To be his own person

Joseph Estrada had nothing to gain from insisting that the remains of Ferdinand Marcos be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.  Like Fidel Ramos, he could have ignored the request of the Marcos family, and pleaded for more time to consider its implications.  Or followed the path of least resistance, and left it to … Read more

Fathers and sons

Men’s most enduring struggles are with their fathers, that is why they turn to their mothers for the support they badly need.  All their lives, they seek a way of dealing with their fathers’ authority, initially impugning and rebelling against it, but in the end measuring themselves against its unyielding standards. In their advanced years, … Read more

Spelling E.R.A.P.

Perhaps the writer Francis Fukuyama was right.  It is not so much wealth or power that moves people ultimately, but the desire for recognition – Plato’s “thymos”.  “The desire for recognition,” observes Fukuyama, “is the most specifically political part of the human personality because it is what drives men to want to assert themselves over … Read more

Burying Marcos

The issue of where and how to bury the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos has less to do with the past than with the future.  There is little we can do with our memory of the Marcos past except to clarify and write it. But there is much we can do still to redress the injury … Read more