The most fascinating thing about the “Philippine Arena,” billed as “the world’s largest indoor multipurpose venue,” is probably not that it stands on Philippine soil but that it has been built by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC). Known for the distinctive architectural style of its churches, the INC usually builds small replicas of its central … Read more

I am trying to understand the strong surge of emotion that has been unleashed by the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP. So much moral agitation fills the air that one cannot help but suspect that dormant political grudges and prejudices are being manipulated in order to portray the DAP … Read more

The good news is that Albay province, which has chronically stood on the path of countless devastating typhoons, registered zero casualty after Typhoon “Glenda.” The bad news is that in adjacent Quezon, Batangas, Laguna, and Cavite, 54 people lay dead in the wake of this killer typhoon, the great majority of them pinned inside their … Read more

Anxious talk over a looming constitutional crisis instantly filled the air the other night after President Aquino announced on national TV that he did not agree with the Supreme Court’s decision nullifying key elements of his administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). More than a week has passed since the Court assailed the DAP for usurping … Read more

There are at least two types of laws found in the Constitution. The first defines the nature and limits of governmental power over the nation’s citizens. The other assigns state power to the various branches of government, demarcating their proper spheres and prescribing their relationship to one another. A constitutional regime is a government bound … Read more

If we can step back for a moment from the legal issues that are presently the object of heated debate, we might be able to view the controversy surrounding the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) with a different frame. I propose the perspective of political development especially in relation to the Constitution. Almost every opinion maker … Read more

On Feb. 24, 2006, then President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo issued Proclamation 1017, placing the country under a state of emergency. The proclamation was based on a security report that there was a military plot to overthrow the government. Saying that while the attempt had been thwarted the danger remained, the proclamation revoked all permits for … Read more

There has always been a gap between our laws and our political reality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the tensions between many aspects of our current political practice, on one hand, and the principles and ideals enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, on the other. The disparity stems from the fact that while our … Read more

On a visit to Singapore in 2012, my wife and I listened in amazement as our taxi driver ranted about the excessive salaries that, he said, government officials in his country were paying themselves. “Their lives get better every year,” he went on, “while the rest of us ordinary folks slide into poverty no matter … Read more

The observant will not miss the irony: The senators who, not too long ago, stood in judgment of a chief justice, now find themselves, as defendants in the pork barrel cases, having to address their appeals for fairness and leniency to a court of justice. There is more: One of the accused, Sen. Juan Ponce … Read more