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By Francisco Lara Jr.

(Francisco Lara Jr. is a research associate at the Crisis States Research Center, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics.)

The eruption of violence and the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao exposes the dynamics of collaboration and conflict between allies who advance their interests in conditions of war. Without this backdrop the recent declaration of martial law will be seen as baseless, unnecessary, and rife with hidden agendas. Why should government declare martial law in an area which had been under de-facto military rule over the past two weeks?

By Marvic M.V.F. Leonen

Dean and Professor of Law University of the Philippines

The heinous massacre of civilians in Ampatuan, Maguindanao deserves competence of the highest order in the gathering, preserving, and evaluation of evidence as well as in the subsequent arrest and prosecution of its perpetrators. It should also be the platform for a sober approach that will comprehensively address the issue of private armies of misguided politicians. Any meaningful solution should be led by civilians preferably those who can remain independent of influence from national public officials who have openly declared partisan interests in the upcoming election.

By Francisco "Pancho" Lara Jr. Research Associate at the Crisis States Research Center, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics.

The Maguindanao massacre predicts the eruption of wider violence and conflict as the nation heads towards the 2010 elections. Yet to dismiss this incident as "election-related" is to miss the fundamental political and economic implications of this evil deed. The massacre is rooted in the shift in politico-economic sources of violence and conflict in Muslim Mindanao. It signifies the emergence of new-type warlords whose powers depend upon their control of a vast illegal and shadow economy and an ever-growing slice of internal revenue allotments (IRA). Both factors induce a violent addiction to political office.

By Atty. Marie Francesca Therese J. Yuvienco

Writers are always told: Show, don’t tell. So when I tell you that the wheels of justice in this country grind slowly, not only should I be hauled off to writer’s gaol for repeating a cliché, I should also be committed to solitary confinement for committing the cardinal vice of telling, not showing. But if I tell you that in a month’s time, 23 years will have elapsed since the gruesomely tortured bodies of labor leader Ka Lando Olalia and Leonor Alay-ay were found discarded in a secluded area in Antipolo without a single perpetrator having been brought to justice, will that satisfy the rule?

By Dodong Nemenzo

ALMOST 300 people were killed in the worst flood brought by Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana). Damage to agriculture and public and private infrastructures has been extensive. Now tens of thousands are homeless, living in packed temporary shelters, dependent on food donations, and with vague ideas of what their future would be, as two more typhoons threaten the Philippines.

By Ramil Digal Gulle

All I wanted to do on Saturday morning was to go to my doctor. After getting off the MRT station in Kamuning (about 10 am) I waded through ankle-deep floodwaters to accompany my wife to the TV station where she works. The rest of the day was already clear in my head: Go to the doctor, finish my business there by around lunchtime (there are usually quite a number of patients, and I wasn't expecting to finish earlier than that), pick up my wife and we go home for some needed time with the kids.

By Senator Richard Gordon

The question remains, are we worthy? In this day and age, in spite of all the martyrdom of many of our heroes, it would appear that we have not learned our lessons.

Corruption is still upon us; our military die and rebels die in war; there seems to be untrammeled assassinations in our country; motorcycle assassins abound; many mayors, many journalists, many politicians have been killed; apparently, we all know how to talk about the problem but we can't seem to fix it.

By Veronica Uy

I could not understand my grief at the passing of President Corazon Aquino. As an arrogantly faithless teenager in 1986, I and fellow organized nat-dem youths had chosen to boycott the snap presidential elections. The choice seemed clear to many, but the idea of toppling a mighty dictatorship using the ballot seemed impossible, if not foolish.

By Cate de Leon

Tagline: Send comments to catgdeleon@ yahoo.com or drop the author a line at http://writer-cat.livejournal.com.

I RECENTLY attended an anthropological lecture on Philippine tribes by Prof. Cherubim Quizon at the UP College of Arts and Letters. But what interested me more was not the lecture itself, but the very first question posed by a woman in the audience, a professor in speech communication. Her words:

By Gigo Alampay

It could all begin with the fact that we are an archipelago, a collection of islands--some big, some small, some gone when the tide is up--separated from one another, and bound together only by legal fiction.

Similarly, as a people, we are more like a collection of tribes or regions or provinces. It is easier to talk about the traits, quirkiness, and stereotypes (fair and unfair) of Batanguenos or Ilocanos or Ilonggos or Muslims or the people from Imperial Manila, than it is to define what exactly it is to be a Filipino.