And the government’s Phivolcs people, who’re not the regular internet doomsayers, are talking about it, as if making the warning now would make their work easier.
Ten days after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck north Cebu, killing more than 70 people, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake Friday, hit the coast of southern Philippines, killing eight.
October 10 quake set off a magnitude 6.9 earthquake later in the day, prompting tsunami alerts.
The serial quakes inevitably led to public conversation about the “Big One” and the threats that come with living In the “Pacific Ring of Fire.” The “Big One” is a horseshoe-shaped zone, “string of underwater volcanoes and earthquake sites around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.”
This last few days, after the Bogo City and Davao City disasters one after the other, the “Big One” chatter spices news reports and images of shaken buildings and rattled people.
The “Big One” is a “looming 7.2 magnitude quake from 100-km. West Valley Fault predicted to hit Metro Manila with devastating force.”
If or when it would happen, no doubt there would be no more fuss over the massive corruption in government and prosecuting the perpetrators. Nothing else would matter, except maybe the 2028 election if that still could be held.
MARIA CORINA MACHADO, leader of Venezuela’s movement, was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” She met the criteria laid downin Alfred Nobel’s will in selecting the Peace Prize laureate, the Nobel committee said.
The winner was not …
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. president, who for years has been longing to get the Peace Prize and telling the world about it.
Some reasons why Trump didn’t get the prize: “1) he tried too hard; 2) his foreign policy is the opposite of peace; 3) his pursuit of the prize was fueled by jealousy over President Obama winning it in 2009 and the Nobel hates vendetta; 4) he made peace a performance; 5) he undermined the global order the Nobel celebrates; 6) Machado was a stronger candidate.”
Presumption of innocence is ‘favorite refuge of scoundrels,’ says retired judge Menmen Paredes on the argument for including ex-president Rodrigo Duterte among the IBP Pillar of Law awardees.
Can that be said too of Boying Remulla who wasn’t struck off the JBC shortlist and was appointed Ombudsman by President Bongbong Marcos?
Apparently yes. And one can speculate as to what happened to the rule of the JBC -- prohibiting and disqualifying all aspirants with pending criminal or administrative cases -- which had been uniformly enforced since Dec. 1, 2000, date of effectivity. It’s been scuttled.
I do not believe that former president Duterte has upheld the ideals of justice, integrity and the rule of law. His regime was characterized by the rule of the gun, not of law…
Retired RTC Judge Meinrado F. Paredes, in returning his Pillar of Law award from the national IBP, as “expression of disappointment and disgust.”
… We are duty-bound to rise above biases and to uphold this fundamental precept of our justice system, that judgment must rest on evidence and final conviction, not mere perception, and everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty…
IBP Davao City Chapter