State of the nation: the hard questions

The highlight of the opening of the regular session of Congress tomorrow is the President’s address to the nation.  Section 23, Art. 7 of the Constitution commands the president to perform this task.  I’ve often wondered if this speech, known as the State of the Nation Address, follows a set model.  How does the president … Read more

Saving Ms Arroyo

We can’t expect America and Australia, and all the other nations that supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq, to understand the full complexity of President Arroyo’s dilemma.  To them, the choice is merely between giving in to the demands of Iraqi terrorists to save one Filipino worker’s life and keeping our troops in Iraq … Read more

Recall our soldiers and save our workers

It was just a matter of time before Filipinos would be targets of Iraqi retaliation.  Almost instantly, from the moment American and British invading forces rolled into Baghdad, our workers started streaming into Iraq like famished little ants out to nibble on the remains of a fallen animal. They came as servants and cooks of … Read more

The politics of constitutional reform

Interesting proposals are being revived in current moves to amend the 1987 Constitution.  They seem at first like piecemeal responses to problems encountered in the course of the nation’s return to democracy. But one cannot fail to notice that, unlike the progressive intentions that animated the crafting of the present constitution, those that inform the … Read more