Opinion
News from Philippines
DANGER IN THE WATER
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A major step in protecting young online users
IN what has been described as “a watershed moment,” Meta Platforms has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and ref…
Why Marcos impeachment project is doomed
Last of 2 parts THE impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is rapidly becoming President Marcos’ big…
Cebu Pacific, GCash, San Miguel Beer, SM Malls and YouTube
I WILL write about five companies and their products or services which have improved our lives. While they are…
Iglesia ni Cristo history as insight into Philippine history
Last of a series IN the two previous pieces in this series, I essentially suggested that the unfolding of even…
Poverty and illiteracy
FROM a cynical or authoritarian view, deep socioeconomic hardship can make governments less accountable, but i…
Havel’s ‘living within a lie’
Just before the weekend, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did something increasingly unusual in internation…
From Taga-Ilog to Tagalog
THE good news in our put-upon environment is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) initiative for the Pasig River. T…
Promises made, promises kept — and broken
IN PHILIPPINE POLITICS, presidential candidates promise abundance with ease. Governing, on the other hand, tes…
Hope they got it right
LAST Tuesday, Judge Maria Angelica P. de Ramos of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 98 heard the ora…
Divorce cannot be allowed to creep into the Philippines
The main argument for recognizing divorce in the Philippines proceeds from a banal fallacy: that because all o…
Gift and vinculum we all need
ONE province, Oriental Mindoro, in one day, Aug. 26, 2026, two higher education institutions conducted separat…
Aging populations need not mean frailer economies
OXFORD, United Kingdom — The global demographic transition, characterized by declining birth rates and rising …
'EPICENTER OF CORRUPTION'
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Climate prognosis worsens
EARLIER this month, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) released its annual State of the Climate report …
We should stop treating online learning as an alternative
EVERY time heavy rains fall, floods rise, temperatures become unbearable, or a typhoon approaches, our schools…
How synodality can help fix our broken country
SYNODALITY has often been decried as seeking to recast Catholicism or even establish a new religion. For sure,…
The Pax Nothing Burger and misplaced AI enthusiasm
First of two parts I HAVE noticed in the past few days that there has been another wave of cloyingly positive …
The future of Philippine education is offline AI
THE most dangerous assumption in Philippine educational artificial intelligence (AI) is not that machines can …
To make it big in business, start small
On the RJ Ledesma Podcast and this column, I often focus on the end result of business ventures — entrepreneur…
A view from a life and family advocate: What could lead a child to take another child’s life?
First of three parts THERE is something uniquely disturbing about the recent incidents of school violence in o…
Living with medical and legal AI
I have a smartwatch with ECG capability that has been helping me manage a heart condition. It records rhythm s…
Discussing depression
WHEN I ran for a seat in the Senate, I faced so much bashing that, at one point, I broke down publicly. I can …
Turning experience into evidence
THE magnitude 7.8 Sarangani earthquake of June 8 reminded the country of a figure we have all learned to quote…
Peripheral view
ATHLETES are prized for their peripheral vision, providing them with a broader view of possible plays and assi…
Strategic wisdom in Marcos’ reset with China
PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent pronouncements on a “reset” of relations with China, progress in talks…
ACCELERATED ASCENT
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A gap between media and public perceptions of AI
CARMA, the global media intelligence and marketing/public relations communications analysis firm, recently pub…
Congress has far more important work than impeachment
First of two parts CONGRESS has managed to convince itself that the nation’s most urgent business is the polit…
Cayetano’s misplaced appeal for neutrality
ALAN Peter Cayetano, who seems to have a penchant for being on the wrong side, has complained about counsel — …
PH: Where ‘dynamic’ actually means ‘frozen’
EUROPEAN Pork, a European Union-based association of pork producers, has called the Philippine pork sector a “…
Barangay polls: The cost debate
OUR barangay (village) elections got another jolt. First, it was oil prices from the Middle East war. Now it’s…
The impact of artificial intelligence on the youth: The educators
(Part 4) It is in the private schools that the environment is more favorable to the close participation of par…
Trumping an overture to Kim again
KOTA KINABALU — Last week, United States President Donald Trump appeared once again to be extending an olive b…
Climate Resilience: A national and global imperative
When it rains continuously for several days on end, much like what we witnessed in the past few weeks, the con…
No real political parties, just politicians
LAST week, I argued that the Philippines possesses an abundance of politicians but practically no genuine poli…
First parliamentary polls will test BARMM’s ayuda economy: Building a more capable government
AGAINST THIS BACKDROP, voters should not be tempted to judge parties solely by the generosity of their manifes…
Remembering the forgotten spillway
FILIPINOS are no strangers to flooding. The country experiences an average of 20 typhoons that enter the Phili…
The Magic 12 has five empty seats
THERE are 12 Senate seats up for election in 2028. But ask Filipino voters today to fill them, and the average…
BREAKAWAY SITUATION
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