Global oil markets have largely calmed.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has recovered after fears that the Iran-Israel conflict and subsequent U.S. military involvement...
Why are we still broken as a nation? A foreign friend once told me that in his country, if events involving large-scale plunder of public funds occurred, the culprits would either commit hara-kiri or face life imprisonment. But here, we lost two trillion pesos after fifteen or more contractor companies, an unknown number of legislators, and a large, organized syndicate of DPWH officials conspired to amass a staggering amount of public money.
Political scientists have long argued that protests alone rarely transform political systems. Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow, and Doug McAdam observed that demonstrations become effective only when they are part of broader political opportunities, sustained organization, and institutional pressure. More recently, Erica Chenoweth's extensive research on civil resistance found that successful movements require persistent participation, strategic organization, and the ability to shift the loyalties of institutions—not merely symbolic marches.
The Philippines has once again responded to a tragedy involving young people with a familiar reflex: panic first, think later.
Following the shooting involving students in Tacloban, attention has quickly shifted toward online games, social media, and a proposed Senate inquiry. The implication is clear.
Somewhere inside a computer screen lies the explanation for why young Filipinos would commit violence against one another.
It is a comforting theory.
It is also probably the wrong one.
The greatest tragedy of the Philippine nation may not be its poverty, its corruption, or even its perpetual political crises. Its greatest tragedy is the ruling elite's stubborn refusal to recognize that the institutions governing the Republic are no longer merely dysfunctional — they are approaching systemic failure.
More than 129 years after the Katipunan Revolution, the Filipino struggle for kalayaan remains unfinished. From the bolo of 1896 to the laptop of 2026, the battle has shifted from colonial oppression to modern economic systems that continue to limit true freedom.
Since 2025, when news of the staggering 1-trillion-peso large-scale theft came to public consciousness, many of us weren't surprised.
At the back of our minds,...
