We tend to think of change as something to achieve rather than as something to recognize. We talk of effecting changes in our value system or in the structure of our society – little suspecting that the seeds of such changes have already been sown. It is my contention here that the continuing crisis in … Read more
In her 2005 State of the Nation Address, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo spoke of two nations – one experiencing vibrant economic growth, and another mired in endless political bickering. The political system, she said, must be reformed in order to ensure the economy’s unimpeded growth. The vehicle for this is the shift to a federal parliamentary government … Read more
In the debate surrounding the proposal to create a “Truth Commission,” no one has raised the basic question: Who wants the truth and why? It is Ms Arroyo who is commissioning the truth, and we all know why – she wants affirmation of her victory in 2004, nothing more. If we wanted to know who … Read more
The so-called “X-tape”, that Ilocos Governor Luis “Chavit” Singson has brought to the public’s attention, which supposedly implicates former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada in a plot to assassinate President Arroyo, seems so patently fabricated he cannot possibly think people would swallow it. Its real intent must lie elsewhere. My view is that the Chavit tape … Read more
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has set back the political growth of our country by at least twenty years as a result of her single-minded pursuit of personal power. She has re-injected into our nation’s governance a mode of rule that perniciously privatizes state power. Like a small town politico who has mastered the rhythms of the patron-client … Read more
Deconstruction is a form of destabilization, but I assure the Department of Justice that the only things it destabilizes are the meanings of statements, scripts, texts, and documents. A method popularized by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, “deconstruction accounts for how a text’s explicit formulations undermine its implicit or non-explicit aspects. It brings out what … Read more
Since June 6, when Press Secretary and concurrent Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye first bared the existence of the “Garci tapes,” the President has had many occasions to say something about these tapes. Speaking through Sec. Bunye, she said she would “not dignify” them because their source is patently illegal. A few days later, she told … Read more
People have wondered why the public is not reacting with outrage to the scandal of the “Garci tapes”. Is there “people power fatigue”? Maybe. But, how many people have listened to these tapes? How many have tried to understand them? And why should we expect the simple recognition of the voice of the President in … Read more
This is how the conversation between the principal and her agent typically begins. She speaks in a low and measured tone, usually to bring up a problem, or to suggest a course of action. Most of the time, he, in an exquisitely fawning way, assures her that the problem is being attended and that he … Read more
I was happy to receive recently the assessment report on a new General Education (G.E.) course that I helped design. The course, “Sociology 10: On Being Filipino, A Sociological Exploration,” has become one of the most popular courses in the G.E. social science cluster in the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. Students consistently rated … Read more