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

Typhoon “Milenyo” came and went like an haughty star performer with a million-dollar name. Its arrival was announced just the day before, but in less than an hour of its lightning visit, it was gone.  In its wake it left a devastation the likes of which Metro Manila hasn’t seen in a decade.  In an … Read more

The Sept. 19 military coup in Thailand bears more similarities to the January 2001 ouster of Joseph Estrada than to previous coups in Thai history.  This is a coup that displaced a democratically elected leader – a politician despised by the elite and the intelligentsia but adored by the urban and rural masses. The generals … Read more

Thirty-four years ago, the then incumbent president, Ferdinand Marcos, invoked an obscure provision in the 1935 Constitution to free his presidency from basic constitutional restraints.  The imposition of Martial Law, which was meant to preserve the State, was supposed to last only for the duration of the imminent threat to public order.  But Marcos shrewdly … Read more

The transformation of air travel, particularly into the United States, into a tedious, time-consuming, and often humiliating activity is only the most obvious effect of 9/11. It is perhaps the least important. The paranoia that 9/11 spawned has produced a new international security doctrine that is undermining democracy everywhere. It has given a new warrant … Read more