THE Focus on the Global South recently released a map showing what it calls "the true scale and extent of U.S. military presence" in the country today. The map, according to the Bangkok-based research institute, illustrates the different ways and forms...

THE second part of the PCIJ's latest report on ineligibles in government looks into the costs and impact on governance, real and hidden, of political appointments. Of the various agencies of government, it is the Office of the President that has the...

THE Palace functionary who, almost three months ago, criticized then Civil Service Commission (CSC) chair Karina Constantino-David for attributing the government's “bloated bureaucracy” to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s unqualified appointees,...

LAST Monday, Malacañang announced the designation of Cabinet Secretary Ricardo L. Saludo as chairperson of the Civil Service Commission. All at once, critics raised howls of protest and called Saludo "a rabid Arroyo lackey and anti-government...

THIS early, some politicians are already gearing up for 2010. But there’s another year that’s worth keeping in mind: 2015, which is the deadline for countries that signed the Millennium Declaration to meet the Millennium Development Goals or...

FORMER National Economic and Development Authority director general Cielito Habito today urged both houses of Congress to enact a law that will again extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which is set to end this year. Habito, now...

EVEN as the government continues to insist that there is no rice supply shortage but only an abnormal increase in the price of the staple owing to soaring world market prices of commodities, the fact is the country is not 100-percent self-sufficient in...