The 80-year-old widow of former president Ferdinand Marcos will run in the northern Illocos Norte constituency, a Marcos stronghold. President Gloria Arroyo, who steps down next year, has already registered to run for a seat in congress. Also running is seven-times world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. This will be his second attempt to gain political office. He was defeated in the congressional election of 2007. Arroyo will be the first president of the Philippines to run for a seat in the lower house of parliament after stepping down. She is constitutionally barred from seeking another term as president. Arroyo is the most unpopular president since Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted by a popular uprising in 1986 after 20 years in power. The Marcos family went into exile in the US but Marcos returned in 1991 and served in congress from 1995 to 1998. Despite the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos, the family remains popular in Illocos Norte. Marcos will attempt to replace her son Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr, who is running for the senate. Her daughter Imee is running to be governor of Illocos Norte. About 17 000 positions are up for grabs in next May’s local, provincial and national elections. Some 45 million Filipinos are eligible to vote. –– BBC.
Marcos registers to run for Philippines congress
The war in Ukraine had magnified the slowdown in the global economy, which was now entering what could become “a protracted period of feeble growth and elevated inflation,” the World Bank said in its Global Economic Prospects report, warning that the outlook could still grow worse.
Last month German Foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, a leader of the Green Party, which entered a coalition government last fall with Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, pledged that Germany would stop importing oil from Russia by the end of 2022, and wean itself off Russian natural gas as soon as possible. In the short-term, that may mean finding alternative suppliers for fossil fuels, including the United States.
BY BART STAR-JAMES United States President Joe Biden does not seem to know where he is as history slowly turns its wheels of fortune to the east. A talking head of him or an acolyte frequently appears on our screens spewing out threatening diatribes of vindictiveness and sanctions against Russia completely oblivious of the imminent […]
Just 10 days ahead of a runoff that will determine who will lead the European Union’s second-largest economy for the next five years, polls show the centrist president is slightly ahead of his far-right rival, but the contest promises to be tight.