To many Filipinos, the lesson that Edsa taught is that people need not be helpless before the abuses of power. When citizens come together in solidarity and courage, manifesting their faith in the justness of their cause, they are stronger than the tyrants who prey upon them as isolated individuals. Some may think the exercise … Read more
The opportunity to go on sabbatical leave had come at a perfect time. I was getting bored with the courses I have been teaching for the last 30 years, and I wanted to see what was being done in the other disciplines. My TV program was judged to be doing poorly in the ratings, and … Read more
It is not known if the blind young person who begged Leo Echegaray for his eyes got his wish, but there are indications that the Filipino people may be creating new eyes with which to see themselves. I do not know how many would-be rapists Leo Echegaray’s execution will deter. But my own personal hope … Read more
Throughout our country’s political history, there has been a tendency to treat the problem in Mindanao as a seasonal illness to be managed than as a chronic life-threatening condition to be urgently addressed. Every administration thinks that it knows more or less what the problem is about, yet not one has made Mindanao the main … Read more
In varying degrees, we sometimes behave in ways that mock the very things we value. Some of us are shocked by the realization of what we are capable of doing, even as we desperately scan our past for its dark origins. But all too often, the quest for intelligibility in our actions collides against the … Read more
In the current debate over the death penalty, it is significant to note that the two opposing sides wish to be seen as equally speaking for life. The articulation of this issue with an actual case of incestuous rape has enabled us to view the problem in its full complexity. We now realize there is … Read more
Unlike some commentators on the subject, I am not bothered by the fact that the discussion of the death penalty has divided the nation. I think it is better to have a society divided by a moral debate than one unified by an unexamined impulse. It is definitely a sign of moral progress when a … Read more
It may have been just another day, and indeed the heavens conspired to make it typical, but the calendar we use to mark the passing of time permits us to see it grandly, as the start of the new year, the eve of a new century, and the turning point of a new millennium. In … Read more