Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES Here we go again in Mindanao, launching a war that defies all reason. A full-scale assault has suddenly been launched by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in communities identified as mass bases of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). We thought all along that a ceasefire was supposed to be in force, and … Read more
Toward the end of his speech before the Security Council of the United Nations on Feb. 5, US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared: “For more than 20 years, by word and by deed, Saddam Hussein has pursued his ambition to dominate Iraq and the broader Middle East using the only means he knows: intimidation, … Read more
Immediately after September 11, the focus of the hunt was Osama bin Laden and the so-called al-Qaida. Bin Laden and his henchmen were supposed to be hiding in Afghanistan, under the protection of the Taliban. The US demanded that the Taliban surrender Bin Laden. When they refused, Afghanistan was bombed. The archaic regime of the … Read more
At the height of the lahar flows in Pampanga, which buried a great part of the historic town of Bacolor, I took photographs of our old house in the adjacent town of Betis, and reconciled myself to the thought that this home of our memories would someday also vanish. But, almost by a miracle, while … Read more
It all began with troubling images of the way the presidency was being conducted. President Joseph Estrada, elected by a popular vote in 1998, was carrying on as if he was intentionally showing his contempt for formal institutions, the very structures from which he drew his authority. Complaining of aching knees, he stopped going to … Read more
Our national interests in relation to Iraq seem so clear that one needs to ask why our leaders have not been very forthright about our country’s official position on this urgent foreign policy question. We continue to treat the issue primarily in terms of our commitment to the American-led war on terrorism, forgetting that a … Read more
By declaring she will not run in the 2004 election, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has done what is unthinkable in Philippine politics: withdraw proudly when it is no longer possible to run with dignity. Such leave-taking is rare, for the one who is taking a leave is still very much around. The president has freely … Read more
He came in from the cold sometime in 1998, like an emblem of the new shady lumpen-mandarins that had just come to power in the country. He was an enigma. Hardly anyone could remember what he looked like, nor what he had between the ears. He talked like a stevedore, yet seemed to have more … Read more
The election of a movie actor as president of the country in 1998 and his ouster by people power in 2001 are watersheds in our nation’s political life. These two events represent the political awakening of two distinct social classes – the middle class and the poor. They also signal the reactivation of two parallel … Read more
Both the surveys and the mass media confirm it: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s popularity is vanishing quite fast. So fast that by 2004, there may be nothing left to support a re-election bid. The presidency that fell on her lap by sheer accident is a test of fitness rarely given to aspiring presidents. The growing … Read more