There are no schools for making a marriage work and raising a family, or for seeking public office and serving the community.  It is remarkable that in areas where it matters most,  we seem content with learning by doing.  We take the plunge first, then we learn. Some go through an apprenticeship with an old … Read more

When I asked economic columnist Calixto Chikiamco in last week’s episode of Public Life what we must begin to do as a country to survive the economic catastrophe now looming ahead of us, his answer was: go back to agriculture.  From condos to farms, from cars to tractors, from skyways to farm-to-market roads, from golf … Read more

There are practical reasons why there should be an agreement with the Marcoses on what to do with the Swiss accounts.  First, our people need the money now rather than later.  In the absence of any clear proof that the wealth is ill-gotten, a compromise settlement involving the Marcos heirs is the only document that … Read more

At a recent gathering of the United Nations Association where he was to receive an award, Ted Turner, founder of CNN, though better known as Jane Fonda’s husband, jolted his audience by announcing that he was donating $1 billion to the United Nations.  The money will be turned over to the financially-strapped UN over ten … Read more

The issue in the September 21 rally, as I see it, is not whether the present Constitution should be changed now or at any other time.  The real issue is whether the Constitution should be changed in order to allow the incumbent president, in this case Mr. Ramos,  to stay in power longer than 6 … Read more

In his last televised special address to the nation before leaving for Russia and the Middle East, President Ramos showed that, when he wants to, he can be categorical and emphatic about a lot of things. There will be elections in May 1998, as scheduled, he said categorically.  And, he will oppose any move to … Read more

“Stars,” wrote Richard Dyer, “articulate what it is to be a human being in contemporary society.”  They embody not only the values and traits we avidly pursue in the modern world – style, beauty, youth, wealth, health – but also the torments and contradictions of actual living.  In them, we, ordinary mortals,  project our deepest … Read more

To say that an issue is more than just a legal issue is to say that it is not enough to argue the rightness of an action on the basis of what the law allows.  The move to amend the constitution a few months before the 1998 elections is one example. Opponents of charter change … Read more

When hear the word “squatter”, the images that come to mind are those that have been formed over the years by mindless movie and television scripts, ignorant government reports, and shallow social science.  These accounts tell us of a strange migratory breed of people, who multiply like rabbits and lead dissolute lives, who have no … Read more

I had to go on a one-day return trip to Cebu last Friday to fulfill a commitment to the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino of the University of the Philippines (UP).  I left my house in UP at 7 a.m. and made it to the domestic airport at 9.  Not bad at all, I was told.  … Read more