Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES Taking advantage of the 3-day weekend last week, I and my group of middle-aged motorcyclists headed for Baler in Aurora province. It was my second ride to this historic town on Central Luzon’s Pacific Coast. This stretch of highway used to be all dirt; now it’s all paved, except for a few remaining patches. Most … Read more
From whatever angle one views it, Makati City is a bundle of contradictions. It is home to the ultrarich as well as to the extremely poor. Gleaming skyscrapers tower above the dilapidated hovels of slum dwellers. Modern firms operate within a territory controlled by a political family that has wielded power continuously for 28 years. … Read more
Starting today, Oct. 5, Catholic bishops from all over the world are congregating in Rome to discuss for the next two weeks the situation of the family in the contemporary world and the pastoral challenges this poses for the Church “in the context of evangelization.” This extraordinary synod reflects the substance and style of Pope … Read more
When the British government returned Hong Kong to China in July 1997—the “handover,” as it was then called—what was transferred was not just a piece of land, but the political administration of the people living there. Land is inert, but people are not. They have memory, identity, aspirations—and, hopefully, the will to act on the … Read more
As graduate students in England in the late 1960s, my wife and I struck a close friendship with a classmate from Iraq and his Lebanese girlfriend. He was a Muslim Kurd, and she was a Maronite Catholic. Although he carried an Iraqi passport and was sent to England on a scholarship by the Iraqi government, … Read more
Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad’s acceptance of an invitation to lecture on the budget at the University of the Philippines School of Economics the other week would have been the perfect occasion to grill him about his brainchild, the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program. Academic culture encourages people to discuss and debate issues in a manner … Read more
As we look back to that fateful day in September 1972 42 years ago, when Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed martial law, we need to understand how and why many Filipinos accepted one-man rule in the first instance. The threat of authoritarian rule will remain so long as we do not recognize that our inherited institutions of … Read more
It must feel terrible for US President Barack Obama to enter the final years of his presidency ordering air attacks against Islamist rebel forces in Iraq and Syria. One can hardly recognize today the idealistic young president who won the Nobel Peace Prize after pledging that he would bring home the last American soldier from … Read more
Rizal’s two novels, “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo,” shook me to the core of my being when I first read them as a young student for reasons that I could not explain. No other books have since had that kind of impact on me. They were dangerous in their time, and they remain dangerous … Read more
Once the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law comes before Congress, we can expect its key provisions to be challenged on constitutional grounds. Its critics will assail these provisions as tantamount to a de facto recognition of a dual-state situation. Constitutionality is also bound to be raised at the Supreme Court, which, not too long ago, struck … Read more