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

Why was People Power 2 necessary? Like all peace-loving nations in the world, Filipinos did everything to make their legal institutions work. Because he had lost their trust, they first asked President Joseph Estrada to admit his failure and resign honorably to prevent further injury to the country.  But he refused to answer the serious … Read more

My dearest Julia, We have won, dear child.  Finally, the man in Malacanang has fled in disgrace.  Your Lola made sure of that by marching to Mendiola with thousands of others to drive away once and for all the evil spirit that inhabited that place. I wasn’t as brave as your Lola; she thought nothing … Read more

Former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu did not have to testify at the impeachment trial.  He is not a principal witness in any of the Articles of Impeachment.  But with courage and determination, he did. He came out to say what he knew about the president.  It was, he said, a matter of conscience, of love … Read more

Every witness who appeared at the ongoing presidential impeachment trial was made to swear “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”  Yet if there is anything that one learns from watching the trial, it is precisely that witnesses are not always free to tell the truth they want to tell. … Read more