(Note: This piece was first published a few years ago in the e-zine Archipelago.) It’s not one of the earth-shaking puzzlers of Philippine life in this century, but a question outsiders looking in still ask whenever someone dies in either a UP fraternity hazing or inter-fraternity war: why should a young man with his entire [...]
Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Barbarians
Posted in General on September 1, 2007 | 14 Comments »
Beyond fraud
Posted in General on April 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
(unpublished column) Forty percent of Filipinos, says an SWS survey commissioned by the opposition, believe that Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will cheat in behalf of her candidates this May. Twenty percent don’t think so, but another 35 percent aren’t sure–which means that they’re entertaining the possibility that she would. Together with the conviction among some [...]
Birds of a feather
Posted in General on December 9, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
At the height of Thai claims, led by no less than Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, that the Philippines was cheating in the Southeast Asian Games, a Thai official declared that the friendship between the Philippines and Thailand remains and that Thaksin and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are themselves fast friends. They should be, considering how much in [...]
Reliving the past
Posted in General on November 8, 2005 | 1 Comment »
Filipinos have lived with US troops for over a hundred years. These troops replaced Spanish officers and soldiers in the aftermath of the failed 1986 Revolution, the last stages of which the United States pretended to support. The US war for the annexation of the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century meant the [...]
Madness in its method
Posted in General on October 18, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Former President Fidel Ramos’ claim that all the talk about the imposition of martial rule is nonsense has been echoed by a number of politicians and media commentators. Primarily they cite the conditions and limits the 1987 Constitution imposes on any declaration of martial law, or attempt to do so. Section 18 of Article VII [...]
Visiting “Amerika”
Posted in General on September 30, 2005 | 14 Comments »
The United States is “America” to most people. But that word refers to the continent, and when applied to the US is better spelled with a “k,” as in “swastika”. It’s the country most Filipinos want to visit. But if you’ve ever been involved in any group or activity faintly progressive; if you have relatives [...]
Dynasty
Posted in General on September 12, 2005 | 6 Comments »
What happened to the impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives–aptly labeled a “killing” by the pro-impeachment alliance and the media–was inevitable, among other reasons because of the presence and dominance of political dynasties in that chamber. The House reeks with the names of the wives, children, sons and daughters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, cousins, nephews [...]
EDSA history, revised
Posted in General on September 9, 2005 | 2 Comments »
It is tempting to blame the vagaries of memory for his most recent statement on the 1986 People Power revolt. Juan Ponce Enrile is after all at least 80. Having bolted the opposition a month or so ago, and now an administration voice in the Senate, the former Marcos Defense Minister recently said over national [...]
The Falsehood Commission
Posted in General on September 6, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
The Arroyo government, as Archbishop Oscar Cruz so aptly describes it, is without values, morals and principles, and one of the values it least respects is truth. Archbishop Cruz alleges that it has bribed and threatened witnesses implicating Mrs. Arroyo and her family in the jueteng pay-offs scandal. If true, however, that would be only [...]
Cha-cha is foregone as planned
Posted in General on August 11, 2005 | Leave a Comment »
Its advocates may think that amending the Constitution now would solve the country’s legions of problems by putting in place a supposedly gridlock-free system of governance. The eagerly prospective members of the Constituent Assembly in the House may believe that a “Con-Ass” would assure them an unlimited number of years in the parliament they’re almost [...]
