Opinion
OPINION: Why an Anti-Dynasty Law Is Now a Democratic Emergency
Nearly four decades after the 1987 Constitution warned against political dynasties, Congress still hasnโt passed the one law that would make that warning real. In that vacuum, political families didnโt just survive โ they flourished. Today, they dominate nearly every corner of the Philippine political map. Passing an anti-dynasty law isnโt just reform for reformโs […]
OPINION: When Winning Becomes Everything, Democracy Loses โ Even As Sara Duterte Dominates Early 2028 Surveys
Early surveys for the 2028 presidential race show that Vice President Sara Duterte continues to lead by wide margins. She isย far ahead of rivals from both administration and opposition blocs. Her numbers reveal something deeper than name recall: they expose a political environment still shaped by the same currents that powered the previous Duterte era […]
Is Local News Dead? Or Are We Killing It?
Local news isnโt dying a natural death. It is being killed slowly and methodicallyโnot by disinterest, not by digital disruption, but by a political and economic ecosystem that punishes truth-telling outside Metro Manila. For years, weโve been told that provincial newsrooms are โweakโ or that community journalists lack the sophistication of their national counterparts. But […]
Opinion | Is โKung Walang Korap, Walang Mahirapโ A Problematic Promise?
The slogan โKung Walang Korap, Walang Mahirapโ burst into the national consciousness more than a decade ago. It resonated like a battle cry then, and now when corruption controversies rocked the Marcos administration. Here was a message so clean, so sharp, and so moral that it could cut across regions, classes, and political colors. It […]
Why the โOust and Replaceโ Reflex Is Breaking Philippine Democracy
Has it become a template? Every time the country hits a governance snagโcorruption scandals, policy failures, leadership meltdownsโthe national reflex is painfully predictable: oust the leader, replace the administration, then flirt with the fantasy of a โtransition government.โ Itโs as if weโve reduced democracy to a cycle of outrage and replacement, a political version of […]
COMMENTARY: A GATEKEEPER OF POWER, NOT PUBLIC TRUST
Lucas Bersaminโs ascent to the position of Executive Secretary in September 2022 was not greeted with applause but with suspicionโand rightly so. The so-called โLittle President,โ a post that demands unimpeachable integrity and absolute public confidence, was handed to a man whose judicial record has long been tainted by political undertones. Bersaminโs years in the […]