West Philippine Sea
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[Rappler’s Best] Fasten seatbelt, Mr. President
SUMMARY June 30 marked the second year of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and he enters his third without an education secretary and without the Uniteam he bandied about in an election campaign that he won with a historic 60% of the votes. His former ally is now his biggest destabilizer – and I mean the kind that haunts his plans,…
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[Rappler’s Best] Fasten seatbelt, Mr. President
SUMMARY June 30 marked the second year of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and he enters his third without an education secretary and without the Uniteam he bandied about in an election campaign that he won with a historic 60% of the votes. His former ally is now his biggest destabilizer – and I mean the kind that haunts his plans,…
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View from Manila: What’s next for the Philippines’ transparency push?
SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – In the past week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año made explicit mention of the role of the press in the Philippine government’s transparency initiative to assert the country’s sovereign rights and sovereignty claims in the West Philippine Sea. “A free press, reporting on events as they are, is the hallmark…
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China briefly blocks rescue of Filipino fishermen near Bajo de Masinloc
SUMMARY MANILA, Philippines – Chinese ships attempted to block the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) rescue mission on Saturday, June 29, when the agency was responding to an incident in waters near Bajo de Masinloc after the engine of Filipino fishing boat “Akio” exploded, leaving two injured. The PCG’s BRP Sindangan (MRRV-4407) was assigned to respond to the incident, which happened…
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[The Wide Shot] How can prayer defend the Philippines from China?
SUMMARY Clutching my rosary, I joined many Filipino Catholics on Thursday, June 27, in heeding the call of one of the most popular leaders of the Catholic Church. To defend the Philippines from China, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called on Filipino Catholics to join a rosary campaign from June 27 until August 15. The former private secretary of Jaime Cardinal…
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[The Wide Shot] How can prayer defend the Philippines from China?
SUMMARY Clutching my rosary, I joined many Filipino Catholics on Thursday, June 27, in heeding the call of one of the most popular leaders of the Catholic Church. To defend the Philippines from China, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas called on Filipino Catholics to join a rosary campaign from June 27 until August 15. The former private secretary of Jaime Cardinal…
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[ANALYSIS] The West Philippine Sea dispute and the stock market’s performance
SUMMARY I can’t remember who exactly said that “Life is lyrical in its ideal form, tragic in its fate, but comic in reality.” This saying is what comes to my mind when I try to compare the condition of our country’s relationships with China before the Spanish period at the same time brand them this time around. I imagine that we had a “lyrical” trade relationship…
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[ANALYSIS] The West Philippine Sea dispute and the stock market’s performance
SUMMARY I can’t remember who exactly said that “Life is lyrical in its ideal form, tragic in its fate, but comic in reality.” This saying is what comes to my mind when I try to compare the condition of our country’s relationships with China before the Spanish period at the same time brand them this time around. I imagine that we had a “lyrical” trade relationship…
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La Naval, church of 1646 naval victory, prays for West Philippine Sea
SUMMARY More than three centuries before China fired water cannons on Filipino ships, historic battles between two naval forces erupted in Philippine waters. In 1646, the Protestant Dutch sought to invade the Philippines, which had been a colony of Catholic Spain for eight decades at that time. (The Philippines would be a Spanish colony for more than 300 years.) The Dutch…
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[ANALYSIS] High noon for Marcos
SUMMARY In an interview, former president Ferdinand Marcos once described his children this way: Imee was his “intellectual twin” and Irene was “everybody’s sweetheart.” When it came to Bongbong, Ferdinand Jr., journalist Paulynn Sicam recalls that the dictator paused and said, “He has, um, good muscle coordination.” He then added that “like his mother,” Bongbong liked to party. Bongbong has come a…