Winning the vote may give one the legal right to assume an elective position, but it doesn’t automatically confer on the victor the legitimacy that he/she needs to effectively govern. Legitimacy is public acceptance of one’s right to rule, something that some elected leaders have to earn almost throughout their terms in office. In the … Read more

When members of the same family vie for positions in government, the seeds of corruption are planted. The boundaries between home and public office are blurred. Family loyalty trumps public accountability. Public funds are privatized, and governmental power is used to advance not the common good but the interests of a few. These lessons in … Read more

Around noon on June 30, a new government headed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be inaugurated. At about the same time, a new movement that took shape in the final leg of Vice President Leni Robredo’s 2022 presidential campaign will formally launch its manifold presence in the post-election landscape. The intertwining of these two modern … Read more

Whether Vice President Leni Robredo wins or loses in the May 2022 elections, the campaign to make her president has produced something unprecedented in Philippine politics. It has unleashed a tide of citizen activism rarely seen in elections. It has spawned a social movement that seeks nothing less than to reshape the society of which … Read more

While a good number of thoughtful Filipinos believe that the May 2022 presidential election is a watershed moment for our country and for generations to come — one that demands the most careful reflection about the kind of nation we want to be — this is not necessarily how the majority of voters think about … Read more

While the May 2022 presidential election has been portrayed by pundits as a choice between strongman rule and liberal democratic governance, there is another way of looking at it that, unfortunately, may be more attuned to current Filipino political narratives. This is the view that sees this year’s presidential contest as largely a reprise of … Read more

  Those mammoth pink crowds that have materialized almost overnight in various places, in support of the presidential team of Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, appear to be saying only one thing. “The surveys draw a picture that doesn’t include us. Governors pledge our votes as though they belonged to them. We … Read more

Business groups, who foresee the election of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the May 2022 presidential contest, are anxiously asking what kind of president he might be, especially on economic matters. Would he be like Marcos Sr. who, from the start, sought not only to restructure the Philippine economy but also to intervene directly in the … Read more

Last Thursday, March 31, President Duterte visited Cebu, and gave two speeches. One was before a meeting of the National and Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-RTF-Elcac). The other was at the grand proclamation rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban, Cusi wing). The latter was eagerly awaited. The … Read more

If Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. becomes president, our country’s brittle institutions would be subjected to their most difficult test. Would they dare to rule against his interest in the many unresolved cases that have been filed against members of his family? Or would the Marcos scion’s election to the nation’s highest office be interpreted as a … Read more