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1 week ago | 
opinion.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Yes, I don’t want chaos. I want everyone to be on good terms with each other. That would be better,” President Marcos declared (in Filipino) in a wide-ranging podcast episode following the midterm elections. “I have had too many enemies, I don’t need any additional ones—what I need is friendship.” The President effectively admitted that his coalition heavily underperformed in the recent midterm elections, which were supposed to serve as a referendum on his administration.
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1 week ago | 
plus.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Yes, I don’t want chaos. I want everyone to be on good terms with each other. That would be better,” President Marcos declared (in Filipino) in a wide-ranging podcast episode following the midterm elections. “I have had too many enemies, I don’t need any additional ones—what I need is friendship.” The President effectively admitted that his coalition heavily underperformed in the recent midterm elections, which were supposed to serve as a referendum on his administration.
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2 weeks ago | 
opinion.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
A fluid political landscape just got messier. Far from creating a decisive outcome, last week’s midterm elections created even more political uncertainty. On the surface, it was a disaster for the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, which heavily underperformed in a couple of key races. Its allies lost in major urban areas, such as Manila, Cebu, and Baguio, while the Duterte dynasty eviscerated its Marcos-backed competition in Davao.
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2 weeks ago | 
plus.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
A fluid political landscape just got messier. Far from creating a decisive outcome, last week’s midterm elections created even more political uncertainty. On the surface, it was a disaster for the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, which heavily underperformed in a couple of key races. Its allies lost in major urban areas, such as Manila, Cebu, and Baguio, while the Duterte dynasty eviscerated its Marcos-backed competition in Davao.
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3 weeks ago | 
thenationalnews.com | Richard Javad Heydarian
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr casts his ballot in Batac City on Monday. Marcos Jr has three years left in office. AP
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3 weeks ago | 
opinion.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Arguably, the biggest takeaway from Philippine elections in the past decade is that our opposition didn’t have much of a takeaway from its successive defeats. In all mature democracies, besieged opposition forces are expected to engage in three fundamental actions: (1) learn to build coalitions beyond narrow cliques and electoral niches, (2) hold the line beyond and in between elections, and (3) produce a proper “postmortem” after any major electoral setback.
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3 weeks ago | 
plus.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Arguably, the biggest takeaway from Philippine elections in the past decade is that our opposition didn’t have much of a takeaway from its successive defeats. In all mature democracies, besieged opposition forces are expected to engage in three fundamental actions: (1) learn to build coalitions beyond narrow cliques and electoral niches, (2) hold the line beyond and in between elections, and (3) produce a proper “postmortem” after any major electoral setback.
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1 month ago | 
opinion.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Just over a month after pro-Duterte troll farms and aligned traditional politicians tried to silence yours truly for factually pointing out the unfathomable Human Development Index disparities in the country, yet another set of statistics confirmed my basic hypothesis.
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1 month ago | 
plus.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Just over a month after pro-Duterte troll farms and aligned traditional politicians tried to silence yours truly for factually pointing out the unfathomable Human Development Index disparities in the country, yet another set of statistics confirmed my basic hypothesis.
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1 month ago | 
opinion.inquirer.net | Richard Javad Heydarian
Signs of crisis were everywhere: declining Mass attendance, large-scale conversations with evangelical Christian groups. The stream of scandals torpedoed the reputation of countless priests and fueled all sorts of conspiracy theories about the Church. There was growing chasm between the Vatican and its exhortations, on one hand, and the global mainstream culture and transformative legislative developments across Catholic-majority democracies, on the other.
