First break

Juan Mercado 01/10/2015

Juan L. Mercado, who retired last month as CDN columnist, still writes an occasional piece when he’s provoked.  Developments in Cebu’s water supply situation signal one of those times. –- Editor In early January, 14,000  parched Metro…

Nitwits’ ride

Juan Mercado 12/26/2014

Editorial  and  TV  desks  are  swamped  on  December  28  by  features  on  practical  jokes.  The  ones  fooled   are  ribbed:  Na-Niños  Inocentes. That jab refers to the  feast  of  the  Holy  Innocents. Liturgy  readings  recall  King Herod  went …

Christmas favorites

Juan Mercado 12/23/2014

All of us have favorite Christmas articles.  “In the Year of his Lord” has been  republished by Wall Street  Journal since 1948. And the 1950 midnight mass homily by the historian Horacio de la  Costa is another.…

Christmas star

Juan Mercado 11/04/2014

The Christmas star lantern or parol at our home is always a latecomer by local standards. Since September, the first of the “ber” months, parols have already decked the malls and street corners. Mini- stars sway from…

Spruced-up graves

Juan Mercado 10/28/2014

We give back to You who first gave them to us: our faithful dead, whose beauty and truth are even now in our hearts.” That line from Rufus Ellis resonated as the wife and I, like thousands…

Beyond the stutters

Juan Mercado 10/25/2014

Listen  beyond Vice President Jejomar Binay’s  flustered stutters whenever  a  sensitive question is lobbed. Queries range  from the P15.6 million Redwood type three-bedroom unit of The Woodlands at Tagaytay Highlands,  overpriced beds at the Ospital ng Makati …

Growth push buttons?

Juan Mercado 10/21/2014

The good news is : Substantial strides were made in the Philippines and elsewhere to get more food on tables. The bad news is: 805 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished. And levels of overlooked hunger are…

Pingpong children

Juan Mercado 10/18/2014

They  best symbolize the concern of October  synod   which ends  Sunday:  The  “pingpong children”  shuttle between separated parents are  trapped in wars  or swept in often chaotic  immigration waves. Set up by Paul VI in 1965, the…

Line of sight

Juan Mercado 10/14/2014

Most of us are fixated on Vice President Jejomar Binay’s now 15 percent – and still plunging – nose dive in poll standing as well as that sprawling P1.2-billion Batangas hacienda with air-conditioned orchid farm or bogus…

Cautionary signal

Juan Mercado 10/11/2014

Don’t be lulled just yet into El Niño drought being downgraded  by the Department of Science and Technology.  The peak is just ahead. Beefed-up  sustained  response for rougher threats  in the years ahead is more urgent than…

High-risk duty

Juan Mercado 10/07/2014

If we let this pass, no significant witness will testify… because of fear”, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago fumed. She seeks 24-hour police protection for Commission on Audit commissioner Heidi Mendoza who documented Makati hospital scams before the…

Multiple red flags

Juan Mercado 10/04/2014

Is the 10 percent slump in Vice President Jejomar Binay’s polls the beginning of a free fall?  Good  question, as Commission on Audit data  shovels up more  data  on  embedded graft. But this can  smudge equally compelling…

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