Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES What makes the law in a modern society a trustworthy arbiter of what is right and what is wrong is the consistency of its application and procedures. This is what guarantees the attainment of its basic societal function — the stabilization of normative expectations. Without normative stability, contracts will have no binding effect outside the … Read more
Ignorance is bliss until the outcome of benign neglect, its twin, begins to hit us in the most unexpected way. Then we start blaming everyone for not anticipating the problem. Everyone except ourselves. Ecological problems are of this nature. We barely see our own responsibility for the mess we have collectively created. The gigantic septic … Read more
If our legislators did not have pork to spend, many of them would not know what to do with their time in Congress. They see themselves primarily as dispensers of public funds, oblivious of the law that regards this as chiefly an executive function. They are annoyed when asked about bills they have proposed or … Read more
The latest Social Weather Stations public opinion survey on the 2019 senatorial race, which shows longtime Duterte aide Christopher “Bong” Go jumping from 15th-16th place to 5th just before the official start of the election campaign, is hardly surprising. He is, in many ways, President Duterte’s sole senatorial bet, the one and only significant proxy … Read more
By now it is obvious who among the current crop of senatorial hopefuls President Duterte is endorsing. At the top of the list is long-time Duterte aide, Christopher “Bong” Go, followed by Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who served Mr. Duterte as head of the Philippine National Police, and, more recently, as Bureau of Corrections chief. … Read more
As an academic and as a columnist, I associate thinking mostly with the written word. I read books and articles, and I write for readers. I listen to music, not to the spoken word. And the columns I write — unlike the editorials I used to write for television — are meant to be read, … Read more
If you keep your money locked in a safe at home, it will steadily lose its value over time. Indeed, even if you deposit it in a savings account, earning minimal interest, the odds are it will also shed much of its value because of inflation. Money needs to be invested in property or economic … Read more
In highly unequal societies like ours—where wide disparities in social circumstances at birth determine a person’s access to food, shelter, and healthcare, a good education, a rich and diverse cultural heritage, influential connections, and a successful career—it is common to encounter the belief that all these existing inequalities in life are somehow undeserved and can … Read more
Watching that disturbing video of a Filipino middle school boy threatening, insulting and beating up a terrified fellow student inside a school toilet, in a brazen display of bullying power, struck me in a way that I could not fully understand. I had to review the video a number of times to grasp what it … Read more