Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

As he bows before his landlord, the Malay peasant bends so low that he quietly passes foul gas in his master’s presence. Thus, the anthropologist James C. Scott opens his seminal book “Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance” (Yale University Press, 1985). The peasant’s display of total obeisance conveys what is, at … Read more

South Korea, an Asian country with which the Philippines has shared strong cultural affinities in recent years, is currently grappling with a political crisis eerily reminiscent of the Philippines’ Edsa Dos and Edsa Tres uprisings. The South Korean approach to this volatile moment offers a valuable lens through which Filipinos might reflect on their historical … Read more

Travel has many purposes. The travel writer Rick Steves categorizes travelers into three broad types. First, there’s the tourist, who seeks the excitement of shopping, sightseeing, and snapping selfies to share online. Next comes the traveler, eager for immersive experiences, hoping to blend in as a temporary resident in another country. Lastly, there’s the pilgrim—one … Read more

The day after Bishop Ambo David returned from Rome as one of the newly appointed cardinals of the Catholic Church, he visited my dear friend Dodong Nemenzo at the Philippine General Hospital to anoint him. Dodong’s son, Fidel, had earlier shared with me that his father, whose health was rapidly declining, would see a priest … Read more

While many nations, particularly the wealthier ones that profited from its early forms, now reject globalization and its consequences, the Catholic Church, under Pope Francis’ leadership, has chosen a path of acceptance of its challenges and an openhearted embrace of its myriad victims. Seeing itself as a “field hospital” that prioritizes care for the marginalized … Read more

We are so accustomed to seeing spouses and siblings from the same families dominate our political system that we often view the government itself as a family, with its top officials as the nation’s parents. This perspective makes it unsettling to witness open quarrels between the president and vice president. Public disputes, personal accusations, and … Read more

Budgetary allocations for select government offices, commonly termed “intelligence” and “confidential” funds, are typically exempt from standard auditing procedures in order to preserve the secrecy of the operations they support. While such exemptions may be justifiable for safeguarding national security and law enforcement objectives, their application to civilian agencies without clear security functions is harder … Read more

Despite an onslaught of typhoons relentlessly battering the country over the past week, the headline-grabber was former president Rodrigo Duterte’s dramatic appearance before the House of Representatives’ powerful quad committee. This super committee has been digging into a host of contentious issues—from the extrajudicial killings linked to Duterte’s war on drugs to the crimes tied … Read more

Donald Trump did not win by a landslide. It only appears as if he did because of the large number of electoral votes that separates him from Kamala Harris. Though he also won the popular vote this time around (unlike in 2016 when he became president despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton), the … Read more

What I term “Dutertismo” goes beyond the populist, authoritarian approach typically associated with former president Rodrigo Duterte. More specifically, it refers to a form of presidential rule that seeks sweeping exceptions from the standard application of the law, under the premise that extraordinary measures are needed to address urgent threats to the nation. In essence, … Read more