Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

There was an unusual number of youths marching to their own Calvaries this Good Friday, hypnotically whipping themselves or perversely being beaten up by their companions — perhaps in payment for past sins, or in fulfillment of a vow, or to mark the start of a new life. Scanning their resigned faces, I tried to … Read more

It always baffled me as a child growing up in very Catholic Pampanga that the entire holy season beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending with Easter Sunday was marked with all kinds of food prohibitions. And yet, the following month of May was always treated as a merry season of fiestas, in which these same … Read more

Short of banning fraternities in order to put an end to their violent proclivities, it may be worth considering the idea of opening their membership to women.  Of course, we expect the traditional fraternities to say they would rather disband themselves than admit women into their male-bonded organizations. Such reactions are to be expected.  They … Read more

I didn’t think he could do it or would survive it.  But the pledge he made to each of his eight grandchildren – that he would take every one of them out on a date to a restaurant or hotel of their choice as a high school graduation gift – turned out to be one … Read more

No death in the University of the Philippines in recent memory has shaken the academic community more than the senseless murder of Nino Calinao.  There is much anger and frustration on campus these days.  At various levels of the academic community, people ask what has become of the university.  But even before we have sat … Read more

We work too hard sometimes.  Our lives seem nothing more than a succession of routine motions in which we cannot find ourselves. Something external to us – duty – overwhelms us, and we are unable to feel we are still the authors of our lives.  Even the diversions that are meant to release us from … Read more

To many Filipinos, the lesson that Edsa taught is that people need not be helpless before the abuses of power.  When citizens come together in solidarity and courage, manifesting their faith in the justness of their cause, they are stronger than the tyrants who prey upon them as isolated individuals. Some may think the exercise … Read more

The opportunity to go on sabbatical leave had come at a perfect time. I was getting bored with the courses I have been teaching for the last 30 years, and I wanted to see what was being done in the other disciplines.  My TV program was judged to be doing poorly in the ratings, and … Read more

It is not known if the blind young person who begged Leo Echegaray for his eyes got his wish, but there are indications that the Filipino people may be creating new eyes with which to see themselves.  I do not know how many would-be rapists Leo Echegaray’s execution will deter.   But my own personal hope … Read more

Throughout our country’s political history, there has been a tendency to treat the problem in Mindanao as a seasonal illness to be managed than as a chronic life-threatening condition to be urgently addressed. Every administration thinks that it knows more or less what the problem is about, yet not one has made Mindanao the main … Read more