Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

The devastation caused in Mindanao by Typhoon “Pablo” is, for now, largely measured by the number of dead, injured and missing people. The number of recovered bodies has reached 714, says the NDRRMC. About 900 more are reported missing. Thousands of others suffer from wounds and various forms of injury, not to mention deep trauma, … Read more

The benign climate—that was the first thing that was pointed out to me about Mindanao in the early 1980s, when I used to go there as part of a research team studying the banana export industry. Throughout the year, its winds were steady, gentle rain irrigated its fertile soil, its mountains were lush and its … Read more

The word “ubiquity” refers to the quality of being everywhere. It captures succinctly the perception of a whole society being engulfed by crime—that is, if one goes by the early evening news on television. Crime reports bookend the rest of the news so routinely that crime is no longer “newsworthy” in the sense of being … Read more

In a speech at Far Eastern University last November 22, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago mocked the nation’s political system, in which she has played a prominent role, as one dominated by the ignorant.  “Let me summarize the problem with Philippine elections,” she told her young audience. “Of the 50 million voters who will troop to the … Read more

In the wake of the shocking Nov. 23, 2009, massacre in Maguindanao, the Ampatuan patriarch and his sons, the principal suspects in this heinous crime, began a frantic search for sharp lawyers who would take up their case and defend them. One of those sounded out was my brother Dante, a litigation lawyer with many … Read more

Last Monday morning, I found myself in the basketball court of a remote village in Bataan province, quietly observing a “family development session” (FDS). The young energetic woman who was conducting the proceedings is a “Municipal Link,” one of 2,250 social workers expressly trained for the government’s greatly expanded conditional cash transfer program, known locally … Read more

The victimization of thousands of small investors by a dubious company styling itself as the “Aman Futures Group Philippines Inc.” is of great interest not only to law enforcement authorities but to students of society as well. How a business firm with no credentials or track record was able to entice thousands of people in … Read more

Scams tell us a lot about the nature of our society—more than about the gullibility, greed, or ignorance of our people. Sociologists try to understand how these criminal schemes work, not by figuring out the motives and interests of the individuals they victimize, but by determining the types of social relationships they are able to … Read more

Reading recent reports of thousands of people being victimized by another pyramiding scam—this time operating out of the cities of Cebu, Pagadian, and Pasay—I found myself entertaining two different reactions. “Serves them right,” I thought, “for not using their commonsense and being blinded by greed.”  But then I wondered, “Shouldn’t the government have known about … Read more

Moments after it became clear that US President Barack Obama had won a second term, the media began to talk about the “fiscal cliff” facing the government. This is a striking metaphor. CNN’s talking heads assume that everybody knows what it means. But, like many who do not regularly follow the economic news, I’m hearing … Read more