Nearly two years after Rodrigo Duterte was elected to the presidency, his signature approach to power has become all-too-familiar. It is one based on the methodical use of the coercive power of the state in order to intimidate dissenters, critics, skeptics, deviants, and noncooperative individuals who, in his perception, are not taking him seriously. It … Read more

One thing allegedly struck Mark Zuckerberg when he was building a prototype of Facebook as a Harvard University undergraduate student. This was the readiness with which people shared aspects of their private lives online in exchange for the chance to multiply their social connections. Such pervasive gullibility supposedly shocked the Facebook founder. Two billion Facebook … Read more

Reading the recent notice of the Philippines’ withdrawal from the Rome Statute filed at the office of the United Nations Secretary General, one gets the impression that there are people in the present administration who equate the Duterte presidency with the Philippine state. They should be reminded that we are not an absolute monarchy. Not … Read more

Mike de Leon’s new film, “Citizen Jake,” is a psychosocial drama that focuses on the personal contradictions of a crusading upper middle class “citizen journalist” who appears to lack insight into his own privileges. His inquiry into a gruesome crime leads him to a profound realization of the corrupt system in which he—and, indeed, all … Read more

President Duterte despises international bodies and foreign leaders who comment on the way he runs the Philippine government, so much that he repeatedly declares he is not answerable to any of them so long as the Filipino people support him in what he does. This week, he angrily reacted to the recent move of the … Read more

On a long road trip the other day, I happened to be tuned in to yet another live broadcast of the unending marathon hearing on the impeachment case against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno at the House of Representatives.  In the agenda of the House committee on justice that day was the testimony of the … Read more

Academics like myself who have studied revolutions in other countries initially approached the unfolding event at Edsa in February 1986 with great skepticism. Revolution was certainly on no one’s lips at that point.  That this could be a turning point in any meaningful sense was farthest from our minds. First, because the main characters behind … Read more

The recent appointment by President Duterte of the leader of  Iglesia Ni Cristo, executive minister Eduardo V. Manalo, to a government position presents an interesting case that may test once again the meaning of church-state separation, a principle enshrined in all Filipino constitutions. Apart from the legal issues, it is also worth examining the sociological … Read more

I often wonder which is worse: to be without friends who care or to live without money. I think that, ultimately, it is not having enough friends that is the worse form of poverty. But, in fact, the two are related. Without money, one will likely have little time and less inclination to connect with … Read more

The 1987 Constitution clothed the Office of the Ombudsman with such powers and ironclad autonomy that it may well be seen as the fourth branch of government — even if, by constitutional design, it is not. Run by individuals of unassailable integrity and irrepressible courage, this office could effectively function, when everything else fails, as … Read more