Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

The editors of the Reader’s Digest wanted to know what people from all over the world would do if they found a lost wallet.  They dropped 10 wallets, containing an address and a modest sum of money,  in every city they chose, and observed what the finders did with the wallets.  It was a clever … Read more

A long time ago, the Jesuit psychologist Fr. Jaime Bulatao invented the curious term “split-level Christianity”.  Very simply, it meant the superimposition of imported Christian meanings upon native religious beliefs and practices. For example, scapulars replaced amulets.   Images of saints displaced the wooden gods in our ancestors’ homes.  Priests took the place of our local … Read more

At around this time last year, private contractors hired by the government were rushing the construction of the 2 billion-peso FVR megadike in Pampanga.  There was a passionate debate between scientists and government engineers on whether this was the best way of dealing with the persistent threat of lahar to people’s lives and property.  The … Read more

Our problem with the corpse of Marcos has less to do with the question of where to bury it, but with whether we can sustain the demonization of his legacy with the passage of time.  It is a problem because, 11 years after its overthrow, we have not validated the dark narratives of his dictatorship … Read more

At the end of the premiere screening of Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s latest film at the UP Film Center recently, some viewers were ecstatic while others were quiet and respectful.  Those who liked it confessed that they could not immediately explain why they liked it.  Those who didn’t were disappointed over the film’s unclear point of view.  … Read more

My father died shortly before he was to turn 60.  Had he lived longer, he would be exactly 77 today.  I have often wondered how he would have lived in retirement.  He was a lawyer, and a very good one. He went back to law school as soon as the war ended.  Because the Ateneo … Read more

The most interesting development in our recent political  history, for me, is not the recovery of democracy in 1986, but the ease with which we surrendered it in 1972.  As we look back to those images of freedom-loving crowds gathered on EDSA  11 years ago today, let us not delude ourselves with the thought that, … Read more

No one can say for sure whether Jolo Bishop Benjamin de Jesus was killed to avenge a personal injury, or to relieve the fever of religious animosity.  It could be both, with either motive serving as the occasion, or condition, for the other.  But in a place like Sulu, where tradition keeps the modern State … Read more

What can it possibly mean for someone to visit an accused person in jail?  Like Sen. Gloria Arroyo , the Makati school teachers,  who recently brought their pupils on a tour of the city jail where they unwittingly found themselves in a photo session with detained Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, have been chided by Pres. Ramos … Read more

In a week dominated by the continuing saga of Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, it was difficult not to take up his case once more, or to ignore the sudden appearance of a woman claiming to be his rape victim and of her 27-year-old son claiming to be the product of that crime.  My staff on Public … Read more