First things first. I am not a huge fan of Burt Bacharach, who died last Feb. 8 in his 90s, triggering a global wave of mourning. But I do have fond memories associated with him. So this is a love letter (sort of) to a pop icon in a non-fangirling way. It was the turbulent...
Category: Featured Stories
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A Valentine for Lualhati
If there’s one person who’d probably be glad that award-winning writer Lualhati Bautista has crossed to the other side, it would be Nanay, my mother, arguably her No. 1 fan. I can imagine Nanay peering through the Pearly Gates to check if her idol had safely embraced the light, and getting ready to spring on...
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Poor youths play band music in key of a better life
PANDAN, Antique—Rising on his toes, Juanito Maglunob moved his arms upward as though he were hanging laundry on a clothesline to reach and capture that climactic moment in the musical score of “Beauty and the Beast.” Satisfied with the response, he resumed his normal stance and continued to conduct 14 musicians barely out of their...
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The conglomerate that a ‘sari-sari’ store built
PANGLAO ISLAND, Bohol—A group of companies that grew from a sari-sari store in Bohol’s capital Tagbilaran City has been so dominant in the commercial center business that mall magnates like the Sys, Ayalas, Gokongweis, Gotianuns or Gaisanos have not gained a foothold in the province. Alturas Group of Companies (AGC) is the clear mall king...
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Hidilyn Diaz, aka ‘powerhouse’
Because she did it again, “powerhouse” may well be her middle name. Filipino weightlifter Hidilyn Francisco Diaz-Naranjo, now 31, added three more gold medals to complete her collection and finally became a world champion at the ongoing IWF World Weightlifting Championships held in Bogota, Colombia, starting Dec. 5. Hidilyn reigned over Rosalba Morales of Colombia...
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A ‘trattoria’ in Silang, Cavite? That’s ‘amore’
Tucked in semi-commercial Bulihan in bucolic Silang, Cavite, is a “trattoria”-style restaurant called “Cotoletta Ni Saletta.” It gets its name from the owners, Matteo Saletta, an Italian who speaks Filipino quite fluently, and his wife, Jonie Olandag-Saletta, a Filipino who speaks Italian like a native. In Italy, a trattoria is a small restaurant usually run...
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Dancing full circle at 80
Dance is history; little is said, but much is understood. I made history through research, documentation, and publication of the traditional performing arts and related folk artistic expressions of the Sulu Archipelago in the southern Philippines. To keep a dance tradition alive, it must live in a dancing body. Instinct guided me to nurture “pangalay”—“gift...
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Doing justice to Ninoy Aquino’s memory
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following message was delivered on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, by Kiko Aquino Dee, son of Viel and Dodo Dee and one of the eight grandchildren of the late opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., to mark his 90th birth anniversary. Ninoy Aquino, then a senator, was one of the first to be...
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Fiesta of all fiestas
There’s no fiesta like Christmas, and it’s aptly called the holiday season—a season that starts as early as the first days of December and extends to the last days of January. It even spills to mid-February, or up to the so-called “Feast of the Candelaria.” I know this from my parents, who were conservative Catholics. ...
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When you let your fists do the talking
What is it with blowout games and big brawls? Retribution for a humiliating beatdown? Payback for the other team’s 3-point shots that never seem to miss? Vengeful warning to an opponent for dunking on one’s team’s misery? It could have been any of those in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) match between the College...