Earlier last December, I bumped into a manager of Coles Food Store. He happens to be an alumnus of Ateneo de Manila University and a former classmate of Noynoy Aquino whom we all know is running to be president of the Philippines.

Regrettably, the conversation was led into political matters as I discovered that he was a yellow fanatic. So I asked him why he supports Noynoy Aquino’s bid for the presidency. His pert reply was quite short and simple: “because he’s clean and he’s not a traditional politician.” (more…)

In the weeks following the November 23 Ampatuan Massacre, I scoured through hundreds of news articles and opinion columns about the barbaric slaughter of 61 innocent people, including 31 working journalists. I also saw posted on the Internet gruesome close-up photos of the mangled, brutalized bodies of the victims, images which still haunt me.

One columnist, Jose Ma. Montelibano wrote that he was “crushed by the Maguindanao massacre and the congressional run of a sitting president”. I emailed him and asked him how he could possibly compare the two events and place them both on the same scale. I told him it diminished and trivialized the most brazen, barbaric act in recent memory to include it in the same sentence with the latest political ploy of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) to remain in power. (more…)

It is a fact that the elections scheduled for May 2010 will be the first ever computerized elections nationwide. Many things can go wrong. School teachers who will operate the system are totally unfamiliar with it. There are more than 100,000 of them, the majority of whom have never operated or even seen a computer in their whole lives. The system needs 80,000 technicians, one for each cluster of precincts. Does the Philippines have 80,000 computer technicians? At the earliest, the machines will not be ready until this month. Does the country have enough trained technicians for the May elections? (more…)

For months, I have been asked who I would vote for in the coming elections. After enumerating the names of the different candidates and their different pluses and minuses, I had to say that I had not made up my mind.

Of the three front-runners in the Presidential race: Noynoy Aquino, Manny Villar, and Gibo Teodoro, I found Gibo the most capable, not only because of his educational qualifications, but because of the way he had run the Department of National Defence. No nonsense. Professional!

On the other hand, I had always believed that Dick Gordon was the candidate who had the vision to make the real changes that our government needed. But for months, he hemmed and hawed and vacillated, making many of his supporters, who were not many to begin with, lose heart and jump to other camps. (more…)

There have been many speculations about the authenticity of Yamashita’s Treasure. To this date, many treasure hunters are still looking for it. Are the stories true or plain urban legend? Read on and find out.

Treasure burials in the Philippines before and during World War II are very real. These treasures named after General Yamashita still have millions of tons in gold and huge amounts of jewels secured in deep dangerous conditions. The bulk of Yamashita treasures buried in the Philippines will perish with the Earth because of corrupt forces guarding these treasures. (more…)