Opinion and Commentary
Ledesma: Beauty in New Zealand
October 18, 2017, 5:21 pm
New Zealand is not all about sheep and cattle. The major industry in this land in the deeper south of the globe is tourism. I saw this in a dinner-cum-cultural show of Maori tribe in Rotorua, New Zealand. Tourists from 21 countries gathered in rustic settings. Except for the fork and spoon and… Read More
Mediante: Net satisfaction guaranteed!
October 12, 2017, 7:32 pm
While the President’s net satisfaction rating from June 2017 to September 2017 dropped in the Visayas, Luzon, and in Metro Manila, it remained steady here in Mindanao. “It stayed excellent in Mindanao, at +76 (82% satisfied, 6% dissatisfied) in September 2017, hardly moving from +75 (83%… Read More
Ledesma: Who and what abets child slay?
September 29, 2017, 7:33 pm
The moribund opposition may have lost their mass base and the middle class support but they have not actually ran short of money. From day one, in the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, they have not given the new administration the so-called honeymoon period. Their propaganda machinery has not… Read More
Ledesma: Rallies fizzle for who can quarrel with success?
September 23, 2017, 4:35 pm
They marched and rallied to beat a long dead horse called Marcos martial law and dictatorial regime. They came from various political persuasions and agenda. The most vociferous of them are the assemblage of the usual bunch of professional street parliamentarians and some characters… Read More
Ledesma: The Senate Fluke
September 8, 2017, 8:38 am
I find it rather odd that tattoos and bank deposits will have any relevance to the Senate investigation on a PHP6.4-billion drug shipment, part of which had been recovered in Bulacan. Odder still is the attempt of Senator Antonio Trillanes to impute that (Davao City) Vice Mayor… Read More
Ledesma: Who silenced Kian?
August 24, 2017, 1:17 pm
For nearly two hours now since we left Aleco, Nevada en route to Utah, there's these endless panorama of arid desert lands. Bare earth and rocks as far as my eyes can see. All I can see now and then is the face of a grieving father of Kian, the 17-year-old boy who just hardly became a man. But… Read More
Ledesma: Department of Water
August 7, 2017, 4:23 pm
Water is life. This is an indubitable universal fact. For Filipinos water is almost everywhere as we are an archipelagic country. The Philippines is made up of 7,641 islands (no longer 7,107) scattered of the vast seas. Don’t you know that 70 percent of the Earth’s surface is water but that… Read More
Ledesma: Duterte warns and implores
July 27, 2017, 5:13 pm
The euphoria over President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2nd State of the Nation Address has reverberated outside the plenary hall of Congress and has not quieted down. The message, delivered in plain and simple terms, came from the emotion of the heart and mind of a man full of passion, dedication and… Read More
Ledesma: Testing the patience of Digong
July 12, 2017, 5:51 pm
The political opposition had made it a childish habit to conjure issues and scenarios and put the blame on President Rodrigo Duterte to demonize him. On the heels of his State of the Nation Address (SONA), there is a perceptible crescendo of critical items and decibels this time coming not only… Read More
Ledesma: Lessons learned in 365 days
July 5, 2017, 11:39 am
The first 365 days of Rodrigo R. Duterte as President is not as bad as the six years of Benigno S. Aquino III presidency. This is my answer to friends and readers who had been prodding me to give my assessment of how the Duterte administration performed in the first year of incumbency. Let me… Read More
Ledesma: Comic relief
June 27, 2017, 6:05 pm
There’s a comic relief and there are disgusting and contemptible displays of “out of tune” reactions that emerged from the government’s war against ISIS elements and homegrown Mautes terrorists. And there too is that one shining moment in this difficult and challenging time… Finance… Read More
Ledesma: Solutions
June 25, 2017, 6:06 pm
For several days now, we have been preoccupied with the hellish state in Marawi. The beautiful Islamic City abandoned by its residents who were stunned by the macabre of events following the sudden rise of Maute terrorists which we now realize had a full backing of the dreadful ISIS. The city is… Read More
Ledesma: Missing Duterte?
June 14, 2017, 9:18 am
President Duterte disappeared from the radar screen and his absence makes the mind of Senator Trillanes wonders. The way he sounded it is even more titillating as he complains why the weary Rody cannot even wake up from his deep slumber. It’s independence day and he has to attend the flag… Read More
Ledesma: Let’s pick up the shovel
June 12, 2017, 10:41 am
The bigger challenge now looms in the horizon as the siege of Marawi comes to an end. Rebuilding the beautiful Islamic City from the rubbles of destruction and its people from the horrendous saga of fright and terror must now commence. It will take some time and the task is an arduous one. Peace… Read More
Ledesma: Addiction and Laxity
June 8, 2017, 5:37 pm
It is final and the verdict is out. Terrorism is not what killed 37 employees, gamblers and guests in Resorts World. It was the morbid fear of ISIS. A woman saw a hooded man with a rifle and the cried ISIS!. The same way Rappler in a kneejerk judgment pinned ISIS on its wall while covering the… Read More
Ledesma: The impact of Marawi siege
June 7, 2017, 9:33 am
The urban war in Marawi defines the finest moment of Muslims and Christians ties and brotherhood in the face of a ruthless aggressor that wrecked the erstwhile pristine and quiet Islamic City in the Philippines. Amidst the burst of deafening gun fires, devastations, stink of unknown corpses and… Read More
Ledesma: Peddlers of fear
May 30, 2017, 2:00 pm
I was taken aback and still cannot believe what I heard. The chief enforcer of martial law during the Marcos dictatorial regime, then Major. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, has issued a warning against abuses of the military under incumbent Pres. Rodrigo Duterte! More than 40 years had elapsed since Marcos… Read More
Ledesma: Martial Law
May 25, 2017, 12:36 pm
When you have a situation like marauding Maute terrorists taking control of the entire City of Marawi better brace yourself for the worse. If these elements were able to penetrate Marawi almost without any resistance be cautious they might have slipped through sleeping security cordons in other… Read More
Ledesma: Of Alejano and OBOR
May 16, 2017, 7:30 pm
Gary Alejano, a marionette of yet another fluke in the senate -- Antonio Trillanes -- looked pathetic trying to defend himself as well as the litany of charges he filed against Pres. Rodrigo Duterte before the Justice Committee in the House of Representatives. Alejano tried mellow drama but in the… Read More
Ledesma: Sublime paradox
May 11, 2017, 8:30 am
The critics of President Rodrigo Duterte have increased in numbers but raised the same issues that had been rehashed many times over. Political harassments, human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and befriending China, among others. Last week, Agnes Callamard, a rapporteur (reporter) of… Read More
