the educated and the...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz For a few minutes last Jan. 7, I was able to speak with a good friend on her sickbed. Although very ill, she was lucid and quick to remember me. But gone were the days that conversations were hard to end. Before, there would be endless topics to talk about. This time, I felt she...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz A lot of my friends are inclined to support a presidential candidate who has no problem with making commitments. Commitments we have in mind include a new franchise to ABS-CBN, dropping the trumped-up charges against Rappler and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, stopping...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The most beautiful legacy of the First Quarter Storm of 1970 is the idea that young people have roles to play in the country beyond and above what is considered normal or acceptable. It expanded the democratic horizon for us. Remembering this event and its effects on Philippine...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Many are trying to make sense of the new growing surge of positive coronavirus cases. The rising numbers paint a bleak opening to 2022. Meanwhile, the lack of regime change and structural reforms  deny us the political power to make good things happen, while preventing the bad...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The new year is a new beginning. We would divide the house on May 9 and on June 30 witness the inauguration of a new president and administration. We were told that elections are the most solemn democratic exercise. We convinced millions to register to vote, and gave them the...
