With books now just a click away, thanks to e-books and tablets, the entire reading experience becomes convenient, instant, and almost effortless. This, however, forces bookstores to close their doors, with independent bookstores being the first to go before the big book chains. Such is the tragic reality of bookstores caught in the midst of…
Author: Cody Cepeda
In the morning of August 14, people from different backgrounds came together and crowded in front of the Lapu-Lapu Monument in Rizal Park to protest the decision of President Duterte to bury the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani this September. The protocol was to wear white, but the relentless rain…
If there is anything that precipitates a national outcry, it is the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to bury the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani this September. This comes as no surprise—President Duterte has praised Ferdinand Marcos as the best president the Philippines has ever had, even identifying as a…
On a Friday morning of what should be a free day for students to unwind and recover from their Happy Thursday hangover, outgoing University Student Government (USG) President Pram Menghrajani sits on one of the benches in Gokongwei lobby, signing documents handed to her by a fellow USG officer. As soon as he walks away,…
In the 2015 Special Elections, more than half of the 90 positions in the University Student Government (USG) were won by candidates from Santugon sa Tawag ng Panahon, whereas 14 seats were won by Alyansang Tapat sa Lasallista. However, the trend from the past few General Elections has shown a rise in the number of…
Violeta “Nanay Violy” Basilio confesses she can’t remember anything when asked about the sweetest memory she has in her life. Holding a cigarette in one hand and her tote bag in the other, Nanay Violy looks off into the distance, her eyes spanning the endless fields of Barangay Mapalacsiao, one of the 11 barangays of…
On June 28, 1969, the very first gay riot broke out in New York. It was a time and place that shunned homosexuals, and it was normal for police back then to raid clubs and bars that made a home for homosexuals to drink and socialize. But on that day, in the Stonewall Inn, members of…
Fifty years of Manila trash is what makes up Smokey Mountain, the infamous mountain of stinking and rotting refuse heaps in the slums of Tondo. Called home by thousands of Manila’s poorest of the poor, the Tondo slums remain as the largest slum area in the entire metropolis. For the longest time, Smokey Mountain has…
Long before the 16th century-colonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards, tribal Filipinos already had their own established beliefs and practices. Being the ethnic archipelagic norm at the time, polygamy was widely accepted and practiced by the early Filipinos, with tribal men often having three or more wives. It was the advent of Catholicism that…
In Amihan, Quezon City, a certain house stands in the street of Narra—an old, run-of-the-mill kind of house that is easy to miss and pass over. It has no prominent signs and no doorbell, instead guarded by two watchdogs who bark at the slightest sound and movement. This house is the center of Lila Pilipina,…