Indulge me for a while and let me make the roughest of conjectures: The lowest possible estimate for the total number of oral literary traditions in the country will be no less than four times the total number of...

December 30, 2024 saw the country commemorating the 128th martyrdom anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal at the Luneta Park. Government officials, led by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., participated in the traditional wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the country’s national...

And I have done it again. The days counted revert to none. And just like that, I go by zero day after day. Every step I took in the days I counted, I stepped on again backwards like a...

Meeting Ninotchka Rosca, or Notch, evoked a slice of teenage years. One day, she suddenly popped up among us English Majors, a rather “formidable” and exclusive group, in the eyes of Engineering, Law, and Fine Arts students at the...

Salubong is a Tagalog word I have always associated with St. James, the Apostle, better known as Santiago Apostol to Plarideleños—the people of my hometown, Plaridel, in Bulacan Province.  Santiago Apostol is our town’s patron saint, the star of the...

Many things about Ricky Lee’s life are worth rewinding. As he turns 76 this March 19, he has obviously come to terms with what life has given him. His life’s chapters look like scenes from a teleserye or at best,...

A Filipino may denationalize himself but not his stomach. He may travel over the seven seas and the five continents and the two hemispheres and lose the savor of home and forget his identity and believe himself a citizen...

I have a clear memory of Quiapo in the mid-60s. Quiapo Church was were aunts and other relatives lighted votive candles and recited novenas before hearing regular Friday and Sunday masses. As a working student for a couple of years...

January 9, a non-working holiday in Manila, is the feast day of the Black Nazarene. And this year, 2023, will be the third time that the much-awaited celebration will not include the Traslación—the yearly procession of the life-sized statue...

A definition of my name was blurted out as a bombshell from the mouth of my elementary school classmate. Out of frustration, she accused me of war-mongering, shouting that my name indeed meant what I liked best, a “little war.”...

You know I struggled to call you a dear friend. You had been once to me, but that was long ago. I don’t even want to remember. But I heard you died, so take this as my peace offering. That...

In the last two years of the pandemic, we lost seasoned actors, great musicians, passionate poets from the mountains and in the city, colleagues from the media, painters, journalists and activists, singers young and old, and folk artists of...