2000 Postscripts

December 2000

JOSE Velarde is still on the loose, remember, free to sow mayhem. The earlier he is put behind bars, the better for this badly battered nation. [ Read More ]

WANT to know who Jose Velarde really is? Reader D. Conti of Muntinlupa shares with us this information: [ Read More ]

PRESIDENT Estrada claims he is innocent. Good. [ Read More ]

THE nation can now fully savor the spirit of the season after the explosive testimony last Friday in the impeachment trial of President Estrada cleared the air on the true identify of the Jose Velarde who had signed big checks linked to questioned transactions. [ Read More ]

EVEN in the seemingly harmless matter of reciting an invocation at the start of the proceedings, the impeachment court should be careful that no hint of partisanship creeps in. [ Read More ]

WHILE the ruling of Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. allowing the opening of the bank records on the Valhalla account appeared to have favored the prosecution in the impeachment trial of President Estrada, it is too early for them to rejoice. [ Read More ]

SEN. Miriam Defensor Santiago again surprised many yesterday when she offered legal opinion in the impeachment trial in the Senate that the House prosecution team may be allowed the discretion of retaining private lawyers to assist it. [ Read More ]

THE expose of the German press, especially the prestigious Der Spiegel (The Mirror), that President Estrada and Secretary Robert Aventajado got 40 percent and 10 percent commissions, respectively, from ransom paid for some hostages of the Abu Sayyaf is most damaging to President Estrada. [ Read More ]

WE feel sapped after going through two dreadful days of watching the prosecutors in the impeachment trial of President Estrada fumbling on the Senate floor after an impressive opening presentation. [ Read More ]

PRESIDENT Estrada is wishing aloud for a Christmas gift of acquittal in the impeachment trial that opens today in the Senate. [ Read More ]

PRESIDENT Estrada has impliedly admitted ownership or control of the mansions linked to his mistresses by objecting, through counsel, to the inspection of these plush residences by agents of the impeachment court (Senate). [ Read More ]

DOES President Estrada want to lead us Forward, Backward, Sideward, Upward or Downward? [ Read More ]

November 2000

WE conducted this week an informal survey asking our friends about their favorite AM radio station. Early this year, the 9-1 runaway favorite of the same respondents was dzMM of the ABS-CBN network. Now it is 7-3 in favor of dzBB of GMA 7. [ Read More ]

THE anti-Estrada forces better start paying closer attention to the calibration of their campaign to discredit and unseat President Estrada. [ Read More ]

AKALA namin matitinong abogado itong sina ex-Chief Justice Andres Narvasa and ex-Justice Secretary Estelito Mendoza. How come their opening gambit is to delay the impeachment process by filing a two-bit criminal lawyer’s motion to quash? [ Read More ]

WITH the filing of impeachment charges against President Estrada and his seemingly losing his grip on things, there is not only a scramble to abandon the ship but also the disclosure of more alleged money-making scandals involving him and presidential cronies. [ Read More ]

THE trial of President Estrada facing four articles of impeachment has begun in the Senate. Let us give the constitutional process a chance. [ Read More ]

WE do not normally spend time on materials from readers using secondary addresses not issued by their Internet Service Providers, because the authorship is difficult to trace. [ Read More ]

IT’S not fair to the Senate, but the sad assessment of most people is that if the impeachment trial of President Estrada were to open tomorrow and a verdict handed down soon after, the President would be acquitted. [ Read More ]

THERE is hope, after all, for this country — if we are to go by the dramatic action of the House of Representatives yesterday officially sending to the Senate the impeachment charges against President Estrada. [ Read More ]

ISN’T God, some readers ask, confused over the conflicting prayers of clashing political camps in this the only Christian country in Asia? Another question: Who’s more influential with God — Cardinal Sin or MikeVelarde? [ Read More ]

WE have gathered for Postscript readers the names of the 78 congressmen who signed under oath last Monday the impeachment charges against President Estrada. That day, the House justice committee voted in a stormy meeting to endorse the charge sheet to the plenary session. [ Read More ]

POLITICS is addition all right, but must Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo welcome all those shady characters deserting a bleeding Erap Estrada and scrambling onto her bandwagon? [ Read More ]

