Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

As efforts to revive him faltered in the crucial hours after he was shot by a gunman last Friday, the world began taking stock of the sizable influence that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe wielded in many areas of public life. Even as he resigned in 2020 for health reasons, after almost eight years … Read more

President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. began his inaugural speech last June 30 with a reiteration of his call for unity and ended with a plea for Filipinos to have hope that, under his watch, the future will be better. Yet, in various parts of the speech, the message of unity is subverted by references to … Read more

One hundred twenty-four years after our elders proclaimed the Filipino people’s independence from Spanish colonial rule, we may perhaps view with more understanding, and even admiration, the seemingly strange manner in which they performed that defining act. More specifically, why they invoked “the protection of the Powerful and Humanitarian Nation, the United States of America,” even as … Read more

It may sound like a contradiction in terms. But, in fact, it happens most of the time. Irrespective of social class, the average voter tends to be driven more by unconscious dispositions than by explicitly formulated opinions on the issues that candidates represent. Only the latter type of participation can properly be called political. I … Read more

Winning the vote may give one the legal right to assume an elective position, but it doesn’t automatically confer on the victor the legitimacy that he/she needs to effectively govern. Legitimacy is public acceptance of one’s right to rule, something that some elected leaders have to earn almost throughout their terms in office. In the … Read more

When members of the same family vie for positions in government, the seeds of corruption are planted. The boundaries between home and public office are blurred. Family loyalty trumps public accountability. Public funds are privatized, and governmental power is used to advance not the common good but the interests of a few. These lessons in … Read more

Around noon on June 30, a new government headed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be inaugurated. At about the same time, a new movement that took shape in the final leg of Vice President Leni Robredo’s 2022 presidential campaign will formally launch its manifold presence in the post-election landscape. The intertwining of these two modern … Read more

Whether Vice President Leni Robredo wins or loses in the May 2022 elections, the campaign to make her president has produced something unprecedented in Philippine politics. It has unleashed a tide of citizen activism rarely seen in elections. It has spawned a social movement that seeks nothing less than to reshape the society of which … Read more

While a good number of thoughtful Filipinos believe that the May 2022 presidential election is a watershed moment for our country and for generations to come — one that demands the most careful reflection about the kind of nation we want to be — this is not necessarily how the majority of voters think about … Read more

While the May 2022 presidential election has been portrayed by pundits as a choice between strongman rule and liberal democratic governance, there is another way of looking at it that, unfortunately, may be more attuned to current Filipino political narratives. This is the view that sees this year’s presidential contest as largely a reprise of … Read more