Last week I said there were three things we needed to do to recover from this crisis. They were the immediate actions government could undertake to hasten recovery. In the longer term, there are two areas the…
The first vaccine was developed in 1796 by Edward Jenner, who used cowpox material to develop immunity to smallpox. According to historyofvaccines.org, the next major breakthrough occurred in 1885, almost 100 years later: the development of the…
I’m going to come back to this topic (see my column “Smoking kills, vaping doesn’t” on July 11, 2019) because we need to save Filipino lives from all illnesses, not just COVID-19. Smoking kills, we know…
They’re calling it the “new normal.” A world in upheaval. What will that new world look like? Let me suggest a few of the changes we may see. The first thing to recognize is that, of…
COVID-19 is scary—about 1,300 deaths in the Philippines in just six months. But we should be careful not to overreact—as we did with Dengvaxia, for instance. In the first eight months of last year, an estimated…
This should be the guiding philosophy in all government decision-making. It’s been unquestionably proven now that the market just works best. I’d even go so far as to say that it’s been equally proven that governments work…
Amending the 1987 Constitution is the most important and most contentious change this country will face under President Duterte. It needs to be done with the utmost care. The Constitution is reactionary in that it was developed…
Those who oppose a national ID system need to join the modern world. We are past the point where personal privacy was a given. Just look at Facebook, where people are disclosing intimacies they’d never have thought…
I’ve been in sick bay in the past couple of weeks, so that may be why there was a bit of a focus on social issues. Memories of 20 years of epilepsy triggered the conversation on marijuana.…
Last week I recommended splitting the DENR into two departments: one on Environment and the other on Natural Resources. You can’t find one person who is, first, a strict environmentalist, and, second, a supporter of responsible extraction…
In June, President Duterte and his chosen Cabinet members met with the business community to discuss the economic plans of the new government (“340 heads are better than one,” Opinion, 6/30/16). It was very successful—or will be,…
The Inquirer editorial on Nov. 4 said, in discussing the return of Filipino fishermen to Panatag Shoal: “The problem … is that it is contingent on Chinese goodwill, it is at the mercy of Chinese whim, rather…
