Often we trace the problems of our society to government’s inability to establish the rule of law, forgetting that the functions of government are far broader.  Law is only one of several means at the disposal of government to achieve its ends.  These ends include the production of wealth in sufficient quantity, and the provision … Read more

Unless a group claims outright responsibility for them, the task of dealing with terror bombs has to begin with deciphering the message they are meant to convey or the scenario they are trying to create. We must assume that terrorists intend not only to scare or sow panic but, more importantly, to deliver a message.  … Read more

As a television host, I have spent the last 15 years asking questions in public.  But I don’t think I could have summoned the insolence to ask the president (or anyone for that matter) if she was still having sex.  One’s sex life is a very private matter. It was very bold of the journalist … Read more

The death of an American soldier, a Green Beret sergeant first class, in the Zamboanga bombing incident the other day came as a surprise to many people.  Hardly anyone in Manila knew that there were remaining US troops in Mindanao.  The public assumed they all left in June, mission accomplished.  Abu Sabaya was pronounced dead, … Read more

If the function of elections were solely to elect leaders, we might be better off not having elections.  Elections are not only very expensive and often violent, they are also not the most efficient way to choose leaders. We expect our leaders to be skilled and knowledgeable in statecraft, yet elections yield the merely popular.  … Read more

It has been thirty years since Ferdinand Marcos broke the traditional cycle of elite rule by seizing upon the martial law provisions of the 1935 constitution to install himself dictator.  However, a full assessment of the significance of that episode to our political life has still to be written. The Marcos years will continue to … Read more

The ongoing 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly is a defining moment in the history of this world body.  Its authority, long eroded by failure to act on urgent issues and by the willful noncompliance of some member-states with its resolutions, will be put to a final test over the Middle East. The … Read more

“No man’s land” is the title of one of the outstanding films in the recent Cinemanila International Film Festival. It tells the story of three wounded soldiers at the height of the war in Bosnia – one Serb and two Bosnians — who by chance find themselves trapped together in a foxhole on disputed territory.  … Read more

It is very difficult to characterize the Malaysian government’s recent action against Filipinos living in Sabah.  The cruelty is astounding. One can only call it “nationalist fundamentalism” – the belief in national identity, in this case Malaysian, as a source of rights, to the exclusion of all other human affinities.  If the situation had been … Read more

Almost everyone recognizes the right to vote of all qualified Filipinos residing abroad.  The 1987 Constitution explicitly instructs Congress to pass a law that will make absentee voting possible.  Sixty-four bills have been filed to give flesh to the constitution’s mandate, and five successive congresses have intermittently debated its provisions. Yet for the last fifteen … Read more