In Context Archives - CMFR

Lost in a loophole: The legality of premature campaigning in the current election law

ELECTION FEVER has spread months before the official filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) from October 1 to 8. Eight months prior, posters and tarpaulins bearing political faces and slogans have flooded ad spaces anywhere available. As early as August, political aspirants had already purchased primetime blocks for their...

Meaning of COVID Numbers Lost in DOH Bulletins

AS THE number of COVID-19 cases rise and fall, the bulletins released by the Department of Health (DOH) no longer have real value. Sharp spikes and slides are left largely unexplained except to point out the failure of laboratories to turn in their test results on time.

The Philippine crisis in education

THE PANDEMIC threw education off course all around the world. But some have fared better than others. In the Philippines, it is a loss so profound as to cast doubts on how the schools can get back on track. The country had already been singled out among those where...

A Timeline of State Hostility towards Healthcare Workers

CELEBRATED BY the public as heroes, our healthcare workers have cared for the sick and saved lives, standing guard on the frontlines against COVID-19 from the earliest stages of the outbreak. The number of fatalities among medical workers made headlines in the first few months when the lack of...

Sport lang tayo: Serious funding needed

MONDAY AFTER the Tokyo Olympics closed, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was quick to claim credit for the country’s best Olympic campaign yet, saying that it was “no coincidence” that it happened under the Duterte administration.

PDP-Laban: No longer in touch with its legacy

THE INFIGHTING within the party which carried him to the presidency ended with Rodrigo Duterte bragging about how he had given new life to a dormant Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). The occasion was the party’s national assembly held on Saturday July 17, when he slammed...

Reckless and Heartless

THE COLLAPSE of the peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) in 2017 left President Duterte with nothing to show for it.. He thought the negotiations would result in the surrender of the Left, and when that didn’t happen,he...

Selling out the West PH Sea

AS PRESIDENT Duterte continues to express his beliefs and state his positions, he has confirmed that he is our fundamental problem. It is he who stands in the way of the nation working together to protect the Philippines’ sovereign rights in our EEZ.

Questionable Questions for the Press

THE PAST few weeks have been an interesting, if humbling, experience for journalists in social media. Three reporters from the three major networks became the subject of highly spirited discussion on Twitter over a question that each asked of their interviewees. A number of practitioners have brushed aside the...

PH government’s slow vaccine rollout: Plainly inept or intentional?

SINCE THE pandemic hit the country in January 2020, the Philippines has moved through a chain of snafus and scandals: Filipinos suffered the longest-running lockdown, the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia for at least two months, and more recently, ended last in the line of ASEAN countries...

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