Better Days

By Sonny Angara Imagine this. On your next grocery trip, you pick up an item listed on your shopping list. You put it in your bag. And then you walk out of the store to accomplish the rest of your day’s errands. In this instance, no crime was committed because the product you picked up …

By Sonny Angara Recently, news articles came out about a very disconcerting World Bank assessment on Philippine education. Specifically, the report underscored that one in every four Grade 5 students does not have the reading and mathematics skills for Grade 2 or 3, and four in every five 15-year-old students do not understand basic mathematical …

By Sonny Angara After languishing in the legislative mill for over a decade, the bill institutionalizing a Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, which we co-sponsored, has finally reached the plenary debates in the Senate. We laud Senator Joel Villanueva, the chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources, for his hard work …

By Sonny Angara This October 23 marks the ninth year since Marawi City was freed from the lawless elements who sought to turn the locality into a wilayat or an “administrative division” of the ISIS caliphate. On that day, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana declared the city’s liberation marking the end of armed hostilities and violence …

By Sonny Angara We chaired a Senate committee on youth public hearing on measures that we believe could have a tremendous impact on young Filipinos, many of whom, for the past two years, have spent a considerable portion of their time indoors, and isolated from crowds and gatherings. Our country’s ramped up vaccination program and …

By Sonny Angara The Senate ratified the bicameral conference committee report on the “Inclusive Education” Act, which aims to institutionalize a policy of inclusion and services for learners with disabilities (LWD) across the country’s education sector. The measure languished in the legislative mill for many years. No less than my late father, former Senate President …

By Sonny Angara During the public hearing on the budgets of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and its attached agencies, the Senate was updated on the alarming congestion rate of our jails and penal institutions. For one, the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), our national penitentiary, has a congestion rate of 344 percent. In exact figures, …

By Sonny Angara A 2011 study by Harvard and Columbia University economists found that a good teacher — measured by how well their students improved in terms of test scores — imparts lifelong benefits. Using data on 2.5 million individuals over 20 years in a large urban district in the United States, the researchers concluded …

By Sonny Angara The world’s major religions all extoll the virtues of gratitude. From Christianity to Islam, Buddhism to Hinduism — some reference is always made to the importance of gratefulness to achieving a good life. Even science has shown that adopting an “attitude of gratitude” yields immense benefits — including better mental health outcomes …

By Sonny Angara Just this year, we met a man from Iligan City, Lanao del Norte who had been complaining for months about a wound on his foot that wouldn’t heal. The man suspected he had diabetes, though he couldn’t confirm it — much less treat it — since he and his family relied solely …