What should be done to this NTF-ELCAC is to subject it to comprehensive audit and check where the billions of pesos it has handled since 2016 went. NTF-ELCAC, like Sara, might have battalions of Mary Grace Piattos, Xiaome Ochos, Fernando Tempuras, Reymunda Jane Novas, Carlos Miguel Oishis, Jay Kamotes, Miggy Mangos, Dodong Bunals and Dodong S. Baroks under its wing.
Philippine politics is money politics. It is the politics of the principalia that worked hand-in-glove with the Spanish colonial rulers and whose members became landlords commanding the loyalty of the serfs (even as Spain abolished slavery) that comprised their private army.
The April 29, 2025 murder of Johnny Dayang right in his home in Kalibo, Aklan strikes terror among journalists in rural areas just as a local court this month acquitted those accused in the murder of Juan “Johnny Walker” Jumalon, who was also shot dead right in his broadcast booth at home while hosting an online show on Nov. 5, 2023.
The signatories decried the injustice done to the accused. “The supposed evidence confiscated against the five activists (most young and each of them grassroots leaders) fits a proforma narrative, often accompanied by evidence planting and fabricated testimonies
Four out of the 10 so-called “pro-farmer” partylists do not represent farmers. Manalo urged all voters — especially those in rural communities — to stay vigilant, critical, and organized, and to reject partylist groups and candidates who exploit farmers’ names for personal and political gain.
Sts. Sara and Paulo want to reduce the matter to “political harassment” even as the latter admitted that the mauling happened after an extended drinking session which ironically started from the businessman’s home. It proves that the Dutertes cannot countenance any adverse publicity against them, particularly an incident that happened in the Obrero district of their sultanate.
The Marcos Jr. administration is twisting itself into knots for thinking that selling the nearly 400,000 metric tons (MT) of rice stowed in the warehouses of the National Food Authority (NFA) for only P20 per kilo would force retailers and wholesalers to slash their prices in order to compete with the “Bente Bigas Mo” (BBM) rice.
Both stood for something deeper. In their own quiet ways, they pushed back against injustice, pride, and indifference. The recent deaths of these icons hit differently as we prepare for the May 12 elections (yes, we need to prepare).
Cumpio is a local journalist whose case has been taken up by the One Free Press Coalition as one of the 10 worst cases of the trampling of press freedom. The list was released coinciding with the celebration of World Press Freedom Day on Saturday, May 3, and the international campaign to free those who have been imprisoned for seeking to tell the truth. Local and international media organizations have urged the Marcos Jr. government to drop the “trumped-up” charges against Cumpio and her fellow accused.
Did PW build septage facilities, new distribution systems and water purification facilities to ensure that the water they supply is potable? Judging by the kind of water that is crepuscular, the color of takipsilim when night meets day, PW simply didn’t bother building them.
