There is a view of politics that Filipino politicians have been professing lately. “Politics is a numbers game,” they love to say. And they say it as if that is all there is to politics. Of course the statement is true – in a shallow sense: If you have the numbers, you get to make … Read more
The issue of whether former President Joseph ‘Erap” Estrada should be allowed to run again for president is a legal question. Because it touches on a specific provision of the Constitution, it is bound to reach the Supreme Court the moment he files his certificate of candidacy. The high court will no doubt declare it … Read more
If you type the word “subsidiarity” on the computer, chances are it will be red-lined by the word-processor, signifying its non-recognition as a term. The word is not listed in most dictionaries. Yet, it appears extensively in the social teachings of the Catholic Church. It is also a key concept in the European Union’s draft … Read more
Often, when we demand of others that they act decently, we admonish them to rise above their animal instincts. In such mindless ways do we insult animals. Frans de Waal, a primatologist, who has observed chimpanzees for a long time thinks that animals living in groups are governed — no less than humans — by … Read more
The kindest thing one can say of the simultaneous retirement yesterday of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano and of Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Cardozo Luna – months ahead of their due retirement dates – is that they are being exiled by a corrupt government that feels encumbered by their sturdy … Read more