By “masa,” I refer to the class of voters that pollsters identify with the so-called “E” and the middle and lower rungs of the “D” strata.  They constitute roughly about 60 to 75% of the nation’s voting population. The existence of such huge numbers at the bottom of the social ladder attests to the gravity … Read more

My daughter, Kara, who covers prisoners on death row for the TV network, GMA-7, anxiously sat in the van that was taking her to the New Bilibid Prisons.  In a few minutes, prison officials were to raffle the media slots for the January 30 executions.  But there she was, hopelessly strapped to a seat, in … Read more

On the legal merits, the Comelec ruling was clear enough: Fernando Poe Jr. is a natural-born Filipino citizen because he had a Filipino father.  This has sound legal basis in both the 1935 Constitution and the 1987 Constitution.  That FPJ may have been born before his parents were actually married is irrelevant.  He is the … Read more

It is bad enough that we are being made to pick our leaders from what is, by any reckoning, a dismaying list of candidates.  What is worse is that the whole electoral process is being supervised by a Commission on Elections whose top officials have just been effectively pronounced untrustworthy by the highest court of … Read more

Two major forces determine the political life of the country today: the poor and the middle class.  One decides the outcome of elections, the other decides the fate of administrations. Their aspirations for a better life have made them conscious of the power they can wield. United, they can change the system. Divided, they become … Read more

“To be the poets of our life — first of all in the smallest, most everyday matters,” as my favorite philosopher puts it, has always been for me the best formulation of a New Year’s wish.  The metaphor evokes images of meticulous composition and subtle artistry, of wit and beauty, in all the things we … Read more

The mass media devoted considerable attention to the recent filing by obscure individuals of their certificates of candidacy for the presidency.  The news accounts mocked their improbable claims and outlandish statements and provided the public all the reasons to label them nuisance candidates.  Though the form used was one of dismissive derision, such reportage is … Read more

Considering how almost every major event in our nation’s political life since 1972 has led to more problems, we may wonder why we hope that another presidential election might produce anything different. The answer lies, I think, in our people’s inexhaustible faith in new beginnings.  It is our most important source of strength.  We may … Read more

It must have been one of the many spokespersons of the President. Someone from Malacanang recently made a point of saying that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is president in “the real world.”  The remark was clearly meant to draw a sharp contrast between GMA, a “real” president, and FPJ, an aspirant from the imaginary world of … Read more

She used to say she was Bubbles, the gentlest of the Power Puff girls.  Before that she was Po, the sweetest of the Teletubbies. These days she is Piglet, the smallest and wisest of Winnie the Pooh’s friends.  To Kara, her mother, she is no one else but Julia. But to me, she will always … Read more