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....
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz The most pernicious use of gaslighting against Filipinos happens during the election season, and we could hear and read it again at this time. I’m talking about the slogan “vote wisely,” as well as the other gaslighting terms “bobotante” and “enabler.” I argue that...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz One of my favorite activists is in the hospital. We can only hope that he recovers, because we want to see him again online and offline. My admiration of him started years ahead of his being a regular reader and fan of this column. His name is Ramon Ramirez: proud son of Albay,...
HOTSPOT Tonyo Cruz There seems to be no end in sight for our collective anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic. Because although we cooperate with authorities in the pandemic response, the policies don’t add up, don’t contribute at all to improving the situation, or could just be an occasion for...
HOTSPOT Remember Severino Ramos, Arsenio Ymas, Wilson Ramilla, Ramon Paloma, Ruben Baylon and the septuagenarian Elmer Cordero? Known as the Piston 6, they were the jeepney drivers arrested, detained and charged in June, 2020 for protesting the lack of adequate aid for their fellow “tsuper” and...
