Out of my mind

This is my column today, February 25, 2014. I was in Davao City over the weekend and saw for myself the much-vaunted changes happening in the city.  The tell-tale signs of high-speed growth were palpable all over the city.  For instance, I visited the residence of a cousin in Ma-a District and was blown away by the massive and speedy transformation that has taken place in a district which used to be largely comprised of rice fields and whose main claim to recognition was being host to the Davao City jail.   Today, there are condominium buildings being erected and a number of commercial establishments have sprouted all over the district.  And as if to further validate the city’s claim of being in the cusp of transformation, traffic jams were also evident during rush hours.  Yes, Davao City is experiencing rapid growth and development.  But what visitors will probably take note of while in Davao City is the way the city has assumed the distinction ...

This is my column today. The circus, also known as the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, resumes today. We expect the fireworks to be more spectacular this time around because it is the turn of the defense to take the floor at the Senate. We want to know how Corona is going to explain the discrepancies between the items declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth and the bank statements presented in the impeachment court. We are being conditioned to believe that the millions of pesos in Corona’s bank accounts didn’t belong to him but to his wife’s family corporation. It seems too much of a stretch to believe that yarn because as a banker I know that most people in this country do maintain separate bank accounts for funds intended for separate purposes. It’s just so much more convenient, intuitive and commonsensical to do it that way. Then again, he has not officially presented his defense so if we must judge the man, we must first give him his day in ...

This is my column today. What a relief to hear no less than the prince of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, the Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Tagle, slam the growing commercialization of weddings in this country. I’m not a conservative person, but I am not blind or deaf to situations that break social norms. In remarks delivered at the Manila Archdiocesan General Pastoral Assembly last week, Tagle chastised Filipino couples and their wedding planners and coordinators and told them to stop all the “ka-ek-ekan” (gayspeak for frivolities) associated with weddings. I also liked the fact that Tagle didn’t deliver his message in a scathing, fire-and-brimstone manner. Instead of issuing threats and condemnations and warning people of eternal damnation in hell, the archbishop narrated vignettes culled from personal experiences while officiating during weddings. About time someone put people to task for the way weddings in this country have become a pabonggahan (over-the-top) contest....

This is my column today. The irrepressible Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is once again in the maelstrom of public opinion. She, once again, lost her temper at the impeachment trial last week, called the prosecutors “g*go”, and berated them publicly for dismal performance. She also exchanged heated arguments with private prosecutor Vitaliano Aguirre after he covered his ears in public purportedly to avoid “hearing her shrill voice” and, after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile banged the gavel to declare a recess, reportedly confronted Aguirre by standing in front of him daring him to say something to her in person. The behavior was classic, very classic Miriam Defensor Santiago. The repeated use of the words “once again” in the preceding paragraph is deliberate. This is not the first time that the senator made a spectacle of herself. It won’t be the last. Which is why I am stupefied that people are going berserk over Santiago’s behavior. Oh come on, she got elected as senator and co...

This is my column today. The country commemorated over the weekend the 26th anniversary of the people power uprising that has come to be known as Edsa 1. The President, some members of his Cabinet, and some key players of Edsa 1 including former President Fidel Ramos and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile gathered at the People Power Monument to relive the heady days in 1986 when millions of Filipinos occupied the highway, stopped tanks with their bare hands, and pacified with prayers and flowers the armed soldiers sent to obliterate them to smithereens. The question that was top of mind over the weekend was: After 26 years, are we better off as a country and as a people? Put another way, have we successfully purged from our system the evils that we swore would never again bedevil this country and the Filipino people? After 26 years, can we categorically say that we have regained our freedom and our democracy? These are painful questions to ask because we all know the answer to each of...

What follows is a comment left in my post last Monday. It was written by someone who claims to be a relative of Marvin Reglos, the victim of the Lambda Rho Sigma fraternity hazing. I hope we can all empathize with marvin's family and do what we can to ensure that he gets justice. "you are the first person i have seen wrote a blog regarding the death of my nephew. i am abit skeptic on the way Sec. De Lima acted in the presence of what she so called "brods" allegedly accused of the murdering Marvin. if she really is for the "truth" and "justice", she could have used her power to bring forward all of the accused(20 or so i guessed) students who participated in the said hazing incident. How can an ordinary family like us fight the likes of people behind the Greek Lettered brotherhood? how can we follow up on the situation when in fact most of our family is in the province and the investigation is being conducted in Manila? i hope and pray that the j...

This is my column today. Marvin Reglos, freshman law student at the San Beda Law School, died last week in the hands of people he aspired to call brothers. He wasn’t the first to offer his life in the name of brotherhood. He wouldn’t be the last. In the same week that Reglos was murdered, hazing was very much in the news as the Supreme Court handed down the final decision on the death of Lenny Villa, victim of the same circumstances that killed Reglos. It took 21 years before the Villas got justice — and it wasn’t even the kind that solved more than two decades of pain and longing. In the same period, key personalities in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona openly acknowledged each other in the middle of the proceedings as “brods.” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile recognized the following as his fraternity brothers: Corona’s chief defense counsel former justice Serafin Cuevas, members of the prosecution team Raul Daza and Arthur Lim, and Senator Judges Edgardo Angara...