It was in one of those dinner conversations with artist friends Sonia Yrastorza, Jojo Sagayno and two others from the group CAI (Cebu Artists, Incorporated) days after the magnitude 6.7 earthquake devastated my hometown Surigao City, that…
The arrest of Senator Leila de Lima timed exactly during the rather lukewarm commemoration of the 1986 Edsa Revolution last February 24 made some us wonder whether we are just about to repeat that moment of history,…
Most people celebrate February as the month of love. But for artists and art lovers in the Philippines, the second month of the year is also the National Arts Month. So the love fever comes with the…
My recent trip to Pagadian City brought me back to the time when I first came to this place in 1994. For more than a month during the summer of that year, I joined an archaeological field…
When this column sees print, I shall be in Pagadian City to attend the National Schools Press Conference (NSPC) that the city is hosting this year. I have been invited by Director Isabelita Borres of the Department…
As I write this on a Saturday, my mobile phone strangely shows no signal. This came after we got a text from the network last night that it will be shutting down for the weekend, starting today.…
Last Thursday, December 29, was a special day for me as it was the birthday of my late grandfather, Tomas Gonzales Paredes. It was also the 118th anniversary of the Independence of Cebu from Spanish rule. And,…
One of the most common moral dilemma is how to do a good turn and resist the temptation to advertise it. We are all guilty of it, this urge to announce our acts of charity and how…
As I write this today, December 10, the world celebrates International Human Rights Day. It commemorates the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on this day in 1948, a…
There’s one Filipino Christmas decor that used to be ubiquitous: the cheap cardboard pop-up belen (nativity scene) you can just buy from any sari-sari store. We used to buy one to place under the Christmas tree (usually…
It was in August this year when I last joined a protest rally. Back in college, joining a rally or “mob” (short for mobilization) as we called it, was part of our regular schedule being student activists.…
Before President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Japan, there was his more controversial visit to China, where he officially announced our country’s “separation” from the United States. Acting like a global toughie while obviously trying to please his…
