Citizenship

On the legal merits, the Comelec ruling was clear enough: Fernando Poe Jr. is a natural-born Filipino citizen because he had a Filipino father.  This has sound legal basis in both the 1935 Constitution and the 1987 Constitution.  That FPJ may have been born before his parents were actually married is irrelevant.  He is the … Read more

A surge of volunteerism

It is bad enough that we are being made to pick our leaders from what is, by any reckoning, a dismaying list of candidates.  What is worse is that the whole electoral process is being supervised by a Commission on Elections whose top officials have just been effectively pronounced untrustworthy by the highest court of … Read more

The middle class and the poor

Two major forces determine the political life of the country today: the poor and the middle class.  One decides the outcome of elections, the other decides the fate of administrations. Their aspirations for a better life have made them conscious of the power they can wield. United, they can change the system. Divided, they become … Read more

Everyday poets

“To be the poets of our life — first of all in the smallest, most everyday matters,” as my favorite philosopher puts it, has always been for me the best formulation of a New Year’s wish.  The metaphor evokes images of meticulous composition and subtle artistry, of wit and beauty, in all the things we … Read more