ERAP Estrada is no novice. He’s not deaf or blind. By this time, he knows that the show is over and it’s time to bow out. [ Read More ]

AS sure as jueteng millions have found their way to Malacañang, Local Government Secretary Alfredo Lim will not find the name of Erap Estrada on the ownership papers covering the fabulous mansions reportedly given to his high-living mistresses. [ Read More ]

October 2000

TO his critics, Erap Estrada belted out last week a boastful “Sa kangkungan kayo pupuluting lahat!” (You’ll all end up in the kangkong patch!). [ Read More ]

CEBU CITY — It’s the economy, stupid! It’s not the political opposition that is pulling Erap Estrada, and with him the entire nation, down to the cliff. [ Read More ]

NOW we really have reason to pray. It could happen that when (if) the impeachment charges against President Estrada reach the Senate, there might be only two noncommittal senators left to hear the charges. [ Read More ]

IT says here that Erap Estrada is itching to submit to a snap presidential election to revalidate his mandate. [ Read More ]

THOSE who want to maneuver Erap Estrada out of the presidency may have unwittingly fallen into a trap when they were lured into filing impeachment charges against the President. [ Read More ]

IT’S now the entire nation — all of us — actually on trial for indifference and corruption. Sabit tayong lahat. [ Read More ]

THE big question now facing us is: Who do we save — Erap Estrada or the nation? [ Read More ]

HOW come Erap Estrada refuses to give up the presidency? [ Read More ]

WHY is Asyong Salonga (or “AS,” the code name of President Estrada in alleged jueteng ledgers) allowing Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson to dominate the jueteng show that may just drag on for one full season? [ Read More ]

IT is not the courts, nor the Senate, much less the politicians and propagandists, who will clear or convict Erap Estrada of charges that he has been receiving dirty millions in jueteng payola. [ Read More ]

TAMA na iyang jueteng at Bingo 2-Ball! Alam naman natin lahat na pahirap lang sa mahihirap iyan, at pagpapayaman sa iilan! [ Read More ]

DEFENSE Secretary Orly Mercado scored high with us last Tuesday during the presentation in Malacañang of preacher Wilde Almeda and his flock fresh from their rescue from Abu Sayyaf kidnappers fleeing from military pursuers. [ Read More ]

THE rescue of preacher Wilde Almeda and his followers from their Abu Sayyaf captors was a welcome break for President Estrada who was beginning to feel the pressure of a protracted war draining scarce resources and taxing the patience of an anxious population. [ Read More ]

LET me break away from the mob crying for the head of Education Secretary Andrew Gonzalez on the purchase of comparatively expensive vehicles for his and other DECS officials’ use. [ Read More ]

September 2000

THAT hot story told here about police brutality at the Seattle airport is true — but (blush) it did not happen to beauty titlist Ms Aurora Pijuan and her husband as earlier reported, but to some friends of her friend. [ Read More ]

LISTEN to this (slightly edited) story forwarded by former beauty queen Aurora Pijuan about what a Pinay friend’s husband went through last month at the airport in Seattle: [ Read More ]

THE Estrada administration is not telling us the score on the war raging on Sulu island, so let’s cut through the shroud of secrecy and tell what we think is going on. [ Read More ]

THE escape of two French journalists from their Abu Sayyaf captors was a lucky break for the Estrada administration as the military campaign in Sulu dragged into its fifth day yesterday. [ Read More ]

LET’S bear with the paucity of news coming out of Sulu, where virtually the entire armed forces have been unleashed to pluck out dead or alive a hardy gang of kidnappers thumbing their dirty noses at the government and the rest of us. [ Read More ]

LONG feigning helplessness in the face of rising fuel prices, the government actually grabs the biggest share in the pump prices of gasoline and other petroleum products — in fact, 10 times what the oil company gets. [ Read More ]

THAT was bad form for President Estrada to tiptoe back home like King George slipping back into Buckingham Palace at 4 a.m. after a date. [ Read More ]

DON’T crack your head analyzing what’s wrong with this country.

The answer is simple: We need a president.

