Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

A State of the Nation Address (Sona) is interesting not only for what it says but also for what it does not say.  The nation hears not only the speech but also its silences.  Every Sona reveals a president’s way of seeing, and there is no way of excusing its blind spots by referring to … Read more

Philippine administrations love to anchor their legitimacy on the total demonization of a past regime. They see nothing worth pursuing in their predecessor’s policies and programs, finding them corrupt to the core, and preferring to dismantle everything. Our political system seems to thrive on an ethic of discontinuity. We have, for instance, succeeded in depicting … Read more

One of the most difficult problems we face today as a modernizing society is how to strengthen the division of labor among our various institutions. The traditional way is to assign to key institutions the power to speak for and trump the others. The modern way is to keep these institutions apart so they do … Read more

Some days are sacred to individuals, couples, families, nations, and religious communities.  We call them holidays.  On such days, people pause to summon memory, and to bask in the mixed sentiments it evokes.  They may be sentiments from a deprived or happy childhood, a shared life, a heroic and difficult struggle, or a recurring promise … Read more

Tissue sometimes grows in areas where it is not supposed to be, drawing life from the same system that sustains the healthy cells of the body.  Many such growths are harmless. But some are malignant: they graft themselves onto healthy organs, destroying these in the process.  The aggressive ones “metastasize” or travel to other parts, … Read more

If we continue to hold elections the way the Commission on Elections held them in 2004 and 2007, it won’t be long before we begin to believe that all elections are nothing but optical illusions.  They look real, we experience them as real – but they are all really a mirage, a perception made possible … Read more

Richard Rorty, an unusual American philosopher who rebelled against his own discipline, died last week.  He was possibly the most important thinker of his generation.  While most of his colleagues in philosophy departments chose to ignore the challenge of European postmodernism, Rorty responded to it by finding a home for many of its themes in … Read more

Her candidates may have been clobbered in the senatorial race by the opposition and her most strident critics, but Gloria Macapagal Arroyo knows better than to complain.  The defeat of her candidates strengthens the system over which she presides, and effectively removes the issue of her own contested legitimacy from the national agenda.  Despite the … Read more

She came into the world a year ago today, the first grandchild of my sister Raquel.  Her parents named her Erin, a lovely Gaelic word derived from “Eire” or Ireland.  On this blessed day, they have ordered a cake and balloons for the little girl, acutely aware that her first birthday could also be her … Read more

Pampanga’s pride today is no longer Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who, for a growing number of Filipinos, represents everything that is decadent in Philippine politics.  It is its newly-elected governor, the priest, Father Eddie T. Panlilio, whose campaign for the governorship against Ms Arroyo’s two well-funded candidates brought out the passionate volunteerism of Pampanga’s young professionals, entrepreneurs, … Read more