Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

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

An election should be a perfect occasion to debate the institutional reforms needed so that a society may enhance its capacity to respond to crises.  We need not always think of reforms on a constitutional scale; we must also think of them as urgent practical adjustments needed to cope with new situations.  Abundant examples of … Read more

If you come from a family of teachers, as I do, chances are that you may soon find yourself sharing the same podium with a relative.  Once or twice in the past, I have shared audiences with my younger brother Ambo, a diocesan priest who teaches philosophy.  But to speak on the same platform with … Read more

Like many of the ordinary folk who attended its birth twelve years ago, I have trouble summoning enough spirit to celebrate another Edsa anniversary.  Edsa was about a people mustering collective will and courage to bring down a dictatorship by a direct manifestation of its power.  That power drew its force from nothing more than … Read more

The title is from a lovely book on the sociology of intimacy by Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (Frankfurt am Main, 1990).  The thesis of the book is that as modernity frees us from the shackles of traditional obligations, it also means that henceforth, we have to work harder in making relationships work.  Freedom is … Read more

It was funny, and it was amusing.  But it was also, according to one thoughtful viewer who watched the Public Life episode with the “other” presidentiables, painfully sad.  My guests that evening were four gentlemen who had filed certificates of candidacy for the presidency, but who will likely be declared “nuisance candidates” by the Comelec. … Read more

Her husband, a taxi driver, was missing for more than a week.  They had been arguing the night before he disappeared, and she recalls having said something that might have hurt him, something about the family earnings no longer being enough for their needs.  Previous to this, he had also been feeling bad about having … Read more