Waiting in line for my turn at a Landbank ATM in the UP campus the other day, I started to fret at seeing the queue wasn’t moving. Two women were hogging the machine and serially withdrawing money. They shuffled what looked like a deck of plastic cards while routinely consulting a small notebook. “Wow,” I … Read more
It’s been three weeks now since the start of the standoff with China at Scarborough Shoal, a group of mostly submerged rocks in the West Philippine Sea that the Philippines and China are claiming as part of their respective territories. While a diplomatic way out of the impasse is being sought, a complex signaling exercise … Read more
The other night, just before 9, a gunman aboard a heavily tinted vehicle fired four shots in the direction of my house inside the University of the Philippines campus. Because the bullets hit something very close to where I was at the time, I instinctively ducked but didn’t feel alarmed. I was quite sure the … Read more
You don’t pick a fight with someone bigger than you. But if you must defend yourself, you need to find an ally as big as he is, or get the backing of other small entities that may feel similarly threatened. Such support has its own costs. It may mean giving up certain things in return, … Read more
As he marks his 75th birthday today (Thursday), Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the one the masses adoringly call “Erap,” has all the reason to look back at his sturdy political career of 45 years, and say he’s not done yet. No other president, apart from Ramon Magsaysay and Cory Aquino, has been able to retain the … Read more
On A day like this, at the beginning of what threatens to be a long hot summer, Metro Manila’s residents search desperately for outdoor places where they can spread a mat, read a book, take a nap, or laze around with the children in the cool shade of big trees. Alas, outside of the UP … Read more
The Inquirer editorial yesterday got it right: “Same old, same old,” referring to the familiar names that are expected to adorn the 2013 senatorial slate of the newly-registered United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). UNA’s list includes Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Cynthia Villar, Alan Cayetano, Jackie Ponce Enrile, Gringo Honasan, JV Ejercito, Joey De Venecia, Jamby Madrigal, … Read more
The term “interbeing” (“Tiep hien” in Vietnamese) was coined by the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, to refer to the interconnectedness of all things. We cannot, he says, set sharp boundaries between our bodies and the elements that constitute us—like the air and the water and the food we take. When the air we exhale … Read more
Nothing perhaps could be more embarrassing for a nation’s leader than to represent his country in a forum abroad just after his administration has been decisively defeated in an election at home. An electoral repudiation is an eloquent way of telling the world that a president has lost the right to speak for his people. … Read more
Not many names begin with the letter “X,” and this is probably the first thing that is different about my third grandchild, Xavier, the firstborn of our youngest daughter Jika. The name that his parents have given him is of Basque origin, and is not easy to pronounce. While most Filipinos would say “Zay-vyer,” the … Read more