Many Filipinos overseas yearn for Christmas in the motherland, and in my years working abroad, I’ve had to forgo that simple pleasure. But December 1993 was probably my best, celebrating it with five parties in three countries which are not even Christian. Although our work in Thailand was winding up, we went to Laos, across...
Category: People
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Michelle Dee finds purpose on the pageant stage
Everything’s coming up roses for Michelle Marquez Dee, who has gone from being the most maligned Miss Universe Philippines titleholder to becoming the most awarded Miss Universe delegate, who received a rousing welcome befitting a true queen upon her return home. Dee recently flew to Indonesia to film a campaign, and was spotted in Palawan...
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Remember Ninoy Aquino
On Aug. 21 it will be 40 years to the day when the former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. landed at the airport that now bears his name and was shot dead as he disembarked from the plane. Ninoy Aquino had flown to Manila from exile in the United States with the intention of uniting...
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The esteemed ‘Sir Doro’ made me laugh and kept me on my toes
I joined the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1995, as a proofreader, a year after Amando Doronila—“Doro,” accent on the second syllable, to his colleagues and friends—became the paper’s editorial consultant and Opinion columnist. I had always admired journalists like Sir Doro, but when I needed to talk to him for the first time to clarify...
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Jaime Tadeo: the lessons of ‘Kampo ng Bayan’
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jaime “Ka Jimmy” Tadeo, farmer organizer and delegate to the 1986 constitutional convention, died on March 26, 2023. He was 84. (Second of two parts) It was decided that the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL, Alliance of Farmers in Central Luzon) would spearhead a march from Meycauayan, Bulacan, just outside Metro...
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Jaime Tadeo: the rebirth of the Philippine peasant movement
Editor’s note: Jaime “Ka Jimmy” Tadeo, farmer organizer and delegate to the 1986 constitutional convention, died on March 26, 2023. He was 84. The collapse of the peasant-led Huk rebellion in the early 1950s also led to the demise of militant peasant movements such as the National Union of Peasants of the Philippines, the League...
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Hail and farewell: Luis V. Teodoro
The public intellectual Luis V. Teodoro was not known to be ailing, which was why his many friends and admirers could not immediately come to grips with word that he had passed, felled by a heart attack. How could that bodily treachery occur in someone who watched his health as carefully as he watched the...
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She shows the way to volunteerism and empowerment
On International Women’s Day, Patreng Non easily comes to mind as a Filipino woman who constantly strives to help, to empower, and to make a difference. It would seem that Patreng—formally Ana Patricia—is everywhere. Last month, the 27-year-old founder of the Maginhawa Community Pantry was busy going to and from San Jose in Nueva Ecija,...
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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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The music has died; long live his music
Oct. 31, 2022, was the day his music died. The musikero Danny Javier (formally Daniel Morales Javier) had mentioned dying before, on June 11, 2011, shortly after his 40-odd years of making music as part of the trio Apo Hiking Society ended in separation. He was 64 then and diagnosed with multiple illnesses: congestive heart...