Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

Yesterday’s Inquirer editorial, titled “Checkmated bishops”, sharply rebukes the Catholic bishops for refusing to take up the activist role that the late Cardinal Sin had played in past political crises: i.e., “to make clear to the populace what should be done,” and “to lead the people.” The editorial echoes a popular, if dangerous, view. I … Read more

“You moderate their greed.” This was the instruction of Neda Director-General Romulo Neri to Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada Jr. at one point in the latter’s work as technical consultant on the NBN-ZTE project. The reference is to the scandalous “commission” that the main brokers for the project, then Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos and … Read more

AKBAYAN, one of the first left-leaning groups to take up the challenge of electoral politics through the party-list mechanism, held a forum last week to mark the tenth year of its founding.  I was one of the invited speakers.  A restrained and reflective mood pervaded the occasion. On its very first electoral bid, the group … Read more

Something is happening in the countryside that is forcing a lot of rural folk to flock to the city.  Migration is nothing new, of course.  But what I think is happening is qualitatively different from previous waves of urban migration. In the past, it was the “pull” factor of favorable urban living that drew many … Read more

Tomorrow, January 20, we mark the 7th anniversary of Edsa II, the series of events that drove away a corrupt presidency from office. Because of the abusive and even more corrupt regime that succeeded it, many people who joined Edsa II have had problems celebrating this historic event. The question that seems to haunt them … Read more

It was fascinating to hear the media’s questions to the police at the presentation of the investigating team’s final report on the Oct. 19 Glorietta 2 explosion.  Nearly every other question was about the traces of RDX found at the blast site. The detection of RDX, a chemical compound that serves as the main ingredient … Read more

Civic duty in our time, I submit, consists mainly of three tasks.  The first is to seek to understand the demands of a modern society and to participate responsibly in its collective life.  The second is to help lessen the suffering of others in our midst.  And the third is to make accountable those who … Read more

Writing in 1890 for La Solidaridad, Jose Rizal takes up the question of the so-called “indolence” of the Filipinos.  This claim, he argues, had allowed the Spanish colonial authorities to excuse their own “stupidities,” and the friars to “make themselves irreplaceable.”  We should not be content to simply deny it, he says.  We must “examine … Read more

The other night, while walking around the acacia-lined oval of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus, I found myself trailing behind a group of young people lost in cheerful conversation.  They moved unhurriedly and seemed completely oblivious of everything around them.  Every stride they made was marked by laughter. I had seen this before … Read more

A lot of nonsense is being uttered in response to a recent Pulse Asia finding which shows that forty-two percent of the respondents in the October 2007 Ulat ng Bayan survey consider Gloria Macapagal Arroyo “the most corrupt president in Philippine history.”  Instead of disputing the scientific adequacy of the survey, defenders of Ms Arroyo … Read more