From clinics to pharmacies, YAKAP reshapes how care is delivered—closing gaps, restoring trust, and making prevention part of everyday life. By the time PhilHealth began speaking more openly about prevention, much of the groundwork had already been laid. Institutional discipline...

As PhilHealth recalibrates its role under universal health care, leadership and culture converge to make prevention practical, accessible, and trusted. Universal health care has long been framed as a matter of access and financing—who gets covered, what services are included,...

As PhilHealth recalibrates its role under UHC, its physician-leader rethinks how systems shape outcomes. Before “yakap” ever became part of a national health lexicon, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) was already navigating one of the most consequential inflection points...

BY AMBASSADOR KAZUYA ENDO — This year, exceptional exchanges have so far elevated the 70th anniversary of Philippines-Japan Friendship to greater heights of trust and closeness. Grounded on a theme of “Weaving the Future Together: Peace, Prosperity, Possibilities,” various deepening...

In the history of mankind, wars have taken away far more than it created anything. The 1945 Battle of Manila and the recent attacks in Ukraine's capital of Kyiv have shown us what we lose as a species when...

One day, toward the end of 1967, National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera sat down to look critically at the state of Philippine literature and what sorts of styles and literary figures have come to the scene.  Lumbera’s particular interest...

ONLY the very naive or the very cynical would try to predict the future course of Philippine literature. There are only the weekly magazines or the occasional books as signposts to indicate trends, and these signposts do not give very coherent directions.

How did China make the leap from being one of Asia’s poorest nations to becoming a global economic behemoth—all in a little more than six decades? In 2013, China emerged as the primary engine of global economic growth, officially surpassing...

While examining the archives of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, I encountered an albumen photograph labelled “Sala de pintura y escultura at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris.” The image is attributed to Juan Laurent—one of the most important...

BY HIS own admission, the young Orlando “Orly” Mercado was “a dyed-in-the-wool, left-wing activist,” having organized his first labor union shortly after beginning his broadcast journalism career. Born on April 26, 1946, he was only 20 years old when he...

Angelic, with a hint of sadness and uncertainty framing an otherwise cherubic, smiling face, the boy is small, thin, amiable, and sprightly. When asked what he wanted to be when he grows up, he quickly answered: “Gusto ko po maging...