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

The highly anticipated arrest and detention the other day of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on charges of plunder proceeded quite smoothly, despite the brief jostling among the media, security people and horde of bystanders in the premises of the Sandiganbayan building. Surely, the police and the court’s security personnel could do better next time … Read more

In the transition to the new K-to-12 curriculum, according to a recent news item, college teachers who may at one point find themselves without jobs will be allowed to teach high school subjects. This seems like a no-brainer at first glance, but the issue is far more complex. Not every college teacher is trained to … Read more

I guess it is perfectly understandable that Father’s Day was established almost as an afterthought to Mother’s Day. Sonora Smart Dodd, who started it all, thought of it as a way of paying tribute to her father—a single parent who raised six children all by himself. It is mothers, more than fathers, who exemplify the … Read more

In the not-too-distant past, when a Filipino senator invoked personal privilege in order to speak, the Senate set aside the business of the day in anticipation of hearing someone of the caliber of Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Jose W. Diokno, or Jovito R. Salonga fill the chamber with stirring words of wisdom, patriotism, and … Read more

In most legal complaints filed in the courts, we may encounter the phrase “contrary to law” at the end of a summation of the facts. We can imagine these three words peppering the plunder charges that the Ombudsman has filed against the three senators and their chiefs of staff, the heads of the implementing agencies … Read more