Commentary

Bulan na naman kan Agosto, bulan ki sadiring ngangabilon. Asin ini an bulan na giraray kitang minasabi kan mantra na nagpapagiromdom satuya na an dai mamoot sa sadiring tataramon, orog pa kabata sa malansang sira. Ano man baya ining sinasabing tataramon na ini na kadaklan baga satuya nag-iisip na ini an Tagalog o Pilipino/Filipino na yaon sana sa sentro, sa Manila, asin sa laog kan telebisyon o an mga istasyon sa Manila? Totoo na may dominasyon an Tagalog huli sa nangyari tang agi-agi.

MANILA — After several hours of debate lasting until past midnight, members of the House of Representatives approved the impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas N. Gutierrez. With a vote of 210-47 in favor of House Resolution 1089, the impeachment case against Gutierrez would now be tried by the Senate.

During his first few months in office as DILG Secretary, Jesse Robredo made it a priority to issue a memorandum circular requiring all local government units to fully disclose their budget and how they are spending it to their constituents. Clearly, this initiative is in line with the campaign promise of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to curb graft and corruption through the promotion of transparency and public accountability.

If Filipinos had dreamed that public health care may improve under the new Aquino government, which packaged itself as an agent of change with a “health for all” agenda during the election campaign, its 2010 performance would come as a nasty shock.

The Great Condom Debate has entered Round Two. Now it looks like Pope Benedict XVI has really said something he has never said before. That would be news. But it looks like it’s really, really news because now the apparent change (or at least the camel’s nose wedge) in Church teaching is even more dramatic.

Effectively empowered and mobilized to deliver basic services, the country's 42,025 barangays can serve as the community-based engines for democratic governance and development. The barangay serves as "the primary planning and implementing unit of government policies, plans, programs, projects, and activities in the community." (Section 384, 1991 Local Government Code) Its governing council, Sangguniang Barangay, exercises legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial powers in order to enact local measures that enhance the enforcement of laws, deliver basic services, and settle local disputes.

"The drive against corruption will only gain momentum if there is real accountability, especially of the biggest crooks in government. The Aquino administration concretely can set the tone for this by going after former president Arroyo and her many big and small cronies, in her family and among her allies," Jose Enrique Africa, Ibon Foundation research head, said.

Media attention has largely concentrated on President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's detailed allegations in his first State of the Nation Address of extravagance and profligacy in Gloria Arroyo's administration

IMPUNITY - OR exemption from punishment - has been correctly called a culture, a way of doing things to which a particular community has become accustomed. It is almost inevitably mentioned as the primary reason why journalists and political activists continue to be killed in the Philippines, where a culture of impunity has indeed taken root. But it also applies with equal validity to the killing of nearly everyone else, especially the poor and powerless. Few murders in this country are ever really solved, with the perpetrators and masterminds being arrested, tried and punished.

The Philippines was second to none in military might among countries in Southeast Asia, but that was long, long time ago. Today, by twist of fate, the Philippines found itself at the bottom, gasping for breath trying to save whatever it could on its remaining aging aircraft and warships in its arsenal.