Nanang Ine, the younger of my dad’s two sisters, died today of an asthma attack. Most probably, she died while desperately calling for her housemates’ attention as she tried to breathe. Nanang Ine was known in my father’s village as deaf and dumb. But that didn’t stop her from expressing love and admiration, pain and…

I thought ANAD was having a presscon yesterday to finally apologize for being part of the dagdag-bawas in the 2004 polls. A quick check of the Hello Garci transcript clearly states that ANAD was a beneficiary of Virgilio Garcillano’s magickry, getting more votes than it truly did. I thought that Jun Alcover would publicly dissociate…

Ric Ramos, leader of striking Hacienda Luisita farmworkers, was gunned down the other night near his home in Tarlac. Hours later, a Bayan Muna-Pampanga official and his two friends were shot dead. Yesterday afternoon, a jeepney driver was shot in the head and chest somewhere in the capital of Bulacan. He was the local chairman…

I wrote and uploaded this entry using my Treo 600 with a Globe simcard. Here’s to more frequent, more instant posts.

Humble peasants from the provinces, many of them barefoot, moved Pen Medina to tears at the People Power monument as the Lakbayan inched its way towards the DAR office in Quezon City. Sino ba ang hindi maiiyak? Thanks to the Lakbayani farmers, many of us who have had the chance to go into schools and…

(Note: I am posting here a letter I sent to friends at Mobileactive.) Dear friends at Mobileactive, I am writing on behalf of Philippine people’s organizations who are now bearing the brunt of a so-called Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR) policy against mass actions, rallies and demonstrations. Most of these protests are being undertaken by the…

TORONTO, CANADA – It has been three days of learning, listening, contemplating here at Toronto which is a perfect meeting place because, as I have read in a site, the city’s name originates to an old word meaning “meeting place”. Barring jetlag, we’ve met with an incredible bunch of people from the US, England, Canada,…

Malacañang was ecstatic in its pronouncements about Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s participation in the UN leaders’ summit, marking the world body’s 60th anniversary. Thy sycophants were mighty proud of their grand dame that, acording to first-hand reports from reputable media sources, they clapped lustily even before she opened her mouth in her speech before the Security…

The battle for the removal of GMA shifts to the streets with the murder of the impeachment complaint in the House. Fow what else could the people resort to except to assert their will as a people? The events in the House were an eloquent admission on the part of our “honorables” that indeed their…

TXTPower today unleashed hundreds of emails calling on the public to text “undecided” congressmen and women and convince them to sign the impeachment complaint against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The TXTPower email contains a list of nearly 50 congressmen and women. Full text of the email is at the TXTPower website, of course. Please take part…

For the second straight day, the pro-Arroyo House leadership immediately suspended its plenary session in order to railroad the justice committee meetings. The House leaders are obviously maneuvering so that Mrs. Arroyo would not be saddled by an impeachment complaint when she flies abroad this month. So brazen are the maneuvers yesterday and today. They…

While the nation considers the manner by which Gloria M. Arroyo would be removed from the presidency, it is only worthwhile (and perhaps entertaining too!) to explore the many possible alternative career paths she could take when she finally leaves the Palace. This series of blogs on the topic will continue until a new national…

If you are for good governance, truth and justice, please wear or hang white ribbons. When we do so, we want to send this message to Mrs. Arroyo: FOR THE SAKE OF THE COUNTRY, RESIGN NOW! White ribbons symbolize our longing for an end to the bleak Arroyo presidency and to all the lies that…

When I was a kid, I was among the many admirers of Ninoy. I voraciously his written works and published articles about him. I even collected the Mr. and Ms. special editions that devoted precious print space for the coverage of the investigations that followed his murder. What I liked about Ninoy Aquino was his…

I take it as a personal insult the reported rantings of Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Mike Defensor that it was not his principal, Gloria M. Arroyo, who was speaking with Comm. Virgilio Garcillano as recorded in the Gloriagate tapes. Hello!? Arroyo has already admitted her “lapse in judgment” vis-a-vis the 14 calls she made…

While the nation considers the manner by which Gloria M. Arroyo would be removed from the presidency, it is only worthwhile (and perhaps entertaining too!) to explore the many possible alternative career paths she could take when she finally leaves the Palace. This series of blogs on the topic will continue until a new national…

Archbishop Oscar Cruz is reaping a PR attack for his allegations that the Palace is mobilizing henchmen and gazillions of money to shut the traps of whistleblowers against Mrs. Arroyo. But what else is new in this God-forsaken land of pseudo-leaders who harbor illusions of royalty? Archbishop Cruz may actually be telling the truth, considering…

It was an opportune time for many to ask the right questions over the weekend, when Japan and the world marked the detonation of atomic bombs in Hiroshima. The questions pertained to acts of terrorism perpetrated by governments as what happened when the US government authorized the pilot of Enola Gay to drop the bomb…

It would have been better had Raul Roco and Eddie Villanueva combined for a spectacular tandem in the last presidential elections. Either way, they would have given Gloria Arroyo and Noli de Castro a run for their money. Roco, who passed away today due to cancer, personified the best the traditional political elite has to…

Today, bloggers from all over are set to meet at UP’s Malcolm Hall for the iBlog Mini: Blogging Gloriagate. This is a good opportunity for an offline meeting among bloggers and perhaps the more militant, more active would be able to plan a little for both online and offline actions. I am sure TXTPower convenors…

Joseph Mussomeli, the top US diplomat in the Philippines, spoke about his love for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He said that Arroyo will survive the crisis and criticized moves towards a People Power uprising that will oust her from the presidency. (Mike Arroyo would have had a heart attack listening to Mussomeli at the FOCAP press…

Palace propagandists who spread the yarn “People Power fatigue” opportunistically forget to mention or refuse to admit that their principal Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was catapulted to office by the second People Power uprising in 2001. They also fail to mention that it is a universally-acknowledged right of peoples and nations to form new governments and…