Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES This coming week, the nation marks the 35th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution that overthrew the Marcos dictatorship and installed Cory Aquino to the presidency. This dramatic political event led to the writing of a new constitution that the Filipino people ratified in a nationwide plebiscite on Feb. 2, 1987, barely a year … Read more
Being in my 70s, with underlying health issues typical for my age, I have decided that the one thing I should resolutely avoid at this time is to be hospitalized for COVID-19. I have seen enough of what oxygen deficit does to a person’s breathing to dread this condition, far more than pain itself. This … Read more
Last Monday, Feb. 1, Myanmar’s (Burma) military announced that it had declared a state of emergency, and that commander in chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing was now in charge. The new parliament elected in November was scheduled to convene that day. Instead, many of its members, including state counselor and de facto head of … Read more
It has been a crazy week in Wall Street, where the entire financial services industry of the United States, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, is located. The place has become the epicenter of a populist revolt being waged by small “amateur” retail investors against those they perceive to be the grand manipulators … Read more
It’s difficult to say what exactly defense chief Delfin Lorenzana and his strategists at the Department of National Defense intend to do, following the DND’s unilateral termination of a 1989 agreement that binds the military and the police to coordinate with University of the Philippines authorities when there is a need for state security forces … Read more
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues surrounding the acquisition of safe and effective vaccines, it is easy to forget other significant events that shook the country and profoundly shaped the course of our politics in the succeeding years. One of these is Edsa Dos (Edsa 2), whose 20th anniversary falls exactly today, Jan. 17. … Read more
Political observers who take more than a passing interest in American politics typically do so for the purpose of knowing how US democratic institutions function to get the nation through its most difficult political crises. This is especially so for us in the Philippines, a former American colony whose institutions were consciously modeled after those … Read more
2020 was the year the world came to a halt. It may as well be stricken off the calendar, the way the number “13” is omitted from elevator panels. It was the year a threat we could not see caused us to sequester ourselves in our homes and cease all but the most essential physical … Read more
The eldest of my granddaughters, Julia, whose early childhood exploits filled quite a few of my columns many years ago, surprised me with a question over lunch the other day. “Lolo, what keeps you going?” I was at a loss for words. It’s one of those questions that could be understood in any number of … Read more
The title of this column is inspired by John Lennon’s 1974 No. 1 single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” I have learned that he himself picked up this line from a black televangelist, Reverend Ike, who, one evening, was telling his late-night viewers: “Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter, it’s whatever gets … Read more