My daughter Kara asked me the other day, “Papa, do you know what happened in Barrio Mapaniqui, Candaba on Nov. 23, 1944?”  A documentary she has been researching on Filipino “comfort women” has led her to this little village in Pampanga. From her interviews, she has learned that the residents of this place have suffered … Read more

If the only issue the “Hello Garci” tapes raise is cheating in an election, what, indeed, is new?  All Filipino politicians are known to cheat in one form or another.  The whole organization of our elections encourages it.  But access to cheating is fairly distributed, and so the candidate who emerges victorious is in all … Read more

When the Philippine Senate in 1991 voted against a new proposed treaty that would extend the stay of American bases in our country, we thought that, at last, we had finally slain the great American father that for generations controlled our national psyche.  We knew then that we would be made to pay dearly for … Read more

In the small town of Betis in Pampanga, where I come from, furniture makers invented the paradox of the “modern antique.”  Gifted artisans are put to work to produce flamboyant Louis XIV replicas that the new-rich buy to adorn their stuffy living rooms. Over the years, many small shops that make such furniture have migrated … Read more

In a democracy, it is natural for the public to wish to be freed of the burden of having to take direct action when there is a grave crisis in government. Yet, on two occasions in the recent past, under the spell of a diffused social movement, Filipinos found themselves taking the whole system in … Read more

When the Iglesia Ni Cristo speaks, politicians have to listen.  Of the country’s numerous religious communities, the INC alone commands the kind of organized vote that can make or unmake politicians. To a lesser degree, El Shaddai wields a similar political clout.  This is the power of small but tightly organized groups.  The Catholic Church … Read more

There is an approach to politics that equates power with the ability to impose one’s will on others through the effective marshaling of strategic forces under one’s control.  In foreign affairs, it is called realpolitik.  Modern politics is often conceived in these terms.  It is politics without values. The study of politics in stable societies … Read more

The proposed “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2005” defines terrorism as “the premeditated, threatened and actual use of violence or force or by any other means of destruction perpetrated against persons, properties, or the environment, with the intention of creating or sowing a state of danger, panic, fear, or chaos in the general public, group of persons, … Read more

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