There is this cynical view that nothing much distinguishes people power from mob rule: you call it people power when you sympathize with it, and mob rule when you disagree with it. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago subscribes to a related version of this thought when she reduces people power to “a numbers game.” From her perspective, … Read more
It was shocking to hear how two policemen tried to explain their participation in the gruesome murder of PR man Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito. “We were misled,” they said. “We were made to believe it was a legitimate operation.” These killers were members of the police, specifically of the elite group within … Read more
In this season of Lent, we may forgive Raymond Fortun, Joseph Estrada’s young lawyer, for suggesting that the willful prosecution of his client recalls Christ’s own persecution. At a recent press conference, he said: “Two thousand years ago, Christ was falsely accused, deprived of his right to defend himself, thrown to the mob and put … Read more
Everything we know about the way our institutions work points to the near impossibility of doing that. It is true that we can summon enough political will to depose a sitting president by peaceful extraconstitutional means. And we have proven this not once but twice. Yet nothing in our experience gives us reason to hope … Read more
From the discussions that have attended the banning of the film “Live Show,” we have an idea of what is at issue here and what is not. The choice of subject is not an issue. One cannot object to the depiction of poverty and its consequences on the ground that it creates the wrong image … Read more