Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES This is not about the three Filipinos who were put to death in China the other day for heroin smuggling — though it may well apply to them. They were victims of drug syndicates, of a harsh justice system, and perhaps of a desire to find a quick way out of poverty. They most likely … Read more
Many reasonable people do not understand why the resources of the entire Filipino nation have been mobilized to persuade China to spare the lives of the three Filipinos who were executed yesterday for the heinous crime of drug trafficking. They ask: why are we spending precious diplomatic capital to plead for the lives of three … Read more
The corpse of Ferdinand Marcos, who died in exile inHawaii in 1989, lies unburied in a family museum in Batac, Ilocos Norte. Imelda Marcos, now a member of the House of Representatives, insists that she will allow nothing less than a hero’s burial for her husband’s waxen remains. More than two hundred of her fellow … Read more
Worried that they have not been able to contain the threat of nuclear radiation from the crippledFukushima nuclear plant, Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency recently re-classified the situation to a level 5 nuclear event. This means that the risks it poses are no longer just local; they are likely to spill beyond Japan’s borders. The wind … Read more
“There has been an extraordinary demand for more masses,” my brother Bishop Ambo told me. “Some people go to church twice on Sundays. The churches are packed, and we don’t have enough priests to minister to everyone’s spiritual needs.” I saw what he meant when I visited him the other day, a full week after … Read more
Our sensitivity to risk is not constant. It is always shaped by events happening around us. Twenty-five years ago, in November 1985, we were ready to fire the first nuclear power plant in the Philippines. A fateful last minute check demanded by international inspectors showed a few minor deficiencies in the provisions for an emergency, … Read more
Like most people now in their mid-60s, I recently joined my high school classmates in a series of reunions to mark the golden anniversary of our high school graduation. There is something extraordinary about meeting one’s classmates after fifty years. You wonder how they have changed and in what ways they have remained the same. … Read more
Can one be political and fair at the same time? More precisely, can one be a fair-minded politician in this country? The answer, of course, is yes. But it is the uncertainty of the answer we usually give to this question that provides Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez the warrant to denounce the case against her as … Read more
World opinion, mainly shaped by Western media, is swiftly moving in the direction of an armed international intervention in Libya. All eyes are focused on the United States. In a recent statement, President Barack Obama declared that Libyan strongman Moammar Qadhafi “has lost legitimacy to lead, and he must leave.” While making it clear that … Read more
Any Filipino politician, or diplomat, or journalist, or academic who claims to have foreseen the rapid deterioration of the political situation in Libya today must indeed have extraordinary perceptual, analytical, and predictive powers. He or she could make billions advising the United Nations, the United States, China, and all the global corporations that control the … Read more