The issue seems simple enough: Can the House of Representatives, acting alone and without the concurrence of the Senate, exercise the constituent powers of Congress? The House majority says it can. Commonsense tells us it cannot.  The constitution-making powers of Congress, like its law-making powers, are lodged in Congress as a bicameral structure. Section I, … Read more

With at least 400 people dead in Bicol and Southern Tagalog in the wake of super typhoon “Reming,” we may expect, yet again, another round of national reflection aimed at gathering lessons and lecturing our people on natural disasters.  This is a favorite sport of politicians. Unfortunately, such reflection yields little by way of self-understanding … Read more

Less than two years from now, the University of the Philippines will mark its centennial.  It will do so in a world far more complex than the colonial era that saw its founding.  Additional campuses and new curricular offerings mirror the basic changes in function that it has assumed as a State university.  Over the … Read more

Nothing perhaps more bluntly shows the present government’s authoritarian bent than the recent filing of rebellion charges against former University of the Philippines President Francisco Nemenzo. In both its legal and ordinary senses, rebellion means taking up arms against the government.  Nemenzo has not taken up arms against the state, nor has he advocated its … Read more

How much poverty can a nation take before it starts to disintegrate? The latest Social Weather Stations survey reports that 51% of the people they asked rated themselves poor, and that almost 3 million Filipino households experienced hunger in the last three months. In themselves, surveys about poverty have no intrinsic meaning. Individuals have different … Read more

What we are seeing in the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on fundamental questions is a legal system painfully weaning itself away from extra-legal influences. It is understandable that some of the magistrate’s opinions, if not the decisions themselves, have been rather sharp in language.  I view this as the Court’s way of serving notice that … Read more

So abiding is the Filipino’s belief in education that we can think of it as occupying almost the same place in our culture as that assigned to religion.  It is probably the only thing that makes us modern.  We have no fear of the future, and neither are we sentimental about the past.  We expect … Read more

We have been hearing the phrase “rule of law” much too often since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency. In the context in which it is used, it appears to be a way of telling people that when they are penalized for being out of line or falling short of the standard, it is nothing personal. … Read more

Shortly before the winds of Typhoon Milenyo began battering Metro Manila, the public utilities that form the lifeline of modern communities ground to a halt.  Electricity was the first to be shut off, followed by the telephone service.  I expected the water supply to be next.  To my pleasant amazement, in the UP campus where … Read more

Institutions are clusters of formal rules and informal norms that draw their power from the shared values and moral instincts of a people. These are the tools by which a society conducts its life.  Institutions shape our individual choices, acting as a brake on impulsive and selfish behavior.  They are strong or weak, adequate or … Read more