Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

For three successive nights, mobs of masked looters stormed the streets of London, burning down buildings and vehicles, vandalizing and emptying stores, and then swiftly hauling away their loot in stolen cars. Residents and shopkeepers watched in disbelief as responding policemen, torn between containing the fires and going after the fast-moving army of rioters, found … Read more

My youngest brother who lives in the United States regularly sends me pictures of his growing family.  Lately, these photos have been accompanied by links to articles dealing with the sorry state of the American economy.  He’s been trying hard, he says, to figure out for himself, where this complex economy seems to be going, … Read more

Nothing perhaps more graphically captures the dysfunctions of government than the pathetic sight of senior police officials explaining how they failed to stop a procurement contract that was patently disadvantageous to government.  I refer to the ongoing Senate investigation on the purchase by the Philippine National Police of two second-hand helicopters that were passed off … Read more

Memory is so burdensome to many of us that moving on and not looking back has become a kind of value in itself. The argument is that responding to present challenges is demanding enough, we should not compound it by dredging the past. This attitude, so prevalent in our culture, typically rides on the religious … Read more

PRESIDENT AQUINO’S second State of the Nation Address was a good speech, but not the kind that is expected at the opening of Congress. It was not so much a discussion of the state of the nation, as it was a meditation on the state of our values as a people. In this lies its … Read more

(Last July 21, the Ateneo de Manila University gave me, together with journalist Marites Danguilan-Vitug, the Ozanam Award for 2011.  Not being an Atenean, I had no idea who Ozanam was or what he stood for. Apparently, not many Ateneans did either. I felt a strong need to know, and what I soon found out … Read more

Amid revelations of how lottery proceeds meant for charity were being dispensed by the past administration to purchase vehicles for the use of some bishops, the main goal of the ongoing Senate hearings has been snowed under. This goal goes into the very heart of what the government’s role should be, and what purposes should … Read more

Almost two years after his arrest in connection with the Maguindanao massacre, detained former ARMM governor Zaldy Ampatuan has yet to be arraigned. This means that the case against him, unlike that of his father and brother, has hardly begun. His biggest wish is to be taken off the list of the accused before he … Read more

No one saw it coming: the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines apologizing for causing pain and confusion among its flock over an issue in which some bishops have been implicated. Filipinos are so used to hearing public figures cynically offer implausible justifications for their actions, or throw back mud at their critics in response, … Read more

Although the Church draws its mandate from God, it remains very much a human institution. Its leaders are human beings like the rest of us, subject to the same desires and temptations that besiege ordinary mortals. Its structures likewise mirror the characteristics of the society in which it operates. But, as a religious institution, the … Read more