Janet Lim-Napoles, JLN Corporation, seven affiliate senators and 23 congressmen, 10 billion pesos – anyone in sync with current affairs would be familiar with these associations to the pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund, which the press had resurrected as early as July this year, following whistleblower Benhur Luy’s unraveling of an elaborate NGO’s…
Category: Opinion
A Letter to the Editor
Some thoughts on the rally: I had the most insightful conversation with a friend I had not seen in a long time earlier today at the rally. He told me that he’s happy that many students, teachers and administrators came to attend the rally, but he also expressed disappointment that many who attended the rally…
Trigger warning
Do you ever feel like jumping in front of the LRT? is not a common question among most social circles, but it certainly should be. At least one Filipino commits suicide everyday, finds a study conducted by the Natasha Goulborn Foundation in 2011. Given our reputation of being the happiest, most optimistic people in the…
Editorial: The cry of Luneta
By virtue of RA 3827, signed into law in 1931, the Philippines celebrates its National Heroes Day, or Araw ng mga Bayani, every fourth Monday of August. The fourth Monday is celebrated as the approximate anniversary of the Cry of Pugad Lawin, when Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan, fed up with the colonial government and…
The everyday Gilas
Forty years from now, we’ll remember that day. It was the day that united young women in high heels and aging grandmothers in their dusters, the richest of businessmen and the strongest of club bouncers, five-foot-nine high school centers and fifty-year-old former varsity players, and even tricycle drivers and English-speaking Filipino-Americans. It was the day…
Start rowing
College has always kept me wondering with everything it entailed. I started with one goal in mind – to pursue my passion. I began being so sure of this goal, thinking I had that much potential, like I was part of a new generation of minds that will bring great change to the world. It…
More than red shoes
Two weeks ago, internet forums and mainstream media were set ablaze with one of Catholic Church leader Pope Francis’ comments on the way to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” It is amazing to…
A need for more respect
Oftentimes, I have heard fellow students throwing harsh and derogatory remarks at the back of the teachers who would not surrender to their immediate desires to make things “easier”. Forgetting that they are within the walls of education while failing to recognize that teachers are humans too, whose nature is subject to mistakes like we…
Editorial: Priorities
Last week, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago once again proposed the abolition of the controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), just as debates on the pork barrel escalated following yet another public scandal on the alleged misuse of P10 billion worth of PDAF appropriations spread over a decade. The heart of the argument finds itself in the…
On Manila’s partial bus ban
I live in the South, specifically in Las Pinas City. Everyday, I take a bus to and from DLSU, just one bus with a P25 fare and a tricycle ride to our home. The travel time takes 45 minutes to one hour, max. Commuting like this is quite convenient and comfortable for me. Last Tuesday,…