Jun Lozada has quoted former NEDA Executive Director and CHED Chair Romulo Neri as characterizing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as “evil”. Strong words from a Cabinet Secretary. The problem with evil as a concept is that its devilishly (sorry, couldn’t resist that one) hard to pin down. Evil is so subtle, so insidious and wears such a common face, we may not even be aware of it.

Consider a government official. She doesn’t look evil. She doesn’t sound evil, at least most of the time. But she may indeed be evil and thus capable of evil deeds. But because of evil’s subtlety, she might not even be aware she’s bad. “Bad” not in the hip sense but bad as in evil.

Such people are unquestionably dangerous. Read the rest of this entry »

Amando Doronila believes that the cover-up orchestrated by Malacanang over the ZTE corruption scandal and the botched abduction of Lorenzo “Jun” Lozada may doom the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Mr. Doronila writes in his Inquirer column:

State coercion has been the standard response of the Arroyo administration to public unrest sparked by allegations of corrupt practices and abuse of authority. It is the same strategy used to suppress sordid details about the canceled $329-million contract with China’s ZTE Corp. for a National Broadband Network (NBN).

The political tempest created by the ZTE scandal has plunged the administration into its most perilous crisis since its near collapse in 2005 following the mass resignation of no less that 10 Cabinet officials. This was prompted by the disclosure of telephone conversations purportedly between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a Commission on Elections official in what appeared to be an attempt to rig the results of the 2004 presidential elections in her favor.

The President again faces another legitimacy crisis as grave as that of 2005 as public protests over the ZTE scandal mounted on Friday in Makati City, reviving demands for her resignation. The Makati rally was the biggest antigovernment protest in years and was conservatively estimated by police to have drawn a crowd of up to 10,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Hillary Clinton has not won a state since she took California on Super Tuesday and this does not bode well for her faltering campaign.

Barack Obama pushed ahead of Hillary after winning overwhelmingly in Idaho, Washington State, Minnesota, North Dakota, Utah and Maine.

A delegate count by The New York Times, including projections from caucuses where delegates have not yet been chosen, showed Mr. Obama with a 113-delegate lead over Mrs. Clinton: 1,095 to 982.

Mr. Obama’s campaign said that he had a lead of 1,139 to 1,003; by the count of the Clinton campaign organization, Mr. Obama was doing even better: 1,141 to 1,004 for Mrs. Clinton.

Obama is now the front-runner in the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nod. Although neither candidate is expected to win outright the 2, 025 pledged delegates needed to claim the nomination by June, Obama’s momentum might well bring him the backing of the 796 elected Democrats and party leaders known as superdelegates. These superdelegates will determine the outcome of the race for the Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »