On a visit to Jolo not too long ago, I sat in a huge social hall with then newly-elected ARMM Governor Nur Misuari as he attended to the crowd that had stayed up all night waiting to see him.  There must have been about a thousand people in that rundown building that served as his … Read more

The death of UP student Alex Icasiano from severe hazing by members of the Alpha Phi Beta fraternity has once more focused attention on the violence that seems to inhere in the culture of fraternities.  The violence comes in the form of brutal initiation rites and murderous rumbles so contradictory to the values of brotherhood … Read more

My friend, the writer Andres Cristobal Cruz, recently gifted me with copies of a priceless translation of Noli Me Tangere in Kapampangan. “One for yourself,” he said in his note, “and one each for your two brothers, the priest and the politician.”  The book, a project of the Commission for the Rizal Centenary during the … Read more

The Visiting Forces Agreement or VFA is nothing more than a litany of the norms we must observe when American military forces come to visit our country.  The VFA presumes that these visits will bring mutual benefits to both our countries.  It does not specify what these benefits are, or what is to be gained … Read more

The recent celebration of our National Centennial, everyone agrees, was a great party.  But it is an open question whether it left us with a better understanding of ourselves as a people or a clearer idea of how we should approach the problems that confront us today as a nation. We Filipinos often complain that … Read more

When President Joseph Estrada delivers his State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) at the opening of Congress tomorrow, he will be describing what, in effect, is the condition of the country 12 years after Edsa.  His unstated point of reference will not be the last year of Ramos, but the last decade after Marcos.  The subtext of his … Read more

Something terrible is happening in neighboring Indonesia, but we Filipinos, self-absorbed as always, have hardly taken notice or, even less, expressed deep concern for this nation at our doorstep.  While we were busy counting the votes last May, Jakarta was literally on fire. Chinese women were being gang-raped.   Shops, malls, and private homes identified as … Read more

For 12 years the nation consigned the Marcoses and their cronies to the status of moral pariahs.  A few of them managed to reinvent themselves and regain some of the power and wealth they lost at Edsa.  But their efforts have produced only limited effects.  Their political successes have remained local, and to this day … Read more

Until 1962, we celebrated with America a common independence day. Had we continued this practice, the national centennial would have come not this year but in 2046.  June 12, 1998 would have come with nothing more than a flag-raising ceremony in Cavite and an academic symposium in the National Library to solemnize its passing. But … Read more

Joseph Estrada had nothing to gain from insisting that the remains of Ferdinand Marcos be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.  Like Fidel Ramos, he could have ignored the request of the Marcos family, and pleaded for more time to consider its implications.  Or followed the path of least resistance, and left it to … Read more