No flag-waving where it matters

INDEPENDENCE Day should be an occasion for bragging – with false modesty, of course – by any country, of its landmark economic, political, social and, yes, military achievements in the years after it frees itself from colonial, oppressive overlords. In the case of the Philippines, the latter are the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese.

President Benigno Aquino 3rd chose to mark it differently by singing praises of Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd, presumably his anointed candidate in 2016 to succeed him as the country’s leader.