By Danton Remoto REMOTE CONTROL www.abs-cbnNEWS.com In an essay of the same title, Nobel Prize winner for Literature Derek Walcott said that the writers of the Caribbean have to forge literature from the ruins that was their colonial history. Only through this could their texts be called muses – lodestar and light for their readers across the ages. Legends & Adventures, the latest opus from Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, is written in the same vein. This is the second part in her much-awaited trilogy of memoirs. The first – Myself, Elsewhere – which I thoroughly enjoyed, shot up on the bestsellers’ list of National Bookstore and was lionized by reviewers and critics. Fittingly enough, it also won the National Book Award for the Essay from the Manila Critics Circle, of which I am voting member. Legends and Adventures has an Andy Warhol-like series of the young war widow – seven photos with the colors of the rainbow, to correspond to the seven incarnations she has had since that awful war t...

Again, thank you for the comments e-mailed to me or posted in this blog regarding 2010. I am just finishing my teaching until March of 2009. Then I will be on leave from teaching from April 2009 to May 2010. So from now to March of 2009, I am visiting schools, donating books and giving free lectures. I am organizing groups of people as possible campaign volunteers when I go outside Metro Manila. The response has been overwhelming. I have a big map of the Philippines, where I have pasted Post-It notes that contain the names of people I have talked to in the provinces and who have agreed to help me. The Post-It notes are now fluttering like so many flags when the wind blows into my living room. By April, I would have a campaign headquarters in a busy part of Metro Manila. We will also set up headquarters in the regions. By that time, I would have chosen which national political party to join. I am deciding among three parties in the Opposition as possible parties I could join. These talk...

By Alvin Capino Counterpoint Manila Standard Today www.manilastandardtoday.com *** I said in my earlier blog entries that the political season will officially begin in November of this year. Ooops, I was late by a month. I agree with the reading offered by Alvin Capino, with whom I worked at the Observer, the Independent, the Daily Globe and Today, under the editorships of the country's best -- Yen Makabenta, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, and Teddy Boy Locsin. Where the C-5 chuvaness will go, I do not know. What I know is that I see the faces of Ace Durano in the newspapers, with a list of fiestas of the month, and on TV, with his unconfirmed figures of imaginary tourist arrivals. And Health Sec. Francisco Duque's face on black-and-white print ads and the more alive, colorful ads on TV. And of course, Pia Cayetano with her Downey, Manong Frank Drilon attending the traslacion at the Penafrancia Festival wearing shoes (the de rigeur is no shoes at all), Cesar Montano with his daily T...

Jessica Zafra www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com Here is my evil sister Jessica Zafra, unexpurgated, on the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. When I first saw her, I knew the Republicans would lose. She looks -- and now confirmed, sounds -- like some Philippine politicians I know, have met, have talked to in the past three years. They look good, look polished, and have been asked to memorize sound-bites and keywords. Pero wala pa ring effect. When your IQ is below sea level, your IQ is below sea level. *** Here is a portion of Katie Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin, by way of Newsweek. Couric asks the Republican VP candidate about the planned $700 billion bailout. COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries; allow them to spend more and put more money into the economy instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this ...

Inside Track Newsbreak Magazine www.newsbreak.com.ph Tuesday, 30 September 2008 Long before he exposed the double appropriation in 2008 budget for a road in the vicinity of the development project of Senate President Manuel Villar’s company, we got word about Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s supposed “other” plan for 2010. A person in Lacson’s inner circle says that some quarters are convincing the senator to leave the Senate mid-term and run for governor of Cavite in 2010, instead of renewing his bid for the presidency. Another source in the Lacson camp denied (though not to death, so far) the information, saying that fielding Lacson for governor of his home province “never crossed our dirty minds.” If efforts to convince Lacson to give the governorship a try are true, then the only reason we can think of is that some political camps cannot find as of now somebody who can prevent a Remulla from re-taking the capitol in Trece Martires. That brings us to our theory that Lacson’s volley of ac...

EDITORIAL Philippine Star www.philster.net Wednesday, October 1, 2008 The government is planning to phase out the Quedan and Rural Credit Guarantee Corp., which was brought to ruin by its former top officials and, if reports are accurate, used as a milking cow by politicians. But before the phase-out, taxpayers will have to fork out another whopping P475 million to pay off the loans of Quedancor to private creditors. Apart from the additional burden to taxpayers, the gross mismanagement of the government corporation has destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of people who obtained Quedancor loans. Its deactivation will render its employees jobless. Who will pay for this disaster? Congress, which is investigating the Quedancor mess, is waiting for the extradition from the United States of former agriculture secretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, whose testimony is also needed in connection with the P728-million fertilizer fund scam. Bolante had fled to the United States as the Senate sough...

By Leonor Magtolis Briones abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/28/2008 THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNANCE On Tuesday, September 30 , 2008 another milestone in the history of budgeting in the Philippines will take place. The civil society members of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) convened by Social Watch Philippines will present their alternative budget for 2009 in the areas of education, health, agriculture and the environment. ABI will also present its critique of the macroeconomic assumptions underlying the proposed budget. The presentation marks the third year of organized citizen participation in the budget process. Citizens groups have always participated individually in the budget process. ABI is significant in that civil society organizations united and went into partnership with legislators who shared their advocacy. ABI’s advocacy is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) . Both institutions support the world wide mo...