Author: Alex Vidal

WHEN Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. abandoned the National Unity Party (NUP) and recently took an oath as new member of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s ruling Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) in Malacanang, he must have been given the opportunity to engage the President in a tete-a-tete.

WHAT greeted the school children and those involved in public elementary and high school education this year was an outrageous and calamitous shortage of classrooms all over the Philippines.

ANYBODY who can name a Filipino politician today—especially an incumbent mayor, governor, representative, senator—that is not afraid of Vice President Sara “Inday Sara” Duterte-Carpio, is either was born only yesterday, or didn’t study or follow the incredible Philippine politics in the last 12 years.

WHAT happened during the first hearing on the defective P680-million Ungka flyover or the Iloilo flyover project by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Highways in the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City on August 15 can be considered as “appetizer”.

SOMETIME in summer of 1996, a Filipino-Chinese businesswoman popularly known as “Tisay” stormed our Sun.Star Iloilo office on Rizal Street, Iloilo City to confront this writer over a story I wrote about her nightclub located on corner Delgado-Iznart streets, City Proper.