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2 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
BECAUSE of my desire to be completely uninvolved and neutral in the US presidential election, I tried not to express any opinion for or against any of the candidates. But I found Donald Trump's promise to end "all wars" particularly engaging, so I looked forward to seeing him end the war in Ukraine and in Gaza after his spectacular win.
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2 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
THE odds seem to be all against former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte. He stands accused of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, for allegedly ordering the execution of an indeterminate number of drug addicts when he was mayor of Davao City and president of the Philippines.
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2 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
AMERICAN and Chinese officials are reported to be meeting on maritime security in Shanghai, but this piece of encouraging news is offset by reports that the People's Republic of China (PRC) might be preparing to invade Taiwan.
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3 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
ON Wednesday, April 2, the Most Reverend Paciano Aniceto, D. D., archbishop emeritus of the archdiocese of San Fernando, Pampanga, presided over a memorial Mass at the Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati, in honor of the late former solicitor general, justice minister and governor of Pampanga, Estelito "Titong" Padtu Mendoza, who passed away on March 25, at 95, after a lifetime of distinguished and dedicated service to the nation in the field of law.
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3 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
TWO global calls now threaten to destabilize the Marcos government because of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte's widely protested detention at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The first calls for Duterte's immediate return to the Philippines so he could answer charges against him in a Philippine court of law; the second calls for the immediate resignation of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. from the office he has been holding the past three years.
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3 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
ORDINARY Pampanga folks who had no strong opinions on former president Rodrigo Duterte's arrest and detention at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague are reported to have taken the side of the endangered 80-year-old after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed without any elaborate explanation an otherwise harmless bill declaring the province of Pampanga as the culinary capital of the Philippines. It appears to be one of the president's latest unthinking and unnecessary mistakes.
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4 weeks ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
THE Philippine justice system is now on trial after it turned over former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for alleged "crimes against humanity" during his watch as Davao city mayor and as Philippine president. The legal shortcuts it took to deliver Duterte to The Hague remain the subject of controversy. But the ICC itself is also on trial here for its veritable assault on the nation's sovereign rights.
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1 month ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
IN my book "A Nation on Fire — The Unmaking of Joseph Ejercito Estrada and the Remaking of Democracy in the Philippines" (Icon Books, Manila, 2002), I discuss some of the nation's well-known problems and offer some ideas on what I believe should be done. It has apparently caught the attention of some people, so after 23 years when the book is no longer in print, I am still receiving queries on my political explorations in that volume.
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1 month ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
IT must have pained Sen. Imee Romualdez Marcos to preside over last Thursday's Senate foreign relations committee inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the March 11 arrest and hasty turnover of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for crimes against humanity without adequate due process.
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1 month ago | 
manilatimes.net | Francisco S. Tatad
AS a columnist, I had to suspend writing this column for a little while after then-president Rodrigo Roa Duterte threatened me with physical harm for writing a particular column he did not like. I resumed writing only after the chairman emeritus of this paper invited me back again, asking me to let bygones be bygones. But I never nourished any ill feelings toward Duterte, nor did that unfortunate incident prevent me from recognizing any of his merits as a president.