We mean a real president, not an actor pretending to be one. [ Read More ]

ON his way to New York to join hundreds of world leaders lining up for the United Nations podium to deliver centennial speeches, President Estrada hit upon a bright idea on how to solve the problem of high fuel prices going even higher. [ Read More ]

A NUMBER of service stations were set last night to raise their gasoline prices again, soon after President Estrada flew back to the United States to savor the thrill of strutting on the world stage as an alleged statesman. [ Read More ]

IF feedback from Postscript readers is any indication, Filipinos in the upscale ABC sectors are still ambivalent toward Americans. Majority of readers who have bothered to share their thoughts and feelings on issues involving Americans harbor these thoughts: [ Read More ]

August 2000

THE over-confident Abu Sayyaf committed a big blunder when it kidnapped an American and demanded the release of the Arab bomber of the World Trade Center in New York in exchange for releasing its new hostage. [ Read More ]

SUBIC BAY — here is a raging debate on whether or not to allow a Filipino media organization such as the Lopez clan’s Sky Vision to link up with a foreign media firm to launch and operate a new cable TV business in the country. [ Read More ]

SUBIC BAY — The three-day congress of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines closes today in this beautiful Freeport nestled between mountains and the sea. [ Read More ]

UPDATE on the bill establishing a non-profit National Oil Exchange (OilEx) to lower the price of gasoline by buying the country’s total fuel needs through bidding and negotiations with some 40 refineries and traders worldwide and distributing it at the lowest price possible: [ Read More ]

WHAT went wrong with the Light Rail Transit ferrying commuters between Caloocan and Baclaran? What lessons can we learn from the LRT experience that could serve the EDSA Metrorail (MRT) and other lines being built to move Metro Manilans more efficiently? [ Read More ]

AFTER weeks of searching, I finally found yesterday the CD collection of deathless Capampangan music and the songs of “Alang Dios!,” the immortal zarzuela of Juan Crisostomo C. Soto (1867-1918), the province’s foremost man of letters known as Crissot. [ Read More ]

JUST as many feared, the latest survey of Pulse Asia showed that the popularity rating of President Estrada has gone up again because of his War of Distraction in Mindanao. [ Read More ]

WE said a few files back that if Bill Gates makes good his threat to give us 80,000 copies (20 x 4,000 schools) of his Microsoft Windows 98, the total cost at P3,000 per CD would be P240 million or some $5.5 million. And, as we’re wont to do, we asked how come Malacañang said it would cost $12 billion. [ Read More ]

FILIPINO consumers are often amazed when American manufacturers recall large numbers of their products found to be defective or unsafe. Recalls are well-publicized and the expenses incurred by the manufacturers usually run into millions. [ Read More ]

THE battle lines are drawn on the proposed National Oil Exchange (OilEx). This being the eve of the 2001 elections, it will be interesting to watch how senators, congressmen, and the President will act on the bill creating the revolutionary OilEx. [ Read More ]

HIS advisers should not feed President Estrada wrong information and make him look stupid. [ Read More ]

THE holding of Sen. Gregorio Honasan at a US port of entry for extended interrogation despite his diplomatic passport highlights the shameless proliferation of Filipinos carrying diplomatic passports. [ Read More ]

JAKARTA NOT AT FAULT: It’s not fair for Sen. Miriam Santiago or anybody to take to task the Indonesian government for the bombing of the Philippine embassy in Jakarta resulting in the serious injury of our Ambassador Leonides Caday and several others. [ Read More ]

STILL, Mayor Lito Atienza may have to call in exorcists to drive away the evil spirits inhabiting the notorious jai alai building on Taft Avenue being demolished to give way to an imposing Hall of Justice. [ Read More ]

July 2000

INSTEAD of the earlier name-calling that generated more heat than light, some members of the Heritage Conservation Society wrote to explain why they thought the jai alai building being demolished on Taft Avenue should be spared. [ Read More ]

IT was cowardly for President Erap Estrada to have used his State of the Nation Address to hit his predecessor Fidel Ramos — then run away to the airport and fly to the United States before anybody, including his target, could retort. [ Read More ]

WE liked the way President Estrada socked it to Bangsamoro secessionists in his State of the Nation Address yesterday, especially his laying down clearly three non-negotiable demands for them to drop secession, criminal activities, and their armaments. [ Read More ]

