As a participant in and direct witness to the dramatic events that unfolded at Edsa on Feb. 22-25, 1986, I sometimes turn to written accounts of that period in order to refresh my recollection of those events. Almost always, I find myself flinching from these published narratives and, even more, from their interpretations of what … Read more
President Duterte and his controversial justice secretary, Vitaliano Aguirre II, are so confident the government has built foolproof cases against archcritic and incumbent senator Leila de Lima that they expect to see her locked up in jail any time soon. For the sake of the credibility of our justice system—or what remains of it—I hope … Read more
People are puzzled by President Duterte’s abrupt turnabout in his quest for an enduring peaceful resolution of the decades-old communist insurgency. I suspect that at some point he felt he was being taken for a fool, or shortchanged, by a movement whose friendship he had avidly cultivated, and whose aspirations he thought he shared. Since … Read more
The one thing, I think, President Duterte is learning in the seven months he has been in office is that the government will not instantaneously abide by everything he says whenever he speaks. His officials will increasingly insist that presidential instructions, particularly those that could be questioned on legal and constitutional grounds, be put in … Read more