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

Men’s most enduring struggles are with their fathers, that is why they turn to their mothers for the support they badly need.  All their lives, they seek a way of dealing with their fathers’ authority, initially impugning and rebelling against it, but in the end measuring themselves against its unyielding standards. In their advanced years, … Read more

Perhaps the writer Francis Fukuyama was right.  It is not so much wealth or power that moves people ultimately, but the desire for recognition – Plato’s “thymos”.  “The desire for recognition,” observes Fukuyama, “is the most specifically political part of the human personality because it is what drives men to want to assert themselves over … Read more

The issue of where and how to bury the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos has less to do with the past than with the future.  There is little we can do with our memory of the Marcos past except to clarify and write it. But there is much we can do still to redress the injury … Read more

I thought it was a great luxury and a welcome break to be invited to speak at a gathering of the University of the Philippines alumni in Guam.  I had never traveled to this part of the Pacific.  I had heard stories of entire barrios in Pampanga being transplanted virtually to Guam.  I was curious … Read more