IF you intend to buy a really good cellphone, a laptop, a digital camera, or some fancy infotech gadget, don’t. Not yet. [ Read More ]

DO you know that July is Beautiful Women Month? I didn’t, until somebody emailed me about it and asked me to forward some women’s trivia to five other individuals — with the promise, a la chain letter, that something good would happen if I did. [ Read More ]

SINCE you must be reeling by now from an overdose of Dingel’s water-powered Toyota, how about an air-powered car for a change? Yes, this time, imagine good old polluted air in your fuel tank! [ Read More ]

THERE was businessman Raul Concepcion of Price Watch on radio again yesterday talking of — what else? — another upcoming round of fuel price increases. He said that this was occasioned by a new increase in the world price of crude oil. [ Read More ]

ALERT! There’s a move afoot in Congress to gerrymander some populous provinces and create several new congressional districts to add to the more than 200 already existing. [ Read More ]

JUST don’t mind Erap Estrada if he throws a tantrum for not being given right away the emergency-powers lollipop he’s crying for. [ Read More ]

HERE we go again!

We finally saw again inventor Daniel D. Dingel after about a year of having sort of drifted away from each other. He was at the ABS-CBN trying to win converts to his hydrocar that, according to his fantastic claim, runs on nothing but water! [ Read More ]

SOME motorists tried some time ago to deliver a message, if not a blow, to the giant oil firms by urging consumers to refrain from gassing up on a specified No Gas Day. They chose a date and asked everybody not to go to the service stations that day. [ Read More ]

HELP us find the answers to these compelling questions having to do with the continually rising prices of gasoline and other refined oil products: [ Read More ]

THAT crucial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur is over. The Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front better start praying. [ Read More ]

June 2000

UNTIL when do we have to grovel and explain to meddling foreign governments our internal policies and programs? [ Read More ]

ALTHOUGH it is into the bigtime, it seems the Abu Sayyaf is now willing to settle for the piece-by-piece retail release of its prized prisoners rather than wait to let go all its 21 hostages in one wholesale transaction. [ Read More ]

SOMETHING is seriously wrong when Filipinos are required to prove that they are not members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front so the police do not gun them down like dogs in the street. [ Read More ]

WE harassed city creatures sometimes repair to some rustic setting on weekends. Some of us who can afford it even take up residence in a nearby province where we can smell the earth and enjoy nature at its best. [ Read More ]

THERE was a little inconsistency in our last Postscript. We said that the hostage impasse in Sulu is actually a Malaysian problem because the 21 victims were kidnapped from Sipadan, a Malaysian resort off Sabah. [ Read More ]

IF Malaysia wants to buy the freedom of some of the 21 kidnap victims being held by the Abu Sayyaf, let it pay the ransom. After all, the abduction is a Malaysian problem. [ Read More ]

TAIPAN Lucio Tan is selling Philippine Airlines for something like $800 million — with his smaller airline, Air Philippines, thrown in. [ Read More ]

HEY, you guys better stop scaring Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora with suggestions that he head the government panel negotiating with the Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the Sulu-Basilan jungles. That’s like pushing him into the lion’s den. [ Read More ]

THE problem of continually rising fuel prices cannot be solved by half measures or compromises. It can be solved only by a direct and decisive attack on the root of the problem. [ Read More ]

MAKE the sign of the cross, dear reader.

The government is about to slap us with a 100-percent road users’ tax. The insatiable oil ogre is poised again to raise by more than a peso the pump price of its gasoline. The monumental mismanagement of Metro Manila traffic is getting worse. The North Luzon Expressway operator does not sound interested in making the country’s longest tollway a Traffic Safety and Discipline Zone. [ Read More ]

SOME newspaper owners may want to ask themselves if it is right to publish pictures and stories that stoke religious passions and derail ongoing efforts to find a lasting solution to the Mindanao conflict that has been tearing the country apart. [ Read More ]

JUST because Infocom Technologies, one of many Internet Service Providers in town, is owned and controlled by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. is no guarantee that it would give the fastest, error-free Internet connection. [ Read More ]

