A lot of politicians and electoral candidates miss a very major point in campaigning: most voters are in the middle; very few are in the right or left of center.

Humanity is for all Filipinos whatever their status is in life. And the core of humanity is respecting the views of others and engaging in discourse that is respectful, contextual and does not introduce extraneous variables that are not germane to the discussion.

Covid-19 is teaching us to care more and count our blessings more. It is also teaching us to go back to the practices of the generation of our parents: to help one another, take care of each other and nurture one another.

A political campaign is a communication process — find the right message, target that message to the right group of voters and repeat that message again and again. Democracy, after all, depends on shared truths; and autocracy, on shared lies. Let that be clear for all our sakes in May 2022.

One thing is clear, Duterte has never been for the status quo. He disrupts, sometimes badly communicated, but he makes sure errors of the past are corrected or at the minimum, highlighted so Filipinos see the difference. Duterte showed to all what political will can mean to a country like the Philippines.

The figure 1521 sums up the gentleman’s agreement made in July 2019: “Cayetano would serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives for the first 15 months of the 18th Congress while Velasco would succeed to serve for the remaining 21 months under a term-sharing agreement.” The change would occur in October 2020, and that is the reason the current Speaker has ruled that the “House of Representatives will try to finish deliberations on the proposed P4.506 trillion national budget for 2021 by the end of September.” 

Decoupling can actually be a strategy to mute the critics because experiential benefits will always win the day for a nation tired of complaints and not being able to see any good from all the work done.

There are people who operate a social media platform with a license to kill, spewing heat waves that are totally odious and foul, and yet it’s like staking one’s claim over a piece of meat that is bartered or paid as a business proposition of hitting people, creating a mess and hiding when confronted with facts.

One conducts surveys to uncover answers, evoke discussion, base decisions on objective information, compare results and rely on actionable information to put together strategies whether in business or in politics.

The tax therefore on online activities should be reconsidered to allow such economic activities to thrive in the short run, adjusting further to the movements of products and services as we get the ecosystems to mature and as we return to traditional or integrate the traditional to the new norm.

In the first month of lockdown the supply chain of Metro Manila was affected. This is the reality of our development — we are too Manila-centric that all funds are cornered by the region, and development is too centralized that is why in-migration has been too prevalent in NCR creating population density problems that can’t be absorbed.