WHAT “grave injustice and irreparable injury” would anyone suffer if prevented from smoking in public, or from inhaling the smoke from a burning cigarette and the smoke smokers exhale? Judge Carlos Valenzuela of Branch 213 of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court didn’t, and probably can’t, say. But he used that argument anyway to issue a [...]
Archive for the ‘Vantage Point’ Category
Hold your breath
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged smoking on August 19, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Terrorists
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged art, CCP, Mideo Cruz on August 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
CLASHES between artistic freedom and religious sensibilities occur from time to time, and they become even more contentious when art, whether in the form of a novel, a sculpture, or a painting, is subsidized with public funds. The controversy over the “Kulo” exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines is not unique to this [...]
Palliatives
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged liberation theology, Miriam Defensor Santiago, RH bill on August 5, 2011 | 1 Comment »
AN appeal based on liberation theology is among the least likely to convince the mostly conservative bishops of the Catholic Church to end their campaign against the Reproductive Health bills now pending in Congress. (The Senate version is SB 2865, “An act providing for a national policy on reproductive health and population and development.” Currently [...]
His own boss
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged freedom of information bill, Noynoy Aquino on July 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
NINETEEN years have passed since then Congressman Oscar Orbos filed the “Freedom of Information Act of 1992”. Several other, more or less similar, bills were filed in the Senate and the House from 1998 until 2008, when then House Speaker Prospero Nograles filed House Bill 3732, or “An Act Implementing the Right of Access to [...]
The teller, not the tale
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged Generoso Mariano, military, Noynoy Aquino on July 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
IF INDEED Marine Col. Generoso Mariano was calling for the overthrow of Benigno Aquino III, few except Malacanang and its own version of the Arroyo regime’s Lorelei Fajardo seem to have been either surprised or worried. Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Avigail Valte went so far as to declare that once retired, Mariano could work directly for [...]
Blaming Arroyo
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino on July 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
BENIGNO Aquino III blames not only his immediate predecessor, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, for the country’s ills; he’s also mentioned the late Ferdinand Marcos as equally responsible for them. For doing that in some of his speeches and interviews with the media — and implying that Marcos and his female clone have made changing anything [...]
Understanding
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged bishops, CBCP, Roman Catholic Church on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
NOT all of them bought Pajeros, a sport utility vehicle ( SUV) manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors; some bought even more expensive SUVs and pick-up trucks, and others cheaper Asian utility vehicles (AUVs) with funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). Erroneously tagged by the media as “the Pajero 7,” some of these bishops [...]
Shallow bench
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged leadership, Noynoy Aquino on July 1, 2011 | 3 Comments »
BENIGNO AQUINO III has an approval rating of between 68 and 70 percent, most probably because he hasn’t done anything scandalous or controversial. That says something about how low Filipinos’ expectations of their leaders are. But you can’t blame them for it, their high expectations having been frequently dashed to pieces, and given how anxious [...]
Haunted
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged Ferdinand Marcos, Libingan ng mga Bayani on June 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »
HE’S been dead for 22 years, having died in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 28, 1989 at the age of 72, but Ferdinand Marcos haunts us still. The most recent manifestation of the ghost of atrocities past came in the form of his children’s pushing a resolution in the House of Representatives, with former Marcos acolyte [...]
Asking for it
Posted in Vantage Point, tagged Ampatuan Massacre, self-regulation, Supreme Court on June 17, 2011 | 1 Comment »
THE SUPREME COURT has granted a petition for live coverage of the Ampatuan Massacre trial filed by media advocacy groups, TV networks, individual journalists, and academics from the University of the Philippines. But it has imposed conditions some media organizations are already describing as difficult if not impossible to meet. Some are already talking about [...]
