It seems that in some countries, the availability of guns has become a complex problem. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated, the fatal bullet was fired from a gun assembled from parts fabricated with a 3D printer. Even with the strictest gun control laws, Japan saw its once most powerful person downed by...
Pax Silica is top of mind right now—impossible to escape in the headlines, the protests, the discussions, the arguments online. Before anyone signs anything, it is worth asking what, exactly, we would be agreeing to. The pitch is familiar: quality jobs, major investment, a seat at the table in the global AI and semiconductor value...
There are far more monkey species and monkeys in China than in the Philippines. In China, out of about 20 monkey species, the most numerous with an estimated wild population of 100,000 is the rhesus macaque. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, China was also the leading supplier of monkeys for medical research. On the other hand,...
One of the oldest principles of justice is also one of its simplest: Justice must not only be done, it must also be seen to be done. This principle explains why judges routinely inhibit themselves from cases in which their impartiality may reasonably be questioned. The issue is not always actual bias. More often, it...
Last week’s Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) mobilization along Edsa, later moved to Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila, has invited comparison with the two great People Power uprisings that changed Philippine history. The comparison, while absurd, is understandable. The gatherings occupied the same symbolic space. They involved large crowds. They attracted national attention. But beyond these superficial...
Public demonstrations often become defining moments not because of the number of people in the streets but because of the constitutional questions they raise. The unannounced mobilization on June 30 involving members of the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) following the Ombudsman’s announced plan to charge Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, an INC member, with plunder is one...
People are truthful by default. In theory, this should create a fair and honest world with fewer heartbreak, less crime, better education, and bigger tax refund. Yet here we are, seemingly trapped in a political enterprise where liars get to lead and fools follow. We can all lie, indeed, even a squirrel or a 2-year-old...
It is not often that I reflect on the formal education I received from the Jesuits, which was from elementary school to sophomore year in college at Xavier University Ateneo de Cagayan. But the tragic drowning of Ateneo de Manila University men’s basketball players Rene Baterbonia and Divine Adili on June 8 and Ateneo’s mishandling...
What people don’t realize about beauty pageants is that they are never just about beauty. Beyond the glittering gowns, practiced smiles, and stage lights bright enough to blind, there are girls silently suffering as they pretend to look effortlessly beautiful—feet bruised from high heels, stomachs upset by stress, and minds weighed down by the effort...
What good is an institution that does much harm, has lost its way, and many of whose members steal from the people, circumvent the law, cause divisiveness and discord, pursue their vested interests, and entrench themselves further in power? Clearly, far from good. Nowadays, this is an apt description of the Philippine Senate: far from...
