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The Philippines has changed its foreign policy direction from being an ally of China to being an ally of the United States. The relationship between the United States and China has become critical as it will have a direct effect on our policies.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in an unprecedented attack that resulted in approximately 1,400 Israeli deaths. According to Israeli authorities, most of the casualties were civilians. As a result, Israel declared war on Hamas. The tragedy, however, is that Israel started bombing the whole of the Gaza Strip and the main casualties were the civilian population and not Hamas.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has caused worldwide divisions on the argument as to which side is right and which side is wrong. Most of the Western world and international media are obviously very sympathetic to the Israeli cause. The only global media that I have come across which expresses sympathy for the Palestinian cause is Al Jazeera.
There are three occasions in the Philippines which are celebrated over a period of days. These are Christmas, Holy Week and “Undas,” the local term referring to Nov. 1 and 2. The term comes from the Spanish honras, meaning “honors” as in “with honors.”
The latest incident of confrontation between the Philippines and China was the collision between a Philippine vessel and a Chinese coast guard vessel. The root of this conflict is the claim by China that it owns almost the entire South China Sea.
Globalization and the unwavering faith in a free market economy were the economic and political mantras in the 1990s. Governments from the United States to Europe to Russia and to Communist China started loosening controls on travel, investment and trade.
I have always associated the month of September with the anniversary of the declaration of martial law. The First Quarter Storm (FQS) which started in 1970 was a period of heightened student activism. My own personal life was deeply affected by the events before martial law and afterwards. I was familiar with student activism because I was president of the La Salle Student Council only a couple of years before the FQS. After I graduated from the Asian Institute of Management in 1970, I worked in ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation handling special assignments as assistant to the president. These assignments ranged from doing financial analysis and projections to being the field coordinator for the Bilang ng Bayan, which was the equivalent of the Operation Quick Count for the 1970 and 1971 elections.