THE Philippine National Construction Corp. is in a unique position to do something really great for itself, the motoring public, and the country by adopting the concept of a Traffic Safety and Discipline Zone (Safdiz) for its 88-kilometer North Luzon Expressway. [ Read More ]

May 2000

WHY do the police have to employ mapmakers to draw composite faces of suspects? Why does the police artist have to be a cartographer or a mapmaker and why must his masterpiece always be a “cartographic” sketch? [ Read More ]

WE thank Sen. Nene Pimentel for his kind words about us and our alleged readability and marksmanship. [ Read More ]

FINALLY, this infidel was blessed last Tuesday with the beatific vision of one of those Sweepstakes ambulances doled out by a member of the Blessed Trinity of San Juan. [ Read More ]

HEY, the Abu Sayyaf may have inadvertently shown us how to play power politics with impertinent neighbors! [ Read More ]

PITY poor Renate Wallert, the seriously ill German housewife held hostage with several other foreigners by Abu Sayyaf terrorists on Sulu island. [ Read More ]

REP. Enrique T. Garcia, author of the bill establishing a National Oil Exchange, has rejected our compromise formula, saying that the OilEx is “the only way we could source and buy our country’s total requirement of refined petroleum products (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil, LPG, etc.) at the lowest possible price.” [ Read More ]

THIS being a rainy day, let’s change the subject for a while.

We hied over to the cybertambayan1 of the Pinoys55 (the UP-based Brotherhood of the Filipinos) and found this item from Albert Ong of Cebu’s Penshoppe titled “Strange Laws”: [ Read More ]

IT’S sad, but it appears that the proponents of the extremist National Oil Exchange (OilEx) have run out of new twists to their old arguments for the establishment of a state oil monopoly to replace the private oil oligopoly. [ Read More ]

WITH Mindanao figuratively in flames and the Estrada administration apparently unable to contain the conflagration, it is wise for President Estrada to postpone his projected state visit to China this month. [ Read More ]

WITH the escalation of hostilities in Mindanao, one thing we should all guard against is a blind polarization, especially a polarization along religious lines. [ Read More ]

LOVE BUG: Don’t just worry about the Pinoy-made ILOVEYOU virus ravaging computers worldwide. Immediately update your virus-protection software via Internet. Also heed our persistent advice to delete incoming email attachments without opening them. And if you can do without Bill Gate’s Microsoft Outlook, which has become the target and vehicle of most recent viruses, do not ever use it. [ Read More ]

WE had wanted to be proved wrong, but our prediction has come true that those Abu Sayyaf terrorists reportedly trapped in their mountain lair on Basilan island would slip, again, through the vaunted military cordon. [ Read More ]

WE have not heard over the long weekend from either the oil companies or Rep. Enrique T. Garcia on their reaction to our compromise formula that would mean a co-existence of the Big 3 and the National Oil Exchange (OilEx) proposed by the Bataan congressman. [ Read More ]

April 2000

THERE was no rejoicing yesterday over the reduction of gasoline prices by 30 to 40 centavos per liter. Why should there be, when the price reduction was minuscule (barya lang)? [ Read More ]

OUR brother Muslims, including the so-called Moro liberation fronts in the South, may not be aware of it, but the violent antics of the Abu Sayyaf are giving Islam and its fervent followers a bad name. [ Read More ]

EACH early morning, we scan the newspapers with trepidation to see if the Abu Sayyaf had slipped again through the military cordon reportedly tightening around that small sneaky band sowing terror on Basilan island. [ Read More ]

THERE was an atheist couple with an only child. They never told their daughter anything about the Lord. [ Read More ]

THE story of two congressmen that lawmakers were bribed to approve the Omnibus Power Bill leading to privatizing the National Power Corp. has so many loose ends. One starts to wonder who set them up for that amateurish attempt at an exposé. [ Read More ]

YOU still want one of those ! protest stickers? Reader jowell with a pacific.net address asks about them and the flash-in-the-pan ! Silent Protest movement. [ Read More ]

WHEN in doubt, when wavering at the crossroads, the best recourse of a leader is to ask the people themselves. A president can never go wrong if he allows the people to guide him in guiding them. [ Read More ]

