By Gonzalo Duque   WE had Mayor Belen as our guest during our podcast The Punching Duo last May 17. Ermin and I observed that Mayor Belen is now a picture of a relaxed public servant, having won by a margin of more than 40,000 votes. Indeed, she can now…

By Gonzalo Duque   LET us congratulate the winners of the just-concluded national and local elections. To those who did not make it, my magnanimous message to you is, “better luck next time” and  learn from the wisdom of our great philosopher that  “service  to humanity is the best work…

By Gonzalo Duque   AS I was writing this column, I heard that the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) just announced their candidates for Dagupan City,  including mayor, vice mayor, and down to the last councilor – all from the Unliserbisyo team. One might ask why a religious group endorsed an…

By Gonzalo Duque   THE elections are just around the corner. And the Alyansa senatorial candidates, to my mind, are still finding it hard to beat the candidates of the PDP Laban. More so with the investigation initiated by Senator Imee Marcos recommending the prosecution of Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla,…

By Gonzalo Duque   SOME years ago, at the Dagupeña Restaurant, then located along A.B. Fernandez Avenue in Dagupan City, I found myself having an animated conversation with then newly elected mayor Benjie Lim, now deceased. With bravado, he declared to me that he has the long-awaited solution to the…

By Gonzalo Duque   HAPPY Easter to all! The developments in the national political scene are not looking good for the senatorial candidates of the present administration. We can see Imee Marcos, Camille Villar, and maybe Pia Cayetano abandoning ship and getting endorsement from no less than Vice President Sara…

By Gonzalo Duque   AS the mid-term election draws nearer, the COMELEC is again placed in a hot spot because of its inability to remove all illegally-placed and oversized campaign paraphernalia of the senatorial and local candidates, among other issues. Its failure to monitor the expenses of the national and local…

By Gonzalo Duque   RECENT developments in our country may not look good for the Marcos administration in the light of the “illegal” arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte. In my previous columns, I wrote that unless there is a  “triggering factor” where the administration of PBBM might suffer defeat…

By Gonzalo Duque   THE withdrawal of Senator Imee Marcos from the Alyansa ng Mamamayang Pilipino, otherwise known as the administration ticket, will greatly affect the senatorial ticket of her brother, PBBM, in the forthcoming election. Because of Imee’s move, we learned that some of the candidates of the administration…

By Gonzalo Duque   NOW that the preliminary hearing on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s case by the Internal Criminal Court has been concluded, we learned that one of the confirmed lawyers for Duterte, British-Israeli Nicholas Kaufman, said with confidence that the case of FPRRD is an easy one, both for…