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This week marks the 34th year of the historic 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution. It is also the fourth time President Duterte is, according to his spokesperson, staying home — consciously ignoring whatever significance the event may still hold for some Filipinos.
Still, Edsa, by law, is a (...)
An odd, unpleasant photograph was taken forty-five years ago today. Imelda Marcos, the conjugal head of a two year old military dictatorship, intimately greeted the aged Chairman Mao who openly ogled the straightcut neckline of her terno. The martial law regime of the Marcoses, imposed on the (...)
By emotional disposition, Filipinos tend to harbor a deep suspicion of China. This is confirmed by a succession of public opinion surveys showing the Filipino public’s huge distrust for this Asian hegemon. It is an attitude that far exceeds any negative sentiment we may have against Spain, the (...)
In a previous column written after the 2016 presidential election, I interpreted the rise of Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency as the “revolt of the periphery.” The avalanche of Mindanao votes for the maverick former Davao City mayor, I thought, was emblematic of the strong reaction to an (...)
Editor’s note: Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New Peoples’ Army, asked for arms and monetary support from China’s communist Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. Famed geologist and left-wing revolutionary Rolando Peña navigated the MV Karagatan, a (...)
Rolando Peña, arguably the country’s most important geologist, passed away on November 30, 2018. His scholarly work on Philippine geology and stratigraphy show not just a vast intellectual sweep, but an enduring love for his country.
“He has a third eye for rocks,” said geologist and friend Noe (...)
The election of President Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines in 2016 has drawn considerable international attention. The worldwide media has heavily featured his blunt public remarks and the widespread deaths associated with his “drug war”. Some have also drawn parallels between his (...)
Alex De Jong on the Philippines in the global ’68.
“1968” came to the Philippines two years late. When it did arrive, it exploded with fury. In 1970, the Philippines was a democratic republic but president Ferdinand Marcos’ authoritarian tendencies and desire to remain in office beyond his term (...)
Mike de Leon’s new film, “Citizen Jake,” is a psychosocial drama that focuses on the personal contradictions of a crusading upper middle class “citizen journalist” who appears to lack insight into his own privileges. His inquiry into a gruesome crime leads him to a profound realization of the (...)
Academics like myself who have studied revolutions in other countries initially approached the unfolding event at Edsa in February 1986 with great skepticism. Revolution was certainly on no one’s lips at that point. That this could be a turning point in any meaningful sense was farthest from (...)
Thousands have been killed in his domestic anti-drug campaign. Now, as he hosts Trump at a summit in Manila, new brutal revelations put him back in the headlines.
‘Am I the death squad? That is true’: Rodrigo Duterte at last week’s Apec summit in Da Nang
The litany of horrific comments that have (...)
In its first year in operation, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ has cost more than 13,000 lives and left the country mired in a human rights crisis. One of the organisations at the forefront of opposing Duterte’s war is In Defence of Human Rights and Dignity Movement, iDefend, (...)
It was a humid night in July 1974 in Zamboanga City when I was arrested by agents of the National Intelligence Security Agency (Nisa). I was then in my hometown for the funeral of my grandmother, Isabel Cortez Climaco. The warrant for my arrest cited me for “subversion” and I was flown back to (...)
Syriza continues to oversee the implementation of austerity. But all is not hopeless in Greece.
In Greece, it’s not quite accurate to talk about the “rise and fall” of the left-wing party Syriza. “Rise and plateau” would be more fitting.
Syriza came to power in January 2015 promising to confront (...)
Revisionism becoming rife amid signs the descendants of the former dictator have never been closer to a political comeback.
“It’s basically like playing in the sandbox. You build a sandcastle and then another kid comes along and just kicks it over.” That’s how it feels to be on the front lines of (...)
Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years. Susan F. Quimpo and Nathan Gilbert Quimpo. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2016. 485 pages, index. Reviewed by Alex de Jong.
In the foreword to (Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years, the authors write it “was not intended (...)
Like a bolt of lightning in a stormy sky, the ambassador of Turkey to Manila, Esra Cankorur, has revealed that terrorists from her own country are active in the Philippines, using private schools, civic forums, and business organizations as fronts. Philippine officials are expected not to take (...)
As we mark the 119th anniversary of the declaration of our people’s emancipation from Spain, it is worth revisiting the values and experiences that led us to that historic event. There are many forms of nationalism. In the light of what is happening in the world today, we should bear in mind (...)
Even as we grieve and condole with the families of the victims of the attack by a lone gunman at the Resorts World Manila casino and hotel, the question that will linger in our minds is what we ourselves would have done if we had been there on that fateful evening. Would we have rushed to the (...)
A MEASURE OF JUSTICE: Victims of martial law crimes call for accountability and new directions.
On May 8, 2017, four thousand victims of human rights violations under the Marcos martial law regime received recognition and compensation from the Philippine government. They are the survivors of (...)
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