Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III met with some members of the Consultative Commission (ConCom) on the government’s proposed change to federalism. He asked, “Who is going to pay for the national debt? Who is going to pay for the military? Who is going to pay for the [Department of Foreign Affairs] and the central bank? I mean if it needs additional capital, who is going to put it up?” (philstar.com Aug. 7, 2018). And the ConCom’s response was, “the sharing with the local governments or the states will be after those expenses” (Ibid.).

The Resolution released last week by the Supreme Court was simple enough: reaffirming both the trial court’s and the Court of Appeals’ decision and resolution of criminal guilt, conviction, and imprisonment in Carlos Celdran vs. People of the Philippines. The four-page document didn’t even bother with further explanations, except to point out that: “We agree with the CA in its findings that the acts of petitioner were meant to mock, insult, and ridicule those clergy whose beliefs and principles were diametrically opposed to his own.”

No, he doesn’t want to die; he just wants others put to death.

There seems to be an inexplicable enthrallment with royalty, a curiosity about the images and lives of the rich and famous, the haughty and unattainable. Perhaps, it is the vicarious thrill of imagining -- to be in the shoes of a star. It’s a wish to escape to one’s mundane daily routine.

CERTAIN topics are just too hard to “laymanize.” This is a buzzword current nowadays. It means presenting a concept in words and phrases that can be grasped by the man on the street. Such subjects are, by definition, complex and presume prior familiarity and knowledge, sometimes requiring their own special vocabulary.

GLOBAL trade is under threat. Whether or not you call the current situation a trade war, certainly the first shots have been fired. This calls for our attention, and most importantly, our action.

Who has not seen and heard advertisements of crispy, juicy, fried chicken that is soggy or as dry as a bone IRL (“in real life”)? Or pictures on the box of a product that looks different from the actual product?

I recently chanced upon an Aug. 2 commentary in The World Post about an emerging Dutch technology that aimed to address the negative effects of incineration. Written by Rachel Nuwer, a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, the commentary discussed how incineration could now be a “clean” alternative to solid waste management.

TODAY, I complete and count nearly twenty-one years since I entered the world of public and then professional speaking. Within the first year of being part of a very elite group of professionals at the Executive Toastmasters Club of Makati, the club appointed me president.

There is a great deal of rahrahrah these days for the magic of rice tariffication as the latest bright idea to bring down the price of rice and end the constant threat of rice-shortages from the decades of rice importation control through quota restrictions by the National Food Authority. Rice tariffication is also proposed as a magic wand to help improve the incomes of our beleaguered and aging (average age is 57) rice farmers.

Our nation had taken great strides towards the improvement of our elections by shifting to automation. Arguably, traditional modes of electoral cheating and electoral violence have been prevented and minimized since its implementation. This time, Philippine democracy has been given importance through the delivery of faster election results. We have reached the stage wherein we have finally adjusted from the horrors of manual counting, tallying, and canvassing that will only resurface the evils that our society relates too well -- electoral cheating and violence, where transitions of leaders will cause instability and questionable legitimacy.

“I dle, shiftless and worthless man who made no attempt to follow any legal calling, and whose habits of life were those of an immoral and dissolute good for nothing.” This is how Justice Carson described a man guilty of vagrancy.