Exactly a month ago today, I turned 80. It was an event I didn’t expect to feel any different from my previous birthdays. But thanks to my fellow Inquirer columnist Ambeth Ocampo, who devoted an entire column to the lunch my sisters prepared at our childhood home in Betis, I received a lot more greetings … Read more

No one who cares about the state of education in our country can ignore the more than 600-page final report recently released by the Second Congressional Commission (EDCOM 2). Drawing from commissioned studies, hearings, consultations, and field visits, it is the most comprehensive review to date of the problems that have long plagued Philippine education, … Read more

We are familiar with the idea of a caretaker government—an interim leadership that exists mainly to keep things in place, maintain stability, and avoid risks that might unsettle the prevailing order. When this minimalist approach comes to characterize nearly the whole political system, however, we may speak more broadly of caretaker politics. This is where … Read more

Over the eight decades since the end of the Second World War, an international order gradually took shape in which individual nations, large and small, could find their place and pursue development under a shared framework of rules. Through international bodies, treaties, and norms, countries were given at least a fighting chance to flourish. The … Read more

Born shortly after the end of the World War II, my generation has long considered itself fortunate not to have known, let alone fought in, a world war. But no one can be sure anymore how long this fragile peace can endure. My sense is that the major powers are again sleepwalking toward war in … Read more

The year 2025 will likely be remembered as a turning point in our nation’s history—a moment when corruption reached such magnitude that it could no longer be concealed or excused. Its scale and consequences became so damaging to the public good that denial itself ceased to be plausible. For decades, corruption in public office had … Read more

Today, the Catholic calendar marks the Feast of the Holy Innocents, commemorating the slaughter of the male children of Bethlehem on the orders of Herod. It is hard not to think, on this day, of Kian delos Santos—the 17-year-old boy killed during the four-day “one-time-big-time” (OTBT) antidrug police operation in August 2017. Like the biblical … Read more

A few years ago, when the threat from COVID-19 had begun to recede, more and more elderly people reported being victimized by scams. The pandemic and the need for connection it accentuated had led many of them, for the first time, to experience the advantages of the mobile phone and the internet. But this new … Read more

In January 2023, less than a year after assuming the presidency, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signaled his administration’s decisive pivot to America by announcing that the United States would be given access to four additional military sites on Philippine territory. This was a marked departure not only from his predecessor’s China-leaning posture, but also from … Read more

Protest movements worldwide tend to come in waves. Much of this results from the emulation of activism seen elsewhere, a tendency heightened by global media and the ubiquity of online platforms. Yet, like development models, protest movements are not portable. Conditions that make them plausible or even necessary in one society may be absent in … Read more