Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

So many things are happening in the political scene that it has become increasingly difficult to connect the dots. But it’s quite obvious that, a few months after the breakup of the Marcos-Duterte political partnership, it is now open season on the key figures associated with the past administration. So far, the investigations and inquiries … Read more

Not a few were startled when Vice President Sara Duterte suddenly accused Sen. Risa Hontiveros of “politicizing” the budget deliberation at the Senate hearing of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) 2025 budget. Hontiveros, one of only two opposition senators in the 24-member upper chamber, was asking for clarification of the allocation for certain … Read more

Forty-one years have passed since former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was brazenly murdered at the Manila International Airport on the day of his return from exile in the United States. An entire generation of Filipinos has little memory of that event. To them, the public holiday that is meant to provide Filipinos the occasion … Read more

Not many are aware of it, except maybe for some well-informed election lawyers and their moneyed clients. Per the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) recent admission, “premature campaigning” is no longer an election offense. One landmark Supreme Court ruling (Lanot v. Comelec), lucidly penned by former associate justice Antonio Carpio, found its way into the 2007 … Read more

The politicization of the justice system and of law enforcement itself was never more blatant than during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. His bloody war on drugs enabled him to impose his will on the whole government as well as to intimidate the rest of society. By exploiting people’s fear of being tagged as a … Read more

At various points during the July 25 televised presidential briefing on the disaster situation created by Supertyphoon “Carina” (International name: Gaemi) in conjunction with the southwest monsoon, President Marcos expressed his frustration over the type of information he was getting from the different government agencies in attendance. The President and his officials were clearly not … Read more

We have long been accustomed to seeing the world as a global system of nation-states. In this view, the word “international” refers to relations between and among nation-states. Today, however, that term is used less often. It has given way to the term “global,” signifying the momentous emergence of a new world system that operates … Read more

As one of the three most important pilgrimage sites of the Catholic world, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the purported remains of St. James the Apostle are buried, is visited by millions of pilgrims every year. Many arrive in Compostela by plane, by train, or by bus. What is called the Camino de … Read more

Doing the Camino,” the shorthand way of saying one is going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, has been on my “bucket list” since 2005 when I first heard about it from a German friend. He told me how he had been training for a 40-day 800-kilometer walk to Santiago via the … Read more

Speaking to the country’s soldiers last Thursday during a visit to the Army’s 10th Infantry Division in Davao de Oro, President Marcos made a pitch for strengthening the military’s capabilities as it shifts from internal operations to external defense. He said emphatically: “We are not going to war against anybody … We are just being … Read more