HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz In his inaugural speech, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. politely praised and thanked his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte. Surely, Marcos owes a lot to Duterte for paving the way for his family’s triumphant return to Malacanang Palace, starting with the 2016 burial of the remains of the...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Had the cynics prevailed, there would be no Pride events this year. This year’s Pride events in the Philippines come at a most challenging time: A new Marcos is set to become president while the outgoing leader presides over a period of escalating prices of petroleum and basic...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz Big business, foreign chambers of commerce and foreign creditors cannot hide their glee over President-elect Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s choices for his economic team. They are so happy to see the names of Benjamin Diokno, Arsenio Balisacan, and Felipe Medalla. One thing should...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz In an ideal world, the partylist system would attract outstanding leaders from mass movements, civil society, non-government organizations, cause-oriented groups and parties of the poor and the marginalized. But we don’t live in an ideal world. The traditional politicians,...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz As we enter the final week of the campaign, it is important to look back at history’s valuable Marcos-related lesson: The Marcoses could be defeated. They’re not unbeatable. We have done it twice in history. In 1986, after the dictator Marcos tried to tamper with the results...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The past few years have been a challenge to Filipino farmers. We’ve seen and heard reports of produce being discarded, and farmers going bankrupt due to rice tariffication and illegal imports. In many parts of the country, death squads have orphaned farming families or split...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz A good number of people are reacting negatively to what happened at a show where kids were unable to answer basic social studies and history questions. The disappointment is understandable. But the problem is that many assume that Philippine history is a major subject in the...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The unrelenting “red scare” has not worked. Vice President Leni Robredo has gained ground while the dictator’s son went down in the latest public-opinion survey despite the rabid anti-communist rhetoric and red-tagging accusations hurled against her. Robredo’s association...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz For a country of over 100 million, the Senate with its membership of only 24 senators could really be one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. The conventional wisdom is that senators could only come from traditional politicians and celebrities. But that could be mainly due...
Pasay City Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano said not a single case of Covid-19 has been detected in the city over the past four days, which is a major feat considering that it was once a coronavirus hotspot. In a report to Rubiano, the Ciy Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) said no Covid-19 cases...
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...
