Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

Last Thursday, March 31, President Duterte visited Cebu, and gave two speeches. One was before a meeting of the National and Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-RTF-Elcac). The other was at the grand proclamation rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban, Cusi wing). The latter was eagerly awaited. The … Read more

If Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. becomes president, our country’s brittle institutions would be subjected to their most difficult test. Would they dare to rule against his interest in the many unresolved cases that have been filed against members of his family? Or would the Marcos scion’s election to the nation’s highest office be interpreted as a … Read more

It is my late wife’s birthday as I write this. Karina would have turned 76. I woke up early, so I could visit her grave, bring her flowers, and light a candle. I do this quite often, perhaps at least twice a month since she died almost three years ago. This morning, as I picked … Read more

On the surface, the unity theme that is at the heart of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s and Sarah Duterte’s respective presidential and vice presidential candidacies seems nothing more than a reference to the alliance of two powerful political clans—the Marcoses of the North and the Dutertes of the South. The “UniTeam” brand seeks to convey … Read more

There’s a documentary about people’s power in Ukraine that is currently trending on Netflix. “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” deals with the events in the winter of 2013-2014 that led to the toppling of the pro-Russian government of then President Viktor F. Yanukovych. It shows why Vladimir Putin is bent on punishing the … Read more

In trying to understand momentous political events like the current crisis in Ukraine, it is always good to bear in mind that the situation on the ground and the perspective of ordinary people tend to be far more complex than the way such events are rendered in the news and in official narratives. What we … Read more

It will be 36 years this week since the Edsa people power revolution broke the Marcos dictatorship’s stranglehold on the Filipino nation. Many felt justified in calling it a miracle because it happened swiftly, and just when everyone was starting to despair that it might take a prolonged civil war to get rid of Marcos. … Read more

Sociologists who study modern society like to predict that the family — that realm of interpersonal intimacy — will have a diminishing role in the determination of an individual’s life. As societal functions become differentiated, they expect kinship to become increasingly irrelevant in politics, religion, business, the occupational system, etc. The end result of this … Read more

The “golden age” that I remember happened before Ferdinand Marcos became president in 1965. Indeed, I’d say Marcos presided over its dying years. In 1972, nearing the end of his second term, he assumed dictatorial powers by exploiting a provision in the 1935 Constitution. Conjuring a vision of a “New Society,” he then replaced that same … Read more

At least once every six years, we are invited to dream that enduring social change is, at last, within sight. And that a great deal depends on the person we elect to be the country’s next president. If we choose well, so the line goes, our country and our people will be on the path … Read more