It is difficult to say which is preferable: a party-based politics that sometimes results in governmental gridlock, or a money-based politics that runs smoothly on pork barrel privileges.  America today illustrates the deep-rooted dysfunctions of the former, while the Philippines showcases the perverse pragmatism of the latter. The other day, many offices of the US … Read more

For more than 10 years, a good number of lawmakers, with the aid of the fixers who assisted them, were able to pocket the entire cash value of their Priority Development Assistance Fund, without anyone in government publicly protesting that there was anything wrong in what they were doing. That is astonishing. It reveals a … Read more

Fate could not have written it better if this was a movie script. The convergence of recent events in our society is filled with many ironies and is deeply disturbing. It invites thoughtful reflection. At the highest level of our government, the country’s most senior senator, who has lived through some of the most critical … Read more

Forty-one years after Ferdinand Marcos imposed authoritarian rule on the Filipino nation, we tell ourselves with all conviction that never again should we permit this to happen.  But, the first step toward preventing the nightmare of dictatorial rule from becoming a reality is by understanding the conditions of its possibility. Martial law was not the … Read more

One does not need to have a Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or e-mail account to realize how vastly different today’s demonstrations are from those that led to the downfall of the Marcos regime 40 years ago. Organizing “mass actions,” as they were then called, involved a lot of planning, coordination, and negotiation among the … Read more

As a rule, people almost everywhere tend to be distrustful of their politicians. So long as the rest of the government functions smoothly, however, this skepticism hardly affects the nation’s social system as a whole. But, one can imagine to what new depths the trust ratings of Filipino congressmen and senators have sunk in the … Read more

It’s an outrageous way of calling attention to one’s lingering presence. But that is what the arrival the other day in Zamboanga City of armed groups identified with Nur Misuari, the founding leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), amounts to. The plan to march in formation through the city’s streets and hoist the … Read more

When the world was much less interconnected, it was already difficult to keep the internal conflicts of nations from spilling beyond their borders.  It seemed axiomatic even then for protagonists in civil wars to seek outside support.  At the same time, external forces tended to see in civil wars opportunities to expand their influence or … Read more

In the light of the P10-billion pork barrel scam allegedly masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles with the implied consent of members of Congress, some groups now seek to focus public attention on President Aquino’s own pork barrel. So as not to muddle the issues, we might usefully sort out the various meanings attached to the term … Read more

The correct term is “state’s witness,” says Dr. Sylvia Ventura, my professor in English at the University of the Philippines. To turn “state’s witness” is for a suspect, an accused, or a convicted person to give testimony against his or her accomplices or associates in a crime in exchange for immunity from prosecution, or reduced … Read more