WE think the Abu Sayyaf was just looking for a face-saving device when it “demanded” that the government send over actor Robin Padilla to “negotiate” with them the release of 31 kidnapped civilians. [ Read More ]

NINE out every 10 POSTSCRIPT readers do not believe the last Social Weather Stations survey reporting a 5-percent net approval rating for President Estrada in the first quarter of this year, duplicating his rating for the last quarter of 1999. [ Read More ]

MAYBE we were asking the obvious, as reader Ernie Cordero of pharma.Novartis said. So we got what looked like an obviously negative conclusion on the latest Malacañang survey claiming that President Estrada’s net approval rating has bounced back to positive 5 percent. [ Read More ]

IN the same way that some businesses have two books of account – one for internal use only and another for showing to City Hall and tax agents—there are sometimes two reports prepared from the data culled from a commissioned opinion survey. [ Read More ]

THAT color front-page picture yesterday in a newspaper (not The STAR) showing a Catholic priest raising the chalice for the veneration of combat troops offering Mass after the retaking of a Muslim stronghold in Lanao is highly incendiary. [ Read More ]

WHEN we start calling one another gago, sinungaling, pangit, babaero and similar epithets in our public debate, that only means that we have run out of arguments and are now wrestling ourselves to the gutter. [ Read More ]

March 2000

HANDLERS of President Estrada better think twice about blowing up further that dubious “intelligence” report of a serious assassination plot against the Chief Executive. [ Read More ]

IT’S the first working day at the Securities and Exchange Commission for new chairman Lilia Bautista and the specter of presidential meddling is already looming over her head. [ Read More ]

DON’T look now, but wasn’t erstwhile Malacañang insider Prod Laquian actually divulging state secrets when he prattled on in the last MOPC forum? [ Read More ]

WE heard the commander-in-chief President Estrada say on radio yesterday that he had issued the order for our armed forces to go after rebels who have been wreaking havoc in Mindanao and making a mockery of the peace process. [ Read More ]

SISTER Christine Tan did not accuse first lady Loi Ejercito of pocketing Sweepstakes money. The good nun just said that a large sum had been sent by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office to the Office of the First Lady. [ Read More ]

IF we have not seen the handwriting on the wall yet, the bloody Muslim rebellion in the South and the big-time graft and corruption cases erupting all over should make the message so stark and compelling that we would not miss it: We need a President! [ Read More ]

CRIMINAL jurisdiction is no longer an issue in the recent mauling of a Cebu cabbie by three US sailors who were here on R&R (rest and recreation) after participating in a recent RP-US joint military exercise. [ Read More ]

THE people are entitled to hear the honest answer of Malacañang to the points raised by Sr. Christine Tan who was yanked out of the board of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office days ago without an explanation or prior notice. [ Read More ]

IT’S summer, it’s a weekend, and you have this urge to drive out to the countryside with the kids. Then the big question hits you: But where can you go? [ Read More ]

FILIPINOS should be told how shabbily Taiwan has been treating us after we have given aid and comfort to the Chinese who fled the mainland when the communists overran it in 1949. [ Read More ]

SEN. Rodolfo Biazon and other lawmakers batting for the reactivation of the discredited Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) may want to read again the Constitutional mandate to dismantle all paramilitary forces in the country. [ Read More ]

THE proposed road users tax to be tacked on to the registration fees of motor vehicles is most unfair. It is unjust. Its should be shot down on sight. [ Read More ]

THE main head on the front page of a major daily (not the STAR, thank goodness) declares: “Use of P1-B college trust fund questioned.” [ Read More ]

February 2000

IT was not fair for a polling group to have asked whom the respondents would vote for president (among President Estrada, Vice President Gloria Arroyo and Sen. Raul Roco, among others) if a snap election were called.There is no way under our Constitution that a snap election could be held. If the President resigns, dies or is incapacitated, the Vice President simply takes over without need for an election.Former President Marcos was able to hold snap polls in late 1985 when dared by the American press only because we were then under a dictatorship. [ Read More ]

PRESIDENT Estrada tells us that the government does not have enough money and so has to slash the budget even for essential services, including education. [ Read More ]

