Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

I am writing this column from a terrace facing the sea in Basco while waiting for the return flight to Manila. Behind me are wind-swept mountains rising majestically from the sea, rolling hills and verdant valleys dotted with grazing animals, and ribbons of roads without vehicles. A few days ago, I told my wife Karina, … Read more

The sad thing about the coming presidential elections is not that the leading candidates have refused to debate. The real tragedy is that concrete issues that should be debated are treated as non-negotiable and not part of the agenda of national discourse. A consensus of acquiescence appears to define every discussion of those very conditions … Read more

There was a time in the late ‘70s when enrolments for a nursing degree declined like those for teaching.  At the University of the Philippines, the faculties that trained nurses and teachers shrank in size, mirroring the dearth of students in these traditional academic units.  The perception is that if you were good enough to … Read more

My colleague Raul Pertierra of Ateneo de Manila’s department of sociology takes issue with my column on the emergence of the “masa” vote (Public Lives, Feb. 8)  He writes that my analysis, while “persuasive”, suffers from “serious flaws,” but does not say what these are.  Instead he raises some questions and observations.  His comment warrants … Read more

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made a bid to become a modern executive by making the formation of a “strong republic” the key goal of her administration.  But in the last three years, she has probably done more to weaken our Republic than any president before her except Marcos.  Her beliefs may be republican, but her … Read more

I will not speculate on how his supporters will react if the Supreme Court rules that Fernando Poe Jr. is disqualified from running for president.  I don’t think anyone knows.  But some people should stop pushing the Court to disqualify FPJ by suggesting this is the only way to prevent the looming disaster of an … Read more

By “masa,” I refer to the class of voters that pollsters identify with the so-called “E” and the middle and lower rungs of the “D” strata.  They constitute roughly about 60 to 75% of the nation’s voting population. The existence of such huge numbers at the bottom of the social ladder attests to the gravity … Read more

My daughter, Kara, who covers prisoners on death row for the TV network, GMA-7, anxiously sat in the van that was taking her to the New Bilibid Prisons.  In a few minutes, prison officials were to raffle the media slots for the January 30 executions.  But there she was, hopelessly strapped to a seat, in … Read more

On the legal merits, the Comelec ruling was clear enough: Fernando Poe Jr. is a natural-born Filipino citizen because he had a Filipino father.  This has sound legal basis in both the 1935 Constitution and the 1987 Constitution.  That FPJ may have been born before his parents were actually married is irrelevant.  He is the … Read more

It is bad enough that we are being made to pick our leaders from what is, by any reckoning, a dismaying list of candidates.  What is worse is that the whole electoral process is being supervised by a Commission on Elections whose top officials have just been effectively pronounced untrustworthy by the highest court of … Read more