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By Randy David
To my last column on the current conflict between the Philippines and Taiwan, a country with whom, until recently, we have had only friendly relations, a reader from Canada has written a most thoughtful rejoinder. He wishes to remain anonymous, but, with his permission, I will quote from the rich account he has shared of his experience as a former official of the Canadian department of fisheries in charge of enforcing maritime fishing boundaries. His job entailed protecting his country’s fishery from poachers coming from other countries.
Posted: May 22nd, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
In an ideal world, how would the recent shooting by the Philippine Coast Guard of a Taiwanese fishing boat, which resulted in the killing of one of the fishermen, have been handled? I think that both Filipino and Taiwanese authorities might have immediately sought one another to express grave concern over the incident, and to offer cooperation to ascertain the facts. Both would have drawn assurance from the fact that, despite national differences, a legal order was in place and could be trusted to work.
Posted: May 18th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
“What do you make of this, Kuya?” my younger brother Ambo, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, Pampanga, asked me last Monday, as he showed me an envelope addressed to him containing the campaign leaflet of a party-list nominee and a crisp P200 bill. “All the other priests at my parish got the same envelope through the mail,” he said. “I think the sender had no idea we are priests.”
Posted: May 15th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Electing public officials is the most important act of any citizen in any democracy. Here we choose people who will have the power to make decisions that bind all of us. If we try to do it rationally, we will find that it is also one of the most complex things we can do in life.
Posted: May 11th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
It is a testimony to the undifferentiated nature of our political system that many other social institutions are mobilized during elections. There’s the family, there’s religion, there’s the business sector, and then there’s the science of surveys. Their chief purveyors try to convert the power they wield into the currency of politics. We are disturbed [...]
Posted: May 8th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
The rise in the number of unemployed Filipinos in the midst of economic growth has made our government officials take a serious look at the current economic strategy. This pattern of jobless growth partly explains why the level of mass poverty in our country has remained unchanged even as the economy seems to be growing.
Posted: May 4th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Some moral progress is noticeable in the way we now refer to our house help, though not always in the way we treat them. First we called them alila (servant), a term that recalls the feudal culture from which it was drawn.
Posted: May 1st, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Preelection surveys do often take the form of self-fulfilling oracles. This happens when voters find the published results so compelling as to make them vote according to the predictions. The opposite, of course, can happen. Voters may react to survey results in such a way as to be motivated to prevent them from being realized in the elections. I would say that, in general, for all the lip service we pay to underdogs, our political culture tends to blindly favor winners and junk losers.
Posted: April 27th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Bizarre as it is, politicians running for local positions have come to accept it as part of the political reality: that in some remote Philippine communities, candidates must secure a clearance from armed illegal groups before they can enter an area and campaign. The permit to campaign is normally given in exchange for a cash “contribution” to the kilusan (movement), a cryptic reference to the armed struggle led by the Communist Party and the New People’s Army (NPA).
Posted: April 24th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
I had strong reservations about going on a long motorcycle ride in this sweltering summer heat. When you are on a bike and you are going fast, you don’t notice you are sweating. The water your body secretes to cool you down evaporates in the wind as quickly as it forms on the skin. Dehydration occurs faster than the brain can process what’s happening. I’ve seen a fellow biker literally wilt in the sun, drop his bike, pick himself up, and remember nothing afterwards.
Posted: April 20th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
It’s one of those moments in a democracy when we’re reminded that the rights of citizenship come with corresponding duties. I refer to the fact that the deadline for the filing of income tax returns this year came just a month before the midterm elections. This fortuitous sequencing of two vital events that mark our lives as citizens should make it clear that paying one’s tax obligations is as important as exercising one’s right to vote.
Posted: April 17th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in February this year highlights three interesting findings on the state of Catholicism in the Philippines. First, that weekly church attendance has significantly gone down from a high of 64 percent in July 1991 to a low of 37 percent in February 2013. Second, that only 29 percent of Filipino Catholics consider themselves “very religious,” compared to 50 percent among Protestants, 43 percent among Iglesia ni Cristo members, and 38 percent among Muslims. And finally, that 9.2 percent (one out of 11) “sometimes think of leaving the Church.” Are these findings indicative of a looming crisis of faith among Filipino Catholics?
Posted: April 13th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
