In their final debate, which focused on foreign policy, US President Barack Obama called America “the indispensable nation,” echoing a phrase coined during the Clinton years. The less eloquent Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, came up with an equally glowing portrayal of his country as “the hope of the earth.” Wow. We know that America is … Read more

The announcement that Newsweek, the magazine, will cease publication at the end of the year, and will henceforth be available only in digital form, is seen by media observers as marking the end of an era. It has revived talk about the impending death of the print media. But I suspect the issue goes much … Read more

The Commission on Elections has embarked on the unenviable task of cleansing the party-list system by weeding out groups that do not measure up to its understanding of what it means to represent a “marginalized” and “underrepresented” sector. This is a job that has long been waiting to be done; tackling it is far from … Read more

When film and TV director Marilou Diaz-Abaya succumbed to breast cancer at 57 on Oct. 8, I remembered the strange conversation we had a couple of years back. She had just learned that her cancer had returned after a wonderful absence of more than a year. From out of the blue, she asked if I … Read more

The “Framework agreement” jointly drawn by the negotiating panels of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a significant advance in the protracted quest for peace in Muslim Mindanao. But, even as we bank on the inherent infectiousness of peace agreements, we should be wary about expecting too much too soon. The agreement, … Read more

The approval and trust ratings of the top public officials, as reported in Pulse Asia’s latest survey, probably tell us more about the nature of Philippine politics than they might suggest at first glance. President Aquino’s ratings are at 78 percent, up by 11 percent from the previous quarter, which is unusually high for a … Read more

What’s wrong with having a father and son (Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and candidate Jack Ponce Enrile), or a brother and sister (Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano), or two brothers (Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and candidate JV Ejercito) sitting together as senators in a 24-member chamber? What’s wrong with having the wife succeed her husband … Read more

On the front page of the Inquirer yesterday, there is a fascinating photograph of the main personalities who came to the launch of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s memoirs. This picture is worth a thousand words. It shows four seated figures: Imelda Marcos, Cristina Ponce Enrile, Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE), and Benigno S. Aquino III … Read more

Universities in the modern world have been able to host some of the most pathbreaking advances in knowledge by providing an environment in which independent thinkers may pursue intellectual work without fear.  But developing this capacity is not the easiest thing in the world. Universities need enormous amounts of resources that cannot be met by … Read more

Martial law aimed to wipe out the communist insurgency, but ironically it turned into the single most important recruitment tool of the communist movement. How did this happen? The first arrests that were carried out just after midnight of Sept. 23, 1972, targeted high-profile figures from the legal opposition, the press, the academe, and the … Read more