Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES In the final months leading to the 2016 presidential election, when a Duterte victory had become not just a possibility but a near certainty, political and economic risk analysts began to ask what the key policy directions of a Duterte-led government might be like. Up to that point, all that was known about Davao’s legendary … Read more
This is my fourth column on recent events that unexpectedly thrust Vice President Leni Robredo into the limelight. Even if some may think the issue it deals with has become stale, I believe we shouldn’t let go of it easily as though it signifies nothing of importance. That’s exactly how the Duterte administration wants us … Read more
It all began from the first day she assumed the vice presidency. Flushed with their success at the polls, President Duterte and his people acted as if she did not exist. To them, she was just an annoying reminder that their electoral victory was not total. She was not invited to the inaugural at the … Read more
Today is my mother’s birthday. She would have been 97. She died of a kidney ailment in 2000 at the age of 78. The other day, while standing in front of the small crypt that bore her remains, I tried to summon from memory the last time we talked. While recalling the tone of that … Read more
Like many analysts who have criticized the Duterte-led drug war for its murderous brutality and antipoor bias, I have been at pains to understand how Vice President Leni Robredo managed to persuade herself to accept President Duterte’s dare for her to lead the administration’s war on drugs. As I wrote in my column last week, … Read more
Even on the assumption that he wasn’t just being sarcastic, or worse, misusing the Filipino language, President Duterte’s statements the other day are the clearest admission that his much-touted war on drugs has failed. He has run out of ideas. And so, he is asking Vice President Leni Robredo, who has been critical of the … Read more
Barely getting any attention in the national media is the report about the grisly death of 39 people (8 women and 31 men), believed to be Chinese nationals, who appear to have been trapped inside a refrigerated trailer truck in an industrial zone in Essex, England. This has been a trending topic on Chinese social … Read more
The Emergency Room (ER) of any public hospital is probably the greatest leveler in our otherwise highly unequal society. Here, it matters little how much money you have or how much influence you might carry. The ER cubicles and beds are never enough for the number of patients being admitted at any given time. Chances … Read more
Compared to the “tanim-bala” problem at the Naia terminals, which severely dented the record of the P-Noy presidency in its final year, today’s transportation crisis in Metro Manila is far more acute. The one element they have in common is the seeming indifference of those in government, or the absence of any sense of urgency … Read more
One of the things that have baffled me about the rise to the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte — apart from the phenomenal way he broke into the national stage of Philippine politics straight from the periphery — is the astounding level of popularity he seems to enjoy among Filipinos overseas, particularly the OFWs. As a … Read more