Better Days

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 …

By Sonny Angara Economic managers today use the concept of gross domestic product (GDP) as a primary measure of their country’s economic success. Even in the Philippines, discussions on the performance and the general outlook for our economy focus heavily on whether GDP growth rates remain among the fastest in the world. Among the concept’s …

By Sonny Angara Some say that where “oil was the primary fuel of the 20th century economy,” creativity is what drives economic growth and development in the 21st. A 2010 United Nations (UN) report noted that between 2000 and 2010, so-called “creative industries” grew at an annual pace that was more than twice of services, …

By Sonny Angara Forty years ago, delegates from 135 countries, including the Philippines, signed at an international conference the first global declaration affirming “primary health care” as key to upholding every person’s right to a healthy life. Many consider this “Alma-Ata Declaration” among the critical public health milestones of the 20th century, signaling a global …