Though I am not a lawyer, I am, as a citizen and as a sociologist, interested in the exercise of state power in a republican system like ours.  It seems to me that the crisis of the presidency, given the defensive responses of its current occupant, will increasingly put the doctrine of separation of powers … Read more

“I’m tired of chasing the bullies around the schoolyard,” Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo told a gathering of local officials in Pampanga the other day.  “Those who would heed my call for unity and reconciliation, they are welcome.  But those who would keep on creating disturbance, we’re on top of the situation.  Our barangay officials will enforce the … Read more

Our country is an aircraft, and its name is Philippine Airlines.  We are its patient passengers. This plane is long-delayed for a host of reasons – a bomb threat from nowhere, a malfunctioning engine that has seen better days, chaotic procedures, and a crew that is too timid and too uncaring to explain the situation … Read more

At a student leaders’ conference in the University of the Philippines the other day, Bam Aquino of the National Youth Commission ran a quick survey with the audience. To every question, he requested the participants to stand up to register their response.  The last question was: “How many of you are confused about the present … Read more

Many truths about our lives and the world largely pass unnoticed. But, in our country, the one truth that agitates almost everyone, except maybe Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies, is whether she conspired with former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to manipulate the results of the last presidential election.  This is the truth insinuated … Read more

Here is a cynical view of the country’s political system:  Electoral fraud is an integral part of Filipino politics.  Every politician knows that cheating occurs in every election and is factored in the overall calculation of a candidate’s chances.  Paying homage to the law is an obligatory ritual in our political culture, but it is … Read more

No word perhaps has been more maligned in the vocabulary of politics than “pragmatism.” It connotes lack of scruples, ruthlessness, and even immorality.  Pragmatic persons are thought of as those who will use any means available, no matter how dishonest, to achieve an end. In its philosophical sense, however, pragmatism simply refers to a way … Read more

The “great debate” on charter change has hardly begun, yet the country is riveted once again on the sordid affair of the “Garci Tapes.” For two weeks following Ms Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address, the media stopped talking about the Garcillano conversations.  Public discourse shifted to the parliamentary and federal forms of government and … Read more

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