Our crusade to isolate China has backfired

posted May 02, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

The Philippines has lately been noisy about China’s reclamation of one of the islands in the Spratlys.  In fact, we went as far as accusing China of aggression.  It was a high-profile propaganda blitz to get the world’s public opinion in what Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert del Rosario dubbed as China’s “bullying.”

BBL needs to be ratified by our people

posted April 25, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

This pretending-to-be-honest government has solicited the support of the self-righteous to set the moral tone for our people to accept the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). 
Prominent leaders from the Church, business community and even those who drafted that shoddy Constitution were urged to lend a helping hand.  Among them were Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle;  Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala; retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Divide, Jr.; ambassador to the Vatican and Malta, Howard Dee; Felicitas Aquino-Arroyo; retired Supreme Court Justice Adolfo Azcuna; clerics who served as constitutional commissioners like Bishop Teodoro Bacani and Fr. Joaquin Bernas; socialite Flora del Rosario Braid; Edmund Garcia; Christian Monsod; Jose Luis Martin Gascon; former senator Ricardo Romulo; retired Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento;  Jaime Tadeo; Wilfredo Villacorta;  Bernardo Villegas and Bai Rohaniza Sumndad-Usman.

Binay’s sinking ambition PART ONE

Binay’s sinking ambition

posted April 18, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Part I
The political ambition of Vice President Jejomar Binay is fast sinking.  Like a boxer, Binay appears to duck at every shadow he believes would hurt his presidential ambition.  Binay has become vulnerable to his attackers; he has become too defensive to a point that even if some of the charges against him are baseless, people tend to believe them. It is his overreaction in suppressing them that  betrays him now.  

Shaming the republic PART TWO

Shaming the republic

posted April 11, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Part II

Shaming the republic PART ONE

Shaming the republic

posted March 28, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Part I

When Newsbreakcame out with an article dated March 18, 2013 to mark the 45th commemoration of the so–called “Jabida Massacre,” authors Marites Danguilan Vitug and Glenda M. Gloria claimed that at least 23 Muslim trainees were summarily gunned down.  Nobody asked where they got their story and what made them conclude that a massacre took place in Corregidor Island.  To them, destroying the image and memory of Marcos and the integrity of the Republic does not matter. All that is important is they succeed in ingratiating themselves to their foreign patrons.

Repudiate the BBL

posted March 21, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Knowing that we have been dealing with foreign nationals is more than enough for us to  repudiate the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.  This we have to bear in mind for while the government is willing to negotiate peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, it cannot enter into an agreement with the parties who are citizens of other countries adversarial to our interest.  To accede to that proposition could change altogether the parameter of the negotiations.  It will no longer be one of how far the government is willing to grant autonomy to our Muslim brothers in Mindanao, but on the future status of the territory that will be demarcated as part of the Bangsamoro.

The Other purpose of the emergency power

posted March 14, 2015 at 12:01 am by  Rod Kapunan

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

President Benigno Simeon Aquino is seeking an emergency power from Congress to cope up with the expected shortfall in the supply of electricity in the coming months, which will coincide with the onset of the El Niño phenomena.  It is forecast that between 400 to 1,000 megawatts additional electricity are needed, particularly in the Luzon grid, to avert a four- to seven-hour daily brownout.   PNoy attributes the shortage to boom in the economy triggering an increase in demand for more electricity and the scheduled maintenance work to be carried out at the Malampaya natural gas facilities that accordingly, supply us a total of 2,700 megawatts.