Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES On Feb. 25, 1986, the fourth day of people power at Edsa, Cory Aquino took her oath of office as the country’s new president in a brief ceremony held at Club Filipino. Earlier in the day, at a morning ceremony at Malacañang Palace, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. also took his oath for the same office. On … Read more
To all intents and purposes, UniTeam, the North-South partnership that delivered the presidency to Bongbong Marcos (BBM) in 2022 is dead. Like all coalitions of convenience – i.e., alliances without ideology, organization, or long-term program – it was created for one sole purpose: to ensure the election of its principal candidate. The union of the … Read more
Thirty-eight years have passed since we Filipinos stumbled upon a peaceful way of toppling down an entrenched dictatorship. We called it “people power,” a massive protest gathering of people in a public place in sheer defiance of the coercive power of established authority. The world hailed it not just as a model for getting rid … Read more
Freed from foreign domination, China has attempted in various ways to consciously craft its own destiny and show the world that there is a way of organizing and developing society other than that charted by Soviet socialism or Western capitalism. This romantic view is the stuff of radical aspirations not only in the Third World … Read more
One of the most useful insights on education I have come across sums up the function of education as the preparation of individuals to live in future social systems. I’m paraphrasing the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, but the key word in his concept is “future.” It’s hard enough to prepare our children to live in the … Read more
The headlines of the major dailies the other day were about an incumbent senator’s simultaneous exoneration and conviction. The Inquirer put it thus: “Jinggoy guilty of bribery, cleared of ‘pork’ plunder” (News, 1/20/24). This was echoed by The Star’s header: “Jinggoy convicted of bribery, cleared of ‘pork’ plunder.” But the Manila Times summed it all … Read more
As yesterday’s Inquirer editorial (“When a Cha-cha ad backfires”) aptly put it, the paid ad that inundated primetime television early this week was “a poorly thought stunt that backfired if the intention was to gather public support for Charter change (Cha-cha).” That is if the intent was to mobilize broad support for constitutional change. But, … Read more
It took 18 precious minutes for Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516 to safely evacuate all its 367 passengers including eight infants, and 12 crew members, after colliding upon touchdown with another aircraft at busy Haneda International Airport in Tokyo last Jan. 2. By industry standards, that was quite long. Ninety seconds or less is the … Read more
It is hard to believe that a people that have gone through some of the worst disasters in the world and have seen their country drop from being the most developed to one of the poorest in Southeast Asia, can remain so hopeful about the future. But that’s exactly the finding of the country’s two … Read more
The other weekend, I went to visit an old friend’s organic farm with my brother Bong, a civil engineer who, like many retirees, has gone into farming. After showing us around his farm, our gracious host Philip treated us to a delicious snack of grilled cheese on toasted sourdough bread. The sharp burnt cheese made … Read more