Promises, promises
ONE OF THE few concrete policy promises Ferdinand Marcos Junior made during his campaign for the Presidency of these isles of forgetfulness was to make rice available at Php20.00 per kilo.
Luis V. Teodoro
Challenge in 2016 to the alternative press and media
THE PRIMARY challenge to the alternative press and media has always been to provide the information and analysis that the people need so they may, by understanding the state of Philippine society, proceed on their own power to change it. For over a hundred years, the...
From free to cheap: ‘Native advertising’ and press independence
THE LATE TEODORO LOCSIN, SR., for a long time editor of the pre-martial law Philippines Free Press, once described the Philippine press and media as cheap rather than free. He was then referring to how easy it was to corrupt practitioners—and its consequent impact on...
Paying the Price
A WEEK before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Manila, the Aquino administration was not only clearing city thoroughfares of street vendors, parked cars, and sidewalk stalls; it was also evicting from their encampment in Liwasang Bonifacio...
Martial Law and the Media
SOME radio and TV stations as well as broadsheets have been commemorating the declaration of martial rule in 1972 by airing and presenting special reports every September. These media organizations, among them the Philippine Daily Inquirer, started early this year....
Access to information and free expression: Aquino’s damaged and damaging legacy
In 2010, candidate Benigno Aquino III pledged, among others, to prioritize a Freedom of Information Act among his legislative initiatives. In the ensuing months his administration practically made it a point not to include an FOI bill among those it submitted to...