In general, no tax is ever acceptable to a people. This is even more so if the government that collects it is perceived to be useless, illegitimate, and corrupt. A good government is one that is able to show the public that the taxes it demands are collected justly – i.e., according to one’s earnings … Read more
If the participants of Edsa 1 and Edsa 2 were to be asked today if they would join another people power uprising, they would likely say no. They would say that people power promises many things but delivers nothing. That it substitutes the shortcut of a political surgery for the long painstaking task of building … Read more
The word has crept in quietly in recent discussions of administrative and fiscal reform. If taken seriously, it could spell the beginning of political modernity in our country. The vigor with which it is being opposed is an indicator of the staying power of obsolete interests. It shows us that corruption in our society is … Read more
There are many ways of classifying leaders. One way I find particular useful to our current situation in the Philippines is based on a scheme developed by the American sociologist Amitai Etzioni. He differentiates leaders by the type of power they use and the kind of compliance they elicit from those they govern. He says … Read more
When one approaches retirement, the desire to communicate life’s lessons to one’s children tends to grow in proportion to their own increasing wish to be left alone to design their own lives. I suppose it is as it should be, for the problems our children will face are not necessarily going to be the same … Read more