Late last year, Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her spokesperson were talking about her rare disease and why she needed to be allowed to leave the country. A report from the newspaper (plus website) I work for: Arroyo’s spokesperson, Elena Bautista-Horn, clarified though that this condition is not a “new discovered illness” as Deputy Minority … Continue reading »
HOHOL with History: It’s all about the paper paper
One good thing about this business we have chosen is that company lines blur a little when something big like an impeachment trial comes up. This is my third year covering the Senate and I have probably spoken to more reporters in the past two weeks than I have in those three years. This is … Continue reading »
HOHOL with History: Impeachment Trial Week 1
If there is one clear winner this early into the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, it is the tobacco industry. There was a gray pall over the smoking area in front of the Senate all of last week, with the line of smokers stretching from the wheelchair ramp by the door to … Continue reading »
Samizdat
THERE really is no delicate, or elegant, way to say this: alternative news website Bulatlat.com copied from an article I wrote for the website I work for, acknowledged it after I pointed it out, and then kept the plagiarized paragraphs in the story anyway. [UPDATE: As of 4:59 p.m., Bulatlat.com has deleted the paragraphs. I … Continue reading »
The Hand That Feeds Us
China’s no-strings, easy-access development loans are giving developing countries an alternative to Western aid, but at what price? A CENTURY ago, they were part of the Red Menace. Political winds have since shifted and now China is welcomed by the developing world for doing the same thing that she has claimed to be doing since … Continue reading »
Other World Music
Mga Awit ng Pag-Ibig at Digmaan (Songs of Love and War) (2011) by Talahib People’s Music would have been the next logical step for Filipino world music had Talahib picked up the gauntlet that groups like Makiling Ensemble and Pinikpikan threw down 10 years ago.
HOHOL with History: The Game
“I been in this game for years, it made me an animal. There’s rules to this shit, I wrote me a manual. A step-by-step booklet for you to get your game on track.”–Christopher George Latore Wallace, street reporter Chief among those, of course, is to never get high on your own supply. The moment you … Continue reading »
Christmas rush may slow flow of goods to calamity areas
FOOD and other consumer items meant for Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, cities hit by sudden floods over the weekend, will take longer to get there because of a shortage of container vans caused by the Christmas rush. This will not mean higher prices, however, as the Department of Trade and Industry has already issued … Continue reading »
Barry R.
THE years have not been kind to Barry R., foreign correspondent to the Philippines since Martial Law and my seatmate at the Senate press office. Barry, if his stories can be believed, was the first to predict that Japan would let the yen float in the 1970s, earning him curses from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club … Continue reading »
HOHOL with History: Corona impeachment trial begins
Thirty minutes after suspending the legislative session and shuffling out of the session hall to put on their robes, all 23 senators trooped back in behind the Senate mace carried by Sergeant at Arms Jose Balajadia Jr. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV then administered the oath to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, binding him to “do … Continue reading »
