Author: Clift Daluz

I deeply regret that the OFW Party List did not make it to the 20th Congress. Since its representative, Marissa Del Mar Magsino, assumed office, she has done nothing but work tirelessly and pass vital legislation for the welfare of our Overseas Filipino Workers. The painful irony is that while a party-list genuinely serving its sector was edged out, many unworthy groups – irrelevant, inactive, and inauthentic – managed to secure seats. This isn’t just a political disappointment. It’s a glaring indictment of a party-list system in decay – a system hijacked by vested interests and warped beyond recognition. What…

After reading my recent article, a reader messaged me and shared her story about visiting China back in 1989. She remembered a country that felt quiet and provincial, still modest, still recovering from years of isolation and hardship. At the time, it didn’t look anything like the economic giant we know today. But over the years, she saw it change – through her travels, conversations, and just observing – until it became what it is now: Driven, disciplined, and clearly playing the long game. She told me about the wave of Chinese students, mostly engineers and scientists, who were quietly…

“There’s so much to gain in peace than in war.” Former Senator Nikki Coseteng’s words ring louder now than ever, especially after seeing China up close, not through the fog of propaganda or the lens of political bitterness, but through lived experience. It’s easy to hate what we do not understand. For years, we’ve been fed a diet of distrust: territorial tensions, trade friction, fearmongering headlines. And yet, hate begets hate. Suspicion breeds division. It’s a cycle we must break. During my recent visit, the China I saw was far from the villain we so often portray. It was clean,…