Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

What amazes us, modern city-dwellers, is why anyone in this day and age would want to join, and die for, anything like the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association, Inc. (PBMA).  We take one look at its banefully unattractive leader, Ruben Ecleo, Jr., and our amazement grows even more.  For we have learned to expect that such … Read more

Defenseless before death, but still armed with the logical and moral clarity of one who had studied the law all his life, my ailing father wrote his long dead father a letter. He was doing it, he said in the letter, not to disturb his soul, which deserved its peace, but to make a clean … Read more

Coming in the wake of a bungled hostage situation in Pasay City, the death of Martin Burnham and Ediborah Yap, two of the last three hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf, during a rescue operation will likely provoke mocking comparisons between Pasay policemen and Army Rangers. It is the worst time for such tragedies to … Read more

The year was 1986.  A new government had come to power following the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship through a peaceful revolution. So many lives had been lost or destroyed, and so much public wealth wasted and stolen, in the preceding dark years. The time for reckoning and settling scores had finally come. One of … Read more

This is not paradise. “It is the island of your imagination,” says Gov. Pedro “Loloy” Romualdo rather poetically. With its colonial ruins, turnof-the-century homes, rustic coastal villages, awesome sunrises and sunsets, and varied geological formations, Camiguin is definitely imaginable as the setting for many a magical-realist novel or historical film. But, on my first visit … Read more

How much responsibility should we take for our individual actions? How much responsibility should we assume for the actions of our children?  How much responsibility should we bear for the kind of society we have?  Or for the kind of world we have? All over the world thoughtful people are asking these questions, especially as … Read more

We would all be psychopaths without our mothers.  We would be insensitive individuals driven by raw desire, completely oblivious of the needs and pain of others, and requiring constant social restraint. We first begin to think beyond self-interest from our mothers’ example of selflessness.  We learn kindness, generosity, and sacrifice from seeing what these women … Read more

In Western democracies, the public pays for a large part of the expenses of political parties.  This subsidy acknowledges two essential functions that electoral parties play in a democracy.  These are: one, to aggregate and represent the interests of citizens in the nation’s political life; and two, to participate in the orderly contest for governmental … Read more

One does not have to be a seer to know that as a nation we may be heading toward disaster.  We live in a time of great affluence and of astounding possibilities for human happiness and fulfillment.  And this only makes the degrading poverty in our country so scandalous and so unnecessary. We have changed … Read more

Taking advantage of a recent visit by my sister Lilia, a US-based nurse, I proposed a family reunion in Baguio. From a brood of 13 brothers and sisters, eight signed up for the trip with their spouses and children.  We came in five vehicles loaded with food, and rented a big house with a kitchen. … Read more