Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES Like many who believe that what happens in American politics today is bound to have a great impact not just on America but on the rest of the world, I listened intently to the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last Sept. 10. What I found remarkable was not the debate itself but … Read more
So many things are happening in the political scene that it has become increasingly difficult to connect the dots. But it’s quite obvious that, a few months after the breakup of the Marcos-Duterte political partnership, it is now open season on the key figures associated with the past administration. So far, the investigations and inquiries … Read more
Not a few were startled when Vice President Sara Duterte suddenly accused Sen. Risa Hontiveros of “politicizing” the budget deliberation at the Senate hearing of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) 2025 budget. Hontiveros, one of only two opposition senators in the 24-member upper chamber, was asking for clarification of the allocation for certain … Read more
Forty-one years have passed since former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was brazenly murdered at the Manila International Airport on the day of his return from exile in the United States. An entire generation of Filipinos has little memory of that event. To them, the public holiday that is meant to provide Filipinos the occasion … Read more
Not many are aware of it, except maybe for some well-informed election lawyers and their moneyed clients. Per the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) recent admission, “premature campaigning” is no longer an election offense. One landmark Supreme Court ruling (Lanot v. Comelec), lucidly penned by former associate justice Antonio Carpio, found its way into the 2007 … Read more
The politicization of the justice system and of law enforcement itself was never more blatant than during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. His bloody war on drugs enabled him to impose his will on the whole government as well as to intimidate the rest of society. By exploiting people’s fear of being tagged as a … Read more
At various points during the July 25 televised presidential briefing on the disaster situation created by Supertyphoon “Carina” (International name: Gaemi) in conjunction with the southwest monsoon, President Marcos expressed his frustration over the type of information he was getting from the different government agencies in attendance. The President and his officials were clearly not … Read more
We have long been accustomed to seeing the world as a global system of nation-states. In this view, the word “international” refers to relations between and among nation-states. Today, however, that term is used less often. It has given way to the term “global,” signifying the momentous emergence of a new world system that operates … Read more
As one of the three most important pilgrimage sites of the Catholic world, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the purported remains of St. James the Apostle are buried, is visited by millions of pilgrims every year. Many arrive in Compostela by plane, by train, or by bus. What is called the Camino de … Read more
Doing the Camino,” the shorthand way of saying one is going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, has been on my “bucket list” since 2005 when I first heard about it from a German friend. He told me how he had been training for a 40-day 800-kilometer walk to Santiago via the … Read more