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It is fascinating how “impeach,” an almost archaic word, has become part of our everyday vocabulary. Quite often, we use it to mean removal from office, as in: “Former Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached.” At other times, it simply means to formally accuse a high official, as in: “This is the second time Vice … Read more

The United States and the Philippines once shared July 4 as a date of supreme significance—a founding day from which sovereign nationhood was said to begin. Yet the day never meant the same thing to both. Not simply because one people declared independence from another nation while the other was cast as beneficiary of a … Read more

In the dark days of apartheid in South Africa, detainees who, despite being white, resolutely opposed the white supremacist regime, were often subjected to mean punishment. The scholar and writer Ruth First, charged with treason, was the first white woman to be jailed under the so-called 90-Day Detention Law. In her memoir, “117 Days,” she … Read more

In an in-your-face attempt to promote a favorable view of the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, and to justify his own presidential ambition, the dictator’s son and namesake Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has turned to the 94-year-old Juan Ponce Enrile for assistance. Agreeing to sit down with Marcos Jr. for an unusual interview on … Read more

So great is our desire to see our presidents succeed that, unless they were thrust into office under dubious circumstances, we usually give them, during their first three years in office, higher approval ratings than could be reasonably accounted for by their actual performance or by the size of their electoral base. It is as … Read more

Lacking experience in state affairs, President Duterte has made many mistakes during his brief presidency. He has shocked the Filipino people and the world with his murderous war against drug users and drug pushers. He has turned off many sympathizers by his crude language and blasphemous tirades against organized religion. But, a tolerant nation has … Read more

Acts of remembering and forgetting pertain not only to individuals but, indeed, also to the State, which represents the sovereign will of the people. The State remembers by proclaiming public holidays to commemorate important events in the nation’s past, thus inscribing them in the nation’s collective memory. Independence Day, the birthdays and death anniversaries of … Read more