GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Society invests so much power in the police and other law enforcement agencies based on an implicit trust that these powers will be wielded responsibly and for the protection of citizens. When these powers are abused, which we have seen happen...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Last week, the House of Representatives announced that it will be resuming its deliberation on amending the 1987 Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. The move is said to be a priority of the current House leadership, and with this...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The year began with Rep. Allan Peter Cayetano, the congressman from Taguig and disgraced former Speaker of the House of Representatives, criticizing the current House leadership for allegedly suppressing efforts to weed out corruption among the...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The involvement of policemen in some of the most heinous killings in the country dates as far back as the 1960s, when “killer-cops” became regular headline fodder. It is, therefore not true that the cold-blooded killing by a policeman of a...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay This year, we will be celebrating Christmas under the most trying circumstances. The joyful exuberance that has characterized the Christmas season in our shores is now tempered by caution, if not fear of being infected by the COVID-19 virus....
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Recently, I was able to catch a portion of a talk show on cable television where the guest showed no compunction about his reckless behavior or reined in his self-praise. It was a wanton display of arrogance at a time when we should be...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay Government officials should learn to speak with one voice. This is a basic communication principle that should have been in place nine months ago, when government, after much reluctance, acknowledged the existence of a health crisis. The number...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The secretary of justice, asked to comment about the resurgence of extra-judicial killings with lawyers as victims, admitted having difficulty in investigating and prosecuting the killers and the masterminds. He described the killings as...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay A threat to withhold funding for the University of the Philippines (UP) has been made apparently in response to a call for an “academic strike.” It appears irrelevant that the call was originally made not by UP by its affluent neighbor...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay As I write this column, Typhoon Ulysses has transformed Cagayan and Isabela, the home province of my mother, into an ocean of tears and tragedy. Prior to its arrival, the typhoon ravaged towns and cities already reeling from the devastation...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay A devastating super-typhoon ravaged the country last week, narrowly sparing Metro Manila but leaving a wake of destruction in large parts of Bicol. Not only did it displace thousands of families, it also battered the region’s agricultural...
GOVERNANCE MATTERS Former Vice President Jejomar Binay The National Security Adviser, who is also the head of the government task force against communism, attempted last week to contain the self-inflicted damage wrought by his overzealous spokesperson’s red-tagging of several celebrities by...
