"January 23 it is."
This made me laugh—a friend gifted my wife and me two cups. One read “Mr. Right” and the other, “Mrs. Always Right.”
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It’s now set. My book The Road Never Ends will be launched on Jan. 23, 6 to 9 in the evening, at the Manila Golf and Country Club. It will be through the courtesy of House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Philippine Constitution Association president and my boss here at Manila Standard.
The launch was originally scheduled for November 26 but we decided to put it off because it would be too close to the Christmas holidays.
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I can understand why President Rodrigo Duterte always says he gets tired and needs a break.
For a 74-year-old man, the job of a President is stressful, challenging and lonely. He may enjoy perks that we mortals do not have, and he may have awesome powers to do anything he wants. But the job takes its toll. I am really surprised that he is comparatively healthy despite his aches and pains.
Santa Banana, Duterte is fighting on many fronts! He has to deal with corruption, illegal drugs, communism, terrorism, and China’s incursion into our territory!
I have been a journalist for almost 70 years. I have covered 10 presidents and walked the corridors of power. I have seen the best and worst in our leaders. I have never seen a chief executive so saddled with numerous wars!
For one thing, the drug menace will not end. The President has been waging this war for three years. He knows the problem will remain even beyond his term—why do you think he made Vice President Leni Robredo the drug czarina? Because he knows the struggle is doomed to fail.
Likewise, Duterte also knows that government corruption will not end so long as public officials and employees get to exercise discretion in their transactions. It is so deeply embedded in the system that any attempt to eradicate it will not be successful.
As for his other wars, he may not overcome them all at once. But he will try, anyway.
Perhaps Mr. Duterte now realizes that the job of a president is starkly different from the job of a mayor. When he was mayor of Davao, he could sleep. Now he is sleepless!
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Is Senator Manny Pacquiao really thinking of running for president in 2022? According to President Duterte, he is serious. Santa Banana, what have we Filipinos done to deserve him?
To lead a nation of more than 105 million takes more than boxing powers.
I have always said that anybody can aspire for the presidency so long as he or she is a natural-born citizen, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years old on election day, and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election.
But I think the Constitution must be amended to include a college degree as a minimum requirement for the presidency. Otherwise, we could be the laughingstock of the world!
With the kind of electorate we have, anybody could become president just by spreading money around. The people are poor and jobless and they need it.
God forbid!
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We now know that Vice President Leni Robredo accepted President Duterte’s offer for her to lead the war on drugs without realizing what she is getting into. She wants the human rights body of the United Nations to give her lessons on how to wage the war on illegal drugs.
Clearly she believes that ending the killings means ending the war, period.
She also wants to stop the supply of drugs to the Philippines—just how, she did not say. She is also in touch with the rehabilitation agencies.
I would like to remind the Vice President that first of all, drugs is a health issue, not a peace-and-order one. My gulay, even the United States is having a hard time solving its own drug problem. That simply means that illegal drugs have become the bane of nations.
In the end, any effort to fight illegal drugs will just, at best, minimize it.
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It would be foolish to believe the so-called progressives when they deny that they are fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines.
This is exactly why the Armed Forces of the Philippines is going after them. The communist movement is still alive and kicking.
The crackdown on dozens of so-called progressives in Negros, for instance, is proof that the communists are taking advantage of labor and tenancy problems in the area. My gulay, where do you think Joma Sison is getting his perks during exile?
The military is planting evidence? Come on, that’s an old refrain!
