Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

In early May, as the sixth anniversary of the Marawi siege approached, I resolved to visit this historic Islamic city by the lake. I’ve been to the remotest parts of Mindanao but never to Marawi, the seat of Meranaw culture, and an important site of resistance in the colonial conquest of the country. I almost … Read more

Worse than being poor is to be undocumented: to possess no valid proof of identity, and to have no one to attest to who you are and where you came from. It is to live without access to the institutional mechanisms of modern society: the law and the courts, the school system, jobs and credit … Read more

“If you’ve been in government long enough, you’ll have seen many of these,” said President Marcos the other day by way of downplaying the abrupt ouster of Pampanga representative and former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) from her position as senior deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. “It’s just part of the reorganization.” But … Read more

To do justice is what the legal system believes to be its function. But that is a self-serving description. From an outsider’s perspective, the law’s function appears to be, strictly speaking, no more than to follow due process, no matter how long this may take. Courts of law rule on the validity of facts and … Read more

Two online Business Insider articles about trends in college education in the United States recently got my attention. One bore the intriguing title “12 college majors that may limit your career potential.” The other carried the equally click-worthy heading “After 10 years paying for student loans, I know exactly what I should have done differently … Read more

There are about 10 million Catholics in today’s China. The majority of them worship in churches authorized and supervised by the government. They are officially called the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. The rest of China’s Catholics, until recently, refused to attend these state-sanctioned churches, preferring instead to congregate in small prayer groups in the privacy … Read more

Seeing their lives slowly wasted in a country that offers only limited opportunities to improve their lot, many Filipinos have found hope in a globalized world. Overseas employment has allowed them to hone their skills and test their endurance in a world that is both welcoming and threatening, nurturing and abusive. Their years of struggle … Read more

There’s surely more than meets the eye in mainstream media’s recent accounts of how photographs of a whole bundle of highly classified United States’ intelligence files found their way into a social media platform where young people meet and discuss shared hobbies like animé, video war games, music, cryptocurrency, and the like. The whole story … Read more

Like all baby boomers—the generation born shortly after the end of World War II—I am, at 77, of that age when the only time I run into old friends and acquaintances outside my immediate circle is at wakes and funerals. They are mostly the same people with whom I have reconnected through online chat groups, … Read more

In a world of sovereign nation-states, each with their own legal and political systems, is there value to having an international criminal court invested with the power to try individuals for offenses like genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression? It is a question worth revisiting as the world hurtles toward another catastrophic war. … Read more