Benjie Oliveros

MANILA - Even when the official campaign period for the position of president was yet to begin last February 9, one could already feel the campaign heating up. The people are already barraged with television ads disguised as infomercials and the proliferation of posters - minus the "vote for..." of course, lest the candidate be charged with electioneering.

MANILA - The decision of the second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) junking the disqualification case against former president Joseph Estrada makes the May 2010 elections a historical aberration. For the first time since the people's ouster of the Marcos dictatorship, a former president has been allowed to seek for the second time the highest position in the country.

MANILA - The Arroyo administration is, hopefully, about to end its term by the middle of next year. Lasting for nine years and a half, it is the longest-running presidency since the Marcos dictatorship. In fact, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is second only to Ferdinand E. Marcos who, for 20 years, held the reins of power the longest in the country's history.

MANILA - The Ampatuan massacre last November 23 shocked the nation and the world. It was shocking not only because of its ferocity, claiming the lives of 57 innocent people including passersby, and barbarity, which included the rape of women, desecration of bodies and beheading of some victims, but also because of the brazenness in the commission of such abhorrent atrocities.

Senator Chiz Escudero created quite a stir when he bolted from the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) at a time when he was almost certain to bag the party's nomination. But there are rumors that one of the reasons behind his decision was the alleged unwillingness of the "Boss" Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco to throw his full support, financially, to Escudero's campaign.

MANILA - He has been hinting it ever since he made himself visible again by embarking on provincial sorties. Thus, when former president Joseph "Erap" Estrada announced, at the end of a 30-minute speech, that he would run for president again, nobody was surprised. Every one was expecting it even if the majority opinion is that his running for reelection violates the 1987 Constitution.

MANILA - Gauging from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's ninth State of the Nation Address, it is going to be business as usual. She would not veer away from the economic policies that she has implemented in the past. These are the very same policies that made the Filipino people vulnerable to the world economic crisis and to price manipulations and speculative attacks by corporations wanting to pass on the burden of the crisis to the people.

MANILA - It is the State of the Nation Address once again. The true state of the country is again the subject of debates. Surely, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would boast about the economic growth and its supposed success in shielding the economy from the impact of the world economic and financial crisis, the infrastructure projects the government was able to finish such as the Clark to Subic highway, and, probably, its peace overtures with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Vanessa and Gadian provide two more reasons why the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) should be abrogated and the Balikatan joint US-Philippine military exercises stopped.