March 2020 was when the government placed the Philippines under near-total lockdown. The COVID-19 virus had landed. But we had no idea what was down the road and how, if there would be a pandemic, it would…
In the news again are clamors for the belated compensation and apologies due to Filipino comfort women/sex slaves, now aging and fewer in number, who suffered at the hands of the Japanese military in World War II.…
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger, German) died on Dec. 31, 2022 at the age of 95 and was laid to rest yesterday amid solemn rites at the Vatican City. As we all know, he resigned from…
It has been all of three years. How time moved exceedingly slow during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic that the world went through, that you and I endured and survived, but which millions did not.…
The unfolding of new information on the Oct. 3 murder of broadcaster and vlogger Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa of the “Lapid Fire” radio program reads like a classic whodunit. There was the surrender and confession on Oct.…
Let me get this out before all else: Hear ye! While I do not wish it, a curse may befall those who intentionally delay the legal processes to block the release of former senator Leila de Lima…
A most profound question one writer asked a revolutionary fighter, who survived the battle of his life, was not how bloody difficult it was or how he won the battle. It was: “Were you afraid?” Were you…
Pan de sal, the Filipino breakfast and merienda staple—with palaman or without—was the first to pop up in my mind. (Sal is Spanish for salt.) Next was the biblical saying on becoming “the salt of the earth”…
Hate begets hate, and hatemongering further fuels one’s own hate until it becomes deadly and is consummated in a bloody carnage. Hatemongering is defined as stirring up feelings of hatred by inflammatory speech or writing. These feelings…
Inquirer’s banner story two days ago: “Court finds Marcopper liable for 1993 disaster.” Yes, after all hell broke loose in Marinduque 28 years and five months ago and after a 21-year legal battle. The 30-plus plaintiffs, the…
Historical revisionists would like to equate truth-telling with hate-mongering. That to tell the brutal truth is to arouse hatred among innocents, that it is stoking hatred for those who had brought harm and injury to their victims,…
Before all else, let me say that someone I personally know told me that in their Caloocan City barangay, a former relocation area for informal settlers, forms are being offered for voters to fill out and sign…
