Everything we know about the way our institutions work points to the near impossibility of doing that.  It is true that we can summon enough political will to depose a sitting president by peaceful extraconstitutional means.  And we have proven this not once but twice. Yet nothing in our experience gives us reason to hope … Read more

From the discussions that have attended the banning of the film “Live Show,” we have an idea of what is at issue here and what is not. The choice of subject is not an issue.  One cannot object to the depiction of poverty and its consequences on the ground that it creates the wrong image … Read more

It happens all the time.  A political earthquake loosens the ground on which hierarchies and institutions rest.  Suddenly, the venerable structures that have governed our daily lives are exposed for what they are – the sediments of past agreements based on fragile trust. The unspent energy from the last earthquake discharges itself in little tremors, … Read more

People Power I made its first public appearance in 1983 at the massive funeral for Ninoy Aquino, extended its reach to the rest of the country in the snap election campaign against Ferdinand Marcos, before exploding in full splendor at Edsa in the wake of a failed military coup.  People Power II, in contrast, began … Read more

Picture this: you are 78 years old, well past retirement but relishing the remaining years of good health, and more important, basking in the love and respect of your family and the high esteem of a nation you have faithfully served.  One day you get the shock of your life. You are told you’ve been … Read more

Jose Rizal once used this term to denote significant changes in the consciousness of Filipinos, which to him justified an adjustment in the way Spain governed the islands. “The islands cannot remain in the condition they are without requiring from the sovereign country more liberty…. For new men, a new social order.” In that famous … Read more

We have had two now in just a span of 15 years.  Foreigners think we may be overdoing it a bit, not allowing our political institutions to mature and work properly.  They say we have been reckless and blind to the risks of direct non-institutional action in politics.  They warn that if we make a … Read more

The political allies of deposed president Joseph Ejercito Estrada have banded together to form what they call the “Puwersa ng Masa” (Force of the Masses).  In an obvious bid to tap into what remains of the mass base of the former movie idol who became president, they are running on the issue of loyalty to … Read more

Not being a lawyer, I cannot say if it was wise for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to anchor her claim to the presidency on the theory that Joseph Ejercito Estrada had suffered a permanent disability.  I think that doing so, in an attempt to satisfy the Constitution, is to revise history.  It is to leave … Read more

And let our nation’s development begin. By a happy coincidence, “to develop” means literally “to free from that which envelops.” It is ironic that the contents of the envelope whose suppression triggered People Power II remain unknown to the public until now.  Its opening should have been the first business of the new leadership, a … Read more