A PHRASE very often heard from anti-mining advocates is “Common Good”. You need more than your fingers on one hand to count how many times someone like the DENR secretary-designate mentions this term while making a one-hour PowerPoint presentation, and more than your fingers on your two hands if the presentation is even longer.

I DIDN’T want to use the word “foe” anywhere in this piece because the word has a connotation that for me is too antagonistic.

But thinking about the history between the mining industry and the DENR secretary-designate, maybe no word can be more appropriate.

By JB Baylon

I’ve always been fascinated by this tale I’ve long heard about a frog in the pot.

It says that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will immediately jump out in an attempt to save itself.

I SPENT part of my Sunday afternoon in an off-track betting station, placing bets for horse races being run at Sta. Ana Park in Cavite.

I have to admit I had no idea how to choose the horses. I had no grasp of the terms being bandied about nor of the codes attached to the names of the horses and the jockeys. I was simply making “bakas” - riding on the same bets being placed by Col. Pedro “Pete” Sacro Sr whom I accompanied on his usual Sunday afternoon “excursion”.

January marks the sixth month in office of President Rodrigo Duterte. Six months, which was - at least during the campaign - supposed to be a major milestone in his term. Among others, he had promised (don’t we still remember?) to be done with the drug menace that holds our country in its grip. “Mark my word”, he told us time and time again - all i need is six months and the problem is solved.