“More than any other comparable Filipino elite, the officer corps had been created and defined by the nation. No other group had its social role, ideology, and personal values so directly, so fundamentally shaped by the state.” So writes the historian Alfred W. McCoy in his fascinating book, “Closer Than Brothers” (Anvil Publishing), a comparative … Read more
Many who lived through martial law cannot look at a man in uniform without somehow recalling its horrors. It is a perceptual association that has survived the graying of memory. You have to keep telling yourself that the evil was in the regime, not necessarily in the individuals it used. It’s not always easy to … Read more
I don’t believe in charity. I suspect we often do it more for ourselves than for those we help. I also think it takes away the urgency from the need to reform society itself. But, in practice, I have trouble ignoring those who come to my door or knock on my car window for help. … Read more
It is a question that was asked soon after Congress hastily proclaimed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo winner of the controversial 2004 presidential election. But the swift withdrawal from the streets of the protesting voters who felt cheated in the canvassing and the filing of a formal election protest by the opposition gave the proclamation an aura … Read more
If Filipinos in the Philippines were voting in the American presidential election, they would give George W. Bush a landslide win over his rival, John Kerry. Bush is our kind of leader. Like him, we see the world as either black or white. The moral lenses we use divide nations into good or evil, friends … Read more