Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES 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
If the United States can hold peaceful, orderly elections on Nov. 5 and inaugurate a new president without prolonged legal or political battles, it will mark a major success for American democratic institutions. Such an outcome would send a powerful message to the world: that free elections, even in highly polarized climates, remain a credible … Read more
In sociology, corruption has a straightforward definition. When it involves government officials and employees, corruption simply means the failure to distinguish between the interests of the government and those of other entities in society, such as family, private businesses, religious institutions, or political parties. In other words, it is the inability to separate one’s duties … Read more
A pastor for the peripheries—a shepherd for the lost, the least, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. That’s how I believe my brother, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, or “Ambo,” has always understood his vocation. Although he hasn’t always used the term “peripheries,” this concept has been a consistent thread running through his projects, no matter where … Read more
It’s unclear what the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which had governed Gaza under a precarious truce with Israel, hoped to achieve with its coordinated attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Were they hoping to stoke a smoldering internal crisis in Israel’s leadership? Were they seeking to ignite another Arab-Israeli war? Or was their goal simply to … Read more
When, against all expectations, Rodrigo Duterte won the presidential elections in 2016, people wondered how long the former Davao mayor could maintain the sudden surge in popularity that had propelled him to the nation’s highest office. His parochial experience as the autocratic political boss of a Mindanao city barely prepared him for the immensely complex … Read more
Whether intended or not, the ongoing hearings in both houses of Congress are doing exactly what a special truth commission on the abuses committed under the Duterte regime would have set out to do if such a body had been created by law. Right now, these hearings may go on indefinitely, at great expense and … Read more