Fernandez: More things to do

I WAS not quite surprised when the National Statistical Coordination Board (NCSB) released last month its latest figures on the poverty incidence in the Philippines.

According to the NSCB data, poverty incidence hardly eased between 2006 and 2009. Poverty incidence was estimated at 27.9 percent in the first semester of 2012, compared to 28.8 percent poverty incidence in 2006 and 28.6 percent in 2009.

Cariño: Hello, mayora

MY FIRST unsolicited advice for the mayor elect of strawberry town is for her to junk that cute yellow SUV people had seen her drive before the campaign period. That car might create a divide between her administration and those who put her back into public office, or impress something nasty on what motivated her bid.

Domondon: The Other Way Around

THE City Council of Baguio deliberated last Monday, during its 17th regular session, a distinctly unique request coming from an educational institution situated within the central business district area of the city.

Alamon: Of patrons and martyrs

WHILE our City is in an expectant and bright mood as a result of the just concluded political exercise, the senatorial elections; however, cast a gloomy shadow over the seeming direction of national politics.

Local politics and national elections are different political beasts that are of course entangled in a warped co-dependent relationship. But while the issues of local politics are more gut-level, the senatorial elections, on the other hand, give us an insight into where we are as a nation.

Ravanera: A book God wrote

WE are now on the 13th year of the 21st century but we don’t know anymore if we can reach the 22nd century which is only 87 years away because the global system is now collapsing. We must now be imbued with a new Gaia consciousness to nurture God’s vanishing creation. To partake of that consciousness, it behooves upon all of us to read seriously the book that God has authored, written in his own handwriting.

That book is opened 24 hours a day and has no literacy requirement for it is not written in alphabets and can be well understood using not one but five senses.

Wenceslao: Staying relevant

OPERATION Day 1” was the buzzword when I covered the Capitol beat in the early ‘90s during the administration of lawyer Vicente “Tingting” de la Serna. Tingting had defeated Annette, wife of former governor Emilio “Lito” Osmeña, in the 1992 Cebu gubernatorial elections. Lito at that time was seeking a national position, leaving his control of the Capitol vulnerable to assaults from the opposition.

Seares: Jun Pe’s derailed test on term limit

CEBU City Councilor Jun Pe of BOPK wanted to probe boundaries of term limit: whether he could secure a fourth consecutive term in the City Council by changing districts.

He wanted to go around the legal barrier by transferring legal residence from the north and filing his certificate of candidacy in the south.

Lee: Law on children

MY WIFE recently gave birth to a baby girl. In between cooing to the baby and cuddling her, I thought it would be good to discuss some of the laws surrounding a newly born baby.

Under Article 40 of the Civil Code, “birth determines personality; but the conceived child shall be considered born for all purposes that are favorable to it.”

Estremera: Typewriters and touchpads

IT’S not easy to be bullied. Anyone who has been bullied will know that. Many adults who have forgotten their childhood would always prattle that anyone bullied should just go to an elder and tell him or her what happened. As if a child can easily do that.

Or a nation. Look at us and our people in Taiwan. One or two, or maybe many, have been hit by the bat of enraged Taiwanese, and what can our people do? Nothing. What can we in the Philippines do? Nothing. Now bring that down to the scale of one bullied child.

Pacete: Negros at IFEX-Philippines

THE Negros staff manning the Negros Pavilion at the International Food Exhibition (IFEX)-Philippines (May 16–19) are in an intense mood while seriously attending to the investors who are interested in Negros products. IFEX is organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Jimenez: First moves of the new local leadership

THE residents of Bacolod City have high hopes that the new local leadership will be able to have the political will to straighten things in society in a firm but democratic way. This was the main comment that was raised during the coffee session of some informal political analysts.

***

Roperos: Automated count

COMES now the disturbing questions about the automated election machines that earlier gave us an immediate glimpse of the results of the voting.

Lots of doubts are now being expressed about the veracity and accuracy of the election results from precincts that used the automated election system (AES).

Editorial: The push for a Mactan province

CAN a neophyte lawmaker like newly elected Rep. Aileen Radaza do it meaning, push through the legislative mill her proposal to slice off Mactan island from the Cebu mainland and raise its status to a province?

It’s an interesting question. As interesting as why her father, outgoing Lapu-Lapu Rep. Arturo Radaza didn’t craft the bill himself.

Limlingan: Whatever might have happened

AS I was reading the news on this paper on Monday, I got struck by the story of an elderly man wanting answers on his complaint against a private hospital in the City of San Fernando. For a gist on the news item, a 70-year-old man named Manuel Bautista of Pilar Village in Barangay San Isidro has filed a complaint before the Department of Health, Center for Health and Development-3 (DOH-CHD 3) against a known private hospital in the city.

Morales: Necro politics

THIS election, as far as elections go, is one most loaded with upsets, and the biggest one of course is Grace Poe-Llamanzares grabbing the hotly-contested top spot, heretofore relegated to Loren Legarda, and, in seasons past, to Noli “Kabayan” de Castro, Mar Roxas, Joseph Estrada.

