Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

In a world where Filipinos are better known as hardworking and caring servants and service staff, who, though well-educated and speak good English, accept low pay and work long hours far away from home because they cannot find better employment in their own mismanaged country—the news about Filipino students defeating the world’s best university debaters … Read more

When you’ve reached a certain age, you give up trying to be a different kind of person. You learn to accept who you are and stop making those yearly resolutions with which you used to start the new year. It doesn’t mean though that, henceforth, anything goes. Rather, you find yourself veering toward what Nietzsche … Read more

It’s often said that the best part of traveling is coming home to one’s family. For me, the best way to travel is to bring the family. Early this year, I decided I had had enough of pandemic confinement, and proposed to my children that we all take a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe together as … Read more

Today’s column continues the discussion of the serious threat facing Filipino seafarers, who stand to lose their jobs as ship officers in European vessels if the European Commission withdraws recognition of their Philippine training certificates. I first tackled this dire prospect in Public Lives last Nov. 6. At a recent meeting in Brussels (the seat … Read more

As though our current national debt was not troubling enough, the bright boys around President Marcos Jr. are planning to set up a state investment fund that seeks to participate in the highly diversified global investment game. Dubbed the “Maharlika Investments Corp.,” the proposed entity is to be headed by Mr. Marcos as chair of … Read more

In the secretive and rarefied air of the Vatican, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s rapid rise to higher responsibilities as one of Pope Francis’ most trusted confrères has been an object of keen interest among papal watchers. Recent reports therefore of the total overhaul of the top leadership of Caritas Internationalis, of which Cardinal Tagle has … Read more

It was a pleasant surprise to see neophyte Sen. Raffy Tulfo clash with veteran legislator Sen. Cynthia Villar on an issue of immense public interest: the massive conversion of farmlands to commercial use. The lady senator, with more than 20 years of experience as a lawmaker, is generally feared for her prickly temper and sharp … Read more

It is a ritual that takes place every six years. A search committee appointed by the Board of Regents (BOR) invites nominations for the position of president of the University of the Philippines (UP), the nation’s premier university. The committee conducts consultations with various sectors of the university community, culminating in a public forum where … Read more

The globalization of educational standards has finally caught up with us in a painful and jarring way. Filipino seafarers, particularly at the officer level, may soon be banned from working aboard European ships because their training does not meet the global standards set in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW). … Read more

In a few days, it will be All Souls’ Day, and my thoughts turn to those who rarely figure in the ethnography of Undas. They are the freelance gardeners at memorial parks whose livelihood depends solely on the patronage of owners of burial plots. They form an essential part of the infrastructure of our unceasing … Read more