WE support Sandiganbayan Francis Garchitorena in his principled refusal to break open the $600-million suspected illegal wealth held in escrow with the Philippine National Bank and give a third of it to the Marcoses. [ Read More ]

THIS outsider does not care much what those people living behind the thick walls of Forbes Park do to their mansions as long as they treat the rest of the community, and the environment, properly. [ Read More ]

WHEN God let Adam and Eve loose in Eden, He provided them with everything they would ever need. [ Read More ]

IF you still do not understand how and why taipan Lucio Tan suddenly gained control of the Philippine National Bank on the eve of its privatization, listen to reader Fred Esteban of Cubao: [ Read More ]

THAT amazing picture in last Sunday’s POSTSCRIPT of a 21-week-old fetus reaching out from his mother’s womb to clasp a finger of the surgeon operating on him in utero was a winner, judging alone from the reaction of readers. [ Read More ]

WE share this amazing story and picture sent to us by the San Pedro Field Rep Team of Meralco. They said in their message: [ Read More ]

WE’RE alarmed at the publication of racist articles fomenting hatred for Chinese and Chinoys in our midst. More so because some of the authors are prominent members of the community. [ Read More ]

WE discovered over the weekend that it is no joke scrounging for something pleasant and significant to write about the Estrada administration. [ Read More ]

WE thank President Estrada for our undeserved inclusion in his honor roll of 12 newspapermen who, according to his confused media handlers, are destabilizing his administration by writing the truth. [ Read More ]

PRESIDENT Estrada said yesterday over radio that he did not notice that one of some 500 prisoners’ records was one for pardoning Norberto Manero whose armed gang butchered an Italian priest in 1985 and made a show of feasting on his brain. [ Read More ]

YOU’RE just watching the fireworks and the dragon dance. Don’t ever think that all that noise and smoke will scare away Macau dealer Stanley Ho. A grizzled player in this rough and tumble world, he would know how to play it. [ Read More ]

January 2000

PRESIDENT Estrada was right in a sense when he said that his bosom friend Dante Tan was himself also a victim in the dizzying rise and fall of BW Resources Corp. share prices in the stock exchange last October. [ Read More ]

SOMEBODY was overheard asking “Kung sila ay mas marunong, bakit ako ang presidente at hindi sila?” [ Read More ]

SUDDENLY, the Oil Ogre sucking the blood of captive users of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, LPG and other refined oil products is no longer as cocky as before. [ Read More ]

IT can’t be that everything is wrong with the Estrada presidency now going into its second year, we told ourselves after the kapihan yesterday at Sulo hotel in Quezon City. [ Read More ]

OMBUDSMAN Aniano Desierto opines that the spray-painting by Interior Secretary Alfredo Lim of the houses of alleged drug pushers in Manila is legal because a city ordinance allows it. [ Read More ]

FROM Cebu, reader Samuel B. Lim reports: According to some people, there are three businesses that are doing well under this administration and all have to do with “lord” — Gambling lord, Drug lord, and Praise the lord!

To that, we say Amen! [ Read More ]

REMEMBER that moving story of an innocent boy (Postscript, 23May1999) who lost a sister in a road accident and was about to lose his mother? Here’s a story of another boy who’s gaining a kid sister: [ Read More ]

CONCORD is still alive! President Estrada himself said so on radio yesterday. Responding to questions of Korina Sanchez and Ted Failon on station DZMM, Mr. Estrada clarified that: [ Read More ]

AS the smoke of the Cabinet revamp settles, we discern what looks like an honest search by President Estrada for solutions to serious national problems that have dragged down his administration in the polling game. [ Read More ]

CABINET members Edgardo Espiritu and Josefina Lichauco did a master stroke in resigning as finance secretary and communication undersecretary, respectively, before President Estrada announced a revamp in his official family. [ Read More ]

WE were pleasantly surprised by the first wave of respondents to our survey of readers’ opinion launched Tuesday regarding the drop in the net public approval rating of President Estrada. [ Read More ]

POSTSCRIPT readers are invited to send in their considered opinion on President Estrada’s latest poll rating. [ Read More ]

AS you can very well see, we may be a bit battered, but we’re still around. By “we” is meant you and me and the rest of the world. [ Read More ]

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