How did a virtual unknown climb the peak of the political Mt. Everest that had one Senate topnotcher-wannabe try to destroy another’s reputation just to land on number 1?

Tantingco: The Kapampangan in Us

WHO are the Kapampangans?

It’s not just a rhetorical question. Some people really want to know, especially after two Kapampangans from Tarlac were rejected as nominees to the annual Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awards (MOKA) two years in a row.

De Leon: Now Serving: Theme Restaurants (Part II)

ALICE of Magic World -- Tokyo, Japan. Playing cards, oversize teacup booths and heart-shaped light fittings all feature at the Alice of Magic World restaurant in Tokyo. The eatery, which is located in the Ginza district. The waitresses dress up in Alice in Wonderland frocks, and the menus come in mini dioramas with foldout flaps.

Domoguen: Flow gently river of life into our hearts and minds

IF YOU feel like jumping into the water by the river, are you certain it is clean - good to your health even your limbs. A lot of things are not what they seem since you last reckoned them, mind you.

Tibaldo: Protect yourself from 'Phishing' and online fraud

I MAY not be physically present in any discussion, forum, meeting or group encounter but I can be technologically around with the use of modern day communication gadgets. The use of non-voice communication systems such as e-mail, short message sending or SMS texting has been in practice for over a decade already allowing faster and real time correspondence but the fact remains that these are not free from risks and fraudulent acts.

Editorial: Championing our children’s education

AND the countdown begins.

In 14 days, students of public elementary and high schools begin their annual quest for quality education amid the perennial problems our schools are facing.

Editorial: Now back to Pablo

THE May 2013 Global Food Security Update of the UN World Food Programme marked “parts of Mindanao in the Philippines” as among the areas in the world classified as under phase 4 emergency food security situations. Why is that? Two reasons: 1) continued poverty in the country’s poorest of the poor provinces, and, typhoon Pablo.

Hidalgo: Election just the beginning, performance is next

After the din resulting from the just concluded, election. We should start analyzing the state where our nation is in. Let us separate the grain from the chaff. The best and wisely chosen elected have these platforms in common. They promised to work hard on these fronts--education, fighting poverty, employment, livelihood, health, and ideal family life. Unseen and vital, too are the actual total well- being of these candidates. They possess honesty, integrity, morality, and sincerity of these candidates. They are ideal role models who deserve the respect of their constituents.

Oledan: Unconditional release

IT WILL take the unconditional release of all political prisoners in Myanmar to show the international community that its leadership is serious to improve its human rights situation. The government has pardoned another 20 political prisoners ahead of the President’s historic visit to the United States this week, the first state visit by a Myanmar leader in almost 47 years.

Sanchez: He says, they say

SO WHO are we to believe? Senior Police Officer 1 Rosendo Bersal, Jr. retracted a sworn affidavit that he and SPO3 Jayvee Aglipay co-signed that the PNP SAF team “saw two (2) pcs TNT 1/4 pound MAX high explosives” as basis for inquest proceedings.

Bersal, in his retraction, executed an affidavit “to rectify the inaccurate and false contents” of paragraph 4 of the joint affidavit of arrest. He was so sure of himself that he even published his sworn retraction in a full page ad of this newspaper last May 10. I wonder though, that with his SPO1 salary he can spend that much money for the ad.

The rise of China

MID-SEPTEMBER 2008. Lehman Brothers, a US-headquartered financial services company, had to admit that it made bad investments and was bankrupt. US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson acknowledged this unwelcome news but decided that the US government should do nothing to save Lehman Brothers.

Editorial: Reclaiming heritage

VALUING heritage takes more than a day or a month. Slowly but steadily, Cebu is reclaiming its own.

Last May 18 was International Museum Day. In the country, May is considered as National Heritage Month.

Wenceslao: Same old Senate

I THINK it’s time for her critics to loosen up on Vice President Jejomar Binay’s daughter Ma. Lourdes Nancy. She has been proclaimed as among the 12 winners in the senatorial race, landing in 5th place with more than 16 million votes. Meaning that her critics could no longer prevent Binay’s entry into the Senate.

Nalzaro: Fixing what’s not broken

I WAS in Mactan Island the entire day yesterday for the company outing of Radyo GMA (GMA) employees at Agus Hotel in Barangay Agus. It was an annual activity where company officers and employees together with their families relax and enjoy. The event was also very timely because everybody was so tired during our election coverage last week. Imagine, we went on the air for 48 hours for our continuous coverage. It was, indeed, a great bonding yesterday.

As I drove going here before noon, I encountered traffic problem near Gaisano Capital.

Seares: Proposed Mactan province: shades of Sugbo-ak?

THE first bill that congresswoman-elect Aileen Radaza will file when the new Congress opens is one that seeks to create a new province to be named Mactan.

Mongaya: PCOS pre-programmed?

WHILE most of mainstream media friends hailed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the PCOS for a job - well done, seemingly isolated critical voices are presenting disturbing data online. The percentage of votes per senator was uniform and consistent nationwide as the counting proceeded.