It was International Dog Day last Saturday, which got me thinking of today’s topic: the way people are taking their dogs to restaurants to eat out. For the Philippines, that’s such a change away from eating dogs.…
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has sounded the alarm on “unsustainable” pensions for our military and other uniformed personnel (MUP), warning of an imminent fiscal collapse if reforms are not initiated soon. The MUP includes the Armed Forces…
Next Sunday is the lunar new year, which gives an excuse to those who haven’t given year-end and Christmas holiday gifts yet to catch up. Then, too, it’s always a topic for conversations around the Chinese zodiac…
Last weekend, right before New Year’s, I received news about an acquaintance who ran over and killed someone on the highway in Tagaytay at 2 o’clock in the morning. He was DUI, driving under the influence of…
I’ve told the story many times over about how, until I became UP Diliman chancellor in 2014, I was your typical nerd who knew virtually nothing about sports. I have to admit it wasn’t just ignorance, but…
It was my first, and I hope the last, time to get COVID, more than two years into the pandemic. I was going to title my column “To hell and back” but no, bad as it was,…
This was a terrible time last year, the COVID-19 death toll climbing since its start early in 2020, and peaking, in the Philippines, around the month of September with the deadly Delta strain. COVID-19 raised a new…
I first got my GSIS (Government Service Insurance System) retirement pension after I turned 65 in 2017. At that time, I opted to get a five-year lump sum since I was still serving as UP Diliman chancellor…
