Workers dust off the statues at the EDSA People Power Monument in preparation for the 40th anniversary of the 1986 People Power Revolution. On February 25, civil-society groups and demonstrators are expected to gather at the site, calling for...

Healthcare systems work only when people trust them— trust earned through consistent service, fairness, and reliability.  For PhilHealth, this understanding has shaped not only its reforms, but its purpose.  Dr. Mercado has framed PhilHealth’s role as extending beyond episodes of illness....

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...

The human body betrays language in explicating unusual faculties. Our bodies are biologically designed to “tell” us if something is wrong— but not through words. It pinpoints a specific part and uses the dialects of pain, as if to...

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...

It was probably the most unsettling and shocking piece of news that broke during that second week of October. After eating his share of hotdog and marshmallow-on-a-stick, a boy, aged 3, uses the stick to stab the heart of his...

My grandfather was shipped out of the Philippines in the 1920s, and landed in Stockton, California—less as a starry-eyed immigrant, and more as imperial cargo.  The Americans needed hands, and the Philippines—trophy from the Spanish-American War—had plenty to spare. Men...

By all accounts, traveling in an archipelagic country like the Philippines has always required patience, strategy, and a little creativity.  Filipinos, especially seasoned “biyaheros,” have mastered the art of making every journey part of the adventure itself — even the...

Possessing one of the oldest civilizations in the world, China’s 5,000-year-old history is a tapestry of transformation—from an ancient, agrarian society (8,000 to 10,000 years ago) to becoming the world’s low-cost, manufacturing nexus (mid-20th century), all the way to...

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...

In places where paved roads give way to dirt, service is not an idea—it is a decision, made repeatedly, often without witnesses. It is measured in who stays when help becomes inconvenient, and who returns when gratitude has faded.  Long...