SunStar June 13, 2021 There will be no united opposition in 2022. The attempt by a group led by former Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio to do so is falling via the same reason the framers of the 1987 Constitution dismantled the old two-party system in favor of a supposedly more democratic one. Now any politician who thinks he can win the presidency will give it a try. The situation obtaining when former president Corazon Aquino led a united opposition against then dictator Ferdinand Marcos is no longer present. The group 1Sambayan will now have to win the elections on its own.
Which, of course, is a tall order, although it can be done. The disunity prevailing in both the Duterte camp and the political opposition can work in favor of 1Sambayan. Who would have thought, for example, that Vice President Leni Robredo could win in 2016, especially against the machinery and the resources of a Ferdinand Marcos Jr.?
SunStar June 10, 2021 Manny Pacquiao is treating the coming presidential election like a boxing match. We usually compare it to a race but in the initial stage of positioning, it has looked like a verbal match. Pacquiao threw the first jab and President Rodrigo Duterte came up with a right straight. Pacquiao, with his advisers, responded with an uppercut.
The issue that Pacquiao first threw was about the West Philippine Sea or WPS. He criticized the Duterte administration’s stand on the territorial dispute. “Medyo nakukulangan ako,” he said. Pacquiao obviously favors a firmer stand on the dispute, noting that the President promised to be such during the campaign. He promised to ride a jetski and plant the Philippine flag on a disputed island, which is a metaphor for his willingness to fight for our claim.
SunStar
+ June 06, 2021 EVERY time I see Carol and the others on Facebook, I am reminded of youthful exuberance. I am older now. But it is always like this when we look back at those formative years of our lives. We feel young and reinvigorated. Carol reinvigorates me even more because we grew up together in the struggle.
Carol was one of the Theresians who inspired us. I was an engineering student from a “lesser” campus and they were among those who joined the rallies of old. They were brave and courageous in the face of government suppression. That sight prompted us to try to be brave and courageous, too.