Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

I thought it was a great luxury and a welcome break to be invited to speak at a gathering of the University of the Philippines alumni in Guam.  I had never traveled to this part of the Pacific.  I had heard stories of entire barrios in Pampanga being transplanted virtually to Guam.  I was curious … Read more

What surprises me about Indonesia is not so much that Suharto has finally resigned as that it took so long for this much-awaited event to happen.  An unbowed Suharto was fast becoming a relic of a bygone age.  It has been 12 years since Edsa.  Suharto came to power at about the time Marcos became … Read more

So much has been said and written about the alleged economic illiteracy of Erap that one wonders if there is anything he could do from here on that is not likely to be greeted by a smug “I told you so.” Typical remarks about Erap are unrelenting in their meanness. Among my bourgeois friends, the … Read more

I think we have to abandon the idea that there can ever be a president for all seasons, a leader suitable for all times, representing in distilled form all the virtues of our race.  Such a president exists only in the imagination.  We would have to stay home on election day and not cast our … Read more

This is a curious season for Philippine politics:  while the political left is stabilizing the electoral process by joining it with enthusiasm, the right seems bent on destabilizing it by spreading wild talk about fraud and failure of elections. This is only the second time in more than 50 years that the left has found … Read more

“All that is necessary… is that good men do nothing,” said Edmund Burke.  Burke’s powerful reminder has always pricked many consciences. Every election year, a few good Filipinos, moved by Burke but otherwise without any compelling reason to become politicians, find themselves wading in the murky waters of traditional politics. The first thing they learn … Read more

The party-list system is probably the most important feature of this year’s election.  But there has been absolutely no indication that the general public and the leaders of the country think so.  By the shabby treatment they have so far received from the Comelec, party-list groups are beginning to look more like nuisance candidates — … Read more

This idyllic Kalinga village, nestled on a mountain side overlooking the Chico river, was where Cordillera’s hero, Macli-ing Dulag, was murdered 18 years ago.  Macli-ing’s death anniversary, which falls on April 24,  has been celebrated over the years as Cordillera People’s Day.  People who had done solidarity work in the struggle against the Chico Dam … Read more

At a lecture-forum held in UP the other day to mark the retirement of fellow sociologist, Dr. Manuel Bonifacio, I learned of the untimely passing of another colleague, the quiet historian Diosdado Asuncion. Manny’s retirement gave us a chance to pause so we could appreciate his achievements as a scholar and as a teacher.   Ding’s … Read more

There is nothing in the world that cannot easily be made to look good or bad by redescription, says Richard Rorty.  Just as “any fool thing can be made to seem rational by being set in an appropriate context, surrounded by a set of beliefs and desires with which it coheres.” The enterprise of Bunny … Read more