Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

It has been thirty years since Ferdinand Marcos broke the traditional cycle of elite rule by seizing upon the martial law provisions of the 1935 constitution to install himself dictator.  However, a full assessment of the significance of that episode to our political life has still to be written. The Marcos years will continue to … Read more

The ongoing 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly is a defining moment in the history of this world body.  Its authority, long eroded by failure to act on urgent issues and by the willful noncompliance of some member-states with its resolutions, will be put to a final test over the Middle East. The … Read more

“No man’s land” is the title of one of the outstanding films in the recent Cinemanila International Film Festival. It tells the story of three wounded soldiers at the height of the war in Bosnia – one Serb and two Bosnians — who by chance find themselves trapped together in a foxhole on disputed territory.  … Read more

It is very difficult to characterize the Malaysian government’s recent action against Filipinos living in Sabah.  The cruelty is astounding. One can only call it “nationalist fundamentalism” – the belief in national identity, in this case Malaysian, as a source of rights, to the exclusion of all other human affinities.  If the situation had been … Read more

Almost everyone recognizes the right to vote of all qualified Filipinos residing abroad.  The 1987 Constitution explicitly instructs Congress to pass a law that will make absentee voting possible.  Sixty-four bills have been filed to give flesh to the constitution’s mandate, and five successive congresses have intermittently debated its provisions. Yet for the last fifteen … Read more

We often hear it said that what we lack as a nation is “political will.” The term varies in meaning depending on the context in which it is used. Sometimes it simply means clarity of purpose, and therefore a lack of political will means a failure to focus on essential problems.  Most of the time, … Read more

The president has explained why she is taking the initiative of personally presenting criminal suspects to the media.  By her presence, she says, the apprehension of criminals is given the widest media projection. There are three reasons why this is being done, says the president. The first is to teach criminals a lesson by exposing … Read more

The meaning of a word is never fixed, philosophers tell us.  Even dictionaries offer alternative meanings.  We thus look for a word’s meaning in the context of its use.  There we find that meanings constantly shift, expressing images, but also suppressing others. That is why texts are full of tension. In the past few days, … Read more

Some say that we should not take State of the Nation Addresses (Sonas) too seriously; they are just words.  That we should look instead at the actual impact of government on the lives of the governed.  Are the masses less hungry?  Do they have jobs?  Are they more hopeful about the future? That is a … Read more

I did not think it was serious until my own children began to talk about it as an idea whose time has come.  Many years ago, at the peak of the Marcos years, we were presented with a chance to live abroad, but my family scoffed at the idea.  The other day, one of my … Read more