At nine years old I began to notice the opposite sex. But I was overwhelmed by the physical disproportion. Why were the girls much taller and bigger than us? I was clueless of the biological rationale. I was skinny then, and I was covered with banil as the libag got stuck on my neck. At...
“‘Tis not seasonable to call a man a traitor that has an army at his heels.” John Selden (1584-1654), British jurist, statesman. “Traitor,” Table Talk (1686). We pride ourselves with our regionalistic inclinations. We identify ourselves with our friends, relatives, and neighbours. And we find ourselves more in common with our kababayan. Our townmates, provincemates,...
It is understandable if the likes of Jejomar Binay or JV Ejercito keep their swashbuckling animus while the object of their best punch remains standing. They are now back on the drawing board charting how best to politically decapitate their target. While the budget from Tanay keeps on coming. These opposition top honchos remain unperturbed...
Since the death of FPJ, the Mayor of Makati has lent his visibility and probably leadership in the rudderless opposition ship. The competing irresistible forces of the camps of two high profile senators, who are both presidential wannabes, have rent asunder a model united opposition front. In this country however, the self is much larger...
Had the 2004 elections been computerized and not conducted in what observers then called the archaic system of manual counting, today’s allegations of cheating and rigging would simply be baseless. It is disturbing (but also revealing) that hardly anyone is campaigning for election reforms today. This leads to the conclusion that many in the political...
Recently, when I e-mailed a long-lost friend who is now based in America, he asked me how life is today in his old Philippines. He told me he hasn’t been here for the last 30 years. Of course he told me that he is kept posted on the developments hereabouts via the internet, as all...
This year is the 25th anniversary of my lawyering. Not a single day interrupted my continuous trial life as an attorney. While I had my foray in government service for six years, the law did not forbid from practicing my profession. For ten years from taking my oath as a lawyer, I worked as an...
(NOTE: I received the following unedited email recently from a friend based in California whom I have not heard from for the last 31 years. The death of a fraternity brother induced the exchange of emails.) Dear Sonny, I have been informed of important news about tom for all the years. I have been in...
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau US Transcendentalist author (1817 – 1862) There is no debate that we live in a poor country. Our resources here in Quezon are meagre. Yet, I always maintain that there is something still for everybody. Ours seas are bountiful. We are bounded,...
Return on Investment (ROI) is the old formula of computing how much an investor gets from his investment where we look at the quotient of net income over total capital. The higher the ROI, the profitable the business. But this method of computation is inapplicable to power plants selling electricity to distributors who in turn...
THE BOHOL AND QUEZON TRAGEDIES In this world there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst – OSCAR WILDE They could have been averted if not their effects diminished had the local government units been more vigilant in the performance...
There is enough in the world for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed (Frank Buchman (1878-1961), U.S. evangelist. Remaking the World (1947). In the January 10, 2005 issue of the Philippine Star, it reported: (Mayor Hernando Avellaneda) estimated that Gen. Nakar suffered some P100 million in agricultural losses and about P